Big Blue Van - Full Restoration

[BigBlueVan]

Painting the bodyshell (August 2023)

Thought I would provide another chunk of updates.

The van was painting last August, the UPOL raptor was used all over.

Rolled the shell out onto the driveway to bask in the sunshine a few days afterwards to allow the doors to be painted and then hung.



 

[BigBlueVan]

Zinc Plating, Door Gear Refurbishment and Windscreen

Purchased a zinc plating kit, a bit of a learning curve, but once dialled in the results are very pleasing.
Mixture of the Clear Passivate and Yellow Passivate.

Rebuilt the sliding door hinge and cleaned up or painted/ plated all other door gear parts.
Replaced the front door handles for new and retumbled them to use the original keys.

All door seals installed, no photos of this though.

Windscreen went in with a bit of a fight, but considering the whole upper surround was fabricated from scratch i am very pleased with the fitment.

[BigBlueVan]

Painting the Suspension components

All the main suspension components and some other parts like engine mount bar, fuel tank straps, steering tube etc.. all received the same prep treatment.

Degrease,
Wirewheel,
Acid cleaning if needed, 
Zinc Primer Applied
Topcoat of Epoxy mastic in Black

[BigBlueVan]

Pedal Assembly Refurb

Stripped the pedal assembly down, cleaned everything up.
repainted where needed and reassembled.

[BigBlueVan]

Fitting Suspension and Steering Components

Did not get too many pictures of this stage, but here is what i have.
The rear drums have been converted to disc brakes so larger steel wheels are required to allow clearance.

[BigBlueVan]

Brake and Clutch Lines

now this was an experience,,,
Took a while to even get hold of a decent tool, 2 failed attempts before I got a good one which was up to the task. (1 snapped, 1 produced poor seats)

Eventually got it sorted out and ran new Kunifer lines, all the standard 4.75mm (Brake) and 6mm (Clutch) lines with DIN standard fittings.
they are not perfect, but im happy enough with them.

Not all the pipework clips are secured in the photos, but these have since been revisited and tidied up.

The system has been bleed and no leaks are present.

I had customer rear hoses for connection the rear disc conversion (no photo)

the clutch line currently ends near the rear of the vehicle, this will be finalised when the gearbox is installed.


 

[BigBlueVan]

Current Progress

The van is back on its own wheels with steering all installed, the gearbox rebuild is underway and i am also getting the pieces together for the engine installation. Watch this space.

[RogerT]

[PeteandNikki]

Loving that attention to detail.

[irishkeet]

Back after the Summer Hiatus

Being as the evenings are drawing in I thought I should get back at it in the garage.

Spent a couple of evenings removing underseal, paint and rust for the nearside inner arch and surrounding area.
It's ready for a treatment of phosphoric acid to stabilize the surface then some primer.





Can then move on to more fun things like making and fitting panels.

In other news the donor van on the driveway has been totally stripped to a bare shell, some parts of being sold. Others will be restored and used on this project. Some just kept for spares.
While I don't need the shell I will keep it for now to use as reference for the rebuild of big blue.

Hi  Big Blue Van

I was wondering what you are using to remove the underseal looks like a great job, loving the thread 

Also do you have a link to the tool you bought please? 

now this was an experience,,,
Took a while to even get hold of a decent tool, 2 failed attempts before I got a good one which was up to the task. (1 snapped, 1 produced poor seats)
 

[BigBlueVan]

@Irishkeet - 
to remove the underseal, paint and rust was a combination of tools.

Underseal (the thick rubbery VW stuff)
Propane Blowtorch to heat it up then various scrapers to remove.

Old Cavity Wax
Same process as underseal

Old Paint and rust
13mm electric Belt Sander from screwfix
Flapdiscs, 40grit, 80grit, 120grit on a grinder
Large wirewheel on grinder
Various wirewheels on a battery drill for smaller areas

Once you get stuck in and assuming suspension components are not in your way it does not actually take that long to do.


As for brake line tool, this came from Vintage Warehouse 65 on ebay.
the handheld version, but i clamped it into a vice to use and had a few practices to familarise myself with using it.
the produced really nice flares everytime once dialled in.

The clutch line tool i had to get from Amazon, i cannot find a link to it though. was cheap and cheerful but given the clutch system only has a few flares i was able to remake them until i was happy as the quality was not great. no way i would this tool for the brake lines.
hope that helps.

 

[sam16v]

Amazing work! Great attention to detail, going to be like a brand new van! I'm just in the process of piecing mine back together after a full restoration.
Could you please send me some details on the kit you used to do the zinc plating, or would you like to do another set of locks and latches etc if I were to pay you? Thanks Sam

[dcworm57]

This is an amazing restoration,fantastically documented. You are doing an amazing job . It’s fantastic to see how bad the van was at the start and how well you have made the repairs. Thank you for taking the time to share all this valuable information. Can I ask what your background is , how did you gain all the skills to be able to do all this ?
Are you a fabricator of some sort , in the motor trade ? . Looking forward to seeing the finished van 

[BigBlueVan]

This is an amazing restoration,fantastically documented. You are doing an amazing job . It’s fantastic to see how bad the van was at the start and how well you have made the repairs. Thank you for taking the time to share all this valuable information. Can I ask what your background is , how did you gain all the skills to be able to do all this ?
Are you a fabricator of some sort , in the motor trade ? . Looking forward to seeing the finished van

Thanks for the kind words, my background was an electronic engineering apprenticeship, everything car based has been self taught. Nothing is that difficult when you break it down into smaller chunks.

[FarmerPhil]

Great thread, the detailed pictures are really useful for me to pick a few this up from, but I doubt I can keep my build area that clean however!
I like the use of the wooden hammer formers for getting the panel returns.