Page 1 of 1

can someone please remind me...

Posted: 06 Apr 2006, 01:18
by amulet
next time I want to take my van swimming to do it in a nice clean river rather than a silt filled, clay lump, swampy, stinking bloody mud hole!

Image

Image

Image

and this was me tonight - three days after the event!!

Image

Image


i think the repair and cleanup operation is going to run into the summer at the rate I'm going...

also, a very large 'thanks' goes out to all who put the effort in to make it a very worthwhile event. Good to meet everyone and have a bit of a larf as well.


cheers,

andrew

Posted: 06 Apr 2006, 05:42
by matt
Class
hope you had them wellies on at the time

flip flops would have been kinda cold

Posted: 06 Apr 2006, 06:03
by Cate
Cos, Andy, it was good fun, and the grin on your face as we charged into that hole said it all, watching the water rise in the footwell was erm.... interesting, but its the grin factor that counts! :D :D :D

I suppose you could always take it through a nice clean river now to wash out all the mud?

Posted: 06 Apr 2006, 07:56
by Diamond Hell
Wot you need is a twin slider, mate - water comes in, water goes out.

And to think, with only a 'small' extra expenditure your van could be just like Russel's....

Posted: 06 Apr 2006, 08:04
by syncroand101
SO when are you patenting the built in camper spirit levels?

Image

Posted: 06 Apr 2006, 08:34
by Russel
Dont wory Andrew my interiour is now up and down the work shop drying.
Unfortunatly it will be parked up for a few weeks before i can get back to sorting it but hey it was fun!

Posted: 06 Apr 2006, 10:32
by HarryMann
Get those bungs out and the hose in those sills and box sections Andy, goodness knows what will wash out, and then put it up on a seesaw... :roll:

Let's pray for some warm drying weather, though hasn't been bad down here last few days

Posted: 06 Apr 2006, 11:36
by Cate
I've told a couple of people about their bungs, the secret ones under the paintwork, they hadn't seen them, can't remember who it was now. A whole load of cak came out of the doka's drain holes.

Posted: 06 Apr 2006, 13:23
by amulet
- one of my mates who I work with (from Northen Ireland) reckons the inside of my van looked like a 'dirty protest' from back in the bad old days of the maze prison!! - very amusing!!

Posted: 06 Apr 2006, 13:56
by amulet
Cate, you're right the grin factor was superb - although I knew we were forked just before we went in but couldn't back out by that point! Bull bars saved the front of the van but I think they somewhat inhibited the progress too...

Thomas - water in, water out with twin sliders would be a great idea - no water in the first place might be a better one! A LITTLE expense to be like Russel's, apart from the front clearance mine allready sports the 'coney farm go faster stripes' (bloody trees), an engine bay full of gunk, and no end caps!!

Jake, syncro spirit level is 'patent pending' you have been warned - hands off - I know what you're like...

Russel - mate, my whole van needs stripping not just my interior! It's making noises and squeaks that only a Bay should make - the prognosis is not good. This is forming the main argument in the people verus Andrew case currently being presided over by Melaney to decide on whether the respray can be done now and not later!

Harry - can you post a picture of these said 'bungs' (you have to say that word in hushed tones in my industry) - would be very interested in flushing them out - probably why my fuel consumption is down - I'm carrying half of Worstershire around with me....

Cheers for now.



p.s. - Russel who did your posh signature? Very smart mate!!

Posted: 06 Apr 2006, 15:54
by Cate
Shhhhhh, bungs at bottom of B pillars, behind the cab doors, keep looking along those sills for any more, anywhere, take them out, leave them out to let the whole thig drain and dry.

Posted: 06 Apr 2006, 16:02
by amulet
okay no worries, will go looking tonight.

cate, what is your sig from? Clarion what?

Posted: 06 Apr 2006, 16:16
by syncroand101

Posted: 06 Apr 2006, 17:28
by amulet
fair enough - i'll go and get me magic 'shrooms...

Posted: 07 Apr 2006, 01:28
by HarryMann
Andy,

If you want to wash out any accrued mud, silt and what have you, it really needs to be dried out quite well afterwards, not sure what facilities you have there, but I find a hot-air gun, on low setting is handy (careful of any hsoes running through rear cross-member), partic befoe painting or injecting sections with your fav stuff.

After wading in anything but clear water, I expect some of your cross members might have silted up a bit, as Thomas found here:

http://www.BusGoofs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=312

You can get into either end of this beam just under the rear trailing arm pivots and wash or rake stuff out, but hoses and some wires may run through this both sides. There are bungs accessed from the rear of this member, two each side normally, quite large. I'd have a lickle rake around from the side with a bit of fencing wire bent over at the end into a 1" 'U' - never trapped one irrecoverably yet! You might be surprised you're still raking stuff out an hour later :)

Then the two fronts, the rounded rectangular bash plate support beam and the big round sub-frame tube behind it, though they are thick and shouldn't usually corrod badly, but worth a look, partic if you want to always be able to get the rear bash-plate screws out!

Then the sills, as Cate says, have two plugs on their outer faces below the pillars, small round ones, at least two of those oval ones in the floor going down into the sill, amazing what you find down there, but can be difficult to get back in.
Large round ones on the inside faces of the sills underneath, at least two and then the really useful ones, 3 (on a Doka) different ones each side facing forward just above the radius arm pivot inside the wheel arch. These are good for raking the different box sections above the sill as well as the sill itself, or washing through.
The rear chassis longerons usually have an assortment on the inside faces, and one on the outside and a natural drain hole where it changes section and drops down to the rear cross member. And with the bumper and tow-bar removed, a 3' 6" fencing wire poker can achieve a lot from a rear entry:wink:

I prefer to dry scrape and vacuum (using a hose about the size of the brake vacuum hose to get right in there, angle off the open end else rust flakes soon block it off, need v. powerful wet/dry drum vacuum) before a paint or wax treatment, but this is not a 5 minute job on any of the sections :roll:

Whether you scrape/vacuum or hose them out once a year, it'll probbaly save a full sill or welding job after staying wet with mud for 4 or 5 years from what I've seen.. look what Thomas had to deal with. Until you run a flat scraper along a major section, removing underseal and paint you have no idea whether the thing has any real integrity left...

Sending you the odd piccy,a s I can't find the link to old ezboard pics..