devon refurb

[sooperspur]

well, hi to everyone. have been around for a while, but really need to get into the forum as i know you lot are just gagging to help the keen but inept among us. bought a devon 2l Aircooled last year and to be frank, by the time i got back home in it realised id bought a bit of a lemon. took it to a local (ish) vw specialist and told that it was basically running on about 1 1/2 cylinders due to no compression on 2 cylinders and not much on a third. i have to say i didnt think it was quite that bad but what did i know. so basically i left it as is and wondered what to do. as the tax ran out in november and no drive i found somewhere to store it (at a price) and decided to stop licking my wounds and do something about it.





so basically i have spent the last couple of months stripping it down to its bare bones. the interior was there but pretty shot so will all be repaired/replaced. unfortunately this has to be a budget job so its down to graft and ingenuity i guess to keep costs down.







so have managed to get the interior out. as you can see there are a few issues to deal with. we have decided that to get some sort of enjoyment this year we basically need it to firstly, actually move under its own steam!! (more of which later) secondly, be safe, it does have an mot but im sure there are issues to overcome, and thirdly get some basic comfort in the van for me, mel my wife and the two boys. we have 2 older girls too but im sure you can guess their reaction to the purchase!!



empty!!

i do have a welder though havnt used for a while. any problems with these do you think?









not easy to see but all the seams seem pretty bad




and finally about a month ago mel convinced me to do the compression test on the engine. it was definitely burning oil, not quite in the james bond smokescreen type style but enough to worry me. anyway did that and all the cylinders came out at around 95-100. did the squirt of oil test and they all jumped to about 140 so with my limited knowledge (mainly gained from bikes years ago) it seemed like a simple ring problem. so much for the "specialist". the milage shows 115k by the way and was running one of those horrid weber single carb conversions. have since picked up a pair of original carbs and filter etc so they will go on on refitting . so i have bitten the bullet and removed the engine and am refitting the rings as we speak. i did have some pics of engine removal but seem to have misplaced the sd card. each piston seemed to have at least one broken ring but the cylinders themselves seem ok (still within tolerences) so am going to keep them.

to be continued..............

ian

any other pics available here BTW

http://s1154.photobucket.com/albums/p530/sooperspur/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Plasticman]

I have a soft spot for devons , i see its in the ubiquitous two tone dog plop.
interior is what youd expect and there area lot worse out there, yes the seams are shot and more too , I would invest in a decent trolley jack (if you havent already ) as it the jp's will not stand jacking, it does look verymuch like my early one before I chopped into it https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.p ... lack+of+it" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
in your case if your not up for tearfing into it whilst its shelled out, thgen doo anything that is testable and safety related and then get some use out of it , the devon is a good interior and by the look of yours id be inclined to do some repairs and refit it
mm

[Thorssen]

Hi
My recent Devon purchase is in the garage getting some 'make it move' style tlc. Id be really interested in seeing pics as you go.

Chris

[evilnoodle]

Hello and welcome.

We bought a hi-top camper earlier this year. His general condition is "not too bad", but I am not kidding myself, I'm sure he is going to need a fair bit of tarting up in the near future. I just want to use him though, so don't really want him going off the road just yet. I just hope he doesn't do anything dramatic to let me know when I need to start work on him

Good luck with yours

[sooperspur]

So we have two weeks off and just a bit to do!!







i shall be tackling the engine replacement and some bodywork that needs doing while my wife mel shall be working on the interior/ furnishings.

spent most of today cleaning up around the rear arches/suspension/engine bay.

decided i need a knotted steel wheel and my angle grinder to clean up some of the rust before doing some remedial work

more tomorrow

ian

[sooperspur]

sorry pressed wrong button

[zedd]

hi , i,ve also just recently bought a 1980 two tone devon which needs plenty of welding , good luck with yours & keep the pics coming

[sooperspur]

ok, so after much pushing and pulling, jiggery and pokery, we finally got the engine back in place
managed to lay my hands on a pallet truck which was incredibly useful in this operation.





only now i have a problem with the carb setup. problem placed in the mechanical forum could certainly do with a hand

thanks

ian

[sooperspur]

So been off grid for a while.

managed to find rogue sd card so here are a few pics, some go back a few steps in the process.

engine pics








and some stripped out interior pics









why weld in a new floor and at least not primer the result? fortunately it was just surface rust and underneath was ok. a leaking windscreen i reckon.





so now it was time to set about the inside. retrimmed the side panels, the panels around the roofline and the pop top. what a job that was! hot as hell up there and the fumes from the spray glue, we were flying by the time we finished!! but well pleased with the result.









i set about refurbing the back of the original unit in some nice sturdy 12mm wbp ply. i worked out all the measurements, give or take a few mm the depth was the same as a 8x4 sheet cut into 3 lengthwise. and then worked out all the cuts from there. took the list to B & Q and they cut it all to size for me at no cost. i think it is up to 15 cuts for free, but certainly more than i required











and mel set about the soft furnishings








and the original dodgy flotex floor replaced by a new dodgy flotex floor!! offcut found in local carpet store along with the panel trim carpet.





all in all i think it has all come together reasonably well.

having fitted the carbs i had bought on ebay she started first turn of the key and seemed to run pretty well spot on straight off.

the mot was duly booked in and off we went to the station. i have to say the young tester who looked at her was very very thorough indeed and spent well over an hour on the test mainly with his little hammer in hand. unfortunately poor doris failed. there was a small amount of welding that i had missed and a top balljoint that needed repacing along with some new wipers and a headlamp realignment. i did the welding and supplied them with the balljoint from heritage and the retest was a formality. so pleased!!

we now had a problem, at this point we are a matter of days away from our holiday. do we bite the bullet and take doris or the zafira as planned? there would still be a few things to do before we could consider taking her decisions decisions .............................................to be continued........................................


ian