TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sun Mar 31, 2013 8:21 pm

Hi, I thought I'd post some pics of my current restoration. I've had it for 3 years and have never driven it yet. I just rebuilt the engine over the winter and now working on getting the body in good enough shape. It's a 71 with a stock 1600 dual port. The original factory color is Chianti Red and I do have the factory installed gas heater.
The day I picked it up.

Sitting in my driveway with the spare tire holder gone.

Sun Mar 31, 2013 8:24 pm

The rear floor complete with rust.

The rear frame with a big chunk removed getting ready to weld in new steel. That's actually already done. I have to find the pic of that.

Sun Mar 31, 2013 8:27 pm

I cut the rusted battery tray out. It actually had 3 bullet holes.

Not the cleanest work area. It's a constant effort to make more room to work.

Sun Mar 31, 2013 8:32 pm

Starting to strip the paint off the nose to get some metal work done. I have a few holes to weld up from the spare tire bracket and something else that was mounted below at one time. The bottom apron has the usual rust and the frame in front of the beam is pretty bad also. I have to pull the poor flont floor job and recreate the floor.

Here is the left rear fender area. Someone built a new fender edge from bondo and it went a finger tip deep. about 3/4 in.

I have to call Gerson again. He forgot to call me back. I need alot of parts from him. No rush.

Sun Mar 31, 2013 8:35 pm

Here's the engine I built over the winter. I did have a heart attack April 2012 and this resttoration has slowed down but at the same time helped keep me going.

Sun Mar 31, 2013 9:03 pm

Man, that's great! Very envious! Keep it up, it looks like from your efforts it will be a beauty. 8)

Mon Apr 01, 2013 5:43 am

Thanks, it's a long process and one of the hardest things i've ever done. I have a pretty good welder lincoln 140c and it's paying for itself. Don't know yet if I'll try and shoot it meself. Still a long way off.
Ron

Mon Apr 01, 2013 7:17 am

Nice Work! I'd love to see a shot of the frame section repair by the Torsion housing. I have a similar repair to do, but it's forward a bit from where you cut out. Double bubble!

Mon Apr 01, 2013 7:29 am

I found it Ron! Congrats on your thread about your DC! Keep pluggin' away at it and before you know it, it'll be time to load up the family, climb in, turn the key and drive...

Bill Bowman

Mon Apr 01, 2013 8:52 am

I'll post more pics tonight. I had to do the frame repair in 2 sections. A bent piece that went on the outside and then a flat piece that went on the backside. I still need to go back and weld up part of the backside. Thanks for the support. I hope it comes out at least half as good as your 59 double BulliBill. That was a good day seeing the paint go on.

Mon Apr 01, 2013 1:46 pm

krautwaggen wrote: Nice Work! I'd love to see a shot of the frame section repair by the Torsion housing. I have a similar repair to do, but it's forward a bit from where you cut out. Double bubble!

I'd like to see that too. My doublecab is good there fortunately but I have a 69 Westfalia that needs the same repair.

Mon Apr 01, 2013 3:09 pm

Double cabs are so cool!!!!!

Mon Apr 01, 2013 9:56 pm

Here the rear drivers side of the frame. I really should probably clean up my welds a bit.

This last one is of the backside. It was the first piece i welded in place and I welded it on the inside as well where the frame edge met new steel. The new steel overlapped a few inches.

Mon Apr 01, 2013 10:03 pm

Still an improvement over it's previous appearance, nice work!

Thu Apr 04, 2013 7:55 pm

Working on the front tonight. Got some frame rot in the front and will need to remove the front beam to fix.

Also have a front floor that someone did a pretty good job replacing, but it's not factory original. Love the door hinge gas pedal fix.

Fri Apr 05, 2013 5:26 am

Mine is rotted out in front of the front beam too. I have good donor pieces but can't decide where to cut and splice them in. I'm anxious to see what you do to yours.

Fri Apr 05, 2013 10:57 am

You really have not choice but to cut it back to good metal and weld in replacement parts. Mines so rusted up front I may buy another 71 up the road from me and cut it up for the frame. I may end up swapping the entire frame. Haven't decided yet.

Fri Apr 05, 2013 11:08 am

Well, just got off the phone with Gerson with my most recent parts list.
front floor
bed
left and right sides
rt rear corner lower
left and rt battery trays
lower front clip
I'm going to go ahead and order gates but waiting a bit on that purchase. It will be close to new double cab after I'm done.

Fri Apr 05, 2013 9:16 pm

I removed the pedals, steering column, and shifter tonight. I can't get the parking brake out. The pin is stuck. WD40 on it tonight.

Sat Apr 06, 2013 7:03 pm

Got some work on the double cab done today. Removed the front beam and cleared out the floor. I couldn't remove the parking brake. Stuck pin. The beam was a pain in the butt also. It as unbolted but just wouldn't budge. I suspect with the frame rot and age the frame has twisted a bit. I will check this and will know later if there's too much rot up in the towers mounts. There was alot of thick chunks of rust that came out. The beams towers had a few pin holes of rust too.

No pain no gain.