Introducing Doddy - My 71 Deluxe

[89Rallye]

Quick one, got my axle, drive shafts and other bits and pieces stripped today.

The lazy way to do it, someone has already very kindly cut the bumpstops off.

Somethings missing here :shock: .....

All ready for shotblasting and cleaning up

And my awesome dad at work, he was about 4 hours scraping and cleaning. I managed about 15 minutes max and got bored

And the results speak for themselves. 8)

Although enough of the good, I was gutted to find RUST!!!! :shock:

:50:

 

[Mark6455]

Quick one, got my axle, drive shafts and other bits and pieces stripped today.

The lazy way to do it, someone has already very kindly cut the bumpstops off.

Somethings missing here :shock: .....

All ready for shotblasting and cleaning up

And my awesome dad at work, he was about 4 hours scraping and cleaning. I managed about 15 minutes max and got bored

And the results speak for themselves. 8)

Although enough of the good, I was gutted to find RUST!!!! :shock:

:50:

Wow that bus is solid mark us buses rule

 

[89Rallye]

Defo the way forward mate. I've got a 68 Deluxe with your name on it, you know it makes sense

 

[Busteacher]

Dude - you have been making quick time on the bus! Love to see the progress on the girls! Your next one is awaiting the bits and then she can catch the boat.
Ryan

 

[89Rallye]

Dude - you have been making quick time on the bus! Love to see the progress on the girls! Your next one is awaiting the bits and then she can catch the boat.
Ryan

Thanks dude, dont forget about me engines too..? still waiting for photos. I'm also still waiting to hear from IPSwest about the bits.

I'll let you know asap

 

[89Rallye]

I made a start on the new front axle this week, never done one before and will probably never do one again :x a lot of work involved just for two inches a side! I can see now where £500 is in a pre fabricated one.

Steering idler pin removed

This axle has previously had an adjuster welded in making things a little trickier, anyway chop out 4 inches

And retrieve these

Now got to make these fit slickly into here

Almost ready to go back together, thats as far as I got with it still need to clean the ends up and remove that adjuster before I can weld them back together. Still got to sort my end plates out too :shock: leaving that a little late as i'd like to have it back upright in the next two weeks.

Been busy shotblasting bits in the week as and when I can ready for the powder coaters (and yes I know the backplates are bent )

And I started unpicking the old battery tray, I did think this was going to be a bit easier with the van on its side.. how WRONG! I was.

And I had the crazy gang over again Saturday from my local vw club, they stayed till around 7pm saturday night and didnt really want to leave!

They were put to work with the scraping and cleaning again, how good is this van?!?! so chuffed to bits with the results so far...

This was my good friend Julies handy work, I cant take credit for this.

And my other club mate Mark got to grips with the gearbox,

40 years of grime versus 3-4 hours with a wire brush,

Dropped the old oil out which thankfully looks pretty good, Box just wants a little bit more prep and hopefully I might even get it painted today finaly feel like I'm making pregress with something.

I did find a few more holes in the damage on the sill

Then proceeded to make a complete mess of it with a stud welder will probably end up cutting this out I think and patching it.

Anyway, onwards and upwards. I'm off this week so hoping to get at least half the underside of the floor in primer and stonechip.

 

[doz]

Nice work and ain't Dad's great for doing the sh*tty jobs we hate? My Dad's 81 and can't help himself if I'm in the garage then he's out there with me

 

[89Rallye]

Nice work and ain't Dad's great for doing the sh*tty jobs we hate? My Dad's 81 and can't help himself if I'm in the garage then he's out there with me

Since I know he reads this I couldnt possibly comment on that :lol: all i'm saying is that without him I wouldnt have the knowledge and tools I have now, both of which i've stolen off him down the years :roll:

Didnt really manage to get much done today, faffing about too much. Me dad continued with his scraping and I got on with the axle but it got too late to carry on grinding.

Two beam halfs now welded back together.

For those welders out there, I'm aware of the undercut i'll say it before anyone else does.

Then all braced up too cut the original towers off

This ones seen better days..

And thats about it till I get my end plates sorted out, was too late to start grinding the rest off

Also decided to cut this out in the end,

And remember this,

Well we found out where the little bastart was camping out, all of this came out of the front leg of the chassis.

Should be some bits in primer tomorrow all going well!! 8)

 

[89Rallye]

Yay! arty0048:

It finaly feels like were making progress, having gotten completely bored with cleaning the floor we decided to prime up what was ready. That being the center section.

And while that was getting done we managed to splash some primer on the gearbox and give that a coat of paint.

It may only be a gearbox but finaly seeing shiney paint made me

Oh and Mr B if you still reading this, do you recognise that paint colour

Hard to show as the seam sealer is the same colour as the primer :roll: but started seam sealing all the joints etc. No show stuff here get plenty on

 

[Mark6455]

WOW Mark your coming on great gun's
that underneath is mint can't wait to see it tomorrow i'll park mine in the street i don't want doddy catching the scabs off my bus
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[rallye dale]

Going well there Mark, got to love a US bus :mrgreen:

 

[89Rallye]

Cheers boys as always ,

Oh yes Dale loving the US bus, Its taken 3 weeks to get just past the point I got to with my UK Devon.

Stone chip going on tomorrow 8)

Getting close to the point where I need to pick a body colour :shock:

 

[89Rallye]

Busy couple of days, sadly with Dubfreeze and er in doors birthday tomorrow i've technically only got one more day off before I go back to work

Some of the floors now got a nice heavy coat of stonechip now,

Still wet here..

Quite happy with the finish, should look ok with a top coat on it.

And today we got the front half primered and seam sealed

And plodding on with other bits and pieces, got some more bits shot blasted and straightened out.

Picking my axle plates up Friday so thought i'd better make as start on these..

Hillbilly engineering 8)

 

[rallye dale]

Cool, happy birthday to your mrs its mine tomorrow aswell :mrgreen:

Might see you at dubfreeze hopefully, you got my number

Mines come to a halt at the minute, my nans not well so at the hospital at nights, picked my splash pan and a few other things up from the powder coaters the other day though

 

[89Rallye]

Picked my new axle plates up Friday and while I was there I managed to press my new ball joints in, heat and a 50 tonne press in the end to get them home :shock:

Got them home and slapped a bit of paint on them, going to do all the running gear in grey now I think.

Not a bad finish for a trailing arm :lol:

Carried on with the axle, took about two hours cleaning it up a right dirty pain in the arse..

Garage needs a good cleaning..

Mocked up..

Welded up..

Refit steering box..

Cut for adjusters..

Weld in adjusters..

Just got to make up a servo braket and it will be ready for paint 8)

 

[Mark6455]

Looking good mark let me know when you want a hand at anytime

Ps
Tyres going on wheels tomorrow

 

[dubscum]

8) I like the hillbilly engineering

 

[89Rallye]

Looking good mark let me know when you want a hand at anytime

Ps
Tyres going on wheels tomorrow
Looking good mark let me know when you want a hand at anytime

Ps
Tyres going on wheels tomorrow

Cheers dude, you know i'll hold you to that. Not alot on at the moment though just loads of painting but i'll let you know once its back on its wheels.

p.s, I hope your tyre mans gentle with that paint :?

8) I like the hillbilly engineering

Needs must and where theres a will theres a way :lol:

I forgot to mention above, i've found a new use for axle plates.. they make a perfect stand for painting..

Needs must.... 8)

 

[89Rallye]

Another good weekend last week, had my little crew over again and quickly got everyone to work

Anyway plenty of photos as usual, easier than words.

Picked a new battery tray up at dubfreeze and managed to get that fitted,

Also cut the air filter mount off, mainly so I could squeeze the spotwelder in,

Still concerned about the damage in the corner, obviously the outside is full of filler

Got the rear all primed and stonechipped

Then it was all given a splash of topcoat and laquer

And the crazy gang were all beavering away cleaning and painting,

Monday I got on with the axle, made up a servo mount and that all welded up.

My Kerrys there as always, Come on dad stop messin with this VW crap and take me out.

Etched and then a bit of high build primer to try and hide some of the marks (it is only an axle after all :lol: )

Then thanks to me dad, he managed to get the axle and a few other bits all painted up yesterday (after I screwed up the paint of the axle) while I was sat in hospital all day with the other half.

This is waiting for some stonechip

I've now started re-assembly brake lines etc are going back on.. 8)

All things go to plan it should be ready to drop next weekend.

:msn4:

 

[Mark6455]

Looks good mark
I'll be over next week to have a close look :mrgreen: