Restoration

[Stuster]

It's started already....

Although my new camper is in perfectly usable condition- I'm already thinking about restoration...

The bottom 6" and doors etc were all done about 6 years ago and are all fine from what I can see- there is the odd rust spot here and there that needs dealing with.

I'm thinking about the floor and chassis...

Chassis is fine (although I do have the dreaded belly pans so can't see much of it), I have set about it with a screw driver and it's all solid with a little suface rust- but its all covered in black underseal which I hate. No patches on the chassis, but a few on the front floor and behind the front seats.

As with when I had beetles- I can't rest until I get all the underneath sorted out, I need to know whats under there!

Anyone had this done- and what sort of cost are we looking at? Shot blasting, welding and painting? I might go the whole hog and get the whole body done- anyone had that done?

I realise it is big money, and a realise every van is different- but I'm interested in kicking off a project...

 

[aogrady]

It's started already....

Although my new camper is in perfectly usable condition- I'm already thinking about restoration...

The bottom 6" and doors etc were all done about 6 years ago and are all fine from what I can see- there is the odd rust spot here and there that needs dealing with.

I'm thinking about the floor and chassis...

Chassis is fine (although I do have the dreaded belly pans so can't see much of it), I have set about it with a screw driver and it's all solid with a little suface rust- but its all covered in black underseal which I hate. No patches on the chassis, but a few on the front floor and behind the front seats.

As with when I had beetles- I can't rest until I get all the underneath sorted out, I need to know whats under there!

Anyone had this done- and what sort of cost are we looking at? Shot blasting, welding and painting? I might go the whole hog and get the whole body done- anyone had that done?

I realise it is big money, and a realise every van is different- but I'm interested in kicking off a project...

Hi,

Congrats on the new purchase! I guess you really need to remove the underseal to see what's lurking, and how much welding is needing doing. Scraping, heating and using some kind of chemical, thinners or suchlike. Sandblasting may work, do you know a friendly farmer with a forklift and sandblaster?

My bus had the OG underseal which was hard and flaking, and i did a number of treatments, firstly, the old underseal was scraped off, with the solid stuff left in place, as it was doing it's job, secondly a rust converter was used to encapsulate any outstanding rusty areas, this was sprayed on the entire underside, and in box sections. The box sections were all then treated with a cavity wax, along with inner doors and panels etc.
Then a 2 part epoxy paint was then sprayed underneath to further encapsulate that, and then (keep up!) it's gonna go be going in soon for a final treatment of truck bed liner, Upol Raptor, tinted with body colour Pearle White, so it can be applied all in one go, rather than having to wait for the stone chip to go off, then painting body colour, as sometimes the solvents in the stonechip will cause problems with the top coat. This coating is like stonechip, but better, it'll also help a bit with sound deadening, will give a nice finish, and look good. I'll be mainly concentrating on the inner wheel arches, bellypans and front bellypan, though if there is some left over, more will be done!

All of this is detailed on my thread :

http://forum.earlybay.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11057&start=220" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Have a look for any ideas, it starts about halfway down that page.

Cheers,

Alistair