14 Days of Camper Work!!!

[Peter-T]

Lookin' good man! Keep up the great work!

[waltraud]

Looks very satisfying and well worth all of your hard work and saves on the ££ so u've got something left to pay for petrol!

[bmouthboyo]

Thanks guys, at end of day won't be perfect but spending restoration kind of money was never an option, these vans just don't fetch the money back yet.

Lots to do tomorrow

[Peter-T]

... these vans just don't fetch the money back yet...

And thats why I never plan to sell mine!

[Plasticman]

spending restoration kind of money was never an option, these vans just don't fetch the money back yet.

I beg to differ, if you buy a van for 5k that when done is worh 6k and it needs a rebuild then youve bought wrong but generally if you buy price commensurate then price of a reasonable resto will be recouped .
mm

[bmouthboyo]

Day 8:

Had a few days where couldn't work on the van but managed to get out today despite the appalling weather.

Spent most of the day fabricating and welding the OS snorkle box. My halogan lamp has blown and I am awaiting new bulbs so had to make do with a desklamp

Before:





After:





Decided to just get some steel in there and I will vactan, dinitrol, waxoyl etc the hell outa it. Why on earth VW thought it would be a good idea to have those rear vents and then a nice box to trap water in ill never know.

Cleaned up the inner arch underneath ready for arch panel but still need to get these tacks off as my angle grinder wont reach:



Tried fitting my rear window with JK rubbers I bought few years back but hadn't fitted. Good god I seriously started to lose my rag . Had to give up in the end. How on gods earth do you fit these things. My window is too large and I was no where close to fitting it. Unreal.

Off to Woking tomorrow to cut out a lower valence and top section above the tailgate with the corners I need to replace.

[Plasticman]

tape some thickish paper over the window hole and mark th hole out , cut it out and then lay over your window, if you do it right then didnt we cover this the other day?? pm regarding these if you like
mm

[bmouthboyo]

Sorry wasnt very clear i was just testing the rubbers to see if it was a better fit before i mark and fix the window as you said MM. I was refering to how hard it seems to fit windows with new rubbers, or more probably JK ones lol

[Plasticman]

super supple complete per window £13.44 +pst
mm
pm me your addy and i will post you a sample to compare

[bmouthboyo]

Day 10:

Drove up to Woking to cut out the lower valence and upper rear corners of a van that was being broken.





Doesn't look a lot but will save a lot of time / effort fabricating the shape. I will look into how to un-stitch the lower valence and see it its easy to replace mine in one go or to cut out the repair pieces.

[bmouthboyo]

Day 12:

Good day today, sun was shinning so no excuses. First job was to sort the small bit of floor rust behind where the fridge goes.:



Could have cut out and but welded but by the time I would have thinned the edge under the mid panel lip to match the area where I cut the old outer sill out it wouldn't have made much difference so decided to plate it from above:



Then vactaned the lot on top and underneath.

Repaired a small bit of the lower fixing point:





Then onto the outer sill panel. Not a bad fit and overall I am happy, the seam is a little larger than it should be due to trimming back the top of the old outer sill but after sealing and filling etc should be fine:



Then dinitrol'd the hell out of the inside of the sill.

Then started to fit the Tall Arch panel. Not the easiest and I still need to somehow make the curve on the right side fit a little deeper. Top and bottom is fine but either the mid is flatter or the arch panel is more curved as the middle bit sticks proud about 5 mm. Added the lip as metalmickey documents, not too bad touch wood and on first trial fit seemed OK:



Then heard the clap of thunder so weld through primed the metal and packed up for the day.

[Dazco]

looking good mate.

[trentjim]

good effort and decent progress... doesnt the time fly though!

[Doogs]

Looks like very good work there

[bmouthboyo]

Day 13:

Sun was shining again today so van time

Managed to get the OS tall arch welded up. Not entirely happy with the fit. It seems the mid panel pulled in slightly once the tension of the spot welds were gone so was a bit of a mission getting them both to line up. I would say it is probably a few mm out but hey ho, hopefully some filler can help me out. I trial fitted the lower 1/4 panel and it was out by a long shot due to the arch so a lot of fetting will be needed when I get to that.

Spot welded to inner arch:




Welded up top side:


Flattened back and vactaned:



Final fit:



Seam sealed in and out:







Pretty happy with progress so far.

Left to do is:
[*]NS Arch
[*]NS Rear Window Surround
[*]Rectify OS Window Surround
[*]Rear and Front Top Corners
[*]Lower half of valence

Will not have quite so much time to work on her now but with longer days shouldn't take too long.