The Other Canadian 11 Window Restoration

[snuffelupabus]

I've been following Flemcadiddlehoppers thread and felt inspired to post my own east coast version of a 11 window project. We'll be going back in time first to 2001 and playing catch up to now, so over the next few weeks my posts will be progress over the past 13 or so years.

Now the bus. Its a 1965 standard microbus. I purchased this bus from a friend in June of 2001 for the portly sum of $500.00. It was a whim basically, he called me, asked 'want to by the bus'. My response was yes. There was no discussion of price or anything. I wanted the bus.

We have a relatively small VW comunity here so everyone knows everyone and aircooled and water cooled people all share activities. I had watercooled VW's so i knew the bus. A year earlier I helped the previous owner in the delivery of this bus to his house from the other owners. At the same time we cut up, scraped and salvaged a '66 deluxe bus. These two buses came from another friend who let both buses sit on the side of his house for 10 or more years.
Thats the begining story. This is what it looked like the first day at home.

[adriano]

Hello snuffelupabus.Very nice bus.I have a February '64 canadian 11 window, too but it is a kombi.Very strange the position of the front bumper.
Could you post a pic of the rear spare tire well?Do you have 1 or 2 of them?
Regards
Adriano

[flemcadiddlehopper]

Well I am glad I could inspire you, even though you started well ahead of me.

Looks like a nice bus, in about the same (or better) shape than mine was when started. keep the pics and story coming.


Gordo.
_________________
Everybody Dies....Some Never Live.

Retrograde Garage. Vintage Aircooled, and others.

[easy e]

I love the dust pics... dash, creeper & jack

What are your plans?
Cheers,
E
_________________
aka: Evan
Spreadsheet for Bus RPM, based on gearing & tire size (Excel format)
Searchable, click-navigable 1958 Bus Parts List

[snuffelupabus]

[adriano]

Don't worry Jeff.
I don't need the pic.I only want to know if you have 1 or 2 spare well.
My canadian has 2 spare well originals from the factory and other canadian bus owners have the same optional.
Do you have a 1200 or 1500 engine?I'm trying to restore my bus but I have no informations on the M-code 388 seen only on canadian split.

Adriano

[Sloride]

Let's get some more pictures up there Jeff. I believe you are further along than these shots.

Craig
_________________
1972 Westfalia - 1.8 VW in-line h2o conversion
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Link to the engine swap:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=565304&highlight=

1964 Ruby Red Beetle

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=705757&highlight=ruby+red

[flemcadiddlehopper]

[snuffelupabus]

[snuffelupabus]

Ok. It’s now December 2001 and I’ve been busy striping down the bus. I had to remove all the paint, there were so many rust spots that it would have ended up 95% bare anyway. This way I could also more easily address all the through rust. I had three layers of paint to remove. The Velvet green, a previous Blue respray and the original sealing wax red. By the time I had everything striped it was evident that pretty much all the bottom 8” had to be replaced. The best panels were the driver’s side door and driver’s rear butt cheek.
Back then the green panels were either not available or very hard to get, most replacement metal came from either WW or CIP. And most did need modifications to properly fit.
These photos show some of the general condition and the beginning of the cargo door rocker replacement.

The best panel on the bus.

Drivers Side

Windshield Frame

Where an engine should sit

rear shot

Cargogo Door Rocker

[flemcadiddlehopper]

What was the original colour of your bus? Grey beige/ titan red?

That's what mine was. i was really toying with the idea of staying with what the M-code said, but i can't. i really wanted to get away from the cute bus look.

Any thoughts on colour, or are you already past that stage? These 13 years are taking for ever. This is not like netflix at all.

gordo.
_________________
Everybody Dies....Some Never Live.

Retrograde Garage. Vintage Aircooled, and others.

[snuffelupabus]

It was Sealing Wax Red. Its an early 1965 (jan 4), I think Titan came later. The previous owner always calls it "the 64" and the registration says 1964. But it is '65. Has all the right ' 65 parts.
I toyed with the original colour, thats what the wife wanted. But there is just one other bus here in town and its Sealing Wax Red. I also didn't want cute bus.
There were so many colours i wanted. Black/yellow, mouse grey, turks. All vetoed by wife. Its colour will be (is) nutria/beige grey. Definitely not my favourite but its nice. I save my favourite colours for a double cab, when I get one.
It will be a mild custom, raders, narrowed beam, lowered. The '66 I scraped was a deluxe so this is getting the deluxe trim. I actually like the look of deluxe trim better on 11 windows than deluxe's.
13 years ago the plan was to have it finished when my wife graduated her MBA. That happened in 2005. A lot of other milestones have passed.

[snuffelupabus]

Today some pictures form Febuary 2002. Started the installation of the passenger side rocker and other assosiated bits. Cut my own innar fender well. The curve is not exacetly right but it looks good. Most of my welds at this point were without gas so they dont look so good. Some welds look a little cold, but they hold fine.

The inner fender. The other bits do get welded in later.

ricker, inner rocker and front quarter in.

inner rocker. These welds really do look bad. A few years later, when I got gas, I went back and re-welded these.

The front hinge pillar. this went in nice.

Just a shot of the rocker.

[snuffelupabus]

Its still Febuary 2002. Installed a couple of frame crossmembers/floor support, tophats. Also tacked in the drivers quarter. This stayed tacked in for a couple of years. I was afraid of warping the panel so it was put off untill I got gas for the mig. Eventually I weld it in fully and it is suprisingly straight.

[snuffelupabus]

Some pictures from July 2002. Most structural in the cargo area is repaired. Rockers are in. I sprayed some temporary primer on to protect bare metal. There is a photo here of the inner windshield frame, it will have to be replaced.

Inner windshield frame/dash area

drivers floor.

cargo door hinge piller

[snuffelupabus]

In Febuary 2003 I began the removal and replacement of the inner nose. The outer nose was pretty good. I decided to carefully remove the lower few inches, install the inner nose bits and reinstall the origional outer. I also had to remove and replace the lower portion of the hinge pillers, made these bits myself.

[snuffelupabus]

Pictures from November 2003. A lot of time has passed and there was much progress. The front floors are replaced. The nose bits are now in and the outer is re attached. It was in really good shape except the passenger side, made a new panel for the corner. I had to replace the dog legs. I used the real bad WW panels. I had to cut and re-curve the rear portion to match the rocker curves. The dog leg was almost 1 inch longer that it was supposed to be for the door bottom at the front. I cut 1 inch out of the front curve and welded it back together and reworked the curve. The WW dog leg was three pieces spot welded together. I welded the entire door edge of the dog leg so it more or less matched the original.

[dawerks]

Cool thread and bus man! I like the delivery of the pictures from 'back in the day' (ie pre-green days). I hope you keep them in order for the 'suspense' and not do the big reveal (of the current bus) until it's time.
_________________
"There is only one sin; disconnection from self."

[snuffelupabus]

Yes. I envy the Green panel builders. Maybe the next bus.

Two, almost three years later, its 2006. Project was on hold for a couple of years, picked at it but nothing major. Spent the time redoing my 1991 Cabriolet, ground up, engine swap, bare metal rebuild. I considered it ‘practice’ for the bus. I’ll put up a couple of photos because I’m a bit proud of it. So, 2006, shot some primer on the front portion. Metal prep then epoxy primer, Dupont DTM. This is good stuff. Provides a good waterproof base for filler and other primers. My process is to do metal work, epoxy prime, rough areas for filler with 100 grit, fill, prime, fill, prime, seal, paint. the epoxy primer forms a waterproof base and protects moisture from penetrating to the bare metal. Filler and regular ‘high solids’ primers are not waterproof and the modern fillers are designed to be applied over primed or painted finishes. Got the cargo area floor in now as well. Also had to move the lower cargo door catches in by 3/8 inch. Otherwise the doors were proud of the rockers. I think I’ve read of others having to do this as well.

There was a rusty area in the frame just below the rear torsion tube. I welded in some cut and formed steel plate. Very clean job.

The cabriolet before...

The Cabby after...

back to the Bus...

[glideking]

Ahh!... I can smell the weld burned primer just looking at your photos.
Kurt
_________________
"The more I get done the less it looks like I did anything"
1959 Single Cab Restoration"Funky Truck"
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5...highlight=
1965 21 Window Restoration Thread (From old photos)
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6...highlight=
1963 Panelvan build "Tyvanosaurus Wrecks"
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8351639#8351639