Not a restoration.
Posted: 01 May 2017, 18:36
I've been sorting out pics of my van work over the last 6 months so knowing how you lot like to see pics I thought I'd post a few up here in a more concise order than the ones scattered on the "what did you do today" thread and my other threads. most of the pics are repeats.
Not so much a restoration as getting it usable and saving it from the scrap heap.
In the beginning there was a facebook advert on a free ads page-
Also here- https://www.facebook.com/groups/sbcampe ... 788180529/
Although I didn't pay the asking price.
We'd been looking at a few small campers locally, one very rusty and badly repaired bongo springs to mind, we walked away. but when this came up my heart ruled my head and before I knew it the van was parked in my drive as a wedding present to ourselves. I had fond (and not so fond) memories of my dad driving us around the uk in T25's when I was a kid in the '80s. So combined with my new wife being sick and wanting to have some adventures while she still can, I couldn't resist.
As it's 30 years old I wasn't expecting it to be perfect but I soon started finding the rust, it doesn't look bad in the pics but there's a lot hidden under that paint.
A mate offered the use of his garage and suggested we do a proper job and give it a re-spray too as he had loads of leftover green and metalic grey paint from other jobs that if mixed together would give us 6l of metalic dark green.
Top man Charlie Hotrod. couldn't have done it without you.
So we got stuck in over the winter with me driving the 90 mile round trip in all weathers to spend long hours in the garage and drive home after each job. Then we added a time limit of my wife's 50th at the end of April as she wanted to go to Ireland.
When it wasn't in the garage, I was scraping off the old tesco's gloss the P.O. had slapped on with a 4" brush to hide the rust.
and doing little bits of grinding and welding to re-create what I chopped out.
Jobs in the garage involved cutting out rotten sills and panels and welding in new steel, a mixture of Schofields panels and ones we fabricated ourselves.
Including window surround panels.
And then the paint started going on. It was great to see the van starting to look better.
That's not me, That's the man who knows one end of a spray gun from the other and that's his 1935 ford pickup hotrod on the left.
Finally after a fair few late nights, including hitting a red deer hind one night on the way home at almost midnight, the painting was done.
Just in time to be ready for our ireland trip. Still got some rubbing down, filling dents/ replacing two more window panels and re-painting to do.
I also tidied up the interior cabinets, wiring etc and added a propex heater and a small oven as well as fresh water supply, pumped tap for the sink and 12v/240v cool box. The wife made new curtains and rear seat covers and supervised the decorating.No interior pics for some reason, must take some.
Anyway, off we went to ireland and the old bus never missed a beat. yahay.
Plenty more jobs to do and more adventures to have over the summer. here's to sunny weather, minimal midgies and cold beers in the cooler.
(photobucket sucks, I've just worked through this lot again and copied all the pics to Flikr, new links and everything. grrrrrr.....)
Not so much a restoration as getting it usable and saving it from the scrap heap.
In the beginning there was a facebook advert on a free ads page-
Also here- https://www.facebook.com/groups/sbcampe ... 788180529/
Although I didn't pay the asking price.
We'd been looking at a few small campers locally, one very rusty and badly repaired bongo springs to mind, we walked away. but when this came up my heart ruled my head and before I knew it the van was parked in my drive as a wedding present to ourselves. I had fond (and not so fond) memories of my dad driving us around the uk in T25's when I was a kid in the '80s. So combined with my new wife being sick and wanting to have some adventures while she still can, I couldn't resist.
As it's 30 years old I wasn't expecting it to be perfect but I soon started finding the rust, it doesn't look bad in the pics but there's a lot hidden under that paint.
A mate offered the use of his garage and suggested we do a proper job and give it a re-spray too as he had loads of leftover green and metalic grey paint from other jobs that if mixed together would give us 6l of metalic dark green.
Top man Charlie Hotrod. couldn't have done it without you.
So we got stuck in over the winter with me driving the 90 mile round trip in all weathers to spend long hours in the garage and drive home after each job. Then we added a time limit of my wife's 50th at the end of April as she wanted to go to Ireland.
When it wasn't in the garage, I was scraping off the old tesco's gloss the P.O. had slapped on with a 4" brush to hide the rust.
and doing little bits of grinding and welding to re-create what I chopped out.
Jobs in the garage involved cutting out rotten sills and panels and welding in new steel, a mixture of Schofields panels and ones we fabricated ourselves.
Including window surround panels.
And then the paint started going on. It was great to see the van starting to look better.
That's not me, That's the man who knows one end of a spray gun from the other and that's his 1935 ford pickup hotrod on the left.
Finally after a fair few late nights, including hitting a red deer hind one night on the way home at almost midnight, the painting was done.
Just in time to be ready for our ireland trip. Still got some rubbing down, filling dents/ replacing two more window panels and re-painting to do.
I also tidied up the interior cabinets, wiring etc and added a propex heater and a small oven as well as fresh water supply, pumped tap for the sink and 12v/240v cool box. The wife made new curtains and rear seat covers and supervised the decorating.No interior pics for some reason, must take some.
Anyway, off we went to ireland and the old bus never missed a beat. yahay.
Plenty more jobs to do and more adventures to have over the summer. here's to sunny weather, minimal midgies and cold beers in the cooler.
(photobucket sucks, I've just worked through this lot again and copied all the pics to Flikr, new links and everything. grrrrrr.....)