1970 DORMOBILE - COMPLETE RESTO - IT PASSED :)

[pinheaduk]

forgot to mention as you can just see from the above pic the rear, part of the axle chassis area is in place, will take pic from underside tomorrow

ta taaa for now

 

[pinheaduk]

ok well its been a while since i had the chance to even look at my bay due to renovating a flat and helping parents with loft conversion, but with my extra spendies i bought myself a plasma cutter

god i love my toys

so when this arrives in can finally get on with finishing the chassis and the front work as bought all the panels needed from volksworld plus a few little extras for my engine project. the target is going to be hopefully fingers crossed plymouth volksfest but who knows

if not that then bvf or bugjam hehe

 

[pinheaduk]

its getting worse, typical, the upper and lower aposts are shot beyond belief, dont know whether to repair replace, or what, at the moment tempted to crush the darn thing [i didnt say that ] its driving me mental, just cant get a rhythm going with the repairs, you think your getting somewhere then wallah you aint

 

[pinheaduk]

WOW ALERT ALERT i finally managed after weeks of flat renovation to get a days work in on the van and i have piccies

first off my plasma, i recommend these to anyone and everyone, god they make cutting steel easy and very fast.

today i repaired the apost as it has definately seen better days

i then tacked the dogleg on temporarily to see how it fit against the post and not a bad fit, have to fiddle to get the lower step higher up but other than that not too bad

whislt i was in the area i rewelded on the front chassis leg after repairing it not a nice job lying under the van trying to weld in nooks and crannies

also i have welded up the rest of the chassis arms and fit the strengthening steel, the triangular shape [will take pics tomorrow forgot]

 

[pinheaduk]

sick of lying on a cold floor all morning, i decided to line up and fit the upper inner windscreen repair panel, and not having one to work from beinging none existant i had to use the front panel as a sort of guide and a friends van for a few guestimates

you can just see both panels held in place with clamps

tried to get the line up as close as possible before i put a few tacks on to get the inner in place

once i was happy i removed the front panel and welded the inner in place

the holes at the side will be patched with thicker guage steel to restrengthen the pillars.


to be honest ill be glad when the front chassis and the panels are back on as when the door opens i get at least a inch drop in the door line and the whole front of the bus drops, so i am not going to take the doors off until i get to fitting the front panel round the pillars then there going straight back on to try and keep the van straight.

 

[pinheaduk]

heres the finished chassis on the n/s, once the welds have been ground back, sealed and painted it will look lovely

 

[Guest]

wow a plasma cutter? was it pricey?

nice work so far 8)

 

[easy]

Good work that man! 8)

I love the smell of a plasma cutter in the morning :wink:

 

[pinheaduk]

cheers dudes,

johhny the plasma cutter inc postage from germany hehe cost me £154 [134 + 20 postage] was an ebay auction that ended mid afternoon, the evening auctions all went between 180-200 so i was very lucky indeed

and i nearly took my finger off today with it, hehe it just felt my finger go warm to mega hot in an instant hehe, good thing i had a drink with me to dip my finger in

also today i managed a trip oop the road and picked up a decent beam at a very reasonable price and its not rusty hehe, has been cut turned, but done quite well so adding adjusters will be simple.

Its a disk beam so i might swap the spindles or get hold of some calipers etc and get some 112 to 205 adapters not decided yet

 

[71Dormobile]

Fantastic work keep it coming, must have spent many hours on this one.....

 

[gninnam]

Wow - a plasma cutter - is it good at catching ghosts................

Doing a grand job :wink:

 

[pinheaduk]

terrible week

everytime i go to the garage to work on the bus i end up loosing focus on what im doing and giving up, an going home to gta IV.

wouldnt mind but dont feel like im getting anywhere, its driving me nuts. just want this one finished then i can get another one, which hopefully will ne nowhere near as bad as this one, well chassis wise anyways

 

[T2-Nate]

Well, all I can say is that you must really have big balls for starting on this project.
Might it be worse than Tofufi's bus?
Anyways, I think now you've come so far the only thing you can do is KEEP GOIN' !!
As for feeling a bit down, I know I've been there too - I sometimes catch myself just sitting down and already
start dreaming of finally driving this baby up to Portugal or something, instead of actually doing somethin constructive.
I've learned (they also teach you this at bodywork-school or what's it called) too literally think in boxes when starting a big project, work it piece by piece and try not to get distracted.

Good luck! :mrgreen:

 

[pinheaduk]

Well, all I can say is that you must really have big balls for starting on this project.
Might it be worse than Tofufi's bus?
Anyways, I think now you've come so far the only thing you can do is KEEP GOIN' !!
As for feeling a bit down, I know I've been there too - I sometimes catch myself just sitting down and already
start dreaming of finally driving this baby up to Portugal or something, instead of actually doing somethin constructive.
I've learned (they also teach you this at bodywork-school or what's it called) too literally think in boxes when starting a big project, work it piece by piece and try not to get distracted.

Good luck! :mrgreen:

cheers dude,

tofufi's bus i have been watching since it started and i would say these two buses were both in a terrible state, some areas on his were bad and vice versa, i just think mine just pips it chassis rot wise and bodge jobs, as there the ones which make a resto harder having to go over some tossers crap repairs hehe

I just hope i can get mine upto a good standard before the season is out, just wasnt expecting this much work for a bus with an mot lol
but ill be glad when i can take it to a show and park it in the earlybay camping area and let ppl have a good nosey

 

[T2-Nate]

Same here fella, one day we'll all have a few beers over this and laugh out loud 8)

 

[pinheaduk]

oh god do i hope so

 

[gninnam]

Pinheaduk - you've done some cracking work so far mate. like T2-Nate said, keep going
and it will end in a usable van, which you have the pleasure of telling everyone that you
built it

 

[pinheaduk]

typical, the job i thought would take ages and didnt like the look of, was wayyyyy easier than i thought

the o/s chassis rot

to start i cut the rest of the dogleg and wheel tub out so i could access the area better

and found this, shes very niceeeeeeeeeee

anyways this is what it looks like closeup ewwwwww

took the pedals out and was impressed that they used a hinge from a shed dorr or summet

i then cut out the first arm which was in worse condition that i thought

 

[pinheaduk]

then i measured up the chassis replacement i got and cut the rest of the rot out ready for the replacement to be offered up

to make life easier because my old beam was rotten as hell i cut the end plate off and used that as a template so to speak to get all the bolt holes in the correct area

this is the front and rear showing the replacement chassis in situ

 

[pinheaduk]

once happy i welded the chassis back together and also welded back on the throttle arm thingy

i then stuck in my new beam just to make sure everything was okie dokies

more to come

well happy with today after spending three days clearing out the garage of crap so i could move and getting a new tool chest i have room to move and made the job much easier as when i first saw that area i was dreading it