TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sun Nov 01, 2009 7:18 pm

lookin better and better. Another bus being saved! Keep it up.

Thu Nov 05, 2009 8:44 pm

I ground all the paint off the nose. I then used Captain Lee's Metal Prep, a phosphoric acid base, to etch the metal. I then applied 2 coats of Masterseries silver primer. It feels good to have coated the bare metal and minor rust pitted areas. If you brush it on like I did, don't use a cheap brush, as the brisles will shed on to the body. (I learned this years ago) :oops:

I gotta work on holding the camera steady.

Thu Nov 05, 2009 8:57 pm

nice, is that silver primer zinc related?

Thu Nov 05, 2009 9:06 pm

Masterseries is a rust encapsulator similar to POR15. It is a resin base with metalic powders, or at least that is what I pulled from this site.

http://www.masterseriesct.com/home.html

This guy is active on the Samba, very helpful.

Thu Nov 05, 2009 9:15 pm

I must say, I was questioning brushing on the primer simply because the PO painted the bus orange with a brush. It has been very annoying wire wheeling the thick paint off. I have a nice powdery coat on orange on everything in my garage. :evil:

The Masterseries goes on nice and smooth though, so all is good.

Thu Nov 05, 2009 9:33 pm

Riguy718 wrote: Wow lookin good there...this is making me wish i knew how to weld

x2 great thread thx for sharing... wish I knew how to weld also...

Thu Nov 05, 2009 10:57 pm

hey brad, do you have a shot of this area on your early bus? I think i may have some seperation issues, but i onyl have th e one bus... that isnt completely rusted out

Fri Nov 06, 2009 4:51 pm

Rustbus,

I don't have any good pics of this area. You are a week too late, as I just welded in the panel :lol: If it would help, I could grab a mirror and try look at this area from the interior if there is a specific question I could answer for you.

Sat Nov 21, 2009 8:30 pm

Thought I'd give a little update. I have been getting some backordered panels recently, including my battery tray. Now this should be interesting to install. I'll probably procrastinate this one.

The bus was curious as to what I brought in the box.

MOFOCO delivered :D

I got this panel welded in finally.

Happy Early Thanksgiving everyone :wink:

Tue Dec 01, 2009 8:43 pm

I welded in the rocker below the slider tonight. I plug welded the bottom and seam welded the top.

In process of welding:

Ready to grind down welds:

Now, I REALLY need to start with the battery tray. Not sure why I am not too excited about doing it. Maybe it can be my new years resolution.

:)

Tue Dec 01, 2009 9:36 pm

ok listen close .... if u have not done this kind of work. start than finish 1 spot at a time. if the area of concern interacts with anything else make shure it works.. like install teh window ... or install teh rubber and teh slider and make shure it shuts well.......

Wed Dec 02, 2009 8:31 pm

Rumple- Thats a good idea. I'll install the slider this weekend to make sure things are good.

Thu Dec 03, 2009 12:33 pm

Looking good my Mpls Brother!

Thu Dec 03, 2009 3:40 pm

Thanks BellePlaine. I'm getting practice to help you next year if needed.

Thu Dec 03, 2009 7:26 pm

Looking good man!!!! To echo a previous post, this is great information for those of us with similar issues. It looks like its coming along quite nicely!!

Thu Dec 03, 2009 7:36 pm

Well done! Nice to see another 70 in the works....

Thu Dec 03, 2009 9:04 pm

Hey brad, bus's lookin sweet. im jealous. :D

Bradgt74 wrote: I welded in the nose panel today.

how was the heat warping in this area? what did you do to minimize it? I tried a wet rag once when i did my slider door, and it turned out :-&

got any tight angle shots showing how much warp there is? cant see much from the pics

Sat Dec 05, 2009 9:24 am

I didn't have too much for warping issues. I was very patient while welding. I would do a 1/4" weld then move 6" down the edge and do it again. Once I made it around I would take a pass at it with the wire brush, then add on to the previous weld.

I got a block of graphite I am going to try using on my next butt weld area. You can put it behind a butt weld to help with burning through and some heat transfer. The weld will not stick well to the graphite. I'll post my results after I can give it a try.

My main problem with the nose patch I welded in is that it was from a newer nose with the bottom seam. Because of this, the lower profile is a bit different. The newer nose bends in more on the bottom. You can see in this pic how the existing nose is more vertical on the lower 6" of the void.

You can see the unfortuate result. I plan on making it a gradual slope in this area when I apply a skim coat.

This is a shot of the vertical welds which didn't warp:

I'm not going to loose sleep over these imperfections, as this will be a well used driver, not a show car.

Tue Jan 12, 2010 8:16 pm

The sub-zero days have left Minnesota, so I've been able to get back in the garage. I started by cutting out the rusty battery tray. It took a little patience getting the grinder to work well in this tight area. I started by cutting the tray out in quarters, then grinding the perimeter down at the spot welds, lastly chiseling out the remaining metal.

While grinding, the metal will start to get a rainbow color as it gets thin. At this point it should chisel away easily.

Once the tray was removed, I could see the extent of rust on the body panel.

Cut it out, use the old piece as a template, and weld in a new piece.

Next will be battery tray welding. I fit it tonight, and it wasn't all that bad. I was expecting the worse with the Klokkerholm, size and shape are "alright" steel is a little thin. Hopefully my next bus restoration will be sporting Gerson panels. 8)
-I think WAY too far ahead. I need to finish this one first.

Tue Jan 12, 2010 8:39 pm

hey man it looks great! Do you think you'll be bringing it out to the twin cites bug-in this year?