Introducing Doddy - My 71 Deluxe

[89Rallye]

Its been a long time coming but I finally picked up my new Deluxe last Thursday, after a long trip down to Felixstowe we got home safe and sound. I'll say here (again) a big thanks to my Liverpool VW club mates Tony and Mark (Mark6455 on here) for sorting things out for me and coming down to collect her.

Its was a long day

We spent Saturday basically cleaning her out and again LVWC members came over to have a look and were put straight to work scrubbing. All the door gaps are perfect, one key fits all locks and apart from the damage and a few dents its pretty straight.

Few bits of damage

Came up pretty good after a good scrub

Before..

After..

And the only real bit of rust found up to this point was the drivers foot well

Knock up a quick repair (excuse the wonky swaging its the first time i've used my new tool :roll: )

Anyway roll on to Sunday and I managed to get the repair plate welded up today

And started tearing the engine out, dogs looking bored as usual

Only to find another horror, not much left of this..

Engines pretty clean but i'm still trying to secure a new 1776 motor

And while I was doing that me dad started to flat down the body because he was bored.

I also got the tank out, since the engine was running THREE! fuel filters so I think it was a pretty good idea. I didnt get any photos but the tank looks mint but inside its corroded and full of sh1t, filler necks also pretty rusty.

I'm going to shot blast the filler neck, anyone know whats the best paint to treat it with? since where it is its going to be getting contaminated with fuel. Maybe Powder coat it?

Thats about it so far, sorry too many photos as usual.

 

[89Rallye]

Oh I should also explain the name, it comes simply from the reg plate DOD.

The other funny one is this, my dad always used to say to me a cars "got your name on it" and your destined to own it etc etc

Well I was born Sept 17 1977.....

US Reg plate :shock:

Made me laugh anyway.

 

[rallye dale]

Nice and solid cali bus

Not been hanging round have you !

 

[89Rallye]

Many hands make light work, I wanted this to be a light'ish resto and get it roadworthy then sort the paint etc as were using it but I think things have escalated out of control already.

Does help that theres no interior I guess.

I set my own deadline to be Bus Types but im doubting it very much after just one weekend

I'm back at work now but my dads recently retired so he's plenty of time to put into her, hoping to have the floors primered Wednesday and in paint next weekend. Then onto the engine bay and finally roll it over to clean the underside off as its full of clay and muck

 

[rallye dale]

Thats the way mine started, lightish resto ! , but as usual cant ignore little things that bug me and then i decide that while im doing one thing i might aswell do another and so on

But it will be worth it in the end

 

[ZedBed]

Recently retired dads are worth their weight in gold. Mine drove 80 miles each way every day for 2 months to help renovate our first house!

 

[89Rallye]

My dad managed to get the cargo floor cleaned off this week, I was undecided about what to do here get a repair panel and cut out the worst of the rusty bits and replace it or attempt to repair it.

Anyway after running a wire brush on a grinder over everything, it didnt seem too bad apart from a handful of pin prick holes.

Now dont get me wrong if I wasnt up against a deadline with this bus I would probably of changed the floors but I tried welding up the holes and it was pretty easy and the floor is rock solid.

It now looks like its got measles

Then treated with a rust remover (this stuff is cheap but seems to work really well)

Now its ready for primer tomorrow although its not ideal weather.

 

[89Rallye]

Well it was a bit disaponiting to get rained/iced/snowed off Saturday, so I spent the day modifying my roller to take the early bay, when i built the rollers to take my Devon I originally wanted roll it without the front axle in place but since i'd already overhauled the axle on the van I didnt want to take it off again :shock:

Anyway here a few boring photos, because the engine mounting is different on the early bay I couldnt mount the roller like I did with the Devon, so I came up with this...

Stay with me, i'll try to be quick :lol:

This is the original, mounting which bolts to the engine mounts on a late bay.

This is now a mount for the front axle but I should still be able to use it as I did on the engine bay of a late.

The tricky bit was getting it all to line up square, so I came up with this using a spare axle (thanks Mark ). I can also use this for when I narrow my axle.

Really I should of made two but I was rushing a little to get it finished.

Finished 8)

So I spent this morning finishing all the welding off on the roller, then after a quick tidy up I moved the vans about with the help of the other half.

This will probably be RIP for the x-over

In its new home.

First job up, gearbox came out.

Should be all ok with a clean up, lick of paint and an oil change.

Front axle was next up, for once it came out pretty easy although I had one ball joint I couldnt budge so ended up cutting the chassis which was cutting corners but I was loosing light and it will be a simple repair. I also had to cut the clutch cable but i'm changing that anyway.

It needs work, all four ball joints are shot and for some reason (im assuming the heat) all the grease in the hubs has dried out.

Then the moment of truth, not bad for a bit of hill billy engineering even if I say so myself :rocknroll:

So she all ready to roll now, hopefully tomorrow if I get home handy from work.

I also found the first signs of a critter living in my van at some point, im glad I took my time pulling this off..

Eggs?

I'm motivated with it now, not bad so far considering its really only been 3 days work 8)

 

[rallye dale]

Wish i had that much room in my garage

Saturday was a pain in the arse i never touched mine either

 

[89Rallye]

Wish i had that much room in my garage

Saturday was a pain in the arse i never touched mine either

I forgot to take pictures of mine, it was quite nice in the morning and was litterally frozen up within an hour. Windows looked like frosted glass.

 

[Mark6455]

Mark
You are doing an awesome job as always at this rate she'll be up for Dubfeeeze

 

[89Rallye]

Mark
You are doing an awesome job as always at this rate she'll be up for Dubfeeeze

:lol: I think dubfreeze will be pushing it! unless you mean 2013

Its ok while I've got it I can push on with it, I've got holidays I have to use up before the end of Feb too or i'll loose them so i've got a week free soon to hopefully get the underside and inside painted and all finished. Got to build a new front beam and get it rolling again then its going out of my hands to a so called polish magician to work his magic on the damaged bits pulling/shrinking them straight so little to no filler is used.

After all that I then have to find a bodyshop to paint her, phew. That brings me to end of September so it should be back together this time next year. :shock:

 

[rallye dale]

Mark
You are doing an awesome job as always at this rate she'll be up for Dubfeeeze

:lol: I think dubfreeze will be pushing it! unless you mean 2013

Its ok while I've got it I can push on with it, I've got holidays I have to use up before the end of Feb too or i'll loose them so i've got a week free soon to hopefully get the underside and inside painted and all finished. Got to build a new front beam and get it rolling again then its going out of my hands to a so called polish magician to work his magic on the damaged bits pulling/shrinking them straight so little to no filler is used.

After all that I then have to find a bodyshop to paint her, phew. That brings me to end of September so it should be back together this time next year. :shock:

I could do with that polish magician in trade for a good bodyshop name :lol:

 

[Mark6455]

I'm off from the 9th till the 20th mark
Give me a shout and I'll be over to give you a hand if you like

 

[89Rallye]

I'm off from the 9th till the 20th mark
Give me a shout and I'll be over to give you a hand if you like

Cheers dude, i'm booking the week of the 13th off as its Louise's B'day on the 16th (so wont be playing out that day )so works out well

 

[89Rallye]

Well thankfully today I was working local, they have recently stopped all out overtime in work and really with so much work to do at home its come as a bit of a blessing (even though its costing me a fortune!)

I was home by 4pm closely followed by my dad and after a bit of faffing about we managed to get her on her side.

Was too busy and stressed out to take photos of her actually going over, its a scary moment even though i've done it a few times now.

And boy oh boy this van just gets better and better, I can finaly see that all the stress involved in getting her here was worth it.

Apart from the battery tray the only tricky thing to sort out is the rear corner/arch, im not sure yet the best way to tackle this?? dont really want to cut it out but I cant see it pulling very well either.

Battery tray

Rear corner

Nice bit of penetration :shock:

Lots of scraping and cleaning ahead, then hopefully into primer and stonechip. Need to crack on building my front axle too so if anyone has any beam plates going let me know as my fabricator in work has let me down.

 

[Mark6455]

There were some end plates on here mark I'll see if I can find the thread

 

[89Rallye]

There were some end plates on here mark I'll see if I can find the thread

Lol, funny you say that ive just been looking for the same thread

Where did you buy your steerng arm and joints from Mark? where they the cheapest you could find. I also need four ball joints which is a bugger and all four driveshaft gaiters are shagged as expected. So your van was pretty good practice after all

Still not sure if I should notch the rear while i've got it like this, I like the look of the lowered van but being a sensible person I like to be able to take my wheel off without a prybar :shock:

 

[89Rallye]

Mark
You are doing an awesome job as always at this rate she'll be up for Dubfeeeze

:lol: I think dubfreeze will be pushing it! unless you mean 2013

Its ok while I've got it I can push on with it, I've got holidays I have to use up before the end of Feb too or i'll loose them so i've got a week free soon to hopefully get the underside and inside painted and all finished. Got to build a new front beam and get it rolling again then its going out of my hands to a so called polish magician to work his magic on the damaged bits pulling/shrinking them straight so little to no filler is used.

After all that I then have to find a bodyshop to paint her, phew. That brings me to end of September so it should be back together this time next year. :shock:

I could do with that polish magician in trade for a good bodyshop name :lol:

I need to see if he's willing/free to do mine yet, theres also the logistics now of getting it down to him (could be a bit of a mare with no front axle in place :lol: )

 

[Mark6455]

There were some end plates on here mark I'll see if I can find the thread

Lol, funny you say that ive just been looking for the same thread

Where did you buy your steerng arm and joints from Mark? where they the cheapest you could find. I also need four ball joints which is a bugger and all four driveshaft gaiters are shagged as expected. So your van was pretty good practice after all

Still not sure if I should notch the rear while i've got it like this, I like the look of the lowered van but being a sensible person I like to be able to take my wheel off without a prybar :shock:

Mark
I got them from c&c I think or heritage they were both doing them at the same price
Not too expensive mate