Post by baza on Aug 30, 2007 20:17:14 GMT -1
WARNING!!!! THE FOLLOWING THREAD ENDED UP BEING A BIT OF A BOOK AND WILL MOST DEFINETLY BORE THE SHIT OUT OF YOU!!!
Well, ive decided after Brighton Breeze 07 my van is going back in the garage to have a full strip down and rub down...phwooorr
So, I thought id be sad git and document it abit on here starting with a few picks of what ive done so far.
This is what i started with (crap pic!) bought for £1500 from a place in Camberly, Surrey. 1976 late VW Bay Super Viking, nearly bought a early bay shell (literally) for the same price when this rolled in, liked the roof and the fact it had a Rock n Roll bed and swing out cooker, so handed over the monies and returned a week later to pick her up. Remeber me and the wife driving home with a grin on our faces up the M25 saying "Weve got a bay window!!!" many times.
I dug a drive and built some gates at our back garden in our old house. I realized soon after buying her that i had bought a complete wreck, the offside sill had 5 layers of repair patches and the front wings were shot. But, we had 12 months MOT to enjoy so used here whenever we could.
The wifey and me got married in Aug 2004 and had a 2 week honeymoon in Italy booked. We decided as we had a days inbetween the wedding and honeymoon that we'd go away in the van. The van got the full on treatment of ribbons and just married signs all over it. Lost count of how many lorrys and cars beeped us on the way to Devon even had some people clapping as we pulled into a supermarket to get some food. Have got some pics of the van somewhere back on the puter sorry. (God im going on a bit!)
A bit down the line we ended up moving house (cause i wanted a garage ;D) so i could start restoring the van. What with decorating a being bit of a lazy arse and didnt do anything for a while, untill one January mates of ours who have a T25 suggesting going to France in the summer in the vans. I thought a deadline would give me a kick up the arse to get the van sorted so away i went stripping it down.
What these photos dont show are the rusty bits i had to weld and replace:
Front deformation panel, front arches, all outrigers and jacking points,rear arches, inner/outer/middle off side seal. most of the window corners, driver door skin, 'B' posts inner and outer, half the loading floor, rear valance outer and inner.....you get the idea, pretty much all of the bottoms 6 inches.
I took a month off work trying to get it finished in time. Everyday i got up, put my shit clothes on go to the garage and weld, grind, fill, rub down and spray
When it came to the spraying, i wanted the same colour used on the new beetles, a weird cream colour called Harvest Moon Beige. The guy at Autocolor couldnt mix it in celly cause it only came in 2K so had to do a colour match. So armed with my air gun from B&Q and my £49.99 compressor from Netto i started spraying it in my drive. Soon after i realised the colour looked shite and nothing like i wanted. I had a deadline so couldnt be fussy.
I spent the next few weeks spending 12 hour days refitting everthing but was way behind. So much that the night we was due to leave at 2 in the morning i still had to fit the windows, doors and roof!
My mate couldnt believe we would be leaving that night. We cracked away trying to fit everything and was still fitting the windows into the doors at 1 in the moring (We were leaving at 2am!!)
But! we did it, minus the interor panels and door rubbers we was on our way to Dover (at 3 in the morning with no door rubbers it was f**kin freezing)
I was well pleased with my self when i finally drove the van on to the ferry and parked her up, i couldnt wipe the smile of my face. The sun was out and we were on our way to France. ;D
As we'd been up all night and still ad a long drive to Normandy we decided to find a place in Calias and get our heads down.
We found a nice camp site, parked the vans up and all had a rest (first time for me in about 2 months!)
Then the shit happend
I was dozing in a chair by the side of my van, the missis sleeping in the back and ours freinds sleeping in theirs. Then.....
SMASH!!!!!! Our front window shatterd into a thousand peices, at first i thought the sun had done it but then saw a rock laying on the dash. Some little f**kin french kid had thrown a rock through my windscreen. I went apeshit and chased the kid round the kid campsite for 30 mins and eventually chased him back to his caravan. In broken french i tried to explain what happend.
To cut a long story short ( ;Dyeah right) the french wasnt helpful at all and didnt want to know so we ended up spending £175 on mobile calls trying to locate a 76 Bay screen in France.
We eventually found a place in Calais that could get one but not for a few days, we left it at the site bought a tent and buggerd off to Normandy.
So, sorted right, nope! when we got back to Calais my mate and me walked down to the glass place to check the screen was in.
We, asked the bloke if its in?? "oui!" wicked! we asked if we could have a look? "oui!"
SHIT!!! they had order a T25 screen!!! 
So a week had passed and we were still window-less i ended up driving back on the ferry screen-less. And it started raining and we were the last on the ferry What a nightmare! As soon as we got back to England we had a new Bay screen within the hour ;D
Anyway, if still reading this, Ta!!
Since that little adventure, we been away in it loads, Volksworld show, Stanford Hall, Cornwall, Cotaswolds.....blah blah.
Ive took the beam off welded adjusters and lowerd it a good few inches at the front and one spline at the back.
;D
Fitted Merc wheel (which im not happy with and intend to change)
Ive stripped and rebult the engine,
It now looks like this:
I made an interior out of Marine Grade Ply:
And thats about it.
Im going to lower the back, put it back on stock wheels and white walls, give the interior a Tiki/Hawian vibe and rub down and respray...dont know what colours yet???
Stay tuned guys and gals! ;D
Well, ive decided after Brighton Breeze 07 my van is going back in the garage to have a full strip down and rub down...phwooorr
So, I thought id be sad git and document it abit on here starting with a few picks of what ive done so far.
This is what i started with (crap pic!) bought for £1500 from a place in Camberly, Surrey. 1976 late VW Bay Super Viking, nearly bought a early bay shell (literally) for the same price when this rolled in, liked the roof and the fact it had a Rock n Roll bed and swing out cooker, so handed over the monies and returned a week later to pick her up. Remeber me and the wife driving home with a grin on our faces up the M25 saying "Weve got a bay window!!!" many times.
I dug a drive and built some gates at our back garden in our old house. I realized soon after buying her that i had bought a complete wreck, the offside sill had 5 layers of repair patches and the front wings were shot. But, we had 12 months MOT to enjoy so used here whenever we could.
The wifey and me got married in Aug 2004 and had a 2 week honeymoon in Italy booked. We decided as we had a days inbetween the wedding and honeymoon that we'd go away in the van. The van got the full on treatment of ribbons and just married signs all over it. Lost count of how many lorrys and cars beeped us on the way to Devon even had some people clapping as we pulled into a supermarket to get some food. Have got some pics of the van somewhere back on the puter sorry. (God im going on a bit!)
A bit down the line we ended up moving house (cause i wanted a garage ;D) so i could start restoring the van. What with decorating a being bit of a lazy arse and didnt do anything for a while, untill one January mates of ours who have a T25 suggesting going to France in the summer in the vans. I thought a deadline would give me a kick up the arse to get the van sorted so away i went stripping it down.
What these photos dont show are the rusty bits i had to weld and replace:
Front deformation panel, front arches, all outrigers and jacking points,rear arches, inner/outer/middle off side seal. most of the window corners, driver door skin, 'B' posts inner and outer, half the loading floor, rear valance outer and inner.....you get the idea, pretty much all of the bottoms 6 inches.
I took a month off work trying to get it finished in time. Everyday i got up, put my shit clothes on go to the garage and weld, grind, fill, rub down and spray
When it came to the spraying, i wanted the same colour used on the new beetles, a weird cream colour called Harvest Moon Beige. The guy at Autocolor couldnt mix it in celly cause it only came in 2K so had to do a colour match. So armed with my air gun from B&Q and my £49.99 compressor from Netto i started spraying it in my drive. Soon after i realised the colour looked shite and nothing like i wanted. I had a deadline so couldnt be fussy.
I spent the next few weeks spending 12 hour days refitting everthing but was way behind. So much that the night we was due to leave at 2 in the morning i still had to fit the windows, doors and roof!
My mate couldnt believe we would be leaving that night. We cracked away trying to fit everything and was still fitting the windows into the doors at 1 in the moring (We were leaving at 2am!!)
But! we did it, minus the interor panels and door rubbers we was on our way to Dover (at 3 in the morning with no door rubbers it was f**kin freezing
)I was well pleased with my self when i finally drove the van on to the ferry and parked her up, i couldnt wipe the smile of my face. The sun was out and we were on our way to France. ;D
As we'd been up all night and still ad a long drive to Normandy we decided to find a place in Calias and get our heads down.
We found a nice camp site, parked the vans up and all had a rest (first time for me in about 2 months!)
Then the shit happend
I was dozing in a chair by the side of my van, the missis sleeping in the back and ours freinds sleeping in theirs. Then.....
SMASH!!!!!! Our front window shatterd into a thousand peices, at first i thought the sun had done it but then saw a rock laying on the dash. Some little f**kin french kid had thrown a rock through my windscreen. I went apeshit and chased the kid round the kid campsite for 30 mins and eventually chased him back to his caravan. In broken french i tried to explain what happend.
To cut a long story short ( ;Dyeah right) the french wasnt helpful at all and didnt want to know so we ended up spending £175 on mobile calls trying to locate a 76 Bay screen in France.
We eventually found a place in Calais that could get one but not for a few days, we left it at the site bought a tent and buggerd off to Normandy.
So, sorted right, nope! when we got back to Calais my mate and me walked down to the glass place to check the screen was in.
We, asked the bloke if its in?? "oui!" wicked! we asked if we could have a look? "oui!"
SHIT!!! they had order a T25 screen!!!
So a week had passed and we were still window-less i ended up driving back on the ferry screen-less. And it started raining and we were the last on the ferry What a nightmare! As soon as we got back to England we had a new Bay screen within the hour ;DAnyway, if still reading this, Ta!!
Since that little adventure, we been away in it loads, Volksworld show, Stanford Hall, Cornwall, Cotaswolds.....blah blah.
Ive took the beam off welded adjusters and lowerd it a good few inches at the front and one spline at the back.
;D
Fitted Merc wheel (which im not happy with and intend to change)
Ive stripped and rebult the engine,
It now looks like this:
I made an interior out of Marine Grade Ply:
And thats about it.
Im going to lower the back, put it back on stock wheels and white walls, give the interior a Tiki/Hawian vibe and rub down and respray...dont know what colours yet???
Stay tuned guys and gals! ;D
