TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sun Jul 29, 2012 7:03 pm

Thanks for the positive words everyone! I'm trying to stay on these big jobs and knock em out so I can move onto some other details to get this baby road-ready!

I had the second half of Saturday to tack on the Valence and size up the lower nose. It took me a while to find the right settings on my welder to tack on the valence. I had to amp up my wire to .35 gauge.

Valence and Lower Nose

The Workshop

Sun Jul 29, 2012 9:57 pm

do you want this red one to go with the blue bus, why do i find them like this. no rust but munched nose

Mon Jul 30, 2012 8:24 pm

twistedbug wrote: do you want this red one to go with the blue bus, why do i find them like this. no rust but munched nose

:lol: Got my handful here with this one. At least your finding them and their not all rusted out! I've only come across a few bays that I don't want to waste my time with.

Mon Jul 30, 2012 8:35 pm

That lower nose is looking good!! I spent twenty minutes on my KF panel moving the lines to fit exact. Just hammer and dollie. Take your time. Killer bus!! I have noticed this panel fits exactly on November 58 and on front skins,nothing older without re-working. Still,very grateful do have something to work with!

Tue Jul 31, 2012 10:22 am

mr white wrote: That lower nose is looking good!! I spent twenty minutes on my KF panel moving the lines to fit exact. Just hammer and dollie. Take your time. Killer bus!! I have noticed this panel fits exactly on November 58 and on front skins,nothing older without re-working. Still,very grateful do have something to work with!
can you eleborate on this? what has to be reworked?

Tue Jul 31, 2012 11:54 am

If you look at the third pic down on this page,you see the kf lower nose panel mocked up,notice the lower "V" of the nose in the center, the lines are wider at the indentations on the KF panel. They need to be re-worked back to fit. I believe I have pics of this somewhere on the sleeping beauty forum. Not too bad of a job.

Fri Mar 29, 2013 7:52 am

Ski season keeps me busy but getting back at it...started on the lower driver side panels :D Have all the metal now from Gerson to finish... now just gotta make the time.

Fri Mar 29, 2013 8:34 am

Some details of the inner valence and lower nose that I did back in the Fall 2012.

Inner Valence

Lower Nose

Fri Mar 29, 2013 8:39 am

Rear Corners getting finished up. Had to bang out tons of the dents. Also had to cut out rust and replace metal where the battery tray meets the corner panel.

Sat Apr 06, 2013 12:16 pm

Driver Wheel Well progress. Cut out rusty metal and fabricating new.

Cargo Floor area:

Fri Nov 01, 2013 4:55 pm

Thought I'd post some more progress on the 58. It's finally all coming together now that the big weld jobs are almost wrapped up. Still need to epoxy primer everything before driving daily. Still waiting on the paperwork from state to have it titled and registered.

Back in the Spring and early Summer I worked on the inner and outer rockers, lower 6" of the pillars needed cut out and replaced, and the hacked wheel wells needed to get back to their original status. 8)

Inner Rockers

Pillars

Outer Sections

Wheel Wells

Driver Side Wheel Well, Rockers etc

Sat Nov 02, 2013 4:28 am

Very nice work!

Sat Nov 02, 2013 6:11 am

You're killin it! Keep it up!

Sat Nov 02, 2013 11:50 am

awesome work!

Sat Nov 02, 2013 12:20 pm

=D> =D>

Very nice work!

Sat Nov 02, 2013 3:58 pm

Looking good Bruce. Keep up the progress and you'll have it ready for camping in the spring.

Sun Nov 30, 2014 9:41 pm

Drove the bus around this summer a little once I got the paperwork and registration fun all figured out. My fears became a reality with the trans however. 4th had been whining for awhile and I didn't have much confidence in taking it too far from home. One day I was driving and as I shifted into 4th... I couldn't get above 35mph or so on a flat grade. It felt like I was in a crazy headwind. So I downshifted and limped back home in 3rd. I knew it was time and took the trans in for rebuild. I had the 3.88 ring and pinion exchanged for a 4.12. Apparently 3rd and 4th gears were installed backwards and really grinded some things up inside. Fulcrum plates also not in good shape. RGBs in very good condition. Put everything back together and waiting for some dry roads to check out rebuilt tranny.

Also recently removed some paint to reveal og dove blue paint but it's in really bad shape. Any thoughts before I go further? It's taking forever to remove with heavy duty stripper. Would love to keep original paint but if I can't get it looking better, I might reluctantly opt for a re spray. Please Someone talk me out of that and give me some ideas on touch up, blending, etc. Thanks. Here are some recent photos. Finishing up on welding and still have a few kinks to work out on the body.

Sat Aug 15, 2015 7:36 am

Took "the van down by the river" last night with my boys to fish a little bit. The only thing we caught was some laughs and a nice sunset pic.

Sat Aug 15, 2015 10:14 am

Walkthru 58. Nice bus. 8)

Sat Aug 15, 2015 8:05 pm

The only thing we caught was some laughs and a nice sunset pic.

8) cool!