71 devon moonraker nightmare rot box from hell

[karlito]

I bought this from a customer who had entrusted it to a local VW "specialist" 3 years ago along with £3500 of his hard earned money for it top be restored.

When it turned up to mine it "needed a bit of wiring and the front windows fitting".


Clearly this was not the case and the customer couldn't face any more emotional turmoil or any more money to be thrown at it, and, frankly it was going to need a lot of the aforementioned......... introducing my 71 devon moonraker. :shock:

Plans are to get it ship shape and Brizzle fashion by welding it for England, painting it its original sierra yellow and white, a lowering job and plenty of nice little period touches...

i will let the pics do the talking, but feel free to comment or ask questions (the main one i have been asking myself is "what the f*ck am i doing!)


pics may be a bit out of order as some originals went west with my old phone.
cheers karl

 

[karlito]

more..

managed to re use the front arch, originally you could put you whole hand through the gap between the arch and the bottom of the door :shock:

 

[karlito]

getting bored yet!!?

managed to source a pair of original front seats for 50 quid. Well chuffed!!

lovely engine bay, complete with missing battery tray and 10mm of filler all of the back end. nice.

lush!!! (oh, and the wrong rear arches)

 

[karlito]

off with the horror, on with the right stuff!!

made a new corner for the rear corner...

The next piece of the puzzle to do..

 

[karlito]

The joys waiting for me on the other side...

Nearly there on the drivers side now (well welding wise!) got a lot of tidying up to do but at least there is some metal to work with now...

 

[gninnam]

Looks to be doing a cracking job 8)

Good fun replacing all this 'extra light' metal with the heavier solid stuff 'init

 

[the_troupster]

Cracking work there fella. A good advertisment for your business. I look forward to the next installment.

Jim

 

[karlito]

Thanks guys, I did hold off putting it on here as I'm in the trade, but a couple of early bay customers convinced me to get it on, so I did!

 

[kev mc]

nice work 8)

 

[Heebee_GB]

Great work. Are you gonna paint it back to the original Sierra Yellow colour? You should do it rules! 8)

 

[EgoTrippin]

Nice work Karl
I'll take a wild guess at which local VW 'specialist' did the work

 

[bananacustard]

It wasn't 'that' specialist Steve, it was another one ( there's plenty out there :shock: ).

Gosh you've cracked on with that Karl. You must have a fondness for rotten old Devons .

see you soon, J

 

[karlito]

Great work. Are you gonna paint it back to the original Sierra Yellow colour? You should do it rules! 8)

yep, sierra yellow with a white top... not sure whether to do just the roof or the usual two tone.

 

[karlito]

Nice work Karl
I'll take a wild guess at which local VW 'specialist' did the work

 

[karlito]

Just so you dont think i have been completely idle regarding my EB, here are a few shots of recent progress.
I would love to be getting more done to it but customers cars have to come first.....


Rear hinge panel was just a piece of angle iron tacked into place at the ends, not any more!!!

Inside having been rebuilt (but not tidied yet)

more lovely rust that had just been badly plated over in recent times

front chassis leg... you guessed it, plated over with thin guage steel *shock*

Thats all for now, i have chopped out all te rust on the underside now, just need to get the enthusiasm up to get on with it now.....

 

[gninnam]

It never ceases to amaze me what some people will do to get a van looking 'OK' :evil:

Nice work dude so far - reminds so much of mine

 

[karlito]

Dragging myself and this thread back form the depths of despair...

After moving premises the old girl got put under a cover in the corner of the yard and largely forgotton about (aside from people trying to buy it periodically)

I then had a 68 import to sort out for a guy (he is on here i think) and that re kindled my love for the early Bay (depite his bus being a challenge to say the least)

Last month i finally got it back in the workshop to dry out and asses how far i had got and, more to the point whether i could be bothered to do any more....

...it turned out i could, so yesterday i a nice new sliding door track middle sill turned up and the game was back on.

 

[karlito]

The inspiration bus,

And my old shed...

inner sill going in

middle

outer

Not the most thrilling of pics i admit but its nice to be making progress again.


And one of my late bay sorry

 

[bananacustard]

Great to see you cracking on with your Devon Karl. Can't wait to see this one finished. ( nice to see Grizwald on here as well ).

 

[mister]

( nice to see Grizwald on here as well ).

Ditto.... any bus with shag pile carpet and wood effect paint gets my thumps up!