My 79 Deluxe.. looking for advice

[giftshopduane]

I picked this bus up in the fall, it was such a good deal I couldn't pass it up. I knew it had issues, wasn't too concerned with it, I also I picked up a donor rolling shell. Here we are.

Seems that it was either an amatuer restoration or a slap it together sell it quick situation, either way it's my problem now. The nose was replaced, it was done well except for the seam at the lower portion, plenty of blown out welds and seam sealer. The rockers, both sides are just skins laid over the old rot and seams filled. Same with the sliding door and some of the doglegs. The doors are good, rear corners straight and clean. B pillars shot, front of cargo floor and bottom lip of the seat risers shot. 10 Inches of the left cargo floor to wheel well shot. R and L steps need work. The top 95% of the bus is straight and solid, tight. Oh and it runs and drives well.

That being said my donor has a fair amount of usable parts for this, front panel, frame, B pillars, doglegs, doors.

I realize not everything I need is salvageable from it, but if I'm going to cut up the donor what should I save? IMHO both need a very similar amount of repairs, a six in one half dozen situation.

Have at it... and thanks
Chris



She's a good 10 footer

Cargo floor was pop rivet and sheet metal, pounds of filler

Front panel lower seam at bumper panel

Step, both sides are the same

This is the fun part.. solid legit repair!

Mmmmm!

Coincidentally the cargo floor of the donor has the exact opposite amount of issues.

Oh and the headliner is soaked and stained with mouse piss, and I heard something moving around in there, I think it's a honking moth or beetle, it was moving under the headliner like some horror flick.

[SGKent]

Get Mark - Busdaddy to look over your torsion tube rust issues. He has done that repair before and can tell you what you are in for. Happy you have a bus, sorry the seller was a scumbag when it came to disclosure.
_________________
“Most people don’t know what they’re doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin

[giftshopduane]

A bit of an update.. I went over to my shop this morning to thoroughly inspect the donor.. given the crap weather here in MA and other obligations, I haven't had the time to crawl around it. I feel I was a little premature in thinking I should cut it up, it's really solid, also in comparison to what's in my garage. I think my best course of action is just fixing the donor and swapping everything over. The worst of it is the cargo floor, the rockers need to be done, the slider track lower is shot, a few dents knocked back and small random patches replaced. The pillars, doglegs, steps, frame, rails, crossmembers everything else looks good. My only real question at this point is the roof. It's pretty rusty, no holes through yet, but decent craters, should I fill and straighten it or spend the time to remove the skin and donate the one off the red bus? That and the floor seem to me to be the major obstacles.

The best part IMHO is that it's not a patched up bondowagen!

Here's the roof

thanks

Chris