"Van Halen" '69 Riviera Bay

[TooLow&NotEnoughGo]

Got the floor down today, bargain Homebase vinyl tiles at £3.99 a pack of 6. They do the job and should be fairly easy to mop up the odd spilled beverage

 

[TooLow&NotEnoughGo]

Bit of an update

Went to go for a lovely dog walk in the Bus the other day, jumped in, girlfriend got in the other side, dog was all excited and yelpy. Went to pull out of the drive and she chugged to a halt. Turned it over and it started but cut out again. Went to turn it over again, and I heard a sploosh sound. I think in my stupidity I did this twice or more. Stank of petrol. Dammit. I guess the needle valve in the carb had stuck and it dumped a load of fuel in the oil.

So a hasty order to Machine 7, and I've rebuilt the carb, replaced the old fuel pump as it had brass fittings that came loose when changing the pipes to R9, new plugs, new Taylor 8mm leads, rechecked and adjusted the timing and adjusted the carb. Oh and changed the oil twice more to get rid of the fuel in oil.

Also, got my chequered tiles down a few weeks ago, and found a pair of big vintage drapes at a carboot sale for a fiver. My girlfriend is pretty handy on a sewing machine so she soon knocked up the curtains and cushions

Can't wait to camp it up now!!! :mental:

 

[TooLow&NotEnoughGo]

With the pending arrival of this Bitch Ass Punk Mother ******...

I decided I might need a pair of these...

So, set about drilling the spot welds on the seat runner as I will be reusing that but mounted 30mm higher on the tub so ported by 30mm box section front and rear...

Will need to pick up some 30mm box section to mount and support the seat runners to...

 

[TooLow&NotEnoughGo]

Then, as much as it pains me to say it, it was time to let this mad ******, a pretty enthusiastic best friend of mine who happens to have a welder and a grinder loose on my Bus...

I know maybe we should've waited til we had the box section and welded in the seat runners before paint, but we wanted to see them in paint and wanted to protect them for now.

Getting the Box section for the runners, and some big stuff for the front notches this week hopefully...

 

[Grazy]

Nice work man , will be even cooler on the deck , Where are the tubs from ? 8)

 

[Nugsy]

Nice work on the bus, loving the work on the front end, and looking forward to seeing it dumped in the weeds with them tubs it looks serious

I'd like to so the same to the front of mine, it too is full of filler and slide holes, but I've been to busy driving it over the last few years. I think its a feature of yank bus's as the tend to use the spare wheel as a buffer so end up kinking the front.

 

[TooLow&NotEnoughGo]

Cheers guys, Grazy, the tubs are from Gav at Trailer Queen Restos. Top notch stuff, mega helpful, quick and they literally are a draw around, trim a touch and drop in weld up kinda deal. You get to keep a lot more stock metal with these compared to the flat top ones you see about, and more room behind the seats for camping crap

Nugsy, do it man, I couldn't live with the modern looking metallic paint that the PO had put on the front and kinda got carried away when I found the original Neptune, that's when I found the filler and there was no way I was painting it back up with that lot in there! :shock:

Thanks for the kind comment, can't wait to get it down in the weeds 8)

Joe

 

[TooLow&NotEnoughGo]

Things arrived!

So with the old beam down, we set about doing the front notches for the steering rod clearance.

Beam plonked in just to mock up where the rods will be...

Then we used a big bit of box section to make the notches...

Next up is fitting up the beam properly and the front will be done!

With the old beam off it would have been rude not to have a cheeky mock up shot...

 

[StuF]

Nice!
Think notching and tubs are my next modification!
Top work! 8)

 

[TooLow&NotEnoughGo]

Well the build has ground to a wee bit of a halt, I've narrowed my Leaves, but as i don't have the correct drill bits to dimple them, a good friend of mine who works in a machine shop has kindly taken them to work to fit in and drill them for me Good ol boy!

So with a couple of hours to kill tonight I decided to get cover in all kinds of sticky stuff and seam seal, under seal and finally a coat of Shultz...

Once I get the leaves back I can build the beam up to the arms and get the thing onto the Bus so we don't keep tripping over it in the conservatory.

 

[TooLow&NotEnoughGo]

Got my leaves back today, big thanks to Budgie the expert Dimpler!

Set about building my beam up to the arms...

Only trouble is the lower arm shock bolts are too long so foul the end plates of the beam.

So off the arms come again

Plan is to chop off the mount and part of the arm body, maybe about 10mm off the arm body itself , and drill and tap a hole for a bolt to wind into.

 

[radish]

Got my leaves back today, big thanks to Budgie the expert Dimpler!

Set about building my beam up to the arms...

Only trouble is the lower arm shock bolts are too long so foul the end plates of the beam.

So off the arms come again

Plan is to chop off the mount and part of the arm body, maybe about 10mm off the arm body itself , and drill and tap a hole for a bolt to wind into.

15mm is what you will need to trim off mate, you won't need to go any more.

 

[gvee]

Aire Valley beam?
Love that mockup 8)

 

[TooLow&NotEnoughGo]

Got my leaves back today, big thanks to Budgie the expert Dimpler!

Set about building my beam up to the arms...

Only trouble is the lower arm shock bolts are too long so foul the end plates of the beam.

So off the arms come again

Plan is to chop off the mount and part of the arm body, maybe about 10mm off the arm body itself , and drill and tap a hole for a bolt to wind into.

15mm is what you will need to trim off mate, you won't need to go any more.

Funny enough that's exactly how much I took off!

 

[TooLow&NotEnoughGo]

Aire Valley beam?
Love that mockup 8)

Yup, top quality bit of kit!

Got it on tonight...

 

[TooLow&NotEnoughGo]

Spindles on...

 

[TooLow&NotEnoughGo]

Gotten the front together today...

 

[TooLow&NotEnoughGo]

With the back down too its a more sensible height... For now

...got no brakes yet, or shocks... But she's a roller!

 

[the irv]

loving this,loving the tubs 8) ,could you please put up a few more pics of tubs with
the seats in place :mrgreen:

 

[TooLow&NotEnoughGo]

Yeah man, just popped out...

Might have just put the seat in on the wonk looking back at the photos but its raining! :lol: