Our 72 Danbury Tin Top– Buying and Rebuild thread (Pic Heavy

[Nugsy]

August Part 2
Well after a few weeks break its back to the hard work, and on with the inner and outer front panel. As I don’t want to go to high up with the outer panel (intention of losing it on the pressing just below the indicators) I was stuck with how to replace the inner. 1st option was to cut the old one in half along the width and do the same with the new one. Then I decided to cut the top lip off the new front panel and weld it back up

cut away all of the old inner panel apart from about 1 inch of the front section

Tidied up the ends of the two inner chassis rails and cut the rot of the end of the two outer legs, and offered the panel up

Hammered it up into place, quite a ight fit as it is sandwiched between the main chassis legs and the 1” remnant of the old panel. Used a jack to force it up the last bit, and then got a few heavy welds on it to hold it in place

And this is how it ended up looking. I have offered the new outer up and it fits jus as I had wanted it to. Hopefully next weekend we'll get the outer on and the repairs to the outer chassis legs sorted

 

[Nugsy]

September Part 1
Stitch welded the inner front panel to the 1” remnant and ground down the welds, and also welded the ends to the bottom of the a-posts, so everything looks like it should

Once it was all zinc primered I then gave it a good coating of red oxide as well to keep it dry before I get round to waxoyling it. then cut the front panel down, as I have said I want to lose the repair on the lower swage line. The ends from about the indicator inside edge to the outside is but welded to try and reduce the amount of filler

The ends were drilled out ready to be plug welded to the a-post, also tried to retain the little tag bit that makes it look early, even though I have used late bay arches with a cut down step

A quick coat of paint over the top and it hides a multitude of sins :shock:

And this is how it ended up looking

never got round to doing anymore this weekend as fitting the front panel and having to remove and replace both doors was a little but difficult to say the least. :evil: Thank god for about 5 pairs of mole grips to hold it in place for me whilst we welded it. also didn’t finish till 10pm on the Sunday night which means the fitting of the outer front panel from start to finish took me nearly 8 hours. :shock:
Welds need to be ground down next time I go, and possibly lick of filler to start on the prep work. Had last weekend of to visit Vanfest and restore my jealousy meter of all those with working buses :mrgreen:

 

[Barkafer]

That is some fine work you are doing there dude. :mrgreen: Keep it up, it'll be great when you've finished it. 8)

 

[dubscum]

keep up the good work

 

[Nugsy]

cheers for the encouragement guys, its reading others threads on here that has given me the know how on what to do.

Barkafer, so jealous of the aptina on your bus, unfortunately the uk ones just get painted over with shit colour matches :roll:

you changed your wheel colour again dubscum,surely another month has passed i want to do my empi 5's the new renault meganne cayenne colour, rather than white or grey (that mine are) just to be different

 

[Lordain Volley]

Nugsy,
Just had a look at your build - excellent work, how did I miss that one? You had some bad rust in parts, but you removed it with no drama. Good work. 8)

LV

 

[Nugsy]

Hi LV (been a while)

Thanks for the comments, I guess you also missed how it ended up:

My mate had a fire in his compound and my bus was caught up in it all, 2 years down the drain, but insurance paid out and I got my new bus with the money. It hurt at the time but time heals and all that

and how it is now