68 Dormobile barn find

[gninnam]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Dormobiles (most seem to suffer more than others to the bottom 6 inches)

You'll soon have it sorted though

 

[Nick-Rackham]

Looking good. Nice to see another restoration undrway! Looks like we both have a long winter ahead! Be worth it in theend tho. Keep up the good work

 

[bottom rung]

Thanks! I'm feeling better after a beer. No Pics today as I would have probably chucked the camera up the street....

 

[bottom rung]

Once I got over it , the van isn't as bad as I thought. There are certainly a lot worse condition vans in this site which have been restored to a nice standard. I got all the outriggers and jacking points off, trimmed off the offside sill and rear wheelarch. I got under again and cut out the rot from the rhs chassis leg, ready for its repair piece to be let in.
I rehung the driver door and set the gaps by beating the rear edge of the front panel and 'adjusting' the door hinges. After all that I fancied a bit of a break from bending and crawling around, so I set to on the sliding door. Here it is as it came with the van. It had a "volkswagen" script out of the tailgate of a Caddy welded into the door bottom. It really wasn't what I wanted, so off it came.

The old script off, and a new inner door frame section clamped up and ready to weld.

Let the welding begin. Outer skin going on tomorrow after I have ground back these welds.

 

[bottom rung]

Jobs a guddun. Just needs stripping, touch of filler and a lick of paint. If I say it quick it dosen't sound like much

 

[gninnam]

Gettin' there

 

[retro]

gawd, youre right, mines not as bad as i think it is :lol: but you so know its going to be worth it in the end 8)

 

[bottom rung]

I can't complain cos it didn't cost me much to buy in the first place, although the parts bill is building up nicely. I just keep thinking of how good that first trip to Aviemore next easter is going to be, and it makes all the grief worth it.

 

[retro]

need to make a hardstand, so can shove my tent up over the bus, and send the bloke out come rain or shine, ive not a hope in hell of being able to use it easter 2011 proberly, let alone next. i got visions of lots of random roadtrips

 

[bottom rung]

Had a pootle around the garage this morning, looking for jobs to do that didn't involve power tools (keeping the neighbours sweet until midday). I cut out some paper templates for the chassis repair, and then whipped out the side and rear windows. To be honest I was expecting a load of rot behind the rubbers, as the rest of the van has needed plenty of work. I was pretty chuffed to find...... ZERO rot! Just a tiny bit of surface rust in one spot which needs no more than a rub down and some jenolite. Result!
Back to work now, I'm off to weld some chassis sections in and replace the front crossmember between the space where the new front outriggers will be going!

After a cuppa I started to tidy up the sections of rotten chassis. I have a slightly oversize repair piece ready to fit once I have trimmed it down to suit a butt weld. Obviously there is much more tidying to do before I fit the repair.

I decided to take out the whole front crossmember and top hat section as well. I think it is going to be too fiddly to fit the top hat from underneath, so I will do that from above, once I have taken out some of the floor for access.

Its amazing how much easier it is to get to everything once the old front arch has been cut off!

For the last week I have been constantly reminded of rust. Its in my eyes, I can smell it everywhere, I can taste it, and I've been washing it out of places I didn't think it would have got to. Hopefully in a week or two all the cutting out and replacement of rusty stuff should be over and I will hopefully start seeing a nice van emerge.

 

[bottom rung]

Managed to get a few hours with the dormy this morning.
I had been looking at the plain indicator holes in my repro lower panels: I had even folded up some indicator mounting brackets and tried them out but they just looked like carp.So a few months ago I got some og indicator hole cutouts for a fiver off ebay. I trimmed them to suit and cleaned them up a bit, and set too welding them into the bus.

Here the hole is being matched.

Clamping it up prior to welding

Finishing it off prior to a skimette of filler.

 

[gninnam]

Nice job, well done.

 

[bottom rung]

Thanks. Hopefully today I'll have the whole front end blocked off and in primer. Another box ticked off the list!

 

[bottom rung]

Good day today. Instead of wimping out and blocking off the front panel, I got under the bus and repaired a foot long section of chassis rail behind the front right outrigger. No pics yet cos me old knees are killing me and I need to dress the welds back before I get the camera phone out. I'm pretty stoked cos I have been putting this bit off for ages and I have finally got it done. Time for a beer......

 

[gninnam]

Good day today. Instead of wimping out and blocking off the front panel, I got under the bus and repaired a foot long section of chassis rail behind the front right outrigger. No pics yet cos me old knees are killing me and I need to dress the welds back before I get the camera phone out. I'm pretty stoked cos I have been putting this bit off for ages and I have finally got it done. Time for a beer......

Well done dude - always good when you do something that you have been putting off

 

[majorhangover]

This is what i needed to stumble upon, a good resto, its motivated me to (weather permiting) get outside and do some more on my 72'

Great work there bud!

 

[Wishart]

Havnt been on the forum for a few months so its really good to see your making some nice progress there!!

 

[bottom rung]

Not as much as I'd like as I have been working solid for the past few weeks with next to no time off. Current hot news is that my transporterhaus dropped spindles are on their way up with DHL, so look in soon to see my updates when I fit them. Despite not getting into the garage as often as I'd like, I have collected just about all the body panels that I need, as well as necessities such as bumpers and over-riders, ambulance fans, deluxe alloy trim and a few other odds and ends. I still need opening front quarterlights and alloy front door window surrounds, doorcards for the cab and back end, steering wheel and horn push, complete camping interior and dormobile canvas and roof hoops. A quick paint job and she should be out and about this summer.

 

[bottom rung]

Transporterhaus dropped spindles arrived today. I'll be fitting them on Thursday so stand by for a decent update with pics

 

[71dormy]

got a dormy interior if you are interested?its the later one so you get a fridge...more room for beer :lol: