1972 Crossover Dormobile - Full Restoration Work In Progress

[Haveacamper]

well stripping back to bare metal started around the cab chassis area and anything that looked slightly dubious was exposed. the first bit of patch work that was previously disguised by the beam assembly, road shit and waxoyl was this snobbling bit of welding. although not looking the prettiest it is by far not the worst section of metal to be found on this bus.

a bit of attention towards the gussetting was next, by the front chassis legs up to the front panels. one side was worst that the other and could be saved.

well say saved... may be able to grind the excess weld off and it will be solid enough.

i started to grind the weld flat, hoping that the person who welded it had had the correct amount of penetration. however, close inspection you can see the line of the two bits of metal butting up. this may need to be addressed later...

at closer inspection of the outer drivers side chassis leg (the one with the rust hole near front panel in pevios post) justified that it needed to be replaced before i even contemplated putting a new floor in.

before

so there and then i took advantage of my dad's 30 yrs of welding and fabrication experience and held the camera while he set about removing it

and before i knew it....

...it was no more

this can now used to make a nice template in the same shape as the existing chassis leg as a straight replacement.

with removed we couldnt do much else until the member had been manufactured so we went about seeing how well my new floor pan fitted. ha ha ha. the chap i spoke to at C&C told me slight mods were required for the step and changing over of the LDH-RHD stuff. he didnt tell me that is doesnt fit. the handbrake pivot on a late floor pan is situated inside the cab rather than under the floor which means the bracketry to hold the pin is also in the cab.

I have to therefore decide whether to go with late bay arrangement of early. after closer inspection of the replacvement pan i am slanting towards the idea of keeping the existing arrangement because the whole braket assembly looks alot more heavy duty (plus looks a bitch to get off lol).

well next on the agenda is obviously to get the chassis leg made and then fit it. also i need to get the hole for the heat riser cut into the floor, which will allow me to get a better idea as to how badly/well the floor fits. if i remember correctly schofield does a panel for the front inner wheel arch which i may need to replace on passengers side (poss whole section) so unsure whether i need to fit this before fitting floor??? anyone?

 

[Trikky2]

Cor - I wish i had a dad like yours - handy bit of kit to have in any workshop - lol

 

[Guest]

its good to see where it can go wrong and how someone else fixes it. What your doing will probably help someone else on the same job later. keep up the good work 8)

I wish i had a dad like yours, mine has 40+ years experience of fabrication, welding and cars, but he point blank refuses to pick up a mig or grinder :lol:

 

[Haveacamper]

hehe, he's always wanted a project like this. admittedly not a vw camper, but still a resto project

 

[Haveacamper]

well after much deliberation i finally decided to start work on the front panel. i rejected the thought of removing the whole outer skin. instead i decided that i will remove the bottom part to expose the panels below the indicators. this will also allow me to then replace these (if necessary) and also fix up the A frame pillars. so here was the progress tonight. after attacking below the lip, to siomply expose the rusty bits i set about peeling the section back:

i think i better order the two inner panels as well as the new outer skin!

 

[Alzy]

Top work there indeed!!! I also had aproblem replacing my floor!! I gave up trying to remove the pivot pin for the handbrake so cut round it. And my floor didnt fit either so made 2 repair panels out of it instead!! :roll:

Looking good though, keep it up 8)

 

[Haveacamper]

well i only managed half day today and without the aid of my dad and Loxy I plodded on. my aim of today was to cut the outer skin a little higher so i could take the two channels at the bottom becasue it was obvious that they needed replacing. also, i'd then be able to see how bad the end of my chassis legs were.

not entirely sure what this piece of metal was meant to be doing. it was the only decent bit and was just stadning on its own inbetweeen the skins. maybe its a foreskin

once i had zipped the outerskin a little higher i literally peeled the middle skin away. it was only spot welded in a few places, and the bottom half was pretty non-existant. so this is wat i was faced with removing. who would have thought that i'd be faced with doing this part before the resto started. i no i didnt

as donkey says in shrek 1 "i suppose its another one of those layers things again" the half decent metal is what you can see from under the van, which made me think that this bit was initially ok

the other side also had patches, which i knew about, but thought it was done to a decent standard (i.e. shitty metal cut out first)

because it was such a mild dry day outside i decided to open the rikity barn door and get some air into the barn and shine some real light onto what i was trying to do. also, this would help to dry out the floor which had got bit wet over the last week with all the bad weather.

this is just to show the inner most skin and how much its been patched over the years. some patches better than others, but due to the state of the original metal that has been left there, its all going to be cut out

this is with the inner most skin removed. i decided to cut around the end of the chassis rails because there is bracketry as well as the bumper mounting plates.

before cutting the driverside out i made a mark where the new chassis rail will be going. i already have the chassis rail to replace the one i cut out, but wanted to check the rest before i put the new one in. i think the two inner ones (raiils with bumper mounts) are ok, but think the outer passenger one needs to be replaced (partially or fully)

another dodgy looking plate. looked good when lightly covered in waxoyl. but from this side doesnt look too proffesional

 

[Loxy]

Whos been a busy beaver today :lol:
will have a look in the flesh(rot?) tomorrow....
Got your ultra vws with the engnie build for you to collect as well 8)

 

[Trikky2]

Sorry to see you found more bits that need replacing.

It always amazes me how often so called "repairs" are just a bit of metal tacked over the rust with no effort made to remove the rust or protect the area against further corrosion. There are so many good and easy to use (if a little messy) rust preventers like Dinitrol on the market - i just dont understand the mentality.

Anyway - Well done there - its going to be so good when your done.

 

[Haveacamper]

starting to lose my patience with finding shitty bits. i've managed to laugh it off until now but its starting to get me down.

i decided that this evening i'd start approaching other potentially bad areas so i can put a big order of panels in and save a few £'s on postage. after tonight i'm in the mood to sell the shell and save ££££'s

i started by sanding down to bare "metal and seeing the quality of metal around the bottom of the windscreen. it went from bad to worse..

trying to see where the rot finishes. somewhere near the lower inner panel...

if that wasnt enough for me, i decided to proceed with sanding up the A-piller on the drivers side, which kinda knew was bit dodgy. i think this really pushed me over the edge....

loxy trying to rub it in ...

me trying to stay positive and play along...

carrying on following the rust attention, well loxy's attention (mine had long gone) continued up above the door back towards the B piller.....

 

[Trikky2]

Oh dear! Restorations can get to you a bit like that. You allways find more than you thought and go through a discouraged stage though - its perfectly normal to feel like that at times I think. I know i did.

When it gets like that its best to stop and take a break from it and come back feeling fresh the next day or day after.

I clearly remember, when i rebuilt an E Type some years ago that there were a few times when i lay under the thing in tears, as i found more and more stuff that was rotten but couldn't give up because i had already invested so much in it.

Dont worry though, it will get better - your at the worst stage at the moment but as the repairs progress and the new panels start going on then all the enthusiasm and satisfaction will come back

I think all people who do a restoration experience this stage your in at the moment but dont worry, it really does get better.

Take a break, take your time, dont give up - you wont regret it in the end.

Chin up

 

[andewilson]

hi mate before you spend the earth on new panels give the guys at fbi a ring. one of the guys on here bought a complete front panel including windscreen area. i know that kinda swap sounds huge but, bottem inner/outer panels windscreen bubble a pillar repairs etc. panels alone cost quite a bit and fit like poo. good luck im at the same sort of stage and its not fun.

 

[Guest]

:lol: good ole loxy :lol:

looks like you need that full frontal from FBI, probably a better fit and less hassle in the longrun.

 

[Haveacamper]

what full frontal?

 

[Loxy]

what full frontal?

If we can find a suitable female model I can provide my usual lighting skills.....
I can see the magazine article now "Rust or Bust?" :lol:

 

[VWAIRCOOLED]

Go for it,change the front panel,you can't stop now,you're doing so well!

 

[Haveacamper]

Go for it,change the front panel,you can't stop now,you're doing so well!

had a word with fbi and they arnt shopping until feb and will be lead time of 6wks on top of that. gddaykombis are away until feb too (going by their answerfone message. i've sent an email though so will have to go from there. i think there is alot more sanding before i buy anything like you said.

Cheers for the email

NaFe

 

[VWAIRCOOLED]

Try volksheaven and karmann konnection too,they've had front clips before,although not when I was looking for one.

 

[Haveacamper]

well this evening was a bit of another "see how bad things are" nite.

first off however i'm pleased to be back on the optimistic side of life and taking shitty "repairs" lightly and not to heart. i'm pleased as punch that my camper took me around all of france and north of italy and rushed home for my new job to start without a single glitch. and now i'm simply paying my little MyVanwy back for it

well i arranged with Loxy that i;d be popping down once i had my dinner and he asked me to knock on him. however, when i turned up, admitedly a little later than anticipated i found the barn lights on and the cheeky bugger.....

we'd discussed that we would take the roof off MY van. so much enthusiasm!! i was glad he'd started though before we knew it the roof was off...

and it was time for me to put my feet up and rest for a while....

surprising how scary it was when the roof isnt there. this little bunk was my bed for 4wks while i travelled around france with my uni mate. then it broke hehe. another reason why i was a little scared.

so attention moved to the panel opposite the sliding door, which was full of ripples and i already knew had had some patch work (on the dodgy side) previously. i knew this by what i found when i remove my dormobile interior. so i got the sanding disc out and checked out the B pillar and moved backwards. before long i had realised that i;d need a bigger disc.... the snow had hit the littel village of Gilwern earlier than forecasted.....

it was time for the chisel and with the slight use of the disc cutter for spot welds i discovered...

rather then only using the required sections of the repair panel someone decided that it would be best to lap the old and new and filler the contours. this means that if this panel is worth saving then i will need an even bigger reapir panel now cos the same size one wont be any use.

attention moved up to the swadge area of this panel to see if this panel was worth saving. an area of concern had been outlined and a bit of investigation undercovered the expected...

and then...

that was enough excitement for one day. i needed a coffee and a nights sleep to digest my findings

 

[Trikky2]

Wow thats a lot of overlap they used on that bottom repair plate! Looks like your well rid of that potential rust trap.

I'm surprised you managed to sleep in the folding bunk beds of the Dormobile. I tried mine a couple of times (when I still had them) but kept waking up in the night because in my sleep I would lay on my side and then the metal bars would start to hurt my legs - lol.

It must be great to have the help of a fellow enthusiast (Loxy)

Nice thread - looking foreward to your next installment.