37 days to go....

[giraffeinbath]

There are only 37 days to go.

There will be bodges.

There will be bad language.

There may be bad times.

There will be good times.


So with the intention to give the van a bit of a spruce up and fit some dual carbs that have been sitting in the box for the last 3 years I got a bit carried away over the past couple of weeks and rather than putting things back together, I've effectively reduced the van to kit form with a 'I'll just take that off and clean/paint/lose/make it shiny' kind of attitude which has been applied to every part that can be removed with a spanner...... and some that can't.

Whether these parts actually receive the said treatment is a different matter, generally my intentions and aspirations far outstrip the time I actually have to complete this stuff which does seem to be an issue with life in general.

The first trip is of the year is booked to head for Polzeath next month and although slightly alarmed when my girlfriend pointed out that we leave in 49 days, I decided to go the full monty and strip the whole van out the other weekend. That was a couple of weeks ago and progress thus far has been slow, we now have 37 days to go before we drive to Cornwall.

So that's 37 days to find the various parts that I have lost over the last 12 months of the van being in bits, patch up the holes while teaching myself to weld properly, get the motor together with the new carbs and everything that may entail, solve a few electrical gremlins, prep the van for paint, return the van to it's natural Neptune blue for the first time in our ownership, get the interior back together, replace all the cushions and stitch up some covers, get it through an MOT and have it on the road loaded and ready to go to Cornwall on the 30th May.....how long can that take?

This may not have been the best plan.......over the next 37 days we'll see how that pans out....

Here's a couple of pics of the van looking happier before I took it to pieces, the second is the last time the van visited Polzeath back in 2010, hopefully in 37 days I can post another picture of the van in the same location to bring us full circle.....

Hopefully the sun may come out next month....

 

[creationblue]

Nice thread, here is a pic of the same spot looking down to the beach,

Get ya finger out fella!

Just

 

[68_early_bay]

37 days :shock: ................



Better invest in some of these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/24-x-250ml-Cans-Red-Bull-Energy-Drink-Team-UK-Redbull-/270912034068?pt=UK_Home_Garden_Food_SM&hash=item3f139d9514#ht_1470wt_1058" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

good luck

 

[sparkywig]

Loads of time, just don't sleep....

 

[giraffeinbath]

- 36 days to go.....

So to illustrate the current state of the van this thread needs some more pics....

I spent last night sitting in the engine bay. This was quite inspiring as you can only see a small section of the van at any one time therefore allowing me to become detached from the wreck that is otherwise viewed as a whole......plus it's cold in the barn so working under the floodlights was quite cosy on a windy evening.

Spent a while getting rid of the crusty stuff, you can see where there have been some pretty brutal panel repairs in the past, but for now it's just about getting the worst of the surface rust out in here and get it sealed under some decent paint to slow it all down.

Not liking the look of this much, the support underneath this panel is pretty much non existent as well. Does anybody know where you can buy a new support section as these as it doesn't seem to be something available from the usual suspects?

A splash of undercoat and it looks better already, it'll be an opportunity to have a go with the spray gun in here before getting stuck into more prominent areas.

 

[rockandrollcamper]

Love this Thread.

If you manage to finish that then I should be able to finish mine in a weekend haha

Good look mate

 

[68_early_bay]

Cricky you weren't joking when you said you got carried away stripping down :shock: :shock:
A lot of work for 36 days , I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this one
Good luck

 

[giraffeinbath]

I came across the emergency beer when I was stripping it out.....this has already been consumed

 

[dubscum]

 

[Lee C]

Best of luck :shock: !!!!!!!!!
Makes you really appreciate you hols doin a full resto to get there!

We had to give up our rented house n move out before our new house was vacant & then my landlady told me she'd sold my garage & that it was getting pulled down.

So we had to get our last bay restored in 3 months so we could live in it!!!!!!!
Nice to have a deadline, eh???

 

[davebug]

36 and counting :lol: :lol:

 

[68_early_bay]

32.....................................…

 

[giraffeinbath]

- 31 Days to go.....

Heading up the barn now to get stuck in, work has taken over a bit this week so no progress since the last post, hopefully there will be lots to show by the end of the day!

 

[68_early_bay]

29 days to go..........


It's gone quiet, you havent found more emergency beer have you ?...............

 

[dubscum]

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[rallye dale]

Think he meant months not days

 

[baysearcher]

I've got a lovely rear view mirror in my garage that would suit that.....

Nothing like puting yourself under some time pressure!

Congrats on getting the shop into the top 20 btw

 

[giraffeinbath]

Think he meant months not days

...He wishes he meant months


- 27 days to go.....

It's been kind of busy but not as busy as I would have liked where the van is concerned, the evenings are proving shorter than I would like them to be.

Mostly been working through boxes of crap to sort out what I have and what is missing.

Still knocking chunks out of the van. This was where the crazed paint actually turned out to be cracked inch thick filler. I knocked this out to get to where it was rusting beneath and causing it to blow, ground out the rust treated it and filled it back up with splodge again. I said at the beginning there would be bodges.....I'm reserving my right to be true to my word.

and fill it all in again.....

Plenty of rust behind the sliding door cover plate on teh non slider side, although actually although the clip thing was completely knackered it's not as bad as I had always feared...

Measured up to get some foam cut so we have time to be able to make some covers which involved popping some of the furniture back in. It was an opportunity to have a picnic in the van which was a bit of a reminder how nice it is sitting in there and why we're doing this, although I would give Cup Noodles a miss and just have a spoonful of Easy1 filler if your looking for a more palatable snack.

I was kind of bummed to realise that the inner dash that I picked up a dubfreeze years ago is actually different to the original, you can see here that the original dash has the vents all on the same level, the one I've bought has the correct central speaker holes but the long outer screen vents are on a different level to the inner ones.
Can anybody tell me if this dash was a '68 only thing or something?

I'm back up there tonight, hopefully arranging the cavalry to come in and give me a hand...

I've got a lovely rear view mirror in my garage that would suit that.....
Nothing like puting yourself under some time pressure!
Congrats on getting the shop into the top 20 btw

I'll have to pick that up at some point but not sure I could afford the storage fee's now
The top 20 thing definitely put a smile on our faces thanks, one step closer to world domination :mrgreen:

 

[antoine]

you are officially mental to attempt this, it took me nearly 4 years to get my van from a possibly slightly worse state than yours to nice and shiny, (complete with a couple of bodges) admittedly i am slow and for every 10 minutes of work i do like a 20 minute fag break.


hats off fella, i hope you pull it off.

 

[giraffeinbath]

-26 days to go.....

If I'm going to get this done in time I figured I need to bring in some help so the welding pixies came in while I was at work today so when I got back this....

....looked like this which was a great motivational start to the weekend.

They had time to attend to a few other bits and pieces around the van as well. There's still a few other area's that will need a tickle with the welder but these areas are a little more out of site, it was the front screen lip that I was worried about so this provides a massive head start.

Thanks to Ron at VW Endangered Species for getting it done at such short notice.