My '68 Bay resto - getting somewhere !!!

[Guest]

did you use nitromorse? and did you rinse with water?

nice to see a nude bus

 

[T2-Nate]

@Johnny, I used Polyfilla paint stripper. I didn't rinse yet, just some white spirit to clean it a bit.

I did some welding today, I'l update as the work evolves!

 

[Guest]

i didnt think of white spirit, i suppose it would be good, but would need a fire extinguisher to hand

 

[T2-Nate]

Don't busdrivers like to live dangerously then? :lol: :lol:

 

[Airtime]

Doing a good job there! 8)

Keep up this pace and you will cruise your bus in no time! :shock:

 

[Guest]

Aparently white spirit leaves a residue, ive been told use acetone as it will be cleaner.

 

[T2-Nate]

@Johnny: Actually that's why I used White Spirit for now, because it leaves a silicone-like residue so it prevents mu nude bus from rusting (a bit) while I do my welding.

Well, I managed to do a good amount of work on my bus, got the inner and outer sil in pretty good, as well as the outrigger and jacking point on the driver's side.
I also removed the rear wheel arch and discovered that the left tray was not even welded to the rear arch... I'm really happy I went to this length with my resto, because now I will be sure in the end... I don't like loose ends.

Some pics:
Rear wheel arch cut out:

Some cleaning up to do:

This tray hasn't even been welded to the arch.

Started welding up the left panel, it had a hole or two from vents, I prefer a clean look.
Didn't have a big enough replacement piece, so had to use two

This panel will need A LOT of straightening...

Here's some more work I've done. Haven't really protected the welds yet, will clean them up
and seal them with seamsealer from Teroson before painting though. My bus currently resides inside where it's always a nice 15° Celsius and no moisture. So I'm pretty sure any rusting will occur VERY slowly.

All is going pretty well, hoping to straighten everything out as good as possible, don't want to use too much filler, the minimum really - that's what I'm aiming for.
Will opt for lead before polyester when the opportunity arises.

 

[T2-Nate]

Well, I managed to get the left front arch in, but the fit is dreadful.
Either the arches have been replaced before or the repro part I got was poor quality.
I got it in the best way possible, but as you can see in the pics it has a strange flare
where the lower part meets the nose.

A lot of trial fitting was required, and I discovered that I was too careful and tried to cut as little as possible.
Actually that was the main reason I had trouble with it in the beginning, I just had to remove more metal :lol:

Here it is before final fitting:

First I had to weld in a new seatbelt fixing:

Then I had to feed the neighbours hungry cat (ate 2 packets of food at once :shock: :shock: )

Here it is partially welded in, when you look closely you see that the part that attaches to the B-pillar
is not quite flush with the body yet, I hope to improve this sooon ( :evil: :evil: bad panels :evil: :evil: )

Welds flattened and Zinc-primered

This is the best I could do, the line up is ok - but look at the last picture

I hope I can do something about it, still trying to figure out a way to do this..

So far my update. Have to lay down now cause I burnt my face welding without my cheapo welding mask
(closed my eyes tho :lol: :lol: )

 

[T2-Nate]

After my skin started peeling off because of too much exposure to the arc/uv beams I decided to
treat myself to a (cheap) automatic helmet:

Didn't do much last week cause of evening-classes bodyshop, here I am doing some samaritan work
on some poor girl's toyota, it had a nasty crash, the nose is 1mm off but we could fix it. We straightened out the chassis strenghteners and replaced some parts because they died in the crash :mrgreen:
Straightened the fenders and the hood, replaced the bumper and headlight.

This week was also slow, didn't get round to the bus till thursday, so picked up were I left it:
the front wheel arch and the drivers' seat area.

Remember this?

Inner & outer B-post had to be made, aswell as most of the inner "bulkhead", which already had some repairs done by the PO

Lots 'o welding went on there:

B-post part made from a left-over piece of metal:

Fits OK

Welded in the corner where the floor meets the bulkhead, got it from brico at 1€ :lol:

Put some aluminium based filler on, I love this stuff (but using it only where necessary)
it's waterproof, rock solid, flexible and sticks to anything!

here it is sanded and ready for regular filler, but that's for later

Oh yeah, I started a topic in the technical forum about this one - my rear outrigger should look like this:

But looks like this - or do I have the wrong jacking point? I seem to notice a difference.

 

[58herbie]

Nate,

the small piece of wire in the dizzy you were worried about would be replaced when you buy a new set of contact points for a service, and the piece from the coil to the dizzy (green in colour ) comes when you buy a new condensor which connects to the points and gives you your LT circuit side and the spark plug leads and the centre plug from coil to dizzy give you your HT.


Great work, keep it up,did you expect to have so much work on the van??how was it discribed??

Cheers

Jon

 

[71Dormobile]

Great work good to see another bare metal resto, theres soemthing quite satisfying about scraping off and getting it back to metal, well for the first few panels anyway!!!

Keep up the good work...

 

[T2-Nate]

@58herbie: thanx for the info! Actually I was such a n00b on buying vintage cars that I just
didn't expect it to be in this state. But the poor repair jobs done on it by PO's was the proverbial drop.
Al the welds were unprotected, some repair panels not welded on completely, small holes just left untreated but al small plate welded over, these are rust traps ...

@71dormobile: I think the bus has been bare-metaled before, couldn't find that OG paint. Only part of the interior was OG I guess.

 

[58herbie]

Nate,

i will be out in the garage today to weld in the other jacking points on my van, so i will measure them, but i think looking at the pic you have the wrong one.The part where it curls under to attach to the sill is much higher than my rear.

Jon

 

[58herbie]

[/quote]


Nate,

after being in the Garage welding in the outriggers on my bus today, i see what the problem is here, that is a front Jacking point not a Rear. there is a difference on the height from the fold that touchs the bottom of the sill to the top hat attachment section. if you get what i mean.

Jon.

 

[T2-Nate]

Hi there Jon,

thanx for checking it out for me, that's really helpful!
It clearly says rear jacking point, but I'll go back to BBT along with some other wrong parts.
a '68 bay is clearly not the same in some departments as, say a '70 or so...? Is it?

Also the rear ouriggers are too short as I've noticed.

Well, at least I guess this means I didn't make a mistake.

Cheers!
Nathan

 

[T2-Nate]

Hi fellas, I've been busy again after a well-earned vacation. I got the bus mediablasted on the rear end and some hard to reach places. This makes it nicer to weld, without welding bullets ricochetting everywhere.

Here some pics of the sandblasted areas:

Wheels blasted clean:
before:

After:

Battery tray should've been removed before blasting but I didn't have time left to do this.

My bus's butt:

Rear wheelarch extensions welded in, wasn't a great fit but got it right after all.

Got the rear in also, but made sure that the sideskirt and rear corner were a good fit:

This side I've been wanting to replace so now seemed a good time to do so.
I patched it up earlier but I never got it straight.

Measured it up, cut it out and hey presto!

Cleaned it up a bit:

Had this sheetmetal cut to fit : (78 x 78 = 19 EUR :-( )

That's all folks, got to a slow start but hey what do you expect, when the sun is a shinin' my garage be empty!!

Does anyone know if I need this strengthened bolt-plate thingy if I want to put in a
Z-bed?

 

[Airtime]

Goed Bezig, Nate! 8)



In English: You're doing a great job there, Nate! 8) :wink:

 

[T2-Nate]

Hey guys, well I've picked up the pace again and I made some nice progress!
let me show you:

I fixed the rear wheel arch from the inside, easy enough little job 8)

Had this fixed already but had no picture taken :roll:

Nice hole in the wheel arch, where the seatbelt mount was, nice and rot

Fixed 'r up nicely haha

Left tray welded in and checked if everything lined up OK

Trial fit for rear corner and rear valance

Had some sheet metal cut for the midel section, I cut the hole pretty straight if I may say so :mrgreen: it went in hassle-free.

Tacked in place, to get the bent in at the bottom wasn't easy but got it right on the money!

View from the side, very straight thank you!

Seam-welded and cleaned up nicely, very little warping solely due to impatience :roll:

Then had everything cleaned up with a fibre cleaning disc (hard) and then with a scotchbrite disc (softer). I sealed the welds with debrasel aluminium filler, its hard, flexible and it's moisture repellant. On the inside I'm sealing it with Teroson seam-filler.

Wouldn't it be nice to just make it all shiny like this and put a clearcoat on :mrgreen:

Hope to get the EP on this week so I can start on the right side, which is gonna give me headaches for sure, I have nightmares already when I think about fitting the sliding door track :evil: :evil:

 

[Guest]

nice work nate, was the media blast expensive?

 

[T2-Nate]

nice work nate, was the media blast expensive?

Nah, as it was only the bottom after the last crossmember, the engine compartment, wheel arches and whatever else is in that area I can't think of right now
So I paid 250 EUR for it.