'84 Hi-Top Camper restoration

[morr]

Having recently rejoined the classic VW family with an '84 camper its time for the real work to begin.
I'm not too sure as to how far I'll take this restoration, but I have to at minimum get it roadworthy as its to be a replacement for my wife's daily driver.
It needs attention to tailgate, side door, sills, arches and rear o/s swinging arm at minimum for test purposes, and the engine is non too well with a leaking rocker cover and one or more leaking fuel injectors.
Other wise it appears sound enough so far as the PO had fitted new starter, alternator, battery and all front suspension & steering bush's. Only time will tell what else may be needed.

How she looked on arrival....










As the weather has been fairly rotten this last few days I've started with the interior, stripping out all the lower units, all now sanded down and undergoing repair/refinishing....





That's it so far, hopefully I'll make some more progress tomorrow

[morr]

I finally got to make a little progress on the body today, in addition to the bits I knew about already, today I found some more rot

Which after removing the seam sealer and some aggressive poking looks like this...

At least the inner sill seems fine so far, also found a few areas of rot in the cab floor I didn't know about
I'll have to go shopping on Tuesday for some repair panel and get the welder out

I've also collected the Pick-up I got as part of the deal along with the camper,

its reasonably clean and has very little rust so I'm still undecided as to whether to break it to help in the camper rebuild or to hang on and fix it up separately at a later date.... decisions, decisions.....

[Plasticman]

pick ups usefull your way.
if you want rubbers for the sidewindows i do them at a very good price also coming over in a month nor so
mm

[morr]

Thanks for the offer Mickey, but I have new side window rubbers sitting in my every growing box of bits in the garage already

[988mick]

i recon my own van is rotting under the cooker unit just like yours,i be keeping an eye on this tread to see how you get on.best of luck with it mate.
regards.
mick.

[morr]

Well progress has been slower than I'd like, but on Saturday I replaced the side door bearings/rollers and top bush so at least it doesn't try to fall off every time its opened now I still have to make a repair piece for the center hinge as the stop section to prevent it being lifted clear of the rail has been snapped off.

Bodywise I've finished removing the last vestiges of the o/s sill and have removed all the rotten o/s floor section unfortunately the pictures have somehow been corrupted so I've nothing to show here.

I was undecided on replacing the o/s rear wheel arch section as the rust on the seams seemed minimal, that is until I started at them with a wire brush in the grinder, this did not reveal much more rust but I soon discovered the arch had been badly reshaped and had up to 5mm of filler on most of it, it also had a large crease along its full length about half way up and further investigation showed many other areas of filler, so off it comes.
I've also removed a large portion of the inner skin as where they meet behind the unused LHS door track area has a fair bit of rot. A good go with the sand blaster will hopefully be enough to allow this to be refitted.

That's the only pic I took that didn't get corrupted

E D I T..... another pic miraculously uncorrupted itself on the camera!

.....end E D I T

I'll also have a small bit of plating to do above the outer swingarm mount and base of the c pillar, but nothing excessive

[New Kentish Campers]

That's the trouble with rust work, it never looks bad until you get stuck in

Just keep battling with it, do a bit at a time and you will soon get it sorted out. How do you plan to paint it, once done, spray or roller?

Doug.

[morr]

I'll spray primer the repairs myself, but as I haven't really done any bodywork in over 10 years the VW is not the only thing that's gotten rusty lol, plus I've only used cellulose in the past, and it will have to be done outdoors (hilltop won't go in garage) so will get a local guy I've used before to do the final spray job.

[morr]

Haven't touched the camper today, decided instead to crack on with other projects which will assist me with it.

So I build a rudimentary sheet metal folder to help me fabricate repair pieces...


I've also been making a blasting cabinet for removing rust/paint etc from any smaller bits I want to refurbish...

[boatbuilder]

Good stuff, you could use some sacrificial acetate (as used on overhead projectors) on the inside of your glass to stop it getting etched by the grit.

[morr]

I've got a roll of that clear adhesive stuff used for covering books, which I'm hoping will do the job, time will tell....

[morr]

Got another bit of work done over the last few days, nice to be adding some metal back this time as so far I've been doing nothing but cutting, grinding and blasting

The pics should explain themselves.....

[morr]

Due to life getting in the way, I never made any more progress on this... so the time has come to get rid of it, if there's anyone nearby that fancies a project, or I may end up breaking it.... see this thread on eircooled for more details.

[boatbuilder]

I'd take your front windscreen and probably some other bits and pieces!
Plastic Engine air intake assemby...