First attempt at Crossover Resto

[Mags]

Hi all, I lurk on here from time to time but don't post too much. All that is about to change, my Crossover has been in need of bodywork for a few years and this year its starting in earnest.
When I bought her about 5-6 years ago she looked mint, no surprise to find she has been well and truly bodged, lots of filler, wire mesh, fibreglass and dodgy patches, the usual story.
Last year whilst out of work I made a bit of a start, I've never welded outside of a college evening class and bodywork has been limited to filler and a respray on another car. I got a used MIG and attacked the drivers door, ending up re-skinning and replacing the bottom 3rd inner thanks to the help of Mark Paxtons hot to restore a VW bus. the drivers door got replaced as I don't think you can get the panels and a lick of red oxide to keep it going. All good so far and I was impressed with the re-skin, you would never have known.
This year I needed to start on the bottom 6 inches, all the typical places. I made a start on the N/S arch but as I cut more away I was getting a little worried I was losing reference points, I decided to rope a friend in who is a god at car modifying/resto work. He's out of work at the mo' so I paid for a days work with him and I think I'll be employing him a lot more as he makes light work and knows what he's doing where I keep getting scared about what I'm cutting off!
I'm limited to weekends as I don't get home early enough in the week and the driveway so I think she's off the road for maybe 2 years. I'm not looking for show winning, just solid and clean, peace of mind. I miss camping in her already
So, here's the first weekends work, expect not very regular updates, but I want to keep a diary of the work.

Do any of you manage to rent space to store and work on you bus? I don't know where to start looking? I'd love to be able to store the bus in a farm building or something and go work there at weekends, it would save my neighbors hating me and have to worry less about noise/mess etc.

Here we go...... (note the nice door )

Arch gets attacked

Look familiar?

Patches on the arch

Moving round to the front panel, decided to keep the existing and patch as the majority is OK, lower part is sliced out to make way for a new inner and bottom repair section

Headlamp bowl is toast, any suggestions on how to replace/where to source?

Front inner off, making good the chassis ends

Belly pan off the N/S, not as bad as it could be, at least the floor can be saved, outrigger and jack point also removed

Finally for today, I think this must be an original mod by Danbury, its where the table mounting screws to behind the side panel, looks to be 2 old scraps bits of bodywork, bizarre

So that's me done for the weekend, I caught man flu and struggled to get out there too much in between rain storms. Still feeling terrible today.
I've ordered a few panels, need to start cleaning up where they will be attached.
How the f*** am I going to clean up all the underside? there's a limit to what I can get to with the wirecup in the angle grinder and the hand held wirebrush isn't all that great (as I'm a weed) I was looking at the sand/grit blasters in MachineMart but I only have a little compressor and they have huge CFM demands, are they worth using out in the open upside down like this? I'd like a bigger compressor anyway as I'm finding the air tools much better to work with.

Mags

 

[Pickles]

keep up the good work, nice to see another sierra yellow bus .
Baz

 

[Guest]

with headlight bowls that bad id say the rest of the panel was shot. whats behind the rest of the paint? and can you see it from the inside. If it were me, i'd replace the whole panel, expensive yes, but you'd save yourself a whole lot of work and hassle patching and repairing it.

good to see someone tackling rust like this, i look forward to seeing the chassis work your doing. 8)

 

[Mags]

The headlight bowl is the result of an accident that has been badly repaired, (it had a terrible aluminium and filler repair with about 50 pop rivets holding it all together) the majority of the panel is not too bad other than the bottom, now sliced off and the usual windscreen corners. Having said that, I haven't stripped the paint yet which I will do before I start repairing the bottom edge.
The main reason I was advised to keep what is there is down to the thickness of the new panels or the cost of a front end cut from the US. I guess I'll have to see when the paint comes off.

Mags

 

[dubscum]

nice to see solid metal replacing rot. I'm also interesed to see how is renting garage/workshops ? prices and sizes etc ?

keep up the good work

 

[Guest]

The headlight bowl is the result of an accident that has been badly repaired, (it had a terrible aluminium and filler repair with about 50 pop rivets holding it all together) the majority of the panel is not too bad other than the bottom, now sliced off and the usual windscreen corners. Having said that, I haven't stripped the paint yet which I will do before I start repairing the bottom edge.
The main reason I was advised to keep what is there is down to the thickness of the new panels or the cost of a front end cut from the US. I guess I'll have to see when the paint comes off.

Mags

Ah that would explain why its rotted out. i think you would probably have to get the bowls from a breaker? as they come as part of the panel pressing. I've never seen them as a replacement panel. bound to be someone with a removed front clip that would have them in good condition. Do a wanted in the forsale section

 

[Mags]

keep up the good work, nice to see another sierra yellow bus .
Baz

Thanks, although I'm not expecting to keep the colour to be honest. The problem is its original, and switching from original is tugging at my mind....

Ah that would explain why its rotted out. i think you would probably have to get the bowls from a breaker? as they come as part of the panel pressing. I've never seen them as a replacement panel. bound to be someone with a removed front clip that would have them in good condition. Do a wanted in the forsale section

Good idea, I will do that, thanks.

Mags

 

[Nugsy]

i got them exact same panels in my 72 danbury tintop. I thought someone had bodged em in, i have one blue one and one white one, all very strange.

Not long completed all the stuff your doing, it was a pain but i got there in the end, not bad as its the 1st time ive welded in 25 years

Keep up the good work

 

[Danbury Doug]

Hi Mags. Good work you're doing there! I look forward to following progress.

Re the table mounting brackets, I've never noticed any comments before on these, when I've read other Danbury restorations. I guess, like Nugsy mentions, most people have also assumed they are bodges from previous owners.
The only thing I can think of was that Danbury Conversions were being resourceful and using strips taken from the roof cuts of pop-top Danburys (Danburys of this era nearly all having factory windows, so window cut-outs not being available) hence the pieces appearing to be scrap bodywork.
Will have to have a look at mine sometime, to see what colours mine are!

 

[antoine]

Finally for today, I think this must be an original mod by Danbury, its where the table mounting screws to behind the side panel, looks to be 2 old scraps bits of bodywork, bizarre

I had those in my van too, and like nugsy and doug, i thought down the bodge route, my interior had long since gone and they weren't doing anything useful so one got used for little repair patches and the other one is still on my bookshelf whith the time and date of my job interview written in permanent marker. (iv been working here 2 years now).
one was neptune blue like the rest of the van and the other beige.

i think maybe i should have started on the doors, it gives something good to look at pretty quick, whereas i ended up with a mass of holes.

and R.E the headlight bowl, i had a similar problem but mine was completely gone around the outside of the rim, i ended up beating and welding a new piece together because i was too skint to buy bits. Dont go down that route if you can help it, its a propper ball ache.

keep up the good work.

 

[Guest]

Hi Mags. Good work you're doing there! I look forward to following progress.

Re the table mounting brackets, I've never noticed any comments before on these, when I've read other Danbury restorations. I guess, like Nugsy mentions, most people have also assumed they are bodges from previous owners.
The only thing I can think of was that Danbury Conversions were being resourceful and using strips taken from the roof cuts of pop-top Danburys (Danburys of this era nearly all having factory windows, so window cut-outs not being available) hence the pieces appearing to be scrap bodywork.
Will have to have a look at mine sometime, to see what colours mine are!

Doug is spot on. Devon used you use the off cuts from the hole in the roof as well, i have exactly the same pieces for strengthing where my table hinge is.

 

[Mags]

Pathetic progress this weekend, got rained on a few times and had to stop. I tried to remove the 3 sill components on the N/S and realised I didn't have the inner sliding door track, I couldn't remember if this was because it was not available or for some stupid reason I didn't order it, after drilling out dozens of spot welds to save the cargo floor as its pretty good trying to pick off the sills in the tidiest way I just got demotivated as I wasn't sure if needed to save the inner. After a look on JK's website I saw it was available so at least I know I can just slice this straight off now.
In order to get some sort of progress I joined the 2 front outrigger sections and welded this onto the chassis only to realise I shouldn't have done this yet as I need to cut the top hat off that sits on it which still has most of the floor on it, what a pratt!
Just lost some motivation as its been constant cutting out rot with not must new metal going back on, must try harder this weekend as really the progress in a few days has been quite good, few new bit and pieces on order to cheer me up

I've been buying panels from Schofield as I've read they are good quality, so far most of them have been iffy repro bits with the odd genuine VW part, as Schofields website is utter crap at the moment I looked at JK to see if the slider track was available, I was surprised to see the inner slider sill from JK was a genuine VW part, I wasn't offered this by Schofield, and JK also have genuine ouriggers that are pre-joined, again, not offered to me by Schofield. Have JK upper their game with panels? I was surprised.

 

[Mags]

Time for an update, been a while since I posted, progress has been good albeit slowly.
The good news is through a friend I was put in touch with a farm near me that rents me some space in an outside farm building its under cover so I can use it all year round and make as much noise/mess as I like, result.

Spent ages picking off the rusty metal ready for new sills and repairing the cross beams

So, Inner sill being lined up prior welding

New outriggers and middle sill

Inner and middle sill on, about to start on the B post repair

B post inner/outer on and painted in zinc primer

Had to adjust the middle a little to ensure the sliding door ran OK, that was a pain in the arse (cant really see that here)

Almost finished the Inner arch/B post etc

Been faffing with the new arch but not quite got it lined up yet, will be done in a week or 2 hopefully.
So switched attention to the lower front deformation panel

More to follow soon, got a week off soon, hope to complete the near side and start on the lower front panel and get the windscreen out for repairs.

Mags

 

[Nugsy]

hi again, just done my inner panel last weekend and about to head off to do the outer, how did you get on with it, are you but welding it to the old one or lap weld, got a decision to make :shock:

Also can i be cheeky and ask for some pics of how your sliding seats work in the back. Mine is a danbury and ive since bought the old interior, but not sure how it all fits in, i had a laminate floor and a r&r bed when i bought it

mail me at [email protected] please if you could

 

[Mags]

Time for some updates

New Arch all done:

Bottom of A post made up and inner front lower completed, joined to arch etc

Rotten headlamp bowl cut out, tidied and ready for new bowl

Surplus front panel (already had the top bulge cut off) donates its headlamp bowl

Trial fit of bowl

Attention turned to the Offside, Rear of arch/bulkhead looks not suprisingly rubbish, some top bodging already removed with pop-rivited ally plates covered in Bondo and fibreglass, lovely....

O/S front step with bondo and mesh

O/S rear of sill

But with the benefit of experience of the N/S got the whole arch cut out very neatly and quickly ready for the new

Hopefully more progress next week, although the next few visits will be hacking the O/S sills and jacking points out...

Mags

 

[Mags]

nice to see solid metal replacing rot. I'm also interesed to see how is renting garage/workshops ? prices and sizes etc ?

keep up the good work

I am now renting some space in a farm building, its open on one side but doesn't get wet so its perfect for what I need. I can make as much noise/mess etc as I like, I even get power and air so I can run decent air tools!
I asked a friend who has horses if they knew anyone that may rent a space as she knew a few stables on farm land and she spoke to the guy I now rent from. Its perfect, being a working farm theres all sorts of usefull stuff there if I ever need it. Costs me £90 a month

Mags

 

[dubscum]

cool, you bus will be 80% new

 

[Mags]

I'm trying to keep as much OG metal as poss, I have been amazed at the difference in the gauge of the OG parts and the repro stuff. Any patches I'm using some nice thick steel, much more along lines of the VW stuff, the only downside is I'm getting through cutting discs like a bastard!
I've even eaten a few of the 9" grinder discs and I only use that where its easy to use as its such a nasty bit of kit and tricky to be accurate with!

 

[dubscum]

:lol: you can see why og panels fetch good money, good work mate 8)

 

[gninnam]

Missed this post (somehow) and loving the work that is going on - coming on really well 8)

Keep up the good work