Bus, meet Beamer (An Electric Story)

[mike202]

Love the green colour, very appropriate [emoji3]


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[jerupke]

Super build andehat a fresh nice colour.
I am thinking about convrrting my RR silver shadow and am, because of dutch regulations, looking for a rite off aswell.
Will keep following for the conversion!

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[fallingoffalot]

Looks like a great job so far! Looking forward to the updates.

 

[gvee]

Wow, this looks like fun!

 

[gagvanman]

Nice work, but isn.t that a "Late Bay"?

 

[Coda]

Nice work, but isn.t that a "Late Bay"?

Is a crossover really a late? I'd be interested to know (genuinely) the % of parts in common with early and late respectively, though I know that would be difficult to answer seeing as the bus kept changing every year.

 

[mike202]

Nice work, but isn.t that a "Late Bay"?

Earlybay.com is for fans of lowlight buses 68-72 model years.
That includes this one. [emoji3]


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[ENKssen]

Here is the bus back from the painters. I chickened out of doing the windows myself, having heard from people how difficult doing the deluxe window seals is, I got my local vw shop to fit them instead. I'm glad I did as I think the pressure of working on the fresh paint would have been a little too much for me. I also had them fit the bumpers. badge and roof whilst they had it.

Side windows in.

Bus finally back home!

Looks at bit daft sat up in the air like that. This is with the bus at stock height, but the wheels are what came with the bus and are only 40 profile tyres so a bit of an arch gap! The plan is to keep the original front beam for now and stick it on drop spindles for a bit of a drop. The longer term plan is to go for something a lit more sophisticated on the front end, most probably a red9 but with the cost and lead time I have been putting off pulling the trigger on it. Now I want to get the bus running first and then come back to the front end later.

 

[ENKssen]

After deciding to postpone going down the red9 route, I wanted a useable temporary solution making use of the original front beam. As part of the resto I got the underside soda blasted with the front beam still in place so it was looking in pretty good condition but I decided to give it a bit of revamp.

Although the underside had been soda blasted the top of the beam was looking a little crusty once I got it off.

I didn't actually take many (or even any) photos during the rebuilding of the front beam whilst it was off, but I'm sure you've all seen a front beam restoration before anyway so no need for one more. I was going to get the front beam painted professionally after I had refurbed it, but instead I had a cheapskate moment and decided to paint it myself. I got some epoxy mastic paint from Rustbuster and had a crack at it and I've got to admit it came out so much better than I could have imagined so glad I did it myself in the end, not something I say very often!

Sorry for no shots off the bus, but here it is bolted back on.

 

[ENKssen]

Whilst re-building the beam I also bought some new front shocks. I wanted some adjustable damping ones and had seen the GAZ ones sold by Heritage and the like. However I have had bad experiences with GAZ stuff in the past and at £200 a pair they were a little pricey for me considering this was hopefully only a temporary solution.

In the end I picked up a pair of these. I always rated AVO stuff and at £60 each a fair saving over the GAZ equivalents. I hadn't seen much talk of these on the forums but decided at that price to just go for it. I can't give you any sort of review of them yet obviously as it will be a while before the bus is on the road, but they fit and so for now will do nicely.

 

[Coda]

Looking really nice.

 

[Ben72Bay]

Top job on that beam

 

[gninnam]

Love the colour and the work done on the van.
When do you think you will be ready for the fitting of the BMW bits? I take it the drive shafts will need changing to work with the gearbox (I know its not a gearbox as such but can't remember the name for it ) to get power to the wheels?
Looking forward to the next instalment

 

[Zerotosixty2]

Wonderful project! I have an i3s on lease and we are restoring our 71 too. I can't wait to see your progress with the conversion. As regards trimming seats I would budget £1500 for a nice job in leather akin to the one on the i3 FB group. My brother in law is a trimmer.

 

[ENKssen]

Love the colour and the work done on the van.
When do you think you will be ready for the fitting of the BMW bits? I take it the drive shafts will need changing to work with the gearbox (I know its not a gearbox as such but can't remember the name for it ) to get power to the wheels?
Looking forward to the next instalment

The motor frame is being made now should be in by the end of the month all being well

 

[ENKssen]

Wonderful project! I have an i3s on lease and we are restoring our 71 too. I can't wait to see your progress with the conversion. As regards trimming seats I would budget £1500 for a nice job in leather akin to the one on the i3 FB group. My brother in law is a trimmer.

Yeah that is about what I thought it would be. I am in two minds whether to custom trim the seats or whether to purchase a set of the cream / tan half leather seats from another i3.

 

[Graham L]

Great to see someone tackling an EV conversion themselves, I know its not every ones idea of what a T2 should be like but in reality its no different to someone putting a scooby motor in a bay, keep up the good work and progress pics.

 

[Jay&Kay]

Really interesting project, thanks for posting all these updates. I look forward to seeing the finished bus, and hearing more about your experience. My husband is very green-minded and an electric bus is his dream.

 

[Zerotosixty2]

I would love you to post the progress on YouTube!

 

[YellowBay69]

Love this project !!!!
Been thinking about an ev conversion myself. Super interested to see end result