Bilsborough bus

[jimpainter]

Well after a disasterous start with his last new bus (read rotten beyond economical repair) Mark has got himself another one.
Its a devon conversion hand painted hammerite .
He got it as a nonrunner, and the previous owner had taken it to a garage and told her it needed a new engine. Well after having a quick look over the motor it turned out that someone (not pointing fingers at the garage ) had screwed the the valve adjusters in until the valves were always open on 3&4. Set the valves and it ran on all 4. Its not the quietest/smoothest motor but it will be coming out for a stripdown and see how it looks internally. Its only a lowly 1600 ct but due to budget at the minute its a case of having a look and going from there.
And some pics


Gutters are supposed to have had some work. But can you spot the problem with the roof?



And a couple of the rot spots,


Rear valance is shot


Rear part of thre roof where the tailgate seal sits is rotten

Front of roof will also need work

Rear valance removed. I have a good 2nd hand panel to use

Will have to work at each end



Only just started and have until april to finish it when Mark gets back from work. Just hope he likes it when he gets back.
Will update as and when.
Jim

[mark.bilsborough]

mate looking good cant wait to get back from afgan and see it finished might pop down at xmas tim when im on leave

[jimpainter]

Excuse the pickys, photography isnt my strong point

Anyway update time,
Rear 1/4 is coming off, You will see clearly the rot under the channel where the sliding door cover sits.


The lower rear corner didnt take much to (fall) off.

The rest of the area around the corner will be treated to some fresh metal when the panels arrive.
Most of rear panel removed. The inner is really solid with just a small repair needed lower down.


And repair

I also found this

A plastic washer wrapped in black tape as part of the c post Cpost is repaired but forgot pics
Another small repair to the rear of the arch. This piece needed doing so the 1/4 panel can go on. There are other repairs needed that will be done at a later date.



1/4 panel going on. This one seemed to fit quite well, with little adjusting.


Door and swages matched up really well

While the back end was up in the air I thought I may as well whack the van with the lowering stick mark left me.

Thats all for now. I will try to improve my photography skills before the next update

[jimpainter]

Here we go with a few more pics.
Lower piece of the rear arch chopped out

And a repair section welded on, always a good reason to keep your offcuts off repair panels.

The front of the rear arch will also need work

But the inner arch doesnt look too bad, this will have to wait a little bit though.

Chopped out the grot from the offside rear corner

Made up an inner support section


And remade the outer rear of the corner.

Waiting for the lower corner panels to arrive so thats it for a while now on this side.
Onto the nearside
Again it was quite crusty so it got chopped



One of the offending pieces

You can see that there is no paint or protection on the back side of the panel. No wonder they rot

[jimpainter]

computer froze so its in 2 parts.
As I said no paint so more rot.

That bit will be made later on, meanwhile I carried on with the outer piece of the rear corner.
Hand made panel again, although its not difficult to make,

And the lower corner fitted

I had a bit of time so decided to pop the hinges off the roof and have a look at the gutters. They have been "repaired" in the past.
The front section is going to need some work

In the gutters you could see the rot



It looks quite bad, but I have had a prod around and it seems solid, however we will see when I give it a clean.
Lumpy welds in the gutters

And lumpy repairs

And odd shaped gutters

Thats it for now, more to come soon.

[mark.bilsborough]

come on jim lol

[jimpainter]

Short update as photobucket takes forever





Inside rear arch/sill section






Starting the Aircooled to deiesel conversion tomorrow

[Dazco]

Got some work there to keep you busy. What diesel motor are you putting in ?

[zedd]

i,d be interested to see how you do the Aircooled to diesel conversion as i,m thinking of converting mine.

[jimpainter]

Plenty to keep me going. lol.

engine conversion should be fairly straight forward as i have a complete donor van.

taking pics as i go so will post them up. going to be swapping the entire loom ovr for a better install.

jim

[mark.bilsborough]

hi mate any more updates it nearly time for me to come home