Re: 71 Ex-Danbury, the home straight.

Well i got myself a pretty little toy in september 2007, and when it came to its MOT in december decided that it could probably do with a little work, Iv had a thread up on a local vw club site since (outcast vw)day one, so ill just stick on some of the highlights.

Neptune blue, isnt it pretty...


The coldest night ever trying to get it to fit in the garage.


doesnt look too bad..... :lol:


closing panels (galv steel shelf bits) held in with silicone sealant and filler.........


so i decided to take it back and see what was what, STUPID IDEA!!!!
bit lumpy


some other bad repairs to undo


bit of reconstructive surgery


bit more


and more


Rainbow bus


aaaaaaaaaand more surgery


still more


more


old and new.... i think im missing a bit of the old


and again


oh i forgot, more surgery



unfortunately last november i moved house and i dont have a garage.... which means its been living in stepdads garage, so in a last ditch attempt to get it back to something usable iv booked her in for a full pro make over.
early september, so watch this space.

very nice mate,

i decided to spend a couple of hours tidying the garage today, since i need to be able to get to van bits when it gets sent off to be made driveable. the steering wheel was nicely bodged in place with a welding clamp and some spare cable (i appear to have mislaid a few important nuts and bolts).

so heres what it looks like atm.

I love running out of primer and resorting to whatevers kicking around.


tidying up some tools, it looks so much better than before, even without a door.


and i know i said i was tidying, but what i meant was moving the mess around


was going to have a bash at cleaning up my bumpers and welding the front into a 1 piece, and welding on the bumper irons for that 'no nuts' look :roll: but some idiot has lost all the bolts that hold it together and the back bumper has been extended at some point so the sides come almost all the way to the wheel arch, i noticed this before, but obviously forgot about it. WTF???? bloody early bumpers are a twat to find so im going to have to sort them out

looks good so far, arent you going to finish the welding yourself?

i would, but im loosing my garage soon, since the house has been sold, and i have nowhere to keep it where im living now. so with my limited free time, im left with no choice but to farm out the work. At least it means it will be done a bit quicker than if it were done by me.
there might be a chance of getting it on the road by its 40th birthday. (left the factory 10th december 1970)

Nice job so far 8) - sorry about losing the garage

ah, could be worse. i noticed your in leeds, if your ever at lotherton hall in the bus come drag me out of the house. my boss understands that work comes second to a perverse obsession with volkswagens. lol

right, since its going in, i can use my spare time finding nice bits i want. im planning to go for a slamwerks 4" linkpin beam, and some T2D drop spindles. iv been looking through all the pics and stuff from other people with similar setups. call me simple but obviously iv not had much time to do anything mechanical yet, and i cant seem to find any linkpin setups with the later close 5 wheels.


do i need to change to the earlier hubs?
just hoping it wont cost me quite as much, since im forking out a scarily large amount of money to get it back already.
i want to keep stock wheels so knowing whether im ok or neet to start hunting would be good.

any help would be great,

i think thats all for now. :roll:

gotta love it, the oven died the other day so i rang the landlord, and today a sparky arrived, the 10 minute job of changing an element lasten about an hour and a half because i found out he had a 72 bay, and now im getting some free bumper rubbers from his old EB oh, and the elements he had, didnt fit, so he will be back later this week with the new one. :lol: :lol:

right, back from cornwall. saw far more dubs on the way down and back up than during a whole week there. no offence to anyone here but these bloody southerners paint their EB's in mental colours. a bit of purple and yellow on the only eb i saw in cornwall, and a lovely green and pink one on the M1. oh and if you were driving towards the severn bridge last friday i appologise for taking a photo of you, nice van though.
nice eb on the M4



and a lovely splitty on actually on the severn bridge


and then my girlfriend got bored of taking photos and just told me to drive.

anyone who wants to fill in some imaginary blanks and create a photo album for the ideal cornish dub spotting holiday go for it!

good times, this time next week ill have some photos of my rust bucket on the back of a low loader on its way to a nice man's garage to be made roadworthy. woop woop

right, im trying to decide which colour to paint it when the time comes, iv got ideas, but there are too many nice vans on here swaying my oppinion, i want votes, cant say they will guarantee colour choice though... :lol:

im wanting og vw colours, available in December '70,
dunno whether to go for the deluxe style white over red, white over beige, the original neptune blue, or anything else really, all suggestions and ideas welcome.

i would only go the original colour neptune blue, its a great colour and a when i think of danburys i always think neptune blue for some reason.

With Johnny on the colour choice 8)

Would love to pop round to show the van off at Lotherton Hall (only a few minutes round the corner for me) but the van is still not driveable at the mo'.
Once it is, then I will pop round.

Gotta be blue, perfect colour for your bus

see if it was in anyway original inside id have gone straight for neptune blue, but its been so badly butchered over the years, with nothing left of the og interior, the tintop chopped out etc.. plus i had nightmares about stripping blue paint lol. the girlfriend wants it red and white, which i must say is tempting, but despite having nearly 3 years now to decide, im still lost lol.



and if dubscum gets involved, yes the wheels will be painted the same colour as the van. :lol:

ok, i really am bored today, nothing i can do with the van till its out of the garage, and no bits here to sort out iv been playing with JK's pretty crappy rip off of busselecta, heres the options:








the colours arent quite accurate, but i think i like red best. and everyone knows that red makes it go faster. lol.

I actually like the bottom one to be honest

any colour as long as you do the white roof 8)

Right oh chaps. tally ho what what and all that.
Headed over to the garage this morning, got here for about 10am and started tidying, had to tow the van out of the garage with my car and a belt as a tow rope because i had no space and my tow-rope is currently holding the gearbox off the floor.


got everything outside.


and after a lot of shit shifting i managed to excavate my engine


then the fun began, getting the bus on the freshly arrived trailer.






and hows this for a rolling shot? :roll:


and then i was bored, so i cracked out the welder and started making a bike rack for the back of the van out of bits of hammock stand i had left over from my old garden.


not a bad days work, the bloke who is working on the van has 3 nice splits in various states in the shop, one he is spraying was at guide coat stage, is it wrong that i thought it should just be laquered and kept like that? i dont have a pic of it but it looks awesome.