Full bare metal Dormobile restoration

Hello guys,

We have another full restoration on the go at work, this time an Early Bay so will update progress on here incase you guys are interested.

As it came to us:


I love this van, has had its fair share of poor repairs over the years, but it don't seem too bad.

Some of the bad bits...
Loads of 'MOT patches', most of which have rotted through, such as:


Theres A LOT of filler in this van. I'm not too sure how anyone could repair the B post this bad?:


Anyway... We made a start stripping it down ready to go for blasting:


Found a few bad areas, such as the rear drivers side window frame:


And the seatbelt mounts pretty much fell apart:


Then we got it onto the castors / roller ready for blasting. Still need to get the dash and electrics etc out:


Thats pretty much where we are at the moment, should be going for blasting next week

Cheers

8)

Signed up 8)

I would like this done to my bus and then put back together for me. Nice job, will follow with interest.

J & P

Got the van back from the blasters in a coat of epoxy primer - Its pretty bad.

Before blasting we cut out the front panel, cab floor and some other sections of bodywork that we knew needed replacing so the blaster could get into the inner panels and box sections.

We have loads of pics of the rotten areas and previous repairs, but here's a few of the front section. This one shows how much filler was on top of a repair panel that was tacked over the top of the rotten original... Also shows the 'quality' of the previous repairs:



The complete front of the van is rotten. We knew the front panel needed replacing, but the A posts were worse than we thought:


The front chassis rails have had some pretty awful repairs:




Pretty much the whole front end back to the B post is bad, so we decided to replace the whole section with a rust free cut.

We braced the front of the van up with some reference points ready for the new panel, and ended up with this:


Been trying to source a good cut. Missed out on one that we thought was ours, but never mind, the search continues

More as we progress

WOW there is not much left! :mrgreen:

Great to see another van being saved

Wow
That's a big job!!!!

Taypic on here has a early bay front end for sale!!!!

I will watch this with interest same issued I had which had to go to a pro. Keep the pics flowing

Looking at the first picture it looks like it doesn't need a resto, but it just goes to show that looks can be deceiving. poor thing

Glad to see it's being saved though! Will keep an eye on the progress!

Cheers for the comments guys. Yeah, it didnt look too bad before considering... Got some more done on it over the last couple of weeks

I sorted the front panel from Taypic, cheers for the heads up Lee C. While I was waiting for that to arrive I made a start on cutting some of the other rot out:


We got it on the roller to make getting the rest out a bit easier:


Got bored of cutting, so made a few smaller repairs:



Then this turned up:


I will get the sills and chassis repairs done, then make a start on the front panel

No worries
He must have forgotten to slip me my 4 pack of beers, again :roll:

Just a 4 pack? :lol:

4 pack better than oke: ??

Got quite a bit of welding done, here goes...

Started with the middle sill on the sliding door side. Kept as much of the original runner section as possible as the shape is loads better than the repro panels:


Lining everything up before the inner sills were welded in place:


Once happy, the inner sills were fitted:



The top hats, cross members and outriggers were up next. The repair panels for these have a lip on the bottom that sits on top of the top hat/outrigger. As this is not how they came from the factory I made repair sections because I want to spot weld it to the top hat to look factory.

All mocked up:


Repair welded in, and ground down:


Got the top hat welded in place:


I measured the factory spot welds on the closing panel to top hat before I cut it out, roughly 3cm... so I marked it up and got the spot welder out. Also stitch welded the middle section to replicate the factory welds:


Lining everything up before welding:


Front cross member in:


You can see the weld on the top hat. This one is shorter than the others so the panel needed cutting down and welding back up:


Then spot welded the outriggers and jacking points in place. Really pleased with how this came out:


Same on the drivers side, but I haven't welded the outrigger in yet because I need to make a repair to the chassis:


While I was waiting for the front chassis rail repair panel, and the inner B post panels to arrive from Schofields I started repairing the chassis rear chassis rails ready to do the same on the back.

The drivers side rear chassis rail needed a section replacing. I cut all the rot out, leaving the inner strengthener and the support from the top hat in place:


Repair welded in:


The passenger side chassis rail was pretty rough around where the outrigger is welded, so I cut out all the rot:


You can see its pretty rough in there, so I took the handbrake cable tube out to get to it all properly:


Repair section welded in (I also replaced the two rear top hats that you can see in this pic):


Thats it for now...

Nice welds (easier when you can rotate the van I suppose) 8)

Coming on nicely.

Nice work

Lots done since the last update... here goes...

Got most the welding done around the cargo floor section. All the outriggers and jacking points are welded in, cross members replaced, chassis sections repaired, top hats replaced, sills replaced... etc etc

Rear outriggers fitted with the handbrake tube fitted properly. Iv seen loads of vans with the hole cut so the outrigger can be fitted without removing the tube which bugs me:


Spot welding them to the top hat supports:


Looks pretty good from underneath now the rot has all gone:


From the top:


The B post area from the factory is 3 layers thick and most people seem to replace the 3 layers with a single plate when its rotten because its a bit of faff to replace properly, but I'm repairing it to be how it came from the factory.

Got the rotten inner and outer B posts cut out, then trimmed down the replacement inner B post and spot welded in position. The inner section was solid other than one section at the bottom needing to be repaired:


The outer B post was tacked in place to check everything fitted as it should:


Once I was happy everything fitted as it should, the closing panel was made, and spot welded in place, using plenty of weld through primer:


When we have sourced a front arch cut, we will line everything up before final welding.

We moved on to the drivers side rear tub repairs. The Rear arch requires replacement, so we removed some of this to allow easier access to the tub:


Trial fit of Autocraft rear arch, and tub repair panel to check the fit:


Once happy the repair section was trimmed down to side and held in place ready for welding:



Welded in place:


And the tub lip was repaired. Gave it a coat of weld through ready for spot welding to the arch:


The rear tub repair lines up nice with the arch:


I wanted to get everything lined up nice before I welded anything in place so I spent quite a lot of time lining up the rear arch and side panel.

First I got the rear arch in the right place, then made a start taking the side panel off:


A bit of weld through primer, then I spot welded the outer sill to the side panel before the panel was fitted so it could be welded like it was from the factory:


Got the arch held in place with panel pins and clamps in the right place:


Then got the side panel trimmed and fitted in place. Took a lot longer than I expected:



Quite pleased with how it all lines up

Great work! Just a quick question - when you spot welded the side panel to the outer sill what kind of arms did you use on your spot welder? I have this same job to do soon but can't get the arms in to get to the combined "flange" of the two panels.

Wow nice work, you have the patience of a saint!


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