75 Bay Westy Project - Stuck in Alaska building a Busaru.

thebusandus · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 12:48 pm Post subject:

Weld/grind/por 15/primer what a long tedious process. Patched in 13 pieces and haven't started on the big spot.

Dealing with holes such as these.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

And yes, this is my first time / day welding so don't judge them to much.

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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

Keith · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 2:55 pm Post subject:

thebusandus · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 4:46 pm Post subject:

Kinda thought I had some settings wrong, if I went hotter it seemed it would burn through a lot. I was thinking wire speed may have been a bit high. I'll mess with it more tonight
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

Keith · Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 6:39 pm Post subject:

thebusandus · Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2014 12:02 pm Post subject:

So second day welding here. I ground all my previous welds down and had to spot weld quite a bit where there were holes.

I cleaned the tip and after watching some youtube realized I was holding the tip way to far away. Also, I was getting a lot of burn through using setting B, and toned it down to A. Even though I was welding mostly 16gauge (not sure what the stock interior sheet metal is).

The welds came out a lot better, still not great, but better. I just hope to get good enough to weld the outer sheet metal for body work, I have a few more pieces to create / weld in before that.

Any recommendations on what to use over the welds. I have heard I should use seam sealer on the backside where I can't grind. But where I did grind down the surfaces aren't completely level, I was going to use some bondo(evercoat) and then primer / paint. Thoughts?

I started using weld through primer realizing I wouldn't be able to protect the backside of the sheets in some of these instances.

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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

thebusandus · Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 6:09 pm Post subject:

Doing work and work and work. At this point I really wish I had found a place to sandblast / re-primer the entire thing. There are spots I can't get to and I have the majority of the interior covered in primer now anyway (primer was only used in spots I ground down the paint to get to bare metal where rust was showing).

Body Work on the lower half hasn't started.
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

Euronut · Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 2:06 pm Post subject:

You welding looks like it is improving, but I do have one tip for when you are doing panel repair. After you tack it in place, do little stitches of welds to avoid warping the panels. Do a small, maybe quarter inch weld, move over 4 or five inches and do another small weld. Do this till you get to the end and then start over.
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75 Yosemite Green Westy
71 Type 3 Fastback (lite time resto)
10 Golf Sportwagen

thebusandus · Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 12:00 am Post subject:

I must say it's improved drastically. I painted the inside / top half. Now to start on miscellaneous parts and the bottom half.

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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

thebusandus · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:17 am Post subject:

Walter White

These wheels are a PITA. Not sure if they've ever been cleaned. I am doing the whole POR-15 process on them and then painting them with some of the other stuff.

After simple green / power wash / grinder with wire wheel / marine clean with steel wool.

Radiator Sneak Peak

Finally something gets done that tells me the end may be in sight.

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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

sonofamitch · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:18 am Post subject:

What year/make/model are those radiators for? Looking good so far
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'77 Westy 2.0L FI

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=568454&highlight=

thebusandus · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2014 4:04 pm Post subject:

I'm using the same ones out of a Honda Mick is using.

I put on another coat of paint and POR-15'd all the wheels last night. It sure is hard to get a lot done when working 50 hours a week, and still trying to get in some fishing and surfing. Oh well.

I still need to buy:

Solar Set up
Dual Batteries
Roof Rack
Hitch (anyone have one for sale??)
Shocks
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

thebusandus · Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 4:35 pm Post subject:

The great outdoors

What happens when you think you are ready to paint and realize the people helping forgot to grind down rust spots on an area.

Breaking out the welder again.

Down to metal. I actually got a replacement piece for that passenger rear section which really isn't needed, so I'm just patching in a small piece there.

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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

FreedomBuild · Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2014 5:53 pm Post subject:

That's quite the endeavor! Bravo sir! I can't wait to see how this thread progresses. It's proof that you don't need a fancy shop to build a bus.
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1973 Campmobile rustoration in progress..

1700 Type 4 engine
Manual Transmission
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Weber Progressive

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thebusandus · Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 6:33 pm Post subject:

Patching more pieces in. Really considering cutting the sides of this entire section out so it's removable just like the previous years versions. Would making pulling the engine out way easier although I don't really know how many more times I will have to do that Smile

.

I decided here to cut a square out as I did on the other side. I could have just ground some rust out and filled but I figured it would look something like this, so I'm glad I did. Now I can POR 15 this inner frame rail as well.

Sadly two hours or so after I finished painting the bumpers and all the other white top pieces that were off the vehicle a gust of wind blew hard enough to knock my car batteries off of the old wooden stand I was using to hold up my bumpers. So my freshly painted bumpers ran into my freshly painted westy top, flung up grass and dirt and other debris. I was also out of paint, so I had to buy more paint and will spend the weekend repainting those pieces and welding patches in.
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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

thebusandus · Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 10:34 am Post subject:

Bad news: I was using PCC paint by the gallon premade at NAPA for all the top half. They mixed me two more quarts. Both came out as the wrong color, noticeably tinted. All parts I painted white off the vehicle need to be resprayed, luckily they gave me another gallon for half off as I brought the bumper in to show them the difference in color (part of it was still the old white). SO there goes about a week. I really need time more than money at this point!

BEFORE:

AFTER : POR 15 / PAINT

Also POR 15'd the outside of my gastank. Will be doing a Muriatic Acid wash of the inside to remove all the rust this afternoon. I was looking at my vent lines in dismay, every piece I look at is packed with dirt as if someone removed the vent lines and shoved them into soil before reinstalling, how in the hell do they get like that (no pic).

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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

thebusandus · Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 1:51 pm Post subject:

Did some more radiator test fitting / had aluminum tabs welded on. Hope to mount those up tonight. Also replaced a bunch of fuel line.

Also this passed weekend I refurbished one of my Jalousie windows. For how time consuming this is I decided not to do the other one until a later date. The seals go in easy, but the polishing takes a lifetime ( at least for how bad my frame is). It still did not turn out super well but I ran out of clean buffer wheels.

Luckily this job can be done indoors and my GF helped out.

Bad picture of the bottom one done.

My buddy stopped by. He's letting me use his compressor, and seeing his cheap paint job come out well inspired me to actually go through this process myself. Note he didn't paint any of his bumpers or anything Smile

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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

thebusandus · Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 12:19 pm Post subject:

Acid washed the gas tank with Muriatic acid & metal prep to eliminate rust.

Removed rear / mid heater lines to POR 15 / make installation of tranny easier / remove weight. Had to notch cut to make room for angle grinder.

Seats / Swivel.

I modified the bulkhead to the 76+ Style so I could put in a swivel. The Swivel set up from BD works great in this bus. I was able to get the bolts in with a slight modification. I used the large bolts for the left rear on the right front as you need the longer spacing in order to get them to thread into the nuts. I am also going to put down some weld although that is likely not necessary.

Vanagon seats I scored for free!

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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017

Conquest · Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 1:29 pm Post subject:

Nice progress!
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'78 Westy

Stuartzickefoose · Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 10:37 am Post subject:

how much higher does the passenger sit than the driver now? any at all?

how much are those swivels? got a link?
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Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
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thebusandus · Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 12:43 pm Post subject:

Lifts you up about two inches. http://www.busdepot.com/59500

Note that the vanagon westfalia seats are two inches lower than the regular vanagon, these are two vanagon regular seats and it's still not that bad.

I've been welding a lot over the last few days.

Cardboard templates of all the pieces

A lot of rust in this area..

The ol outdoor garage.

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2.2 Suby powered - 75 Westy - Rita

Panamerican Highway - 2014-2017


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