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flyingbusman
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My bus repair and begining of the resto!!!

As a few of you probably know my trusty '67 Bay was involved in a slight bump with an idiot pulling out in front of me on a busy road.

Anyway I thought I'd try and document its revival. Thinking of changing its name to Phoenix (out of the ashes and all that) its name at the moment is Toby which I don't like as it doesn't suit the van. To start with it is definitely not male.

Moving on, here are some pics of the damage done.

The damage consists of a battered front panel including lower inner valance, bent A pillar, buckled floor (fortunately being a very early one it doesn't have the extra chassis rails that they have from about 1970 onwards other wise I would have been in a lot more trouble with damage!!), completely wasted cab door and about a metric tonne of filler. Why there was this much I don't know I'd have to ask the previous owner!!

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'67 Bay all the way!!

August 1967 - Devon Caravette
November 1967 - 1200 Beetle
1968 - 1200 Beetle

15/Oct/2008, 10:22 pm

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flyingbusman
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Re: My bus repair and begining of the resto!!!

Took the bus over to the workshop in Horam on Tuesday and got straight on with hacking that busted front off!!

Now I knew the van had been fitted with a new front panel before I bought it but nothing could have prepared either Rob or myself for what we were to find. It would be an overstatement to say the the front panel had been 'tickled' with a welding torch. You could probably count the number of welds holding it on with your hands. In some places it was held on with mastic. The top edge of the panel which forms the bottom edge of the window wasn't attached, the join between the main panel and the conversion panel was actually properly joined together, the right and left edges literally unfolded from around the pillars, not even tacked on. The inner front valance had 4 "spot" (loose term) welds "holding" it on the inside and was joined to the chassis by about 5 or 6 more "spot" welds. Not a good turn out. But on the bright side it made taking it all apart a hell of a lot easier. These are the results

The new panels that were fitted prior to my owning it were ALREADY rotting through (They had only been on for 3 1/2 years max)
However on the plus side to all this negativity, what we found underneath was quite promising. I had originally thought the front was changed because the original one had rotted but all the usual panels that rot with this on the inside are still there and are in pretty good nick after being in the UK for 40 years!!
The most surprising panel is the inner panel that sits under the window, apart from two rust holes and an air chisel hole, its complete and very solid. This makes the repair job a lot easier.

The next jobs are:
Clean and paint all surface rusted areas that are now exposed
Repair lower inner lip
Prepare the reclaimed front pillar (that we just happened to have laying around) ready for grafting in.
Prepare the new front panel (i.e. remove the stupid embossed bit in the middle, and remove the lip around the bottom edge) then paint inside using original Neptune blue of the van.
Prepare the inner front valence by painting to try and seal the metal up
Then it can all go back together!! (If only it were that simple)

Decided to have a play and put the new front up to the void it will fill!! Ugly but it will look gorgeous when done!!

---
'67 Bay all the way!!

August 1967 - Devon Caravette
November 1967 - 1200 Beetle
1968 - 1200 Beetle

15/Oct/2008, 10:41 pm

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bobthebeetle
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Re: My bus repair and begining of the resto!!!

you'll have to keep us updated. I think toby's a lovely name ( don't you have a son called Toby lol) emoticon

17/Oct/2008, 11:55 am

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flyingbusman
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Re: My bus repair and begining of the resto!!!

Went to Brighton Breeze which was a very good and pretty big show this year and picked up a bargain for the continued work on the bus!!

bought these two beauties for my bus at the Breeze!!

---
'67 Bay all the way!!

August 1967 - Devon Caravette
November 1967 - 1200 Beetle
1968 - 1200 Beetle

19/Oct/2008, 1:45 am

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butty01
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Re: My bus repair and begining of the resto!!!

From the outside shots it dosent look that bad , but the inner ones make you realise how bad it is , sounds like it need a front doing properly anyway , so kind of blessing i guess ....

21/Oct/2008, 11:28 pm

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flyingbusman
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Re: My bus repair and begining of the resto!!!

Blessing yes!!!....'not that bad'?...more annoying than anything!It only looks bad from the inside because it just folded as there is no chassis rail there on the corner unlike the later models. This is the miricle because if this had been there it quite likely would have bent the whole chassis = write off!!:-(

But at least the work can be done properly now!!

---
'67 Bay all the way!!

August 1967 - Devon Caravette
November 1967 - 1200 Beetle
1968 - 1200 Beetle

22/Oct/2008, 7:30 am

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Beetleguy
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Re: My bus repair and begining of the resto!!!

C'mon get you finger out and put those other pictures up of the work you did the other day on it, slacker emoticon

31/Oct/2008, 9:43 am

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flyingbusman
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Re: My bus repair and begining of the resto!!!

Sorry for the slack updates been far too busy getting hold on new toys and pulling plaster of walls to update the thread.

Any way...Latest progress.

In order to get to the pillar, the dash had to come out, so it was swiftly removed. This was fairly easy the tricky bit comes around the dash clock console. Fortunately I put a new wiring loom in it 2 years ago so it is un molestered and everything still connects to where it should do. This should lead to easy replacement. Famous last words.

Anyway this is the van with the dash out.

While the dash is out I will bare metal it do a few repairs and repaint it. Also this means I can finally fit the correct dash front that I've had waiting to go in for ages.

The next job I decided to do was a bit of bare metalling to see how good the new pillar and arches are. And I was not surprised to find actual real metal under the paint rather than the chocolate you get on new panels. I havn't finished the arch yet but it looks a million time better than the rubbish already on the bus.

Arch:

Last edited by flyingbusman, 2/Nov/2008, 12:32 pm

---
'67 Bay all the way!!

August 1967 - Devon Caravette
November 1967 - 1200 Beetle
1968 - 1200 Beetle

1/Nov/2008, 6:11 pm

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flyingbusman
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Re: My bus repair and begining of the resto!!!

Next on the list was work out where to cut the old arch off. So set at it to get it back to bare metal to find the previous welds from when it had a new arch fitted. To get to this I had to carve my way through about an inch of filler. I found it was attached, surprisingly well but the b-pillar had been bent round and then filled out. I decided to cut the arch on the inside of the lip that holds the carpet to the wheel tub, as my new arch has this and the seat belt mount on it. My seatbelt mount has been repaired before so adding proper metal is always a bonus.

Normally people attach the arches on the inner side of the wheel arch to the under side of the van as per VW spec. This one wasn't and one the obvious cut marks had been made, it litterally fell off. This revealed some hidden rot in the b-pillar.

Fortunately the new front arch has enough b-pillar to graft in. and make it all nice and strong and rot free again.

The next job after removing the old front arch was to remove the bent floor. This was fairly easy to do as access is quite free in the foot well. Making sure to note what was below, i.e brake pipes etc it came out with no problems.

This left the last few welds holding the pillar which were cut and the pillar removed. eeek!!!

We braced the roof against the inner wheel well to prevent the roof from dropping in the absense of the pillar.

The new one was bare metalled and primered and is ready to go in.

The picture shows the new pillar against the old one!

I havn't bare metalled the whole pillar as I do not need the lower section below the hinge as this is present on the new arch and also hopefully won't need to go up as far as the roof joint at the top.

More to come soon. Work will slow temporarily as I have another toy to get ready to use. I'll tell you all about this soon!!

Mat

Last edited by flyingbusman, 2/Nov/2008, 12:35 pm

---
'67 Bay all the way!!

August 1967 - Devon Caravette
November 1967 - 1200 Beetle
1968 - 1200 Beetle

1/Nov/2008, 6:25 pm

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flyingbusman
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Re: My bus repair and begining of the resto!!!

Oh and last thing for now....finished bare metalling the bits that needed it on the front, rust killed them as a precaution.

And then primed ready for a splash of paint before the front goes on eventually!!

---
'67 Bay all the way!!

August 1967 - Devon Caravette
November 1967 - 1200 Beetle
1968 - 1200 Beetle

2/Nov/2008, 12:37 pm

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