Blunderbus

[jimpainter]

Right this is another bit of welding i have been asked to do.


Side panel/sill gone

Arches and quarters are gone.

Windows all need repair.
The best

The worst

More on that window frame later. See if you can guess whats coming


Outer sliding door sill and seal channel gone


Floor has gone. Bloody fridges

B post is going to need some work

Same B post from the outside, note the internal jacking point has dissapeared

This is what was under the filler holding the window in

A bit of rust, expander foam and filler.

And the same again but under the sliding door track.

Both seatbelt mounts


Cab floor will need some work

And the sliding door side B pillar isnt great


After going through the bus throughly this is what needs doing
Windscreen panel

Drivers side : Seatbelt mount, Bpost and jacking point plus bits sorting on the inside, Outer sidepanel/sill, Middle and rear window frames, Sliding door track area, quarter panel, lower rear corner, battery tray.

Passenger side: Lower rear corner, battery tray, rear and middle window frames, sliding door track, rear quarter panel, C pillar is non existent at the bottom, B pillar will need repairs on the inside, Outer sill/sliding door seal channel, seat belt mount, and cab floor.

However when i start digging this could turn into yet more, and think there may be a fair bit of structural work needed due to not having panels off yet.

[pmoc_2001]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the detailed descriptions and the pictures. Looks like quite a job. I will keep an eye on your thread as I am planning to rebuild the floor and outer sill in my van soon (fridge side).

[jimpainter]

Yeah its a pretty big job
I am only going to be doing it in evening/ weekends as and when i get chance but i will update as and when i can.

[boatbuilder]

I'd be interested to see how you tackle under the slider rail and also the sill under the sliding door. Not that many photos of rust repairs on those areas on the forum....

[jimpainter]

Going to try and get a donor cut from another van if possible
If not i will have to fab something up.

[Cyrus]

Keep us posted
Looks like a lot of work, I'm glad to see a bus as bad as mine was.
My sliding door track is rusty, not held by expanding foam, but could do with cutting and new metal fitting. Will be watching with an eagle eye.

[jimpainter]

Well started cutting bits away.
What i started with. Looks ok

After cutting the front arch off saw the extent of the problem

Getting bigger as i clean and prod.

Slowly its dropping to bits

Had to chop away some of the b post to get access

Again after a bit of poking and prodding the jacking point dropped off and the b post collapsed

Ended up with a hole on the inner sill. Not a big problem though

Removed the lower portion of the outer sill as it was not attached anyway. The rest of the inner sill is really solid

After removing the outer the rear quarter dropped off at the bottom and showed up another problem. I thought the cpost
on the drivers side was solid......I was wrong

This is what fell out of the inner sill



Also a tea spoon and a polish coin.

Thats it for now. Going to go and start having nightmares i think

[Cyrus]

Don't loose heart. Things get worse before they get better.
You can see my progress in my signature
My bus looked ok, it looked rusty but I thought I could tackle it easy enough, I'm 3 yrs on now ( working around other commitments a baby was one ) I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

[jimpainter]

I dont have to lose heart. Its not my van
Its just a challenge at the end o the day and one step closer to the bigger plan.

[Cyrus]

I dont have to lose heart. Its not my van
Its just a challenge at the end o the day and one step closer to the bigger plan.

Cool, sorry I thought it was your bus

[jimpainter]

not a problem

[jimpainter]

Time for an update even though there hasnt been a lot of progress....


Well i started off with good intentions of fixing some of this.



Which i did to an extent.



I cant do anything with the b post at the min hence where work stopped.


But in doing the wheel arch i found this on the b post



Doesnt look too bad i hear you say....

Well it went to this



It doesnt really show it that well but its fairly thick



To this



To this. More holes






And from inside. The bam that goes across isnt connected either really




Its not a great picture but thats a straight edge going across.




It turns out that at some point the van has had a bump and then a pi$$ poor repair. The b post panel isnt fitted straight. Sure it lines up with the door but a it goes back towards the side panel it goes inwards. So the b post has been filled to get it level with the door but then the side panel is the same..... Full of filler. And rotten, so i have been on to volkshaen today to see if they have any bodycuts to replace the side panel and the b post right up to the 2nd swage line. This is where the filler just about stops.


Anyway also started on the seatbelt mount. Thought i had better get some fresh metal in



Cut out.


Patch




And fit




Obviously a little more to do but hey ho.

Jim

[jimpainter]

Another update,
I have cleaned up the first weld on the first piece of the seatbelt mount and red oxided it.



I then made up the second repair piece for the seatbelt mount.

It will be seam welded to the existing arch and then plug welded to the wheel tub for strength.



And there we go all complete apart from fixing a spreader plate/nut for the bolt.





Needed to starton this



So i took a load of measurments and transfered them onto a piece of sheet steel ready for bending



I then cut out the b post to where it was solid and pretty much rust free.



B post was bent up ready for fitting. I made a slight mistake on one of the flanges so i have had to cut it off and i will remake it and weld it to the main post. This will be fine.



And how it should fit, you can clearly see where i ballsed up because i already cut the flange off. The return on the crossmember has got to be made up yet as well.



But before i fir the b post i have to repair the inner sill. The rest of the sill is fine it was just the jacking point area, but as i have the b post off it makes it all the easier for getting in and repairing.



Cut out and ready for a piece to be let in.



And there we go all welded in and solid again. The panel has been seam welded around 4 sides then plug welded to the cross member as well as per original.







And now onto the ongoing saga of the side panel. I cleaned some of the paint off from above the 2nd swage where i thought the filler stopped. I was wrong. Its deeper than ever at this point. You can see on the second pic that the filler is up to the height of the window.





I have been to a local scrappy today because they had a panel van in. It turns out the side panel is really good and so im going to go and get a cut out of it next week as i have reserved it. £30 for a full side panel. The lower sill is going to need repairing as they always do with these things.

Will get more up in the week.

[jimpainter]

I have had a go at doing a bit more. The rear arcg/quarter was obviously rotten and full of filler and i needed to remove some of it anyway to get a proper look at the c post.
The arch/quarter







With the bottom of the quarter removed all became clear.

The c pillar wasnt quite as bad as i thought.





The inner sill looks ok on the inside



I started on a c post repair. It was a pain in the a*** to make up all the angles and the radius so instead i made it up out of 2 parts. I then tacked it all into position and made it right, i then welded it all together for strength.



Tacked in

Welded and dressed. I didnt go mad dressing the welds though as they arnt really seen.



And oxided



I started to clean up the rear corner and ended up with this.

If you look at the centre of the picture you can see a hole which had been filled and behind it was the original vw underseal.

I had a bit more bubbling on the rear corner/quarter seam so i decided to clean it up while i had the quarter off.

I found this all covered by filler.



And also this at the second swage line



Its too bad just to ignore and treat, so it will all be cut out and new pieces made up and let in.

The return for the quarter panel was rotten as well anyway.





Inside the battery tray there was a gaping hole that had just been covered with a patch that was just rusting again anyway. S its all being cut out and new put in.





Anyway rain stopped play at this point, but heyho.

[jimpainter]

Well its been a while since i last updated but i have been drilling hundreds of spot welds out of used good panels. The weather hasnt been brilliant either but im hoping for a better week next week or my unit to be finished so i can move the van inside.


This is where we finished off last time. With the offside battery tray knackered and had been patched poorly.



Marking off how much metal i need to move to erradicate the rust off the rear corner.



Started to make up a battery tray. i made it too short but didnt realise until i had welded it in. (Thicko)



I dont have a bead roller (yet) so all swages were made by hand.



A couple of peices needed letting in to make this solid.





Battery tray finished and oxided. I did dress the first weld but the second weld where i had to add the bit i didnt bother as its covered by the air filter tube and the ignition system gubbins.



And letting in a piece that was getting rid of the rust. Not the easiest panel to get to line up due to it being double curvature. It is pretty close though and will only need a thin skim of filler to get right.



And thats where we are at for now.

Happy days