The "Goat-el"

[Mcvil]

hello my friend you have some photos of my truck, just outside.

[cru62]

Really, Steve? Nice try but since it doesn't have a driveshaft I doubt it made it there under its own power! But, I am starting to save up for that steak dinner I will apparently be buying you.-

Looks like you've been busy. Lots of fresh welds under that beast. I see you also have a fuel cell in the rear, so I guess you won't be needing that gas tank, huh ?
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"My biggest worry is that when I die, my wife will sell all my parts for what I told her I paid for them"-Jon

Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.

Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[cru62]

So, I got a little more motivated. The upper corner at the rear of the PS gutter was rotted away, which caused untold further problems all the way to the battery tray. But, since once the roof is on I won't have access to this any longer, it had to be done. I had previously fabbed up a repair piece from a cargo door skin. Here it is trimmed and fit-

The holes are to plug weld the upset areas to underlying metal.

I'm trying to save as much original metal as I can which is why I didn't just remove the whole shootin' match. I repaired the underlying rot but forgot to shoot some pics-

Here's the top layer patch fitted-

And a bunch o' welding-

The copper piece is something I made to back up the bottom of the buttwelds to minimize blow through. I use something like this as often as I have access to the back/bottom of the seam when welding, really, anything. That, an a real welding helmet helped tremendously
I recently bought a 220V HF spot welder to use on areas that I can, to avoid plug welding and grinding. Other than weighing more than my anvil, I highly recommend this tool if you have a lot of metal to replace. This will work a treat on the rockers and the PS gutter replacement that I will be attempting soon. I used it to attach the top hat to the gutter section that I replaced over the rear hatch. I wanted it to be as rigid as possible so I went nuts with the welder. It is remarkable how much this increases the rigidity of the rear end panels.

After I finish the DS gutter top hat installation I plan on treating all the interior areas with Eastwood rust treatment in a spraycan with an 18" hose and nozzle. That should prevent rust for as long as I will end up owning this bus!
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"My biggest worry is that when I die, my wife will sell all my parts for what I told her I paid for them"-Jon

Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.

Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[RPGreg2600]

What a fucking nightmare! Keep at it man! Thanks for the update!

[cru62]

I helped my Brother-in-law with a stash of VW and other parts he scored from an old-time offroad racer in Pasadena. It included a 1978 rabbit, a 1963 Ragtop Bug and several pieces of a cut-up 1960 panel. One of the pieces he gave me for helping was an original SWR hatch. While not technically correct for my '61 because of the lack of the crescent moon above the handle, I decided to remove the two different layers of oil-based paint that had been thoughtfully applied by some PO. I'm glad he didbecause it really preserved the OG paint. However, the primer that was applied first sort-of wrinkled the SWR which caused some problems with removal. But I can live with that. I didn't turn out too awful bad-

Two coats of CitriStrip to get to this^-

The black primer is somewhat visible in this shot^-

I'm liking the Mt. Baldy decal. I think I'm going to leave it for now.

Any thoughts on what to do for the exposed, bare metal around the handle hole? I don't want to leave it raw.
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"My biggest worry is that when I die, my wife will sell all my parts for what I told her I paid for them"-Jon

Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.

Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[hoagy86]

nice work on the paint removal looks pretty good. love the swr

[cru62]

Picked up a trinket for the Bus-

Couldn't resist . I did mount the hatch that I recently stripped which turned out very nice. So, I haven't been totally slacking. There are a couple of more small areas to attack on the DS tophat before it is done. Slow, but sure.
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"My biggest worry is that when I die, my wife will sell all my parts for what I told her I paid for them"-Jon

Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.

Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[RPGreg2600]

When does the roof go back on?

[cru62]

I'm still working on rebuilding the gutters areas although, surprisingly, the outside of the gutters are in pretty good shape. The inside portion and the bottom of the roof itself are what rotted away. The DS is almost done. But that is the easy part. The PS will be a real test.
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"My biggest worry is that when I die, my wife will sell all my parts for what I told her I paid for them"-Jon

Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.

Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[Ran When Parked]

How's the gutter repair coming along?

I might cut a section above the rain gutter (like you did) to see if my gutters are good enough to put a new roof on. It wouldn't hurt, since the roof is full of holes anyway. Your picks gave me the idea.

[cru62]

The DS is closer to being done. Just trying to find time to get into it again. When (if) it starts to rain is usually our slow season. But if it keeps raining on the weekends I will never get anything done!

Don't be afraid to tackle it. I luckily don't have to do the entire roof, just from the front seat back. Oh and above the front doors. But the lip over the windshields is good.
_________________
"My biggest worry is that when I die, my wife will sell all my parts for what I told her I paid for them"-Jon

Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.

Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[cru62]

So, life got in the way and I really haven't done much to this pile because of all the out-of-town work for my new job. But in the last week or so I hung the donor roof from the ceiling of the shop so I could work on other stuff. A friend had helped me stash it indoors out of the elements so I can trim it and get it ready for grafting. But I have a ton of other stuff to complete first and it was completely in the way.

The first thing I did was to hack off the front section in front of the B-pillar roof bow-

Then using some pulleys I hoisted it up to the ceiling out of the way-

I built a frame to keep it from tweaking using 1/2" square tube and some misc. pieces laying around the shop. I still need to trim off all the extra parts along the edge of the roof to get to the lip of the roof skin. Now I have room to move!

So, here is the PS frame of the OG SWR that was lovingly and carefully removed from a bus. Yes, it is rusty and crusty. But it will look smashing with its twin on my bus-

Here is what I had to deal with to clean out the "T"-slot for the doortop channel. This was the worst part of the frame. It took forever to pick out the dried-out old rubber and then scrape out all the flaky rust from under the sides.-

It looks really bad here. But it cleaned out well. No one will be using these for a Resto. I was lucky to find them. No sane person would use these!-

And here is the end product. Just need to set the vent window glass as soon as my WW order come in-

If anyone has some SWR latch plates and divider bars, well, I'm your guy! Hit me up! Rusty is good for this build.
_________________
"My biggest worry is that when I die, my wife will sell all my parts for what I told her I paid for them"-Jon

Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.

Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[cru62]

Had another pretty productive day. Welded the "hat" channel to the cleaned up and patched gutter on the DS. Made up a gauge to make sure therewould be enough space between the outside of the channel and the inside of the gutter for the lip of the roof to fall when it is fitted. Used a buttload of clamps to make sure nothing moved or warped and skipped around with the plug welds also.-

BEFORE

AFTER

And here is a pic of the plug welds. Not too shabby and shouldn't require a bunch of grinding.-

I used my trusty flattened copper pipe as a backup and only ended up blowing through in one spot. Because I got carried away and jumped past the backup.
_________________
"My biggest worry is that when I die, my wife will sell all my parts for what I told her I paid for them"-Jon

Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.

Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

['64cal lookdub]

You're hardcore, great work.

[cru62]

Thanks! Wait until you see what's next. The PS roof & gutter is really going to be a project.
_________________
"My biggest worry is that when I die, my wife will sell all my parts for what I told her I paid for them"-Jon

Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.

Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[cru62]

Some work work has been occurring. I have been stashing away repair donor metal for this bus for 5 years. One part I was dreading having to tackle was the PS door header. it is rotted in the weatherstrip channel and the underside of the header mostly in the middle. The early inside panel doesn't have the bead like the late ones do. There are some other subtle differences like the length, the style of overlap at the front and the transition at the rear where it joins the "B" Pillar. But they are mostly minor and easy to allow for.Since I am sortof AR when it comes to replacing OG metal on this bus, I decided to make the new piece match the old piece. So, it will be flat with no bead.

Here is the section I have been saving-

You can see the bead running the length of the interior header.

First I had to remove the "claws" for the headliner since the donor bus was a '67 Deluxe. So I ground out the spot welds and peeled of the strip-

Then I ground down the remains of the welds-

And started making a pattern by laying down some masking tape-

Then I transfered the tape to a piece of chipboard. Like poster board only cheaper-

I traced the tape pattern onto the chipboard, cut it out and trial fitted it to the '61-

It is a lot easier to add or subtract from the chipboard pattern. I also found where I will need to stretch the metal piece after it is fabbed. After I was happy with the chipboard pattern I transfered it to a sheet of thin aluminum flashing for the final tuneup of the pattern-

I put tape on the flashing because it was easier to draw lines on it for the bending and stretching to come.

A couple of days later I decided to make sure that the cargo doors which were racked a bit could be lined up as well as possible before I start the bracing that will be required before I can start hacking on the PS Header and gutter flange.

Here is what I started with in 2010-

The rear cargo door was dipping down and hitting the front cargo door. I asked for suggestions and tried them all. They got me a bit closer to what I wanted, but not close enough. So I first measured the opening to make sure it wasn't pulling appart at the bottom. It measured within 1mm which seemed good to me. Someone at the beginning of this thread suggested this-

I closed the doors and turned the NW/SE turnbuckle just a couple of turns and ended up with this-

It also straightened out the roof gutter. Hard to really see in this pic, but it is arrow straight in both axeses.-

Next I will brace the bus even more so I can start onthe header and the PS gutter/tophat.


I bought these on TS-

Both RT &LT sides to repair this horror-

That should be a real walk in the park!
_________________
"My biggest worry is that when I die, my wife will sell all my parts for what I told her I paid for them"-Jon

Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.

Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[brettsvw]

Keep it up. this is a great build with lots of step by step details.
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My 59 kombi build.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=635003&highlight=

My buggy build.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=558601&highlight=

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=289807

[VeeDubWolf]

Looking good, fight those horrors!
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Two Bugs-
'70 rust-bucket sunroof sedan
'69 PO hack-job special
-Plus a wide assortment of various parts'n'junk

[mandraks]

love it
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regards

Uli

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'53 3-Fold Oval, L35 Metallic Blue, looking for a narrow hatch panel

[stever70]

Nice job, looks like you got a bit of motivation going
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my build log
http://offroadvwbus.blogspot.com/