Hi guys,
Since my last post I've visited my bus in Devon twice. There has been a couple of unforseen issues with the bus such as when Carl repaired a section on the near side where the tailgate shuts he then discovered that the section immediately under the corner of the gutter also needed replacing which he duly cut out and also informed me that the gutter on that corner had seen better days and could do with replacing. I then made some enquiries about sourcing some secondhand gutter and was quoted some ridiculous prices. The upsetting part of this was that I had a complete roof which had a complete gutter on which I cut up and took the tip at the end of last year which just goes to show, never throw anything away until your project is finished. On the brightside I received a phonecall from Carl to say he'd found he had some guttering which was in good condition and so problem solved... This is still yet to be finished.
The original replacement near side cab door which I used when we set up the wheel arches had to be replaced yet again because it had a crease which Carl said wouldn't be worth repairing so I sourced a NOS door which even though it was NOS still needed the corner to be repaired. Fortunately the corner on the disregarded replacement door was in excellent condition and so I cut that out and Carl has now welded that in. Once the NOS door was hung for a trial fit, Carl noticed that once againt he alignment of the wheelarch was out again by approx. 8-10mm and so this is obviously unacceptable so Carl trimmed through the wheelarch where it joined the floor pan up to the seat tub then with a hydroelastic jack, jacked the wheelarch out at the top and then at the bottom approx. 8-10mm and then inserted a make up strip to take up the gap and welded it in and polished it off. Once again a superb job and unnoticable. Also when Carl compared the drivers door to the passenger door, it was noticed there was no fresh air vents down where the front hinges are on the drivers door, Carl said this was unusual as he hadn't seen this on a door before and so he set about patching all the vents which was on the passenger door to match. As for progress on the rest of the bus, it is coming on quite nicely now with most of the drivers side now prepped and has had a coat of primer on and most of the back as well.
Alot of attention has gone in around the two rear corners where every new panel which myself and friend fitted by mig plugging, Carl has now seam welded and polished off and both corners are now prepped and primed. One more mod on the back which we're going to do is to cut off the seams that are exposed behind the bumper where the panels are joined together, these are now going to be smoothed off for a more custom look and cleaning.
I would say the body is 75% prepped now so hopefully in my next visit in approx. 4 weeks we shall be close to laying on some paint.
I've also done a few trial fits on the parcel shelf but quite difficult at the moment as we haven't got the dash in so I can't quite detemine the height to fit it at but I've got it near enough at the moment but still lots more work to do on it. Carl has taken off the two air vents which run to the two door pillar post and they have now been cut and flattened off. By doing this it now allows for when the parcel shelf is fitted the little channels that the kick panel clip in to on the post will now be renewed and extended up under the parcel shelf making a much more cleaner line than the original kick panel which curves around the air box. Another nice custom touch, the plan is to not see anything of the inside of the front panel as I'm building a back in the parcel shelf and the new kick panels will be fully carpeted so will hopefully look quite trick when finished off.
Still trial fitting my centre console which I made in cordex which is like a plastic corrigated sheet, hopefully I've got it near enough of a fit to start making a prototype, this is proving quite time consuming as I haven't got the bus to keep popping it in and out of and so I've got to get it right the first time. When I've got some pictures of the console made and some more progress on the parcel shelf then I shall post them for you all to look at.
So here are the pictures of the progress of the bus over the last two months.
These are the 3 sections which Carl cut out from the NOS door. Even though it is NOS, it had still laid about for 30 odd years leaning down on that corner which as everyone knows is where all the rust accumulates.
This is the corner I'd cut out from the original replacement door which had a perfect corner with no rot whatsoever. I'm so glad that I'd kept this door.
This is the NOS door showing the section Carl cut out for the corner replacement.
This is the finished outer skin after Carl had patched it and ready for polishing off after welding.
This is the view of the inside of the door after the repair work. Nice and shiny steel now cleaned up. Note the air vents that Carl had to blank off to match the drivers door which required lots of work.
Here's another shot of Carl hard at work patching the vents.
These patches have been inserted so once the welding has been cleaned off, gives Carl a solid base for skimming and prepping.
These are another shot of the repaired corner.
These are the shots of the NOS door being trial fitted. This is when Carl noticed that we needed to readjust the front arch.
This is my replacement engine lid which is completely free of rust and was bought at Vanfest last year. Nice find.
This is the section of the roof from the centre of the bus. This wasn't visible untilt he fibreglass top came off from the Devon pop top. Carl, after cutting out welded in a new section. This had to be repeated on the otherside as well. So here's a lesson here... If you're restoring your Devon bay window, it's worth taking your pop top off to check the roof underneath. I spoke to a guy at this years Volksworld show who said he'd also removed his fibreglass skirt from his Devon pop top and found it looked like a Samba underneath. Be warned!
This is the repair patch after a skim and prepped ready for paint. Once the bus has been painted, Carl will Waxoyl the roof area which is covered by the fibreglass skirt so hopefully this won't occur again.
This is the section which Carl removed from underneath the near side gutter which is yet to be renewed and also the gutter replaced above it.
This is the near side corner where the tailgate shuts above the engine lid. This area has been addressed as you will see in later photos.
These following pictures are from the previous visit where Carl was baremetaling and prepping. You can also see the same shots below where they're now in primer.
Carl also noticed that the flare on the near side wheel arch is slightly narrower than the flare on the off side arch. Can't see any visible reason for this, there is no evidence of any accident damage on the near side and the panel is the original so to correct this, Carl will slit along the flange of the arch for its full length on the outer skin and the inner skin, pull the outer lip forward to give the correct profile and then insert a small strip approx. 4-5mm wide and the length of the flange so both profiles are the same both sides. This is typical of the attention to detail that the body is receiving to create a 100% finish on the body shell.
Once again thanks for taking your time to look. All comments will be welcome.
Regards
Steve
