The Turd, 1969 sunroof van refresh, finished and driving

[Gwar72]

WoW that's an amazing find there..!!! 8) It's good to know that there are still gems like this hidden away..!!

Glad you are keeping it stock..!!

 

[squareweave]

Ok, this is the last boring post with the van in the same spot. It was changing of the guard as I finished up the 65 beetle and pulled in the van. It was killing me that the van was sitting outside for the past week. I have been thrashing hard to finish up the beetle. So today the bug went to my parents garage until I sell it and the van is now in the heated garage.

 

[goran71]

WoW very,very nice bus !!

 

[aspro]

Geez this bus is ugly. Missing front emblem, piece of timber on the rear bumper bar, old paint, steering wheel on the wrong side and you've washed off the original dust. If you need someone to get rid of it for you I will happily oblige. :lol:

 

[squareweave]

Not a lot to update other than I now have a full set of original deluxe trim. One of the rear bumper trims needs to be straightened a bit. So if somebody has a single or a pair of original rear bumper trims I am seriously looking for one or two. I want to get the aluminum trim out to the polisher asap. I also picked up my 1" white wall bias tires and had one test mounted on one of the rims. I love the look. I will post a picture when I get the van outside.

 

[Myvanway]

nice one! 8)

Paul.

 

[OSullivan]

Hi Rich

Good to see some bumper work going on there
At least the wood protected the bumper guards eh!!

Kev

 

[Gert Big T]

Didn't anyone notice the pea green Karmann Ghia, that was pretty cool as well

 

[squareweave]

eh!!

Now thats funny. I guess we will never live that down will we! Funny enough that wasn't just wood that was teak and a friend used that and cut it up and it is now a jewelry box. No BS :lol: Glad you were happy, now go find me a bumper trim

 

[squareweave]

Here are a few with the new tire that I am running. I had it mounted as a test to see what it will look like. 1" white wall bias ply with the correct load rating The rims are OG paint and not sure if I am going to get them powdercoated or roll the as is for now.

Old and new, you can see how small the radials on the front are in comparison

 

[OSullivan]

Looking good on original paint wheels!Whitewalls look ace
Is the brown steering wheel going on??

Kev

 

[squareweave]

No, the brown wheel is for a friends 66 beetle. I am wrapping it in leather for him. I like the size and dish for a bus so I may try to find one myself for my other deluxe.

 

[squareweave]

I have been collecting NOS parts like mad for the van as well as alot of work going on too but still tons more to do. A few pics with updates.

We removed all of the interior last weekend and gave it a good cleaning. It is now in storage.....on the dining table

All the chrome is polished up along with NOS lenses etc. I got the guard dog on duty! :lol: He is just pissed the somebody bought him a pink toy

More NOS lenses

Rebuilt OG carb with re-plated hardware

Rustproofing stripped from the splash pan, it seems to have preserved the original paint well, a few marks but nothing major.

OG luggage bar installed on rear seat, totally different seat frame is needed as only clipper seats have the tabs needed to mount the bar.

Dash is cleaned and detailed, clock installed and OG Blaupunkt AM/FMEmden radio is getting refurbed as we speak

Windsheild is out for a replacement. The one in was original but had big stone chips in it. ZERO rust under there I am very happy with what I didn't find!!

An addition to the bay fleet has also come along So this past week has been a busy one sorting paperwork etc. for import of the latest sunroof, I will start a quick thread on it on its own.

 

[squareweave]

I took all of the rust proofing off of the van to repair the factory grey seam sealer. The seam sealer was very brittle and fell off by just using your nail under it. So while I was under there I decided to take all of the suspension off and have it powder coated. So I got all of the rear out today as well as starting on the front beam as well. The engine is stripped and the tin will be going with the the suspension to the blasters and then to be powder coated. The wheels and bumper parts are currently at the blasters and will be powdercoated white like original. All of the hardware of the van is boxed up and will be going to the plating shop for Cadmium plating. While the bottom of the van is stripped I am going to redo the factory seam sealer and redo the amber coloured rust proofing like original. I am not going to redo the inner fenders and suspension with rust proofing because they are easy to get at with a wash cloth to keep clean.

Front end coming apart

Rear all taken apart

Rear hub assy. torn apart to be powder coated. It will be degreased before re-assembly

Tin all boxed up to go to the blasters

going in with the engine tin

I had a NOS tailpipe plated I really the the look of a rusty tailpipe once the paint has burnt off

 

[squareweave]

I picked up my bumpers and wheels from the powdercoater. All is well but the rear is going to have to be redone. :x Its my fault I should have checked the bumper after being blasted, the sandblaster was good enough to deliver the bumper to the powdercoating shop for me. I missed a few dings in the rear and although not bad, it kills me to see them in there.

I painted the back of the wheels semigloss black like original

Ever seen a baywindow specific plate mount? Picked this up at one of my swap meet trips.

Front beam is the only part of the suspension that was painted. I didn't want to risk getting sand in the bearings so I stripped the paint off and found some paint that matched the semigloss black powder coat. I painted it up today while the weather was good. Not bad from a trimmer I was kind of surprised by the amount of slag from the welds that VW left on there. But I left it like original. I also put a new Febi (german) center pin in. The old one wasn't to bad but It was so easy to do with the beam out. The trailing arms are at the shop having the ball joints pressed out and then all the engine tin and suspension is going it for its turn at the blaster and then off to powdercoat.

I took a picture of the serial number on the beam and will have a stencil laser cut and reapply it back on.

I decided to go with a new set of shocks. The old ones might have been ok but I didn't want to risk having a leaker on a trip. So I stripped the paint on the new shocks and had paint mixed to match the original VW units that came on the van. A small detail but why not.

 

[squareweave]

I am waiting on the suspension to come back from the sand blaster and powder coaters. In the mean time I picked up the hardware from the platers.
Silver cadmium.

So we had bolt/hardware sorting party.

I will hopefully get the bottom of the van all tidied up and the amber rustproofing should be in by Thursday and applied before the suspension is back.

 

[roland]

impressive work you're doing there! can't wait for the result...

 

[squareweave]

Nothing too exciting. I am waiting on the blasters to get my suspension and tin blasted so it can be powder coated. So in the meantime I have been messing around with other things.I had the windsheild out and thought I might as well give the wiring a quick look over so I removed the dash top and everything looked good. While I was at it I thought what better time than now to install my NOS lighter, radio, red tip antenna and original fresh air fans.

Can you spot the options?

Inside of the glovebox is really decent

Red tip

Windsheild is back in with the help of my wife. She knows the drill and it went in like butter

Old school decal on windsheild

Tires are all mounted. 4 BFG's and the spare is an old Sears tire that is is nice shape that I had.

Original jail bars all polished up and mounted

Patina plate?.... nope just one of the set of original frames that I picked up. This van was picked up in Germany but was always serviced at this dealership

Had NOS fuel pump and took it apart and had all of the steel bits and screws Cadmium plated with my other parts and reassembled it.

Misc shot of the writing on the door. I love how strong this paint is

 

[andy11]

Awesome find and lovin the resto work

 

[squareweave]

Finally got my stuff back from the blasters last week and dropped it off at the powder coating shop and as usual Russell turned my parts around quickly and did and awesome job.

Quite a bit of stuff, all my undercarriage aside from my beam and all of my engine tin etc. I had to lay it all out to make sure it was all there. Not enough room in the garage floor and raining like a bugger outside so......... My wife was really happy about this arrangement!!

I also got back my rear bumper a second time after giving it a better straightening, I thought that it looked fine the first time but after having it powder coated it looked like sh!t. So it had to be stripped with an oxy acetylene torch and then reblasted and then I hammered and dollied the last bit of dings out of it. Looks good now!

I also was able to get a hold of a mint engine lid. The one on the van was the only part of the paint that wasn't original and the original owner had it resprayed and the match was bad and the bodywork was worth messing with. This one is nice and clean. It will be painted to match.