1972 Crossover Dormobile - Full Restoration Work In Progress

[Haveacamper]

ye it was something like late jan when i picked the bits up from you. i was trying to look for some pics of the engine on my phone for a guy in work and saw the date! its been way too long since i have driven a bus!

lets hope i still want a bus by the time its finished lol

 

[Haveacamper]

As many of you know...i am now working a new bus and you would have seen the pictures from a thread in the general section.

for completeness i have copied the pics into this thread.

1972 microbus shell...

the good bits...

not so good
unfortunately the bus got a bit of a nose damage when in the states so here is the damage...




few rust holes in the floor. funny that the one that doesnt look much appears the worst of the two - will see when i attack it with the wire wheel




the locating plates for the microbus seats have also collected some water and rusted through but nothing major i dont think


So the work that i need to do is:

swap out all of the brakes and suspension for the big stuff
convert my beam to lhd
trial fit engine
modify engine bay and tinwear to fit into space - try and keep it og as possible
modify rear valance to accomodate back box
make an engine inspection hatch
fit oil tank, oil cooler
fit fuel pump, accumulator and filter
fit engine
modify dash to accomodate clocks
fix rusty floor sections
route and fit custom wiring loom
....and thats to start

i have done some of this work already and will post pics up when i get a chance...i just wanted to get my thread back to life

NaFe

 

[gninnam]

Looking forward to the pictures :mrgreen:

 

[surfbus]

Good luck!
May the force be with you :fighting0040:
:mrgreen:

 

[faux]

He's alive :mrgreen:

More pics, it is the rule you know!

 

[Haveacamper]

Cheers chaps...

ok, the wiring has been routed down the opposite side of the bus to normal due to the oil tank located where the battey usually is.

i have swapped the suspension and brakes so the new bus has the good stuff and the old bus has the US stuff..

i then decided to try and fit the engine as best as i could without having to cut the engine bay area up. with a NON-removable valance it meant packing the rear of the bus on blocks of wood (plenty of them) and then moving the engine into place. it was quite difficult getting the gearbox above the torsion bar tube due to the extra 2Cylinder length of the enigne and the fixed valance. but i managed it. then it was a matter of jacking up either side of the bus and removing the blocks one by one...

you can see that i need to cut a section out of the rear valance to clear the back box. this is what neil did when he had it - although he made the removable valance which i still have, but dont want to cut the chassis number out and cut around the engine bay.

here you can see there is plenty of room when the tinwear is not on the engine, so will modify the tinwear rather than modify the engine bay - again to try and keep the engine bay as OG as possible

so with the removable valance as a temp a drew where i needed to cut

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using a whopping disc cutter i cut straight through inner and outer valance

then i set about putting an inspection hatch in. was thinking about a T25 one, but in the end decided if i could cut the hole carefully enough with a 1mm disc cutter and a straight edge then what i cut out can also be used as the cover. so with the hole cut, a picture frame was made up of 3mmx50mm plate. this will be spot welded to the bus and then i will fix the lid to the picture frame with some bolts. my dad reccommended i use these things which fix in place in the same way a pop rivot works, but maintains a threaded m6 hole. i believe you drill a hole for the rivot, then using a special gun with a m6 bolt, torque it up. this then sucks the rivot up while maintaining the threaded hole, then at a certain torque swtiches into reverse and unscrews.

bit difficult to explain i will get some pictures next week. anyway this is it all mocked up

also started attacking the middle bench seat locating keys. cut this out to good metal and going to make a new one to go in its place.

have also made a temp fix to the lhd dash to accomodate 3 of the 5 porsche clocks in the aperture for the OG clocks. leaving 2 clocks 1 being oil and fuel level and the other being a time clock.
i made a cardboard template with only the cold air lever slot because i dont have heat exchangers..

this should keep you all going

 

[Guest]

great work nafe looks like a much better base.

 

[Haveacamper]

ye i'm still really happy with the decision to get a better base, even after spending 2 yrs on the old bus lol.

cant get enough timeon it at the moment. having said that next weekend i've got the whole weekend onit cos the g/f is away so will have fri sat and sunday

NaFe

 

[gninnam]

That's better - thanks for the picture fix

Like what your doing - especially with the engine hatch 8)

Don't leave it too long for the next missive

 

[Haveacamper]

i weighed up what to do with the inspection hatch and decided that for the extra effort involved in sourcing, fitting and time it wasnt really worth getting the T25 hatch. especially as some of the hatch lids are plastic meaning you cant make them smaller. o ye, and that noone will really ever see it! i'm not saying that i dont care if things that arent on display can be shit, far from it, but i didnt think it was worth the extra effort and time.

i'll post some of the dash and hoping to get the inspection hatch tacked in, and finished and the cargo floor plate fitted next week.

 

[Nelly]

Nice to see you getting somewhere with it Nafe, 8)
Are you keeping the colour in the engine bay when it gets painted?

 

[Haveacamper]

dont know whether you are serious about that or not

i dont think i will be keeping the moroon colour, no. I dont know whether to have it the white colour that the body will be painted or have it a different colour - but it wont be staying maroon

 

[faux]

Nice one! Love what you are doing.

I have a spare RHD dash pod you can play with if you want.

Jon

 

[AxlFoley]

looking awesome dude, nice to see progress being made

 

[Haveacamper]

Nice one! Love what you are doing.

I have a spare RHD dash pod you can play with if you want.

Jon

cheers mate, but i'm just going to make a bracket and jubilee clip it. the intention is while the bus is on the road, get the custom dach made/converted into a LHD dash. this may involve buying a LHD dash and cutting the RHD Dash up.

cheers Axl

NaFe

 

[Haveacamper]

then i set about putting an inspection hatch in. was thinking about a T25 one, but in the end decided if i could cut the hole carefully enough with a 1mm disc cutter and a straight edge then what i cut out can also be used as the cover. so with the hole cut, a picture frame was made up of 3mmx50mm plate. this will be spot welded to the bus and then i will fix the lid to the picture frame with some bolts. my dad reccommended i use these things which fix in place in the same way a pop rivot works, but maintains a threaded m6 hole. i believe you drill a hole for the rivot, then using a special gun with a m6 bolt, torque it up. this then sucks the rivot up while maintaining the threaded hole, then at a certain torque swtiches into reverse and unscrews.

bit difficult to explain i will get some pictures next week. anyway this is it all mocked up

Two second update...

on my lunch i found a 5 second vid on the net showing those threaded rivets i was talking about...
http://www.rivetwise.co.uk/productrange/rivetnuts.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

On the weekend I found a classic Porsche garage who would look at my engine in the camper when i get it fitted and will get the bus through an MoT. so i need to crack on now

Down the Van tomorrow and cant wait!

Nafe

 

[Loxy]

Get on with it then!!

Haven't found any donor vehicles over here yet, but there's still time.....

PS I have CCTV covering my bus - I will know if you've pinched anything

 

[Haveacamper]

Ok
So the evening started off ok. I tookl the pics of the temp dash plate I made up to accomodate 3 out of the necessary 4 clocks

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Then while my dad was trimming the floor plate to size....

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While my dad was doing this I thought I'd start working out the fitment of the rear anti-roll bar. When I was last under the bus I noticed that there was a spiders web around the front gearbox mount whioch was fresh as I had only just fitted it. I joked with matt(loxy) whether it was another black widow - as he had already had a an experience with steve(mole). But we decided that it was more likely to be a spider from the barn. As I shone the light I shit myself. I'm petrified f spides anyway and I think my worst fears came true..... I think this is a black widow

The worst bit was that I put my hand up and removed the gear coupling.


Will be phoning the enviromental health tomooro morning I think

 

[antoine]

hmmmm, i think that would have been the ultimate in trouser browning. from what i know about the nast little evil eight legged bastards (i love spiders, cant you tell), that does look black widowy.
rather you than me.

 

[faux]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWHHHH!!!

Send it to Graham at FBI with a little note. :?