MBCamper's Restoration

[bluebus1987]

well im pleased with the way you did the rear arch , nice to see you have followed the method and now you have a neat tight seam. wish more would do it this way including some so called pro firms,never mind welding in the seam outside.
also i bet you found the arch held itself in place nicely and it was a doddle to puddle weld through the holes you made in removal.
get a tin of teamac high zinc, about £12 and it will do all your van. then when dry use brush on seam sealer, even halfwits supply a reasonable one for about £15
mm

I was reading through this again because I remembered the reference to teamac high zinc. I've found ads for lots of teamac products but not one for high zinc specificaly.
I have a big tin of galvfrois, is this a similar product? only problem is that you cant use galvfrois over phosforic acid treated metal. I know to my cost because I used it on some of the seam rust before and it failed.

[mbcamper]

Bluebus,

I used a product called David's Zinc 182. I've used it on another classic car restoration a few years ago and I've not seen any issues, but the trick is to apply it to clean metal...

Mark

[mbcamper]

Okay, I've been making slow progress... a 9" angle grinder as suggested was essential for reaching into the front panel, so I'm pleased to report the front is now complete:



So moving around to the passenger side front wing there were a couple of repairs needed.




So after welding and initial grinding, I finished off the panel with a flapper disk as advised in an earlier post (a good tip )



So moving around the van to the next area to be repaired I've cut away the rear wing.



I'll be applying the MM seam separation technique I used on the other side (works very well), but I've got some other repairs to do as well:

[Oldjets]

Good work MB. Very impressed with the roof repair - that seems to be a fault with Autosleeper conversions (I've got one too). Most would have given up on the van as soon as they found that much rust, but with a a good paint finish and sealing seams all round, this one should last for years. Look forward to next instalment!

Oldjets

[mbcamper]

Weld weld weld... but it's getting there. The other rear wing is now in place; took lots of effort to get it to fit nicely with good gaps. Reproduction wings are a bit hit and miss. The other side was fine, but the passenger side was a pain to get it right...

The rear panel under the bumper needed a patch:




So I'm now onto the rear roof section which is slow going:



I'm having to work my way along a bit at a time to make sure I keep the profile correct.



Cut a bit out, make a template, make a patch weld it in place, cut a bit more out, make a template...



Tedious, but once I've made my along the rear of the roof, I'm about done with welding

[boatbuilder]

When you look at photos like that, it looks quick and easy, but that's really many many hours of work!
Just make sure that the repairs are either at or slightly below the correct level because if the repair is too high, its a real pain trying to do the filler work later.

[mbcamper]

It's taken ages, but the welding is complete and I've been spending the last couple of weeks preparing for paint.

This job is tedious, but I'm getting there:



I've even started to apply paint - one coat on the front panel so far:



I'm applying it with a brush using traditional coach painting techniques using Rustoleum paint. It's still going to need some polishing to really make it shine, but I'm pleased with the results so far.

[Superal]

Love the colour looking good so far

[mbcamper]

As we ended up having a late warm spell in the weather a few weeks ago I managed to get the painting finished - it's looking good and I want to get going with reassembling the van now that the paint has had a while to cure.

So I'm starting to look at refitting the side windows...and have just had to walk away from it before I break something

I'm using this rubber to put them back:



I've tried various methods including:

- Trying to fit the rubber to the glass; which is no good as it simply drops off.
- Fitting the rubber to the van and then putting the glass in; however you can't get the rubber strip in.
- Fitting the rubber to the glass with the strip in place; it still keeps on dropping off before you can do anything.

I will not be defeated, but I'm seeking some advice on the easiest technique to fit the windows.

Thanks

Mark

[boatbuilder]

You need a special tool to fit the rubber strip

[mbcamper]

Been hunting around to see what exists. Do you mean something like this?

http://www.justkampers.com/diamond-laci ... -trim.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Are there any resources around which shows you the technique.

Thanks

Mark

[Plasticman]

that will do , £5ver too dear though,
where you get the seals from.
assuming you have the correct seal then fit seal to van and retain with masking on inside.
fit glass into seal
fit insert into recess
mm

[mbcamper]

Got the seals from you so they should be the right ones...

I'll aquire the tool and try again. Thanks!

[Plasticman]

can loan you a better tool if you wish

[mbcamper]

I'll PM you about the tool. In the mean time I've been having more luck with other seals which are proving quite easy by comparison:



A length of cable to allow the rubber lip to be pulled over the metal work and a smear of washing up liquid around the edge of the seal makes it work. It's a 2 person job. One on the outside pushing and and one inside pulling the cable. Starting points for the cable were in the middle of the left and right hand sides. Got the bottom in first then worked along the top.

I've also been putting new seals in the doors. Gain it's quite easy, but you definitely need washing up liquid to allow the quarter light to ease in place. The seals however do need a slight modification to sort this:



So what's needed here? Do I just cut the felt strip which runs along the top and back of the window to be flush with the bottom felt seals? I don't think an overlap is going to be easy.