How I built my Interior units for my '72 Bay. FINISHED!!!

[gninnam]

Steve,

Better than I could ever hope to achieve in a million years :shock:
Carl appears to be some kind of god

And next is the interior - no doubt raising the bar another notch or 10.................. :mrgreen:

Thanks and looking forward to the next installment

 

[Hotrod]

thats looking stunning cant wait to see it all finished. and here was me thinking my paintwork was looking nice and shiney. :shock:

Hi Antoine,

I've been watching your thread a few months back. Glad to see yours is in paint now, looks like we're level pegging at the moment. Keep me posted on your updates and thanks for looking.

Fook me , just read all this, amazing work

Does your mate Bob own a splitty in a similar colour to his toffee brown 'velle ?

Hi Rallye,

Yes my friend Bob does own a Split Screen which is called Mr BoJangles. That was the last bus out of Carls workshop before mine. It was the biggest show winner of 2010. I take it you've seen it around? Once again thanks for commenting on my bus.

Everyone keeps on pushing the boundaries, but this has smashed everything to date (in terms of paint) and dedication and it's not even finished :lol:

Des

Hi Des,

Have you got a thread on here? I've had a quick look but couldn't find it if you have. I'll have another look later. Thanks for your terrific comment.

Steve,

Better than I could ever hope to achieve in a million years :shock:
Carl appears to be some kind of god

And next is the interior - no doubt raising the bar another notch or 10.................. :mrgreen:

Thanks and looking forward to the next installment

Hi Andy,

Thanks for all your great comments. Hope you've been making progress with your bus, I do keep an eye on it. I'll be coming up to Yorkshire the second week in August for a week in Goathland but unfortunately this will be without the bus. Would be great to catch up and have a chat somewhere. Thanks once again for looking and your comments.

Myself, Carl and Lee have thought long and hard about what we can do to this bus to make it the very best that the three of us can produce and push the boundaries for new ideas that can be done. It's really great that it's been accepted as well as it has so far. Can't wait to see it when it comes back from Lee as for a young man he is extremely talented! As I said earlier, we have some real trick stuff on the trimming side which we're keeping back at the moment until it's finished just so it gives everyone that little bit extra to look at.

Can't wait for Carl to build the engine now. This is going to be 2007cc with lots of work, time and effort going in to it and all being done by Carl and the detailing on this engine when finished is going to be something completely different which we've not seen before, so another one to watch out for.

This evening I've been reading through a few of your threads and seen what everyone seems to be going through in terms of rust and replacing panels. I think everyone gets the highs and lows when putting a bus back on the road, even myself, I've had sleepless nights wondering when it's all going to be finished, but now I can see the end of the tunnel. So for everybody out there, keep up the good work on your projects and once again a massive thanks for all your wonderful comments and taking the time to look because it helps me to keep going as well.

Regards.

Steve

 

[gninnam]

I'll be coming up to Yorkshire the second week in August for a week in Goathland but unfortunately this will be without the bus. Would be great to catch up and have a chat somewhere. Thanks once again for looking and your comments.

Will make sure the kettle is on

Myself, Carl and Lee have thought long and hard about what we can do to this bus to make it the very best that the three of us can produce and push the boundaries for new ideas that can be done.

Yet more tricks up your sleeves...... :shock:

Can't wait for Carl to build the engine now. This is going to be 2007cc with lots of work, time and effort going in to it and all being done by Carl and the detailing on this engine when finished is going to be something completely different which we've not seen before, so another one to watch out for.

Now you have me even more interested :msn4:

This evening I've been reading through a few of your threads and seen what everyone seems to be going through in terms of rust and replacing panels. I think everyone gets the highs and lows when putting a bus back on the road, even myself, I've had sleepless nights wondering when it's all going to be finished, but now I can see the end of the tunnel. So for everybody out there, keep up the good work on your projects and once again a massive thanks for all your wonderful comments and taking the time to look because it helps me to keep going as well.

Regards.

Steve

Nice thing to say and the boys keep up the good work :mrgreen:

 

[Hotrod]

Hi guys,

Just returned from Devon this evening. Went to see Lee yesterday to check on the progress on the trimming and talk over a few issues on how things are to be laid out in the bus, such as the shapes on the rearseats, what's to be carpeted and what's to be vinyled. I have now taken photos of the certain items of trim that I've kept back. I've now decided to post up a few of the items that I've held back on the trimming side, they're not finished yet but you'll get the gist of what it's going to look like.

Really pleased with the progress Lee has made so far. He has spent about 4 hours on Saturday afternoon just talking over what he's going to do and what's to be done. Lee said it will all come together really quickly as he has already done quite a bit over the last year. He has recovered the original sun visors in the black velor material that the headlining will be done in, it looks really cool but unfortunately I forgot to take photos so that will be done on my next visit. He has now finished the centre console and we have trial fitted in the seat behind the drivers seat to see how everything fits together. The length of the centre console, I had to work out the best I could because it has to butt up against the back of the seat that houses the TV which in turn has to clear the top of the deluxe trim on the back of the seat. I was pleased to see that this has worked out spot on. Lee has lined the inside of the storage area and on the seat which houses the TV, it looks amazing in black on the inside. Once again, I've forgotten to tak the photo.

He has also lined the inside of the draw now where the knife and forks go which I do have photos of. I also asked Lee if he could make a sleeve to house the table leg. On my arrival yesterday, Lee produced a beautifully made leather bag with string pull at the top, a really nice touch. See photos below...

Now for the pieces I've been holding back from you all on the trimming side.

1) Carl and I decided, back last summer that it'd look really cool if we could trim over the top of the driver and passenger doors and down the window pillars, so Carl set about making some Kevlar panels and a couple of hours later, they were done. Lee has now trimmed them in the headlining material and they are now in the process of being fitted. Once these are fitted, the cab headlining will be finished off. The beauty of doing it this way, there are no raw edges showing as everything is rolled back so no raw edges are showing when the doors are opened.

2) We have also manufactured hand made trim panels in steel to go around either side of the sliding door, which again Lee has wrapped in vinyl and bonded to the side of the vehicle for a very neat finish. As you have probably seen in the past, if you bond vinyl just to the side of the vehicle, after a while, the raw edges just peel back. That won't occur with these panels.

I will post up some of the other items I've held back as and when they get done. It won't be too long and it'll be back in Carls workshop for the final fit up, ready for the Breeze.

Here are the pictures:

Here are the pictures of the seat which house the TV, the righthand side of this seat, finishes in line with the edge of the walk through, both the drivers seat and passenger seat will have panels fitted on and trimmed in black vinyl and then fully trimmed round at the bottoms in black carpet running through the walk way area on the two sides of the seat bases. It will then have the centre console positioned in between these two carpeted cheeks. The rear of the centre console butts up against the back of the seat unit. The wiring for the head unit will run under the false bottom of the centre console and then will come out inside the base of the seat locker and then fed down through the holes in the floor (as seen in the last post) and then through condute and back up in to the locker under the rock n roll bed to feed the speaker system and subwoofer. Plus all other wiring for the vehicle will run through the condute.

Lee has now taken home with him, the deluxe trim which fits across the tops of the seat housing and down the two sides of the walkway area to be recovered in the black vinyl. You can see the deluxe trim behind the drivers seat which we pushed on for a trial fit to make sure everything lined up. From the end of the TV seat, up to the sliding door will be the area for the swing out cooker unit. I was really pleased the way everything just went straight together and lined up perfect.

Lee showed me the parcel shelf, this was the first time I've seen it trimmed apart from the photographs, really nice job. All the seat foam which will be used on the seat cushions, whether the seat base or the backs, including the one on the parcel shelf, will be bonded to a plywood base. Lee informs me that this is the correct way of doing seats as the foam will then hold its shape, if this isn't done, when the piping goes around the edges of the seats, the piping can look wavy, by bonding to ply, it eliminates this problem. The cushion on the parcel shelf will be done in black vinyl and pleated as well. The baseboard on the parcel shelf will be fully carpeted. This should give you a good idea of the spec the bus will be when finished.

These are the Kevlar trim panels that Carl made.

This is the inside of the centre console showing where the headunit will fit.

Lee has made a real super job of the finish above the sliding door track. It will have a small trimmed section dropped on the top so all will be neat.

Here's the door from the swingout cooker unit. I'll have to buy new knives and forks now!

The headlining looks grey in the photos but it is actually jet black. There are still lots of trick trim stuff to show but that comes at a later date when they're installed.

Thanks once again for taking the time to look.

I'll keep you posted on the updates.

Regards

Steve.

 

[Grazy]

This looks excellent Steve a credit to all involved , Was good to talk to you at Peppercorn thanks for telling me about this thread ,

Might even have to go to the Breeze now

 

[BO JANGLES]

Bloody Hell mate :shock: As always Lee's work is just gorgeous ! 8)

 

[surfbus]

You made a gaint step in getting the bay ready. Great job!
I wonderded if the Kevlar trim panels will interfer with the placement of the windows?
I just can't see on your photo's..

 

[gninnam]

Coming on nicely now - so close to the finishing line 8)

 

[Humphrey]

Oh nuts! Where'd all the cool photos go?

 

[Hotrod]

Hi guys,

Sorry it's been a while but it's been quite hectic. We brought the bus back from Lee on Bank Holiday Monday, still some trimming issues to be finished off but nothing major. Lee has got the seat cushions to do for the Rock N Roll bed, the cushion on the parcel shelf, front carpetting to footwell and two door cards either side of the Rock N Roll bed. The whole of the interior needs to be removed so Carl can Waxoyl everything before the final fit.

As you can see there has been a lot of work done but there's still a lot of work to do and because of the amount of work left and the level of finish we're all aiming for, once again I am going to miss the Breeze with the bus but will definitely be finished for the Final Fling at Woolacombe. It's just not worth trying to rush it. I will be at the Breeze so hopefully I can meet up and have a chat with a few of you.

As for the photos, the trim panels that Carl made that go across the top of the cab doors and down the windscreen pillars turned out amazing with no issues on the closing of the doors. Was down in Devon last weekend and trial fitted my unit in. Everything seems to have worked out well, just got to finish off the secret fixings for the piece of oak which to cooker unit attaches to when it swings out. Lee has done an unbelievable job on the headlining but because it's so black it's hard to appreciate.

Because we're using Autometer gauges, the speedo is electronic which works on four magnets and a sensor, similar principle to what you'd have on your pushbike. These magnets normally attach to your prop shaft but as we all know, we don't have prop shafts. The alternative to that would be to araldite them around the edge of the drive shaft on the trans axle but this is not a particularly good idea as they float up and down and also they say if your sensor is too far away from the head, you'd need extra magnets but they don't tell you what that distance is. So I came up with a different approach to the problem, I suggested to Carl that we made a spinning disc that we could place behind the speedo where we could place the four magnets and the sensor and we could run it off of our original speedo cable. Carl then took this idea and took it a stage further by dismantling the original speedo, manufactured a drum mounting that would take the four magnets and the sensor. This has worked out extremely well and should eradicate any problems with cable lengths as it'll only be a few inches from the back of the speedo. It probably would work putting it on the drive shaft but we didn't fancy that solution.

Here are some pictures...

Here's the finished cab headlining, including the finished trim panel above the cab door and down the windscreen pillar. The headlining is as tight as a drum.

Also a very neat job round the spring area which will be inside the overhead locker.

Carl tells me this is his favourite part of the bus. I think the real reason for that is because this part is actually finished!

This is the seat that houses the TV behind the panel. I can't wait to see it when the cushions are on.

The panels are held in on only a few clips at the moment, just for a trial fit but you can get some idea of what it's all going to look like.

Lee has still got to do inside the two pockets by the seats in black carpet. Carl has also made some covers that will clip over the front of the openings which will also be carpetted.

These are the front door card speaker covers which Lee has scultured. This is one of my favourite parts (Also because it's finished)!

These are the deluxe trim which we all know fits around the front cab seats. These took me a couple of years to find. Lee has now retrimmed them for me. I love the stitch line down the centre. I also have a spare top one for the passenger side if anyone needs one?

This is the piece of oak with the secret fixings on. You can also see the hand beaten trime panels that Carl has made to fit around the door.

These are all the trial fitting pictures of the interior. I was really pleased because everything has worked out spot on. The carpet looks shiney in the back area as it's got carpet cling film on to protect it.

These are the brackets I made from some scrap aluminium to hold the TV seat to the floor. While I was making these, I thought I'd make a stop so when the unit swings back in to the bus it will butt up against the buffer and there will be a shoot bolt coming through the bottom of the back to bolt in to place. The bolt will then go through the bottom of the buffer plate which I've made. I've also made and fitted a small caster wheel which sits under the bottom of the swing out unit so it will role nicely on the carpet.

This is a sheet of 3.9mm thick playwood which will be bonded to the underside of the pop top. In the previous post, you saw Carl cutting out the existing aluminium which will help to lighten the pop top and also I can get some 25mm thick insulation for those cold nights. You can see where I've hafd to router out so it'll sit over the gusset plates which were bonded on to the roof for strength. I had a trial fit the weekend and was well chuffed.

This shot is looking through the windscreen appature.

Here you can see the boards for the Rock N Roll bed which I had Lee wrap in black vinyl. All the joins are hidden behind the box sections of the seat frame for a really neat finish.

These are some of the fixtures and fittings that Lee's trimmed ready to go. The sun visors are re-trimmed in the same material as the headlining. He makes a sock, slides it over and then they're hand stitched at the back top edge, really neat.

I wish I'd taken a picture of the back of the handle to show how neat it is. This too is hand stitched.

Here is the speedo that Carl adapted for the sensor for the Autometre gauge.

These are the shots of the bus now Carl has started to rub the laquer down. This in itself is quite a task with all the rubbing down, colour sanding and waxing and polishing.

We've also now got the glass in and the sides and the tailgate so it is slowing beginning to look like a bus again.

You can all see the amount of work that has gone on recently and is still on going but shouldn't be too long and I'll be driving it again. I can't wait to see all the chrome work going in.

Hope you like the pictures.

Regards.

Steve.

 

[antoine]

thats looking stunning, really like the little details like the door speakers, giving me ideas now.


looking forward to seeing this all done

 

[89Rallye]

That

...


Awe inspiring work, attention to detail is sublime I love it.

Cant wait to see this finished (as I bet you cant!)

 

[gninnam]

Hi Steve,

Lee and Carl have done you proud 8)

The interior sounds (and looks so far) like it is on course to be a masterpiece (not forgetting the work you have done) :mrgreen:

Well done to you all and looking forward to the next instalment.

 

[Eeza]

Oh man That's simply stunning. Love the trim and the wrap on the covers OMG !


Gob Smacked :mrgreen:

 

[Eeza]

Oh man That's simply stunning. Love the trim and the wrap on the covers OMG !


Gob Smacked :mrgreen:

In Fact its so Good I Posted it TWICE :lol:

 

[Nelly]

Really nice mate, looking forward to seeing it completed.
Volksworld next year?

 

[BO JANGLES]

It really is Awesome fellas, the boys have done good ......again !!

 

[surfbus]

Holy &*$!!

You have to do a European tour when the bus is finished! Spot on!

 

[Hotrod]

Hi guys,

Sorry I haven't had any updates for a while but we've had no internet so at the moment we're running on our neighbours (with their permission)!

On a brighter note, I've now retired. I was made redundant which suited me down to the ground and I was due to go in August 2012 anyway. This now allows me more time to spend in Devon. I was down there a couple of weeks ago for 8 days and came back for 4 days and went back for another week, returning last night. We have been working on the pop top roof. In the last post, you'll remember I routered the underside of the 3mm ply to sit over the gusset plates which Carl had bonded on for strength. I then had to turn the ply over to the face side and router some slots across the width of the ply, 15mm wide x 1mm deep, the reason for this being because the cab roof is done in sections, I thought this would be nice to repeat similar size panels on the pop top so the sizes were worked out and then Lee was informed of the sizes and told me to router out those plough grooves to those dimensions so when he machines his panels together, the flaps of the material on the back would sit in to those grooves, you can imagine these had to be absolutely spot on, both of us working to dimensions given to each other but 250 miles apart!

The next stage was to put the insulation in to the roof. Because we was using the Just Kampers roof cap and we had cut out the aluminium panels which would have been the orignal roof, that then gave us a depth in the middle of 50mm and 25mm at the edges where the original roof cap would only allow 15mm of insulation, so we could then double up the insulation in the middle of the roof section. You'll see in the photos below.

The next stage was to bond the ply on to the roof. For this Carl used a special tube of adhesive which he says' is extremely strong. Once this was bonded, we then had to weight it down through the centre and pressed it on to the existing roof framing and we could then masking tape around the edges to keep everything flat. We had to have a maximum lip around the outside once the ply was bonded on to the framework of 5mm in thickness, the reason for this being once Lee applied his headlining material which is approximately 1mm thick, this would then be wrapped around and trimmed off underneath the lip, we could then purchase a U channel with a 6mm gap which would just tap on quite nicely to finish the edge off.

Carl had spent a lot of time prepping the exterior side of the roof cap, flatting off the original gel coat and straightening the edges so they were perfectly flat because the roof will be sprayed in the metallic black, the same as the rest of the roof.

Lee arrived Saturday morning to apply the headlining material which took him approximately 90 minutes. We had the roof cap upside down on two stalls. He started by spraying the ply with a sealer coat of the spray adhesive, once this was dry,m he then applied a second coat to the end section and then another coat on to the material and started to lay the material down. Laying the joint in the first plough groove was easy as you have an oversail at one end. He then followed by laying a piece of brown paper on to the material to protect the black service when he sprayed the adhesive on, then came the tricky part, it had to lay down perfect with those two little flats laying perfectly in to my plough grooves. I'm pleased to say everyone worked out spot on, this also gave you an arrow straight seam through the roof. Once laid on, Lee then trimmed around the edge, leaving approximately 50mm of oversail for the time being, he will be returning Thursday week which he'll then lay some black vinyl around the flat surface of the inside of the pop top which will be on the inside of the bellows area which will give a really nice effect when you look up around the edge of the black vellor roof lining, you'll see a nice band of black vinyl where the lifting mechanism will fold in to rather than black paint. He will also then fit the U channel around the edge and trim off the surplus of the headlining. I will go down the following Monday and help Carl fit the bellows on to the top of the pop top and then we can refit the pop top back to the bus. This will be another major step forward.

As for a finishing date, this will now be in the new year because there is still a way to go and there will be no compromise on this bus and I also appreciate Carl still needs to earn a living by doing other work for customers, so to help this project to move forward, I can now spend time down there doing jobs on the bus such as this weeks project which was to fit all the hard lines for the brake system. For this I bought a role of copper tube to make my own brake lines, this is a lot cheaper option than spending nearly £100 on a premade set but in hindsight, I couldn't have used a stock set as this is no longer a stock brake set up being as I am installing a Harry Harpic brake servo kit. This uses a remote brake servo which can be mounted underneath the bus. Paul told me to fit this between the two cross members on the near side of the bus but to do this, you need to weld a mounting plate in which is approximately 200mm x 150mm which takes the three mounting bolts on the front of the servo, once mounted, the servo fits very well in this space. The next stage was to make up all the brake lines, this took me approximately 3 days to do, the only two left are the ones which go from the front flexibles to the calipers. I also fitted Goodrich braded stainless steal hoses all round. It's really easy to make the brake pipes, all you need is a flaring tool which you'll see from the pictures below of the tool kit required. Once the parts are made, Carl then told me to apply some special brake grease around the ends of the pipe and the threads which makes everything go together nice and give a seal on the threads. When installing the two pipes, feeding the rear brakes from the two flexible hoses to the rear wheel cylinders, Carl gave me a tip not to run the flexibles through the rear hubs, but run them over the top and then connect to the wheel cylinder, the reason being, on a lowered bus, if you decide you've got your bus finished and you're not happy with the height and you want to change the height and you need to take the hub off of your spring plate, if the tube runs through your hub, you'll have to cut the tube in half to get the hub off which would then give you an expense, time and trouble in remaking a new brake pipe but by running them over the top of the hub, all you need to do then is to just undo the brake pipe from the back of the wheel cylinder and then everything can be stripped apart with ease. See the photos below. I've shown a couple of pictures of the brake servo in situ so you can see there's hardly any of it protruding below the bottom of the front wheel arches or panel. It'll be interesting to see how good this conversion is.

Then for the exciting stuff. Lee informed me he had brought down the rear seat cushions! When he came through the door with the first one, myself and Carl were just blown away by the quality and fit of Lees work as usual. These seat cushions are constructed of a section of chip foam followed by two layers of soft foam then followed by another layer of chip foam, these layers are all bonded together and then shaped to give the desired shape of the seat and seat back. By bonding these sections of foam together, it then gives the effect of a sprung seat, then these four sections of bonded foam are bonded to a section of 6mm ply for the base which is also covered. The idea of the ply is to keep the shape of the seat and the piping lines. Lee has informed me that so far on my bus, he has used between 45-50 cans of adhesive spray and there is also 7 metres of carpet gone in to the bus! He has also brought down the two door cards which go either side of the rock n roll bed. I spent so much time looking at the cushions, I only took 3 photos of them and should have taken more of the interior but I'll do this at a later date when the bus is cleaned out. The seat back of the seat behind the driver, is bonded to the ply and the ply runs to the base of the seat unit. The advantage of this is I can then lift off the seat cushion and the lid to my storage area and the back of the seat will stay in its position. Just another one of Lees attention to detail!

Here are the pictures starting with the Headlining process:

Now the brake lines and servo:

The seats:

I will put another update in a month after my next visit.

As far as the Volksworld show goes, Carl has emailed Iver about six weeks ago and we've had no reply back as of yet.

Once again thanks for looking and comments are much appreciated.

Regards.

Steve.

 

[BO JANGLES]

It looks gorgeous Steve, sorry I missed you on Saturday, I'll try to catch you next time.