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Sat Oct 15, 2011 4:51 am

Just thought you might be interested in having a look at where I am upto restoring my 1952 Barn Door Panel Van.

Here's my blog - let me know what you think!!

http://statusvw1952van.blogspot.com

Thanks!

Sat Oct 15, 2011 6:42 am

Wow I'm surprised this is your first post 52deluxebug. Congratulations on your great project and your very first post here on the samba. :wink:

52deluxebug wrote: Just thought you might be interested in having a look at where I am upto restoring my 1952 Barn Door Panel Van.

Here's my blog - let me know what you think!!

http://statusvw1952van.blogspot.com

Thanks!

Sat Oct 15, 2011 5:16 pm

very nice, i'll be keeping a watch out
8)

Mon Oct 17, 2011 2:09 am

Hey - thanks guys. I appreciate your comments.

Tue Oct 18, 2011 11:38 am

I've bookmarked your blog so i can keep an eye on your progress. Best of luck with the resto. Your work looks great so far.

Wed Oct 19, 2011 3:37 pm

Looks like you are doing it thoroughly, i am interested :P

Thu Oct 20, 2011 2:59 am

Hey - thanks for the great comments guys - really appreciate that!

Thu Nov 03, 2011 3:26 am

More pics been posted on the blog over the last few days:

http://statusvw1952van.blogspot.com/

Fri Nov 18, 2011 4:17 am

Been doing more work to the front chassis - more pics on the blog and more to go on over the weekend:

Fri Dec 02, 2011 8:54 am

Been getting some paint all over the place too:

More pics and details on the blog:
http://statusvw1952van.blogspot.com

Thu Dec 08, 2011 9:52 am

Finally finished the chassis today

More pics at http://statusvw1952van.blogspot.com

After months and months of work, the chassis is all in primer and ready to be re-united with the body :) :) :) :)

Thu Dec 08, 2011 11:18 am

What a nice chassis !! 8)
Great work :)

But one thing about the 2 stops of the rear spring plates, they are still completely bended.
Maybe it would easier to sort this out before re unit chassis and body ?...

Fri Dec 09, 2011 4:26 am

hey, thanks!

I had a look at the rear stops, and it must just be the angle of the photo, because they are millimetre perfect on each side, plus with this being re-inforced cast metal, they would not bend, it would simply snap.

Thanks for checking though - I do appreciate any help / advice.

Fri Dec 09, 2011 8:03 am

52deluxebug wrote: plus with this being re-inforced cast metal, they would not bend, it would simply snap.

I don't think so. It's seems to be a recurrent problem... :?
Take a look at this thread, this problem has already been mentionned there :

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4...p;start=20

But if yours is OK so that's great :wink:

Lowdown Dirty Rat wrote:

Why does this happen?
I assumed they were ment to be bent :? Because I have two complete rear ends in the garage and they both have curved torsion bar ends. Both are curved exactly the same amount. One was off a 52 samba the other off a jan 51 panel.

Pictures from your blog : :idea:

statusvw blog wrote:

:-s

Fri Dec 09, 2011 9:26 am

I'm still not convinced this wasn't factory, atleast to some degree.
Anyone have a NOS torsion bar housing? :wink:

Fri Dec 09, 2011 9:47 am

Hmmm maybe...that can make sense because of the circle described by the end of the axle, but that bend seems a little exagerate...

Maybe they have been increased little by lilttle each time the spring plate came to bump on it ?

Btw, those on my 54 chassis looks perfectly straight so...
(although they are bended on my 53... )

This need investigation :idea:

Sat Dec 10, 2011 3:10 am

The odd thing is, if I measure between the stop and the chassis, it is the exact millimetre difference on each side. If this had twisted, then surely they would be different on each side. It is EXACTLY the same difference even to the fraction of a millimetre.

Will do some more investigating!!!!

Maybe they changed the design on the later barndoors to straight type ones???

Sat Dec 10, 2011 3:46 am

Lowdown Dirty Rat wrote: I'm still not convinced this wasn't factory, atleast to some degree.
Anyone have a NOS torsion bar housing? :wink:

nos on page 1 http://boxerville.se/forum/viewtopic.php?id=82

Sat Dec 10, 2011 4:13 am

If you look at the later units they are very much reinforced with strengthener ribs on the inside. The early housings don't have those ribs, so that is why they might have bendt ! That is forged steel so it wouldn't snap. It is similar quality as mild alloy steel, they are also welded to the torsion bar housings and that to the frame, they are NOT cast grey iron !
I can easily see the old version bend under severe loads for decades, especially since the spring plates give assymmetrical force to the stops.

Sat Dec 10, 2011 6:07 am

I'm not convinced.

If you think about the load and forces at play - you get the most force when the van accelerates, on a van with reduction boxes, what happens to the wheels? They bend inwards at the bottom, that is the exact opposite direction to the alleged bend. Plus, look at when a van is cornering, you get more force on one side than the other, again giving without question an uneven wear pattern. Its a panel van with loading doors on one side, given its inevitable use, there is bound to be great loading on one side than the other, again leading to uneven wear.

The fact that the bend of these is to fraction of a millimetre exactly the same on each side, I can come to no other conclusion that its supposed to be like that. If they had bent through use, then you would not get them evenly bent.

Plus, the material is clearly cast. You have the casting marks and typical 'rough' finish from the sand in which they were cast. Forged steel is a much smoother finish from when the metal is shaped whilst its still molten, you don't get such a rough finish from forged steel as you do in cast material.

Hope some of my ramblings make sense!!!!! Cheers to all!