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Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:19 am

I'm replacing the hole front of the van..

because there is some rust :lol: :shock: with this one.

There's no turning back now!

The new nose on.

Here's how I welded the inner structure of the 'A' pillars:

And here are the finish pillars:

The glass will go in Wednesday. Hope it fits [-o< .

Tue Sep 19, 2006 4:10 am

looks great!

omg, i just *know* thats what mine looks like under the windshield seal.. *gulp*

cant wait to learn to weld... again looks great, thanks for sharin the pics!

Tue Sep 19, 2006 12:44 pm

I need to do that too. I'm dreading it. :(

Tue Sep 19, 2006 1:22 pm

I cut the nose off of a 71 destined for the crusher for my 68. When I actually got to looking at the windshield area along with the dents from the bumper guards, I am now leaning towards a replacement panel. Hope the windshield fits up nice for you.

Thu Sep 21, 2006 6:43 pm

The windshield is in ...sort of, it's a bit off center, toward the drivers side too much. I'll have to see if I can push it over somehow or maybe it'll settle in over time ..if not ..oh well. Top to bottom fits good though!

The doors are back on as well and line up perfectly.

The hardest part of the whole job was getting the wire for the dome light down the "A" pillar ..go figure!

Tue Oct 17, 2006 12:47 pm

Here the finished product ..well, sort of.

Here's the pillars - no filler, just grounded down metal.

As you can see I'm not concerned about matching colors :lol: .

I still have a few spots to cover-up with some paint to protect from rust. I'm gonna give it a paint job next year ...flat black 8) hides everthing.

This van is only driven in the winter, so looks is not too important.

Tue Oct 17, 2006 1:28 pm

Wow. Very nice. I'm in the process of filling my horribly dented front end with pounds of bondo for now and covering up the rust spots more or less. I took off the front wheel and decided i'd fix it up just a bit between now and when i cut off the front like you.

Any trouble detaching the dash and internal front pieces from the nose? Anything you would have done differently with cuts, welds or just plain anything?

Did you use an oxyacetylene torch for the welds? Great post.

Tue Oct 17, 2006 2:38 pm

Adventurewagen wrote: Any trouble detaching the dash and internal front pieces from the nose? Anything you would have done differently with cuts, welds or just plain anything?

The dash, vents, fusebox etc. just unscrews from the front of the van. Just keep track of what screw goes where. There was only one wire that I had to cut and splice back together - the rest just unplugged.

Everything went well ..wasn't really that difficult at all.

Take a lot of measurements from lots of different places for reference. examples: between the two door hinges on each pillar (14 1/16" if I remember correctly), top door hinge to the 'B' pillar. For the windshield opening, I found the middle of both the top and bottom of the opening and measured there vertically. Also from the middle I measured 22" over (left & right, both top and bottom) then measured vertically there.

The more reference points the better. When preparing the new nose, cut it oversized to fit at first then use a grinder take a bit off at a time until it fits just right ..measure 10 times - cut once! (my windshield opening ended up being 1/32" bigger ..not too bad!).

I cut the 'new' front nose from my old 79 westy over five years ago ..it took me this long to build up the courage to do this!

I used a MIG welder.

Tue Oct 17, 2006 2:40 pm

Boy, in that 4th picture, you should have some great airflow. Only thing missing would be a flashlight in your lap to warn the oncoming drivers. :lol:

Tue Oct 17, 2006 2:48 pm

Looks great, Joey. Nice job.

Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:24 pm

[quote="56ovalbug"]Here the finished product ..well, sort of.

ol: .

Man that is sweet. :) I'm going to be putting a new nose skin on my 78 hopefully next spring. I'm going with a repo one from BD. The only bad thing is it's going to cost me almost as much to ship it as it is for the nose itself. :shock: :( It will be worth it though. I'm probably going to get new rear quarters too and the middle rocker with the lower sliding door track already attached. I'd like to open my slider without it falling off all the time. :lol: It will be worth it in the end though. I still have to get the gallon of bondo off the drivers side floor that someone put on there and see how bad it is. Looks like that Mario guy they've been talking about in the Rants worked on it. :lol: Can't wait to get it solid again. It is a labor of love and another bus saved from the crusher.

Geno :D

Tue May 22, 2007 11:35 am

the before pictures would fall into the "when is a bay to far gone" thread. but man that finished product makes anything look like it has potential. good work

Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:34 am

How do you protect against rust inside the frames and between metal pieces you weld together. I am doing a lot of work repairing some frames and floor sections on my bus and now that I have it all cut out and am ready to put it back together I want to do it right. For example I am replacing a U-chanel that connects to the rear outrigger to make a completely closed section and I am wandering how to protect the inside of the section. I bought it from Wolfsburg West and it comes with a primer on it but I am worried that when I weld it the Heat affected Zone will destroy the paint and welds rust so quickly. Do you use any corrosion protection between flanges and inside channels?

Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:43 am

jeston wrote: How do you protect against rust inside the frames and between metal pieces you weld together. I am doing a lot of work repairing some frames and floor sections on my bus and now that I have it all cut out and am ready to put it back together I want to do it right. For example I am replacing a U-chanel that connects to the rear outrigger to make a completely closed section and I am wandering how to protect the inside of the section. I bought it from Wolfsburg West and it comes with a primer on it but I am worried that when I weld it the Heat affected Zone will destroy the paint and welds rust so quickly. Do you use any corrosion protection between flanges and inside channels?

Weld through primer.

Sun Sep 23, 2007 11:08 am

I have to do the same with mine, it's only the small panel piece directly under the windshield and not the entire skin. Question, what is the best way to cut the old metal out? Sawzall with metal blade? Or some other tool?

Sun Sep 23, 2007 3:34 pm

All I used was a drill to drill out the spotwelds and a hacksaw to cut the 'A' Pillars, the rest was rusted free :P .

An angle grinder with a cut-off wheel or a sawzall will work too.

Tue Mar 31, 2009 9:08 am

Do you know if it can be transfered including the lower inner nose support? Or is it better to repair the lower inner support then transfer the outter skin or nose?

Tue Sep 13, 2011 2:54 pm

Well, it's been five years sine I replaced the nose on my '79 panel and it looks like it needs to be repaired already. I removed the windshield and found some rust. Not as much as I thought there would be but enough. I have the Gerson panel for the bottom but I'll have to make the pieces for the other rust holes. The perils of road salt....

Pics of the repair coming soon...

Tue Sep 13, 2011 3:26 pm

Joey, you are a true bus pilot.

Tue Sep 13, 2011 3:53 pm

Damn, time to move.