Club 80-90 Forums

Hello All,

Complete beginner here, who has just bought an old green camper from a neighbor. He upgraded to a Merc camper. The Van has been standing idle after new cyl head, exhaust etc....LHD 1.7D Luna conversion. It passed the Dutch version of MOT before I handed over cash. The neighbor just wanted back what he had paid to garage over last 12 months.

I have been digesting as much information from the various posts as possible regarding body work just to see if I am up to this challenge. To be honest I am a total beginner apart from a little stick welding at school 20 years ago. I really want to tackle this myself, however I am very worried that I am not up to it (others are laughing in my face also). As this as an introductory post I will simply post some pictures of the van and explain what I am going to try and tackle first.

1. Buy a welder
2. Buy a grinder - done
3. Buy disks fro the grinder
3. Buy some anti rust treatment for little spots of rust here and there.
4. Buy some Acid etch and epoxy primer
5. Buy some time



I've really fallen for the shape and the colour.


Probably lots of rust hidden under here.

Filler, fibreglass and rot


The worst part of the van and the bit that keeps me up at night!




People are actually telling me it's only worth scrapping because of the nasty rust on the N/S

I'll try and keep a log using this thread and update it when ever I get the chance.


pmoc

Hi, i've seen worse driving about. Thing is once you start delving in, you'll find more and more and the van could be off the road for a very long time.
Have a look at this thread https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=77768" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and this one
https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=84062" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
see what you are letting yourself in for

ps, i'll buy the double glazing if you want to claw some money back

Tackle one area at a time or else it will get overwhelming!

Hi welcome, Ive been beaten to the glazing...
I hope your really keen as I think that van is going to be an epic, look here as well
https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=68856" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and the fridge side didnt look that bad..
mike

Thanks for the positive comments. I'm going to start with O/S sills and body work first. Do you mean fridge side on a RHD. On my van which is LHD the fridge side is the worst due to a leaky heater inlet and outlet.

Yes, the panal opposite the slider, You will get all the help and encouragement from all on here, pickies we like and they do help to understand stuff I think looking at the picks that you will find its about as bad/good depends on point of view as mine was, doable but it would depennd on what money you have in it? may be worth breaking and buying one that needs less welding
mike

Anything is do-able and you will get all the help you need from here . Comes down to how much time you have and how long you are prepared to wait before you can use the van. Mine is no where near as bad as yours (sorry to be negative) and 1 year down the line Im still finding more rust to fix, but you will get there and once its done you can say you did it yourself .

Get stuck in you'll soon get used to spending all your time working on it .

loads of threads going at the moment on re-builds so you should be able to find any info you need pretty easily

James

The thing with this van is that the worst part is the fridge side the rest of the van looks to be OK. Even the foot steps don’t look too bad. Apart from a few rust spots here and there.

I t would be a great shame to scrap the VAN as it is has an MOT and I intend to go camping with it in the summer.
This means I need to start soon and work on part of the bus move on and work on another part and so on. The eventaul aim is to get a respray.

I have ordered myself a Gas / No Gas MIG welder and will order an outer sill this weekend also.

My first major job is to cut away some of the fridge side rot in order to see the scale of the problem. Meanwhile I will sand down some rust bubbles and treat.

Have you taken the units out from the fridge side yet? I would do that first then you will no doubt see what its like before chopping it out and might save some time
and post a pick of the internals as well
mike

He upgraded to a Merc camper

That, my friend, is one opinion...

Love the colour and the graphic. Scrapping this would be like throwing a brick through a stainglass window. Restore it and love it.

Nice joke about 'upgrading to a merc' by the way.

Good to see another one being saved.
Keep us posted on your work, buying a MIG welder will be a worth while investment. Also let your missus or gf know you won't be seeing her much for 3 years!

Dont scrap it! What you need, apart from your obvious enthusiasm, is determination, mate!

If it were me, I'd decide first just how far I want to take the complete van, i.e a full no-holds-barred-restoration of the bodywork, or just a bit at a time - the latter might be better if you've no experience of this sort of repair work. And of course, seeing as you've an MOT and want to go camping this summer, doing the job in measured stages will be the best bet I reckon.

Just dont loose heart when you begin to cut away what looks to be a little bit of rust to then see it's way, way worse than it looked - and it will be - and you will be fine. There's plenty of folk here who will give you all the support and encouragement you will need in the coming weeks. See I'm being positive, some would have said months...

Good luck, and get more pics up as you progress with the job

Doug.

metalmick8y wrote:Have you taken the units out from the fridge side yet? I would do that first then you will no doubt see what its like before chopping it out and might save some time
and post a pick of the internals as well
mike

Not taken the fridge or units out yet as I'm saving this job for the weekend. Jet washed fridge side arches to find any hidden rust that would be causing the bubbles in the paint and gave this side of the van a good poke with a screwdriver front to back.

Remember I said the step wasn't that bad. Well this will need a patch or replacing whole.


Underside of fridge side step.


I noticed that the air intake was not connected properly and decided to investigate at the same time as the poke around. I noticed that the plastic vent was resting on foam. The jet wash removed the grime and this greeted me.

Different angle.

And again.


From inside the engine compartment/


The culprit. A lump of foam holding the air intake up. (now in the bin as I have fixed the intake). You can see the indentation from the air intake elbow.



Look at all the evil moisture it was slowly releasing into the metal.


It is clear to me that all this will need to be cut out.

Till next time


pmoc

pmoc, you got a name?
nice clear pickies them , as for your step well its typical (not too bad either) always the seam where this starts, I would be inclined to cut the middle out say an inch or so either side of the rusty seam and from the start or the upturns front and rear and let a bit in. take care on the drivers side as the throttle cable runs under here

The rear area is so very typical, Im doing exactly the same job on the hinklevagon, the foam dont help but its also water coming in from the airvents above. atke care when chopping here as it can get more and more!!

Yes you can wash and inspect but a lot of this rot originates from the inside and by the time you see signs of it ,well Im afraid it will be poorly ,
As its ticketed I would be inclined not to get too enthusiastic with the hammer, get some use out of it first , dont go poking the fridge side too much if at all, you wont fix it in a weekend, have yourself a look when you whip the fridge out and post it up, other than that your doing ok fella
mike