Club 80-90 Forums

I've just spent the last 1/2 hour reading through your post. It's truely inspirational! I'm in the process of (slowly) getting my westy sorted, have just bought a welder and going to learn to sort the bodywork. Will definitely be using this as a guide. Have been painting some rusty interior bits in my temporary garage (gazebo in garden....), wish I had a garage : (

quick rattle can spray job on the grill ... all the time i could find to work on the bus this week.... (really trying to find time to mod and repair the sliding door runner

top one done
http://www.teamorchard.co.uk/wp-content ... 017401.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

both painted :

http://www.teamorchard.co.uk/wp-content ... 017421.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

as allways .. you make one part nicer .. it just makes everything else look worse ! lol

Finally got some time today to set about repairing the sliding door runner channel ( was rusty all behind it , could see into the car ) even the kids where complaining of a draft ! lol

Also wanted to mod the swinging arm thats on the door to give me more clearance on the alloys ( door scrapes alloys at the moment ) .. but never got time to do that in the end....

started by drilling out the spot welds for the runner ...as i plan to re-use this ( allthough now its off , its quite bad ) .. as i am not sure if you can buy them ??



once removed it was time to start cutting the rot out , inner and outer wing had gone !



close up



all the rot cut out now


pic of the back of the runner channel , very pitted with rust


first the inner wing repair peice


fully welded and some primer on it


then cut a peice out of my left over tail gate :


starting to tack it in , aint going to win no competitions ....


blurred pic of it fully welded , just needs grinding down , but its late so will wait till tommorow .


then its back on with the runner (modded for to take the longer swinging arm thats needed to clear wheels)

Thanks for the sliding door repair, ill be doing mine in the future (not a priority tho)
At least I can see what's going to be behind the runner and how far to plan. Great work!

Cyrus wrote:Thanks for the sliding door repair, ill be doing mine in the future (not a priority tho)
At least I can see what's going to be behind the runner and how far to plan. Great work!

more pics on my site , http://www.teamorchard.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; , there might be some close up shots

Matt

ok , with most of the inner and outer wing repaired . it was time to get on with the sliding door mod , to alloy more clearance to the alloys ( well to give it clearance ! )

first thing was to chop old arm in half


i then slotted both ends to alloys a 6mm bit of steel to slot in , .. did not want a clean join


then welded together , while strapped to angle.


the then filled the gaps with more metal , ground down and sprayed black



not perfect .. but will do ....

then i had to mod the runner by the same amount i had extended the arm by


i tell you what took me the longest time , was getting the spring back on the sliding door arm !! spent an hour cursing and swearing with a screw driver in the heat !!
so thought sod it , make a tool to do it ! , no CNC / CAD for me ....



it worked ! sure someone will tell me now there is a simple way of doing it ! LOL ... tool for hire now if anyone needs it ! LOL

Cleaned up runner tacked back on :



and my new clearance ! , i only went for about 25mm in the end .. did not want to much.. now i can sort the cambert


gave it a bath .. lots of dust on it ... off to windsor tommorow .. wife doing a tri-athlon !


again .. more photos/details on http://www.teamorchard.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

well , it got to camperjam and back .. extra delay because of the m25 must fit a 2nd temp gauge so i know what the real temp is , worried it was over heating.
but no signs..

but decided to wire in a radiator fan override switch to the dash , so i can now hear what the fan sounds like when running , and i can hear it ! . which means the fan has NEVER kicked in yet since buying the car ..good or bad not sure

one more panel to replace , the rear wing .. well i say that .. sure i will find more

then re-spray .. allthough france next month .. so time to give it a service i think

Matt

just wired my power steering relay into the blue charge lamp wire behind dash ... dont know why i never did it in the first place.

not the buzzing that anoys the wife so much when i turn my ignition key on has gone

Matt

getting closer to our trip to france , 7 days to go !

been ordering a few bits , toilet , 12v fan , hazard triangle , hi vis vest etc ....

also picked up a fiamma caravanstore awning , now as i found out this is not a simple fit on a Westy high top ... but being a cheapskate , i thought i would try and make a bracket to mount a C channel to , which the awning then hangs on ...

this is how far i got , needs some paint and the c channel put on ...







also bought the gas strut kit that is sold on Samba , so that might arrive before we go away.

Oil change at the weekend , did brakes last weekend ...

got the C channel fitted , what a pain !! bolted it all the way through the box section in the end :



and now the caravanstore awning attached ! :



now if anyone wants me to make them one. .. dont ask ! LOL
just buy a f35 etc..

had a fuse keep blowing . its the one that powers the cigi and the rear inside lights ... traced it to the wire that runs over the door .. bugger !!
so i ran a new wire behind the fridge and up the wardrobe to the lights .. at least they run of the leisure battery now !!

still got to make a bog box ... i will buy a proper one , but for now will use an old wardrobe

two days to go before big trip

oil change today , all seemed to go well ...defo got some small oil leaks .. but nothing major
water levels staying good as well

fixed washer bottle pipe ...

then onto somthing that i have allways thought about doing , having an out side table :



small clamp that bolts to the jacking point, then the table from inside can be pulled out for outside use....

we shall see how well it goes.

then also spent a few hours making a bog box out of an old wadrobe ... not to bad if i do say so myself ....



used old curtain for top cover , and some layers of carpet for a cusion



bog is quite snug , so might be a little hassle lifting it out when full but it cost me nothing .... so lets give it a go...

i will be updating my website once a night , http://www.teamorchard.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

also you can follow me on twitter if anyone cares http://www.twitter.com/16vmini" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Inspirational Matt, just tweeted you as it happens

around 1000 miles later we are back from our french trip !! bus ran smooth , no faults .. allthough was VERY slow up allot of the hills

Matt

love the table