1972 Crossover Dormobile - Full Restoration Work In Progress

[Haveacamper]

cheers guys

the porsche engine i had was already installed in nelly's bus so in reality i didnt have that much extra work to get it running. the engine already had a wiring loom attached to it which meant all i "needed" to do was to connect the wires up. however, i completely rewired the bus so thought i would rewire the engine too. i hav eall of the porsche clocks running on the dash which meant that i could run all of the senders up from the engine with no worries. then i also ran made the vw light wiring from the dash switches etc.

as uber stated you need to fit the oil tank for the dry sump engine. most people fit it in replacement of the battery tray and then mount the battery tray on the platform tray on the other side. that may give you an issue with extending the battery wiring to the other side. for me, as i rewired the whole bus this wasnt an issue. if you have a leisure abttery on the platform tray you may need to move this to under the rear seat.

i also have an external oil cooler in addition to the engine oil cooler. this is mounted underneath the bus. this oil cooler has its own thermostat and a fan controlled off a seperate thermostat - again this will need wiring in.

if you are running the porsche engine, you may want to consider upgrading the engine. i have had my 6rib box upgraded with a taller 3rd and 4th gear. also, if you have considerable more power going to the wheels, you may want to consider upgrading the brakes to stop.

ok, so i got a good day on the bus on friday and managed to route the wiring under the bus and into the engine bay. i also managed to fit the headlights, the indicators and the rear lights. not just bolted in....also wired in for potentially the last time :

also, i managed to fit the door rubbers to the cab, slider, tailgate and engine bay. must say...the cab door ones were very hard to shut the doors once fitted. i thought, if fitted them now i wouldnt be slamming the doors when it got around to actually using it properly lol

thanks again for the comments guys...your comments are much appreciated and its getting really exciting now i'm coming to the last hurdles

next thing is to mount the engine relays and fuses in the engine bay

 

[Haveacamper]

the date for the upholsters is getting ever nearer so i have made the decision to make sure i have done the definite jobs rather than the prefered jobs. therefore i cracked on with the sound proofing of the bus last night.

i have bought 2 packs of the silent coat 3mm from car audio direct to cover the roof, engine bulk head, rear wheel arches and the area above the engine bay. this is how far i got by midnight last night:

to give people an idea of area. this was one pack of the silent coat 3mm and i have another pack left. i have done most of the rear seat/engine bulkhead too - which isnt photod

a little note to onlookers...i found it quite difficult to wrap the mat around the up and downs of the pressing and fold it down the bulk head when going from the area above the engine compartment to bulkhead. i think it would have been better to stop jut before the bend and leave the radius blank - if that makes sense. also, although it looks pretty neat in the pics a did try to lay the mats down as if it was a transfer wrap on a car but found it harder than i thought. needless to say, the roof was alot easier to fitt neetly

 

[Haveacamper]

little update. i have pretty much finished the silent coat in the bus (minus the cab) and have started on the side panels. originally the plan was only to line the side panels with 25mm high-density closed-cell self-adhesive foam, but when i started applying noticed that the panels - especially the middle panel opposite the slider - really vibrated when you tap them. Therefore, as i had some a fiar bit of left over silent coat, i applied this first and then the foam.

on the floor i have used 3mm high-density closed-cell self-adhesive foam. I only went for the 3mm as i have ply and vinyl to go on and dont want to create too much of a step by the slider. i ummed and arghhhed as whether i should cut around the key holes and bolts in the floor, but decided that i wont be needing them :? i hope not lol

i still have the other half of the floor and the sliding door to insulate and then i think i am done. depending on how much stuff i have left i may be able to go to town with the front wheel arches (primarily silent coat and possibly 3mm foam), the floor and the front panel (silent coat and 25mm foam)

 

[Trikky2]

Looking good there. Your right, the side panel opposite the sliding door is IMO the worst offender for vibration and resonance. This is made worse by the fact that the adhesive joining the large panel to the stiffeners tends to fail with age.

Mine got bad enough to warrant removing the furniture to get at it - not a minor job on Dormys since everything gets in the way - I think when they were built it was the side unit that went in first and everything else was built, added round it afterwards.

I opened up the gaps between the panel and the stiffener bars with small wooden wedges and injected modern adhesive into the gaps which then squidged nicely on removal of the wedges. Then, like you, I applied some self adhesive anti resonance stuff. It did make some difference to the noise levels when driving - though not as much as I had hoped :lol:

I do wonder how much difference it would make to do the whole bus with this stuff especially since the engine noise level does not seem to change whether the rear storage is full or empty.

Heat insulation on the side panels has of course to be done with care since, if the vehicle is used for camping in cool weather, surprising amounts of condensation can gather and the last thing you want is it getting stuck.

 

[Haveacamper]

i did have a look at the strengtheners and the skin and they appeared to be well stuck still - even after rolling the silent coat on lol.

i know what you mean about the condensation, which is why i:
a) opted for adhesive foam so there wasnt an air gap between the panel and insulation
b) opted for closed cell foam, and
c) left about 1cm gap at the bottom of the panel in case of any condensation dribbles could at least get to the bottom of the panel

still contemplating a little 12v computer fan mounted to the floor as i will be putting a 12/240v fridge in the dormobile style unit and will suck the hot air at the back of the fridge as well as help with circulation around the back of the unit

 

[Trikky2]

That sounds good

The fridge, are you fitting a compressor fridge? If you are then the one with the remote compressor fits whereas the all in one units tend to stick out of the furniture because they are deeper. I seem to remember the remote compressors had a small fan in them already.

I did look at some absorption 3 way fridges but again they were too deep and stuck out rather further than I would like. They also did not hold much considering their size.

In the end I settled for building a good quality twin fan peltier unit into the existing Dormobile cool box (with extra insulation) - mainly for reasons of price since the fridges I looked at were all £400 - £650. It works fine keeping stuff cool, doesent weigh much or take up much space but cant make ice. With an extra battery it could run all night but not much longer I think - its nowhere near as efficient as the compressor units.

I just find it hard to justify the high cost of a proper fridge for the short periods we use it.

It did feel strange though, taking an electric saw to a brand new quality cool box :lol:

 

[Haveacamper]

the fridge i have is the VitriFrigo fridge which i purchased from Penguin Frigo i think. its the C39i:

http://www.penguinfrigo.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

it does have a fan at the back i think but because its all closed in at the back of the fridge i thought installing a computer fan that kicks in and out when the fridge kicks in and out would help to cool the air down meaning the fridge would have to work so hard. also, it may help with condensation???

 

[Trikky2]

Nice fridge They are the ones I looked at but found rather pricey. Waeco do similar stuff using the Danfoss units as well.

You can even buy the remote cooler and associated pipework and evaporator to fit into an existing or custom made fridge, which I thought would be ideal for using with the original Dormy coolbox (which is bigger than most camper fridges). Trouble is that these kits without an actual fridge are still around £500 -

Yes I agree the heat of the fridge will stop condensation. As for whether you need the extra fan it depends on the furniture unit and the orientation of the fridges own fan.

If for instance the fridge blows to the rear or right hand side side then the air will circulate under the original Dormy coolbox and emerge under the seat, you could cut some air holes in lower part of the dividing panel to help this.

Alternativly you could vent to outside. You dont need those oversize hideous plastic vents they fit to caravans etc. Just a couple of small metal louvre vents 5x5cm like you can get at builders merchants will be sufficient.

 

[Haveacamper]

the reason I went for this fridge is that you dont have to cut into the side panel - like u do with the gas fridges. i really dont like the look of the vents on the side.

just cant wait until tuesday evening before i get on the bus again!

 

[Haveacamper]

small update of todays progress. not much to show you but i feel i've done a fair bit - mostly bits and pieces.

also managed to finish the wiring in the engine bay... got the fuel pump relay and oilcooler relay and associated fuses along with the ignition:

i'm pretty chuffed with how the wiring is looking - although i will hold me breath the see if it all works hehe.

 

[Trikky2]

Looking good in there. Thats a big battery you have

A couple of questions :-

Where will the gas bottles go?

You have fitted a rear anti roll bar. I have often wondered about these but never found anybody who had one. How much of a difference do they make? I did try a bus once fitted with the heavy duty front one but have to admit I could not really tell the difference between that and a stock one when driving, hence wondered if a rear one would reduce roll better (on a stock height bus).

 

[Haveacamper]

ye it needed to be something like a 85Ah battery for the cranking of the porsche engine....just about fits

my gas bottles are going to go in the dormobile unit. i used to have them stored in the cupboard right behind the drivers. it fet the propex heater and the stock cooker

as for the antiroll bar i havent driven it much - merely to get mot and then it came off the road for paint. because i have gone from stock to heavy duty front, heavy duty rear, coil overs on front and lowered on adjusters and slipnes its difficult to quantify the effects of just the antiroll bar. all i would say is that with all of these mods...the suspension was rock solid - maybe too hard. i will play around with it to find a happy medium...maybe

 

[gninnam]

Whoops - missed this post for the last few months :shock:

Great to see it moving forward (and quite quickly too) and looking very nice :mrgreen:

Where did you get the closed cell foam from ?

 

[Haveacamper]

cheers. the bus is going to upholsters on 30th Sept so have to get a load of stuff done before then.

i got the foam from here:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300541610439&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:GB:1123" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

i messaged them first as i ordered a load of 3mm and 25mm and they gave me discount. instead of £124 they gave it to me for £115 with free P&P. not bad for 5sqm of 3mm and 3sqm of 25mm - so worth an ask

its pretty sticky stuff. what i would say is that you only really have one chance at sticking it as the adhesive sticks to the panel better than the foam so when you peel it off it comes off the faom lol.

 

[gninnam]

Cheers for the link - notice they do fire retardant stuff which could be of use in the engine bay (above the engine) as a replacement for the piece that is already in there

Would it not have been a good idea to have gone for the fire retardant stuff in the van - just in case??

Sounds like you are so close now :mrgreen:

 

[Haveacamper]

ye i saw the fire retardant stuff too, which i think i'll go for on my inspection hatch. i've also got a powder fire extinguisher to fit - if there is going to be any room in the engine bay lol.

i think the fire retardant stuff would be a bit overkill inside the bus...plus i cant remember off the top of my head whether it was closed cell.

i'm getting closer got a load of things to the bodshop for them to paint black i.e. all the trim

 

[gninnam]

Respect :mrgreen:

 

[Haveacamper]

a little update from the bus barn

made up some speaker brakets to fit my speakers to when the door cards go on. i may later down the line also make some kind of back to protect the speaker too:

decided that i will refit my infinity speakers that i used to have in the overhead locker. may also go for some in the kick panel, but lookin gout for some to go in the dash top too:

 

[lhu128l]

I wouldn`t personally stick foam in the front doors as it will impeed the water that runs down to the drain holes .All that nice new lovely nice shiny paint i personally wouldn`t have stuck soundproofing on the floor or the above engine area .but that said (and its only my opinion )the bus looks really smart and will be interested to see it finished with the spangly new interior

 

[Haveacamper]

hey lhu128l,

with regards to putting foam in the doors - the foam i have put in the doors is closed cell so will not soak up the water. i have also stopped the foam short of the bottom so it shouldnt interfere with the drainage.

with regards to the insulating the floor and engine area - this will be covered with storage and the actual floor so woul dbe covered over anyway. my thought process was that the floor space will be out of sight anyway, so might as well try and keep as much road noise out

if you dont like what ive done to the cargo area, wait until you see what i'll be doing to the cab area