'69 Deluxe Arizona import…

[wayne]

Hi Adam did the hsp fit ok and great work by the way.

 

[Busman73]

Hi Adam did the hsp fit ok and great work by the way.

Yes mate, just had to grind a little bit off of the cup that the bump stop goes into to get them to sit flush but other than that they went on really easily

Hows your bus coming along?

 

[Busman73]

Well used my van for what it was made to do today. Helped my dad move a very large wooded crate to a friends house to be used as a raised bed.
It only just fitted





That's my dad in the passenger seat

 

[Busman73]

Ah that's better!



Also started refurbing my wheels

 

[Busman73]

Update Time......Yes I know its been a while!

Ive finally got round to getting my bumpers painted and they look amazing!!
What do you think?







.....And fitted
I hope you'll agree they look damn good!





...Also I purchased some new US spec rear light lenses to replace the tired originals from jim douglas off here, Cheers jim even though I only realized the other day that he's actually called Mark

 

[Merlydog]

Looks like a nice microbus, very similar to mine.. You must be happy with it?!

 

[Busman73]

Cheers, really happy with it, just takes a while to get things done. Got to get the camping stuff sorted next...the missus will kill me if it's not ready for when we go away.

How much did your head lining cost you if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Busman73]

I've got a few more things done to the van recently,
First of which is I brought a couple of westi windows for the van, they've been brilliant with it being so warm this week and secondly I've finally purchased some new foam so I can now at least sleep in the van, just need to get them upholstered

 

[Busman73]

Thought it was about time I did an update as I've not done one for a while,

I'd not managed to get an awful lot done, mainly due to us having a new family member arrive, its been a pretty manic 6 months
This is our little man, Callum



But I did manage to pick up a nice roof rack for the van ready for the show season,
I'll be needing the extra space with the amount of stuff you need to take with you when you have a little one



Also got hold of a second set if 14' wide 5's and had them blasted, powder coated then painted white to match the bumpers





Only a small thing but also got hold of an LED bulb for my interior light, its a vast improvement on the standard festoon bulb

 

[Lee C]

Bumpers look well!,

 

[Busman73]

My van and one of the works vans outside my house before Dubfreeze



And one of my purchases at the show, I decided to convert one of my reverse lights into a rear fog
What do you think?

 

[Busman73]

Quick update time

I managed to get hold of one of those brackets that mount on the inside rear of the sliding door as seen on Westis to help with closing the door from the inside as the interior unit I have makes it quite tricky to close

I tried using a second standard Bay inside sliding door handle but when the door was opened it could on the waist line trim

But with the help of my next purchase a T25 metal inside door handle its now a piece of cake to close



Wasn't happy with the look of it in the factory black so I decided to paint it in a similar colour to a stock inside handle

Stuck my Early Bay.com sticker in the rear window



Got myself a temperature guage and and fitted that under the dash, it uses a dipstick sender. I've only been doing short runs recently so I haven't seen it get up to temperature yet

 

[Myvanway]

Cool idea with the T25 handle, Ive been looking at similar ideas as the better half struggles.

8)

 

[creationblue]

Bus looks great, I have a Callum too, nice name 8)

 

[Busman73]

Cool idea with the T25 handle, Ive been looking at similar ideas as the better half struggles.

8)

Cheers, the Rivera units quite big, which means there's not much room to get your arm down the side of the cupboard to close the door from the inside.



I whipped my side door off today as the mechanism had got all gummed up with **** and wasn't shutting propperly,
Now its all cleaned and lubed it shuts and opens lovely.

 

[Busman73]

Bus looks great, I have a Callum too, nice name 8)

Thank you and Thank you...

 

[Busman73]

I've been having a few electrical gremlins recently,

whilst driving my horn would decide to go off all on its own...which is quite embarrassing!

I've been racking my brains for ages, even asked the lads at work if they had an answer... they didn't!
It always and only seemed to go off when going around a right hand bend or a roundabout but whatever i did i couldn't replicate it when stationary,
I'd replaced the wiring when i first got the van on the road and re checked it and it all checked out ok, nothing on the column was earthing out, i couldn't understand why it was going off...

Then...me, the missus and the little man went out for a cruise in the van the other day and the horn goes off and out of the corner of my eye i see a little blue spark!

...it's only my bloody keys earthing out the column as we go round the corner!

I've now thinned out my keys (taken the house keys off) and no more horn with a mind of its own...


The other little gremlin which I've been putting off due to me having to take the dash apart to find out whats going on was my wipers had developed a clunk... poor things have been working overtime recently

Oh well i took the plunge and took the dash apart





I was fearing the worst but luckily it turned out the 10mm nut that holds the little arm on the wiper mech to the motor had come loose causing it to clunk...result!

Now tightened and lubed I have a silky smooth wiper motor

 

[Busman73]

MoT time agian and I needed this lot to get a ticket… que session in the garage

Parts list includes:
2x adjustable track rods
1x drag link
1x idler pin kit
1x steering damper
1x steering coupling
4x ball joints
2x cv boots

…but it was all worth it as I now have a nice new 12 month Mot on the old girl



Now the MoT stuff is out the way, time to get some of the pre holiday jobs done
The most important job was this…

I had to make a 'cot' style gate that attached to the back of the rock and roll bed so my little couldn't climb over the back of the bed,
He's too small to know that he has to stay in a hammock so he is going to sleep on the rear cushion over the engine

I haven't got a picture of it fitted but it worked a treat



Next on the list was to try out the new awning that I got for my birthday earlier in the year as I hadn't used it yet
This is what I went for… a Royal Travelller 3

Also decided to get som 'Earz' from Just Kampers…

The other half and my little man waiting for the ferry

Managed the whole holiday without a hic up… and then I get home and the clutch cable goes
Oops!

 

[Busman73]

Not posted on here for a while as I've not really had a chance to do much to the van

I had a few stone chips that turned into rust bubbles and with the weather turning I thought it best that I do something about them

I ground them down and put some rust converter on the places where they were, then once that had dried painted a coat of POR15 to seal it in

The front will be getting some paint blown in once I've done the same to a couple more stone chips





Theres a few other bits on the bus that have got worse that I'm planning on sorting out over winter

The bumpers need re painting as using the van daily through two winters has taken its toll on them, the passengers door has a rust patch that has got worse and is now a hole and the roof is getting laqured as everytime I wash it the water runs off white

I have also finally brought a full headlining kit and and two window rubbers to replace the rear side ones that I haven't yet changed, all I need now is a full size rear side glass to replace the rusty quarter window

 

[Busman73]

This last week I've completely stripped out the interior units and the door cards as I'm having a couple of things done

The first of the jobs is the roof, it's getting lacquered for a few reasons; 1. To stop it getting worse, it's got great patina and I'd like to keep it that way 2. Everytime I wash it some of the white comes off

My brother is dong the paintwork at his place check them out on Facebook at D&M Classic Car Restoration they do a fantastic job

The second job is a new headlining is getting fitted in the next couple of weeks after the roof been done. I got fed up with the padding in the roof raining down everytime you touch it and it will also smarten up the inside a whole lot

I got the lining from a chap on eBay, here's a link http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=231190060359" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I've heard good things but will let you know what it's like once it's fitted

So at the minute the van looks like this





I was expecting a few surprises when the windows came out and I wasn't disappointed, this is what I found





Oh well it's nothing we can't sort out
Looking forward to a shinny roof though