My 87 Doka

[georgeIRL]

No this shouldn't be rated 18's, not just yet.

I started the doka project today. But it was a short day. I spent the morning cleaning up the garage to make space for the doka, the parts that have to come off her and the other cars so nothing gets damaged.









Then the stripping could begin. I only got about 3 hours stripping her so I'm happy with the progress. There are a few stubborn bolts that don't want to come out so they are left over night in WD40. If they don't come out tomorrow the drill will have to come out.













There are a few extras i didn't know about, one fairly big one. She must have had a little tip at some stage, nothing major but its a lot of cutting and welding for me to fix it and i wasn't expecting it.




This is the back section under the light, again the bumper was hiding it but there is a common enough panel to go but again I just didn't know about it.






Well i have been working on the van again. Its going slowly at the moment but that is to be expected. I'm trying to reuse panels off the donor van which slows things up a bit but its saving me money.

I remembered a few important rules about welding today. Never wear loose sleeves. I have loads of burns to prove it!! Always wear a hat under the welding helmet. I have a burned forehead, you'd swear i was out summing myself. Then again i didn't get this burned all last summer!!

Started with the passenger side rear quarter panel. The rusty panels where cut out.


And replaced.


They will look good when they get a light coat of filler. I just used a bit of areosol primer to keep them protected until i get to the bodywork.

I started filling all the small holes in the passenger side of the body. Got most of them done. I was going to move on to the front half of the arch on the rear but the repair section which i was going to use was full of fillers so no point putting it on. I'm going to have to leave it until i can get a repair panel in.

[georgeIRL]

Folks,

I need some advice. I need to replace the rear panel



Have anyone done this, i don't need to replace the whole panel just the left hand side. Any helpful tips welcome.

Thanks

[crashsurfer]

Im glad im not the only one with a doka that needs panels cutting off and replacing.
What condition are your locker doors and floor in????

[georgeIRL]

locker doors are fubared, i have bought replacements already, the locker floor is solid but only because someone patched it already, mind you i think there will be a few hours with the grinder cleaning up their work!!!

today i'm going up and getting trigger happy with the angle grinder and cutting out all the rust i can find, that way i'll know what panels i have to buy and what i'll have to make.

still don't know how i'll tackle the rear panel but i'm sure i'll figure it out as i go

[jebiga41]

got some panels whole rear and sides altho syncro ones but may be of use let me know paul

[georgeIRL]

paul,

i'm taking a thinking break for the weekend to plan what to do next, i might give you a call then, packed it in today around 3 and went for a burn in the buggy, weather was too nice to be in the garage!!

[georgeIRL]

much better than working on the doka!!!

[Johny B]

sweet buggy

[georgeIRL]

For various reasons I have got very little done on the doka for the last 2 weeks. Firstly i was waiting for panels, then paddys day and a few family commitments kept me away from the garage. Today i got back into the garage but the focus has shifted from bodywork to mechanical. I have the remains of the donor bus sold so i have to strip what i need off it before its collected so that is getting priority.

Today I got the old 1.6TD JX engine out of it.





Also dropped the 5 speed gearbox and all the linkages.
Took out the radiator and front screen.




Have to give credit to dad for the front screen, he went at it completely arsewards from the way i would have done it but it was out in less than 5 minutes and no damage to the screen or the rubber. Sweet!

I know where most of the wiring goes and what it does, except for two wires.


The yellow wire with a red stripe and the blue wire with the white stripe. They go onto the back of the head but i need to get a wiring diagram to figure these out.

So this is where it stands, i still need to strip out some of the smaller stuff, hoses, throttle cable, wiring, speedo cable. Hopefully i'll get it finished tomorrow.

[georgeIRL]

Well, i haven't updated this in a while. Since i last blogged, I finished stripping the donor van, its now ready for delivery to its new owner.

I also got back to working on the doka. I got the old 1.9DG engine removed but not the gearbox. The drive shaft bolts on the donor where allen keys bolts, according to the manual the doka's ones should be allen keys also but they are not, they are some sort of trox like key but with twice the number of splines so until i can figure out what they are they gearbox is still in the van.



Dad and i also attacked it with angle grinders and removed all the rear panel work. This produced a few surprises!! There are some holes in the inner wings but again its apparently a common problem.

Drivers Side rear wing


Passenger side rear wing


Holes in the drivers side inner wing


This is from the inside looking out, as you can see, the bottom of the inner wing is also gone.


Thats about as far as i got saturday, today i cut out the rust.


And replaced with good metal


I also cut out the top part but didn't get an after pic, annoyed too as that repair was nearly seamless!!


I also had one or two smaller holes to fill also then the rewarding part, putting the outer panels back on!




So thats where things stand at the moment.

[georgeIRL]

Its been a month since my last update but i have been working on the van in the background, mind you, thinking about it now it doesn't seem like a lot but not to worry, it was never supposed to be a rush projects.

I'm going to have to try remember what i have done in the mean time.

Well i do remember doing the locker floor and and load bed, both where cleaned off with wire brushed and then stone chipped.







I don't have any picture of the locker floor, but i do have the weld on a new catch for the door. After the load bed the focus shifted to the inside, i want to start getting the interior ready for paint but stumbled across a problem straight away. The caravelle seat it a tight fit in the doka, too tight, especially when i wanted to raise it up a couple of inches to fit a speaker system in underneath the seat. When raising the seat I also have to make a mounting system to mount the seat to which will have to be welding in place which is why all this had to be finalised before i could start painting the interior.

First set was to create the speaker box so i knew how high the seat needed to be. This was the first attempt but the boxes where too high and even my feet where dangling so i had to redesign the sub boxes to give me a lower height but still the same volume of air inside so there would sound their best.



You can see the height difference between the first and second attempt.



This is the finished box.




Now i had the height of the seat base, i could figure out the height for the back of the seat. Surprise surprise, another problem the seat back was too wide for the van and the door wouldn't close. Lowering the seat again wasn't an option as I wanted the speaker system but i had to have a narrower seat back. Out came the grinder and welder!!

I took off the seat cover to expose the metal frame, cut about 1 and half inches off the frame and welded it back together. Repeated on the other side.







With the cover back on you'd never notice the difference and now i have enough clearance for the door to close comfortably.

I decided to finish the speaker box just to have it DONE.





Now i could finish getting the interior ready for painting. The floor was cleaned and stonechipped.








As you can see the rest still has to be primered and painted red but the focus had to change again. I got a loan of a pipe bender so i had to make the light bars while i had the opportunity. It was my first time trying to bend pipe and there was a few lessons to learn. Firstly when using 2" pipe, don't use the 2" former if you do the pipe will kink.



The 1.5 inch former works well for 2" pipe, don't ask me why but it does.






So thats where things stand at the moment. I have had some help with the van, my brother in law stephen has been idle since he came back from Oz so he have been a second set of hands for the last few jobs.

[crashsurfer]

Looking good george,
Your getting more done to yours than me thats for sure... nice size workshop youve got there you lucky boy

Did you cut the complete locker floor out and replace??? as this is what my next job is, are you welding back in original catches or are you modifying new ones...???
Would love to see some pictures of the locker floor to give me some enthusiasm to get on with mine, not the best space to get into and cut and weld in is it...?

All the best,
graham.

[georgeIRL]

the previous owner had done a lot of patches on the locker floor already, now i'm not a fan of patching, i prefer to cut it out and replace it but i decided to leave his work there, i only have to cut out and replace one section thankfully. it is a tight squeeze in there especially when your not athletic!!!

one of the original catches was there the other was missing completely but i got an original from a guy on brickyard so that will be going back in but i need to drill out the hinges for the locker doors first and fit them so i know where the hinge needs to be positioned, all 8 bolts holding the locker doors on where rusted in!!

Thats one job, the other i need to do before i concentrate on painting is fixing the drop sides, the pins where rusted in so i had to cut them out but i'm going to replace the outer tubes and use a new pin (of some sort), then i'll be able to get some primer on her

[crashsurfer]

Yes it would seem these are all common problems, i too had to drill out the locker hinge bolts as they were rusted in.. I also had the problem with the dropside pins being rusted solid, so had to cut off with a grinder and then knock the remainder out.
Im thinking of running some new pins up on the lathe perhaps out of stainless, should solve that problem...
I want to make up a light bar for the back aswell, was the pipe bender you borrowed a hydraulic one..???

I need a doner floor out of a van, as i have cut that much out the locker floor its really not worth trying to piece it back i may aswell replace the whole floor, still need to know if they are the same as a standard van / caravelle though...

Im working on mine all this weekend hopefully, got the rear o/s arch cut off at the moment so want to try and get the new one back on...

[georgeIRL]

this is the bender



it belongs to a local engineer firm who kindly let me borrow it for a few days