My Crossover Restoration

[Air Cooled Rookie]

Hi,

Not sure if this counts a s a restoration or not, but here are some piccies of the work I'mc arrying out on my 1972 crossover.

The maun aim is to get the van tidy for the summer. I use it daily so do not want a perect job as then I'll be too scared to use it. Good job really as I'm doing all the work myself and some of my skills are lacking. Getting better all the time though!

So to start off, here are some pictures of the van before any work. The photo's don't really show the extent of the bubbling filler, the crappy brush paintwork or the shocking state of the doors!

Not sure what colur the van was originally. M Code 0506 53. The paint underneath looks a bit like Nepune Blue, but on another web site I've seen the colour Niagra Blue mentioned. I've never seen Niagra blue mentioned else where though?

Anyway, it was brush painted Diamond Blue with a British Leyland colour Triumph White a few years ago as that was all I could afford to do at at the time.
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[Air Cooled Rookie]

 

[Air Cooled Rookie]

 

[Air Cooled Rookie]

First off was the rather rusty lower front panel.....

 

[Air Cooled Rookie]

I knew it was a bit crusty down there, but :shock: :shock: :shock:

 

[Air Cooled Rookie]

 

[Air Cooled Rookie]

 

[Air Cooled Rookie]

 

[Air Cooled Rookie]

Finally getting there now!

 

[Air Cooled Rookie]

Just needs a top coat.....

 

[Air Cooled Rookie]

The near side front arch was also in a pretty bad way so that came off. I borrowed a mates plasma cutter - Bloody fantastic piece of kit! Quick, acurate cut, and no where near the noise or mess of an angle grinder. Shame I can't afford one, as he's had it back now!

You'll see that I had to do a fair amount of patching on the inner arch as well. Not pretty, but at least I got rid of all the rust.

 

[Kirk]

Looks like damn good work. How about shaving out that spare tire mount whilst you are in there?

 

[Air Cooled Rookie]

More inner arch action. I pulled the passenger seat belt mount out with my bare hands it was so rusty, so a new plate went in there as well (I added more stiffening after this photo was taken).

 

[Air Cooled Rookie]

This was how bad the old arch was. Like the lower front panel, much rustier than I thought.

 

[Air Cooled Rookie]

The new arch goes on. I had to mess around for quite some time getting a later arch repair to fit (you have to cut the step off). Not a problem most early Bay owners will have, just the people who own crossovers!

 

[Air Cooled Rookie]

And finally!!

I'm still trying to work out how to attach the early style bumper/step to the lower front arch. The original panels had a captive nut (I think) but the later panel doesn't. Any suggestion gratefully recieved!

 

[Air Cooled Rookie]

I also found some rot in the cab floor. Actually, it was a plate that someone had welded ontop of the original rusty cab floor, so it all had to come out.

 

[Guest]

let us know how you got on fitting the doors. nice work so far 8)

 

[Air Cooled Rookie]

Thanks!
I fitted the old door just to make sure the gaps were right before I welded the arch on (they weren't!) but I am still spraying the rust free doors.

I've got one original rust free door from some where hot & dry and a brand new door from Brazil. It'll be interesting to compare & contrast!

 

[Nellybus]

To mount the front step/bumper i made a plate out of 1/4" steel drilled and taped it to suit bumper bracket bolted the bumper on along with the plate then welded that to the inner arch, can't load any pic's up at mo but will try again later for you. :wink: