Good, bad or just alright

[bluecheetah99]

Hi everyone - I am hoping you can help..

I bought a fairly rustic early bay 3 years ago and saved for two years to restore it. Last year I checked my van into a local restorer and just last week I got it back. From a distance it looks good (or so I thought) but on closer inspection I think that the finishing is a bit poor but I wanted to see what other forum users think..

On the ground the main points I have noticed are:

1. The doors are difficult to close
2. The sliding door is dropped
3. The seals are exposed under the sliding door, around the tailgate, by the windows in front of the vents, on the engine lid
4. When you close the tailgate the seal hangs out and seems scrunched up
5. the pop top seal is not completely round - there is a gap
6. On the passengers side under the sills two ends of metal can be seen which can't be seen on the driver's side
7. Where the panels meet has been filled in and then now sanded out properly

I have uploaded some pictures to photobucket at:

http://s1291.photobucket.com/user/danieladdis/library/Camper October 2013

I would really appreciate if you could let me know what you think?

 

[70-CA-Panel]

Hello,

I think most of what you mentioned is due to the new seals, My doors are difficult to close now too and show slightly at the bottom of the slider....
Where the panels meet though looks a bit rough, I think that should have been cleaned up before painting.

I know what you mean, waiting ages for the resto and paying loads and then not being 100% happy with how things turned out. But it's still done better than I most likely could do.

I think your bus looks sweet!

 

[Toad]

Hi there.
Its always difficult to comment in situations like this as I do not know what kind of on-going communication you have had with the people who did the work.
Have you kept an eye on progress along the way etc. (and what you expected to be done/had done/van condition prior to work being done.

Has the person that did the work any experience of working on bays? Did you want a cheap/quick/cut a few corners job done?

A few things that I notice:

The cab doors are probably hard to close...and stick out a bit if they have been fitted with new seals. You will need to have the latches re-adjusted in a while once the new seals have settled in/compressed (having said that they dont look like they are seated that well?

Rear hatch seal is not fitted well atall.

Repair panel on the bottom of the slider does not have enough curve to it (goes straight in the middle).

Whats with the strange boxes instead of jacking points on one side?

Incorrect front badge fitted

Looks like standard bolt holding bumper and not domed?.

What are the two cables running loose in the engine bay?

Panel joints filled on o/s

There may be more things but hard for me to see from photos.

But as I say....what was the deal?/agreement on what would be done and level of finish?

I hope that of some help

Oh, and have you given the person a chance to put the things right?

 

[leon]

Suppose it depends on how much you spent?

 

[Lee C]

Just my opinion from the pics but,

Looks alright to me,
rubbers spoil the job a bit but maybe they'll get a bit better in time?
Then it might be possible to align the doors a big more??
Roof rubber should be an easy fix, may just need stretching??
Early front arches Klinkenholm??? Notoriously hard to fit by all accounts!!!
Rear arch looks a little lop sided too?
Seems could have done with a bit more work???

But on the whole it looks nice! 8)
At least it's done & on the road!!,
Get out there n enjoy it

 

[70-CA-Panel]

Damn how do you guys see all that? must have good eyesight and big screens.
But then again Mike you do restos so good on ya.

As Mike said have you talked to the guy to see if he can fix the parts you see wrong?
Like Lee said, it's finally on the road so enjoy it.

 

[bluecheetah99]

70-CA-Panel:
Thanks I totally understand a 40 year old bus is never going to look like it has just rolled off the production line I was just trying to understand if there was anything glaringly not right about it.

Toad: -
Yeh I kept an eye on how things were progressing - the van needed a lot of work - new sills, new wheel arches, new doors, new engine lid, new tailgate etc.

Yeh he has experience - he has at least ten in the shed when were there and I think he does about 4 or 5 per winter. I definitely didn't want a cheap/quick restoration - I think we paid about 7K for it in the end including seals and body parts etc and we wanted a proper overhaul with professional finish.

Yeh I though the seals might just need a bit of time to wear in but I am not sure they'll wear that much in - my dream of having clunk shut doors seems unlikely just now.

The rear hatch seal comes away aswell - should it be bonded down? Could I refit it?

What's the repair panel on the bottom of the slider? Where should the curve be?

I think the strange boxes was a historic tinkering - there are some other fairly substantial lumps of metal which are not original either.

Why is the front badge incorrect?

The cables running loose in the engine bay are to another battery on the other side - long story, last minute addition when we got it back with a dodgy battery! All changed now though.

I have not given the person a chance to put things right - I have only just had a chance to give it a proper look over and even then I wasn't sure if I was just being pedantic or not.

Leon:

7K.

Lee C:

Yeh hopefully rubbers will get better in time.
Yeh aligning the doors sounds good.
Will try stretching the rubber on the pop top.
Not sure who made the arches
I think the finishing has let it down but I don't really know though.

We will get out and enjoy it absolutely.

70-CA-Panel:

Not spoken to the restorer yet but I will soon.
I know, we will.

Thanks again everyone.