TheSamba.com :: View topic - Restoration of a former '65 firetruck (21F)

Sun Feb 23, 2020 4:02 am

Still waiting for the weather to get better. I'm putting off the pain work until it gets warmer. Therefore I started on the the interior. I decided I wanted a nicer interior that what I had originally. I had a very simplistic mostly recycled or homemade interior without any paneling just the bare metal in the rear.

The floor is cut to fit and side panels are mostly ready to be finished with boats lacquer. I will try to cut the sealing panels tomorrow, hopefully the winter-storm which we are in at the moment will pass by then.

Floor and J-channels for the side panels

New wood for the rock & rool bed

Sandblasted and spray painted bed hinges

Lacquered the lower part of the bed/bench

Made the panels for the rear hatch

Also made the side panels and door panels for the cargo doors, but don't have any picture right now.

Sun Mar 29, 2020 2:54 am

Time for an update.

I have been working on the interior.

I made most of the side and ceiling panels, but I just notice I don't have any picture of those yet.

I also insulated the cargo area

Built a table prototype:

The table top will be replaced by a re-used kitchen table top. I will remove the original Formica and glue that to a new base. The old base is not durable enough for a camper because it is shoddy particleboard.

A test piece of Formica which I used acetone to remove the particleboard backing:

The bench seat:

Door panels

Sun Mar 29, 2020 3:14 am

More updates.

Windshields and rear glass are now installed and the driver side dogleg and rocker are primered

My four NOS rims are now sandblasted and painted in L41 and the bumper too

Mon Apr 06, 2020 11:58 am

Time for some paint. I started with the drivers side.

First some last sanding an and primer.

Looks quite OK

Oh no tree little runs :evil:

But overall I am quite satisfied:

Thu Apr 09, 2020 11:45 am

You can be satisfied, excellent work !

Antoine

Thu Apr 09, 2020 9:29 pm

i read the whole Story, realy amazing!
Very good detailed work here!

Are you may want so sell me some of your old cargo floor parts?

Mach weiter so!

-Christian

Thu Apr 09, 2020 11:45 pm

@Antoine and @Christian

Thank you for the thumbs up. I am starting to see the end of the tunnel.

Unfortunately I learned yesterday, that the Bullikartei Jahrestreffen is canceled for this year. This was the goal I was working toward. I missed the original goal the "Splits at the Lake" meeting in Nuenen NL by months. The BK meeting was much more realistic. :(

I will keep aiming for the date. I am fairly positive I can make it. But, who knows if the local DMV (Zulassungsstelle) will be open again by then. I am really looking forward to driving the van.

Sat May 09, 2020 4:28 am

Great work on the restoration! Looks perfect. Can you tell me what color you used on the outer panels? Was it RAL 3000 or matched to the faded paint? I’m building a mini bus and trying to get it to look close to my dad’s Firetruck. Because of lock down I can’t get near the bus to get the bus scanned I am trying to work out if should paint it RAL 3000 or another colour that looks more faded.

Sat May 09, 2020 11:15 am

Hello Dan,

Thank you for your kind words. It's not as perfect as it might look. But, that wasn't the goal in the first place. I wanted it to be usable and not showroom perfect.

Mine is really faded and RAL3000 just does not work for mine. I took of the gas- (petrol) door and took it to a paint specialist. The paint I am using is industrial grade two component paint. I picked a tone which was very close to the paint on the part I had with me.

Unfortunately the color match isn't that great depending on the how much I polish the old paint and and the location on the car. The paint seams have faded differently in different places.

If I were to repaint the whole car I would go with RAL3000. I assume the picture you posted is your dad's van. That looks really nice. The paint does not look nearly as faded as mine. Mine is almost orange.

Sun May 10, 2020 12:11 pm

Time to do another update.

Here is what ha happened. I painted the right side rocker and the part between rear hatch and engine compartment lid.

Installed the rear bumper and taillights

repainted the engine compartment lid and reinstalled it. Looks like a bus now from the rear :D

Stripped the paint from the nose and repainted it:

Sun May 10, 2020 12:15 pm

Besides working on the interior I also continued on the camper build and built the first cabinet

And I made some more panels for the front doors, kick panels and the rear corners

Mon May 11, 2020 9:42 am

Tremendous woodworking ! Looks real sweet ! 8)

Thu Jun 04, 2020 11:40 am

djfordmanjack wrote: Tremendous woodworking ! Looks real sweet ! 8)

Thank you!

Man, I am really lagging behind on my thread.

Here is what i have done since the last update.

1. Painted the front

2. Rebuilt the pop-out windows
First dissembled, then sandblasted and painted the frames

The M3.5 screws were 1mm too long. I ground them down:

3. rebuilt the second cargo door:

4. Built a heating duct for under the bench seat

5. finished the inside panels

6. upholstered the rear bench seat

7. finished the door panels

8. finished the cabinet

9. built a headbanger and tested the table

More pics to follow soon.

Thu Jun 04, 2020 11:53 am

Very nice. I love the reward to yourself.

Fri Jun 05, 2020 12:18 am

Wow, this project really moved forward, well done!

Antoine

Tue Jun 23, 2020 11:23 am

Two years have past now and the restoration is coming to and end.

The interior isn't complete yet, but I will work on that later. It is usable but I want to add some more stuff later.

Then I decided sort of in the last minute I did not want to give the inspector anything to fuss about, that why I decided the rusty corners of the tailgate had to go. I bought a new panel to repair the original tailgate but I am not completely happy with it. It is 2 mm too narrow and the hole for the button is 3 mm too low.

Then I decided that would be too much work for the short time I had left and pulled out the virtually rust free early bay part and started to modify it for my van, first i made sure it would really fit

And then I had to modify the lock area and get rid of some funky vent things which were probably added when the donor bus belonged to Siemens.

One of the last things I did was to replace the horse hair in the lower part of the driver seat, what a difference!

Today was the big day, the day of the TÜV inspection. The van was picked up by a tow truck and take to a garage in town. The inspector came to the garage for the inspection. The inspection turned out to be very smooth. Really only the breaks and the headlights were checked. The inspector had a very good impression of the van and didn't think he even had to look at the undercarriage because he could see that everything was like new.

Now I have to way until 7-2-2020 to register it. That was the earliest date I could get thanks to Covid-19. But, I guess that is really a small sacrifice these days.

Tue Jun 23, 2020 12:40 pm

Awesome work! I can just feel how eager you have to be to drive around the hoods :). Nice timing for the coming warm summer nights and camping far away of virus hotspots. Enjoy it and maybe in a few months/years I roll around your area and say hello!

Tue Jun 23, 2020 3:22 pm

Glückwunsch, Michael!!!

Wed Jun 24, 2020 12:04 pm

Super !
TÜV guys are a-ok ! :D

Thu Jun 25, 2020 12:46 am

Thank you guys!

Quote: Enjoy it and maybe in a few months/years I roll around your area and say hello!

Looking forward to meeting you some day. Stay safe and healthy in this crazy time.