TheSamba.com :: View topic

Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:54 pm

I finished my last project so I picked up a new one. This bus belongs to a friend of mine. Were going to just pull the dents straighten it up and put it in a flat finish most likely a two tone.

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Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:58 pm

The bus is actually a really nice bus no rust and only some minor dents.

Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:14 pm

Nice bus.

You need to drop that front end down a few inches to level 'er out!

Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:21 pm

you are gonna keep the stinger, right?

Fri Feb 29, 2008 12:01 am

I started by using the long board sander to take off the primer and show any small dents. I pulled the dents filled them and striped the passenger front door. I am planning on using a high fill polyester primer. Then blocking that and finishing with a colored primer or hot rod flatz paint. I will be painting the front doors on the interior with L87 Pearlwies to match the dash. As this bus was a true Kombi the cargo area was left in primer from the factory.

The nose has a few dents so I am going to work on that tomorow and finish stripping the nose as its really rock chiped under the primer.

Fri Feb 29, 2008 12:40 am

REally nice work Mitch and the bus is looking good..Peace Tone DOg

Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:34 am

Another productive day. Jody and Cora came over to play in the garage.
Cora striped the nose and I began pulling the dents.

Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:39 am

The driver qtr was next. The bus must have been hit some time in its history then a bad repair was done but not finished. Its dificult to see in the pictures but the belt line area was hit and it pushed in the jam. I welded a pull on the jam to get a grip and pull it out. You may have to use your imagine ation here as the pictures don't show all.

Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:41 am

I welded another plate to the belt line and pulled it out as well.

Tue Mar 04, 2008 9:09 am

So that's how that's done! On the nose pull and miscellaneous small dents do you use one of those little stud puller things or what? You are amazing and inspiring. Thanks for showing the how-to and progress.

Tue Mar 04, 2008 10:27 am

There is a few ways to pull dents from a double panel. The most common is to use a weld on copper nail and use a slide hammer that grabs the nail. This has been shown on many other forums. I used to do it that way, but it was time consuming and you had to take off the nails and grind the spot where it welded itself to. I got good at taking it off with out leaving the head of the nail but sometimes it welded itself to much and I had to grind off the nail head. I saw a guy using a pro spot PR2 dent pulling system so I bought that. It was expensive but I would never go back. Its basically a one sided spot welder that actually welds the slide hammer directly to the panel to be pulled. With a quick slide of the hammer and a twist of the handle the dent pulls right out and the handle comes off.

http://prospot.com/store/

Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:32 pm

I'm back its been a while that I had the feeling of wanting to work on this project. I was hell bent on getting another project moved along. I started out tonight with a few cold beers cleaning up the garage. Then I fired up this bus and it just called to me to work on it. I cranked up the sterio as loud as I could blasting Robert Earl King the road goes on for ever and away I went. Here are some shots of the latest progress.

I started striping the driver long pannel and ofcourse its worse than what you first think.

What looks like some harmless surface rust only hides what is really hiding underneath.

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Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:36 pm

I want to go step by step on the process I use to fix a small rust out section like this. If I had the time and space I would have sand blasted this inside area and used por 15 to seal it up. I just used por 15 and did the best I could.

I used a long blower and a vacume and sucked out what I could on either side of the whole.

Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:41 pm

To start I took some masking tape and coverd the whole.

I cut it out and transfered it to my new piece of metal.

I used a pair of cutting sheers and made the ruff cut.

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Fri Apr 11, 2008 9:46 pm

I used a 3 inch roloc grinder to trim the metal so it just fit in the whole. I bent it over a hard roll of papper a welding gas tank would work as well. I held it up to the existing rocker to check for the right contour.

I used a few tack welds to hold it in place then I weld along the seem about a 1/2 inch then skip a 1/2 inch and go around the panel so as to not make it to hot and warp it.

Some grinding with a flapper disc with 60 grit and I'm done.

Sun Apr 13, 2008 3:07 pm

some more work done. I striped the rear corner which I thought was good but of course more dents hidden with filler.

Sun Apr 13, 2008 3:16 pm

wow, amazing work!

Sat May 03, 2008 12:45 pm

I got some more done on the bus I have been waiting for a nice day to primer the bus so in the mean time I started on the rocker replacement. Gearsons parts are the bomb they fit very well with little to no tweaking.

Sat May 03, 2008 12:50 pm

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Sat May 03, 2008 12:53 pm