Swedish 66 Crew Cab Resto

[Skim]

holy fukc, y'all really put up with some serious rust issues over there
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GFK
Samba since before the towers collapsed. Still here.
1953 Kabriolet
1954 Sunroof
1959 Lowlight Ghia vert
1960 Lt Grey Double Cab SMZ LEGIT
1963 Deluxe Turkis Walk Thru 15 Window OG Paint

[mabbo]

[wcfvw69]

I always marvel at the length folks go to in bringing back a dead, badly rusted up bus. I say this with admiration of the skills, time, money and effort. Some of the barn door bus restorations in Europe have been mind boggling.

At the same time, us long time VW folks in the SW USA saw thousands and thousands of buses like this (that were basically rust free) getting scrapped and crushed decades ago.
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Decades of VW and VW parts restoration experience.
The Samba member since 2004.

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**Restored Porsche fuel pumps or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche distributors or I can restore yours**

[mabbo]

Got all the original parts from the chassis that will be reused ready for blasting.

Rear parts:

Front parts:

The floor section was better than I thought it would be, hopefully its just a small repair at the back it needs:

The beam mount sections are going to need some work though:

Got the seat runner and the extra section thats fitted to the cab tool chest area off and it seems to git the new BBT panel pretty nice:

Enjoying it so far

[mabbo]

Had the chassis parts blasted:

Not as nice as I had hoped. Rotten in quite a few places:

Rest of the parts:

I repaired the rotten corner of the front floor section:

Trial assembly of new chassis and front section:

Found a solid rear cut including the complete rear chassis rails so decided to use the whole rear end as the pressings were nicer than the repro chassis rails around where the support bar is welded. New piece tacked in place temporary:

The front inner chassis legs were flat and needed shaping to fit the bulge in the bulkhead:

Thats it for now

[mabbo]

Had a few days on a customers 66 we restored a couple of years go. It was never built to be a show car but he did a great job of all the assembly and I love it.... Anyway, he bought it to us to sort a few issues with the engine and gearbox. I sanded and mopped a few areas and helped detail it before the show:

Now Volksworlds all over, its back to real work. We got a bit more done on the chassis... Loads of hours but not a lot to show for it, enjoying it though.

We got the rear donor chassis / torsion housing section trimmed down and tidied up. We got the new chassis rails square and lined up the rear cut before tacking everything in place. Then got the sills, I beams etc mocked up and once happy panel pinned in place:

Once we were happy everything was in the right place we seamed the join in the chassis rails up where the factory join is. Bit gutted, was hoping these would come out perfect as they wont be ground flush. They are not bad, but not my best welding:

Spot welded the sills to the I beams and top hats. The complete floor support framework finished but not welded to the chassis just yet:

We got the front and rear outriggers and cross members pinned in place, once happy we took them apart and spot welded the rear cross member to the inner sections of the chassis rails before they were fitted:

Then we spot welded the rear outriggers to the chassis before the rear crossmember 'assembly' was welded in place. We painted epoxy and weld in all the box sections, and weld through primer on all the spot welded sections before anything was welded for maximum protection.

After the outriggers were welded, we spot welded the 'cross member assembly' in place trying to make it look as factory as possible.

Seaming up the torsion housings:

Repaired the rotten lower sections of the beam mounting plates. Now ready to fit to the new chassis rails:

The other side needed the threaded tube welding back in place:

Outer section on the other side repaired:

They were a slightly different profile along the top edge compared to the new chassis rails, after a bit of messing about they fit nice:

Inner front chassis rails spot welded in as factory:

Thats it for now, back in it tomorrow

[mabbo]

Another update...

Finished seaming up the beam mounting section to the new front chassis rails:

Plug welded the top hats and spot welded the I beams to the tops of the chassis rails, and welded the tubes for the cables etc:

Got the tool box and floor sections pinned in the right place, and trial fit the front tubs:

Trial fit of the front cross plate, front valance, master cylinder cross member etc to check everything is OK before welding:

Once happy I welded in the handbrake / shifter mounting panel in place:

Then the steering box section:

Removed the took box and floor section to paint the insides body colour before they are fitted as it would be impossible to get good paint coverage in there once welded:

And spot welded in place:

Welded the rear section of the beam mount cut to the new chassis rails:

Heater control tube welded:

Front valance welded to the chassis rails:

Rear donor bump stops were cleaned up, repaired and welded to the chassis as factory:

Got the chassis onto the rotisserie so we can get the underside finished. Loads of bits and bobs to get done under there:

Thats it for now

[Burlyhammer]

Wow! One awesome looking chassis. Those welds look incredible. Looking forward to the next update!

[wcfvw69]

[nineteensixtyfiveVG]

Ok, a couple of things. First this is amazing work. Unreal the detail you are going into to bring this back to life.

I understand when someone does this to a bus they find and want to save and its just a matter of hours and metal.

My question is how on earth can someone afford to pay to get this done? ...and if they can afford to pay for this metal work couldn't they have just bought a fully restored rust free double cab for less? What am I missing?

[mabbo]

[mabbo]

Another small update...

Got the jacking points seamed up:

And spot welded to the sill, as factory:

Marked up the factory tack welds on the underside of the front floor under the bench seat, and replicated:

Heater tubes in and welding around the front finished:

Clutch pedal guide cleaned up and welded as factory:

New chassis rails didn't have any wiring tabs, so they were made and spot welded:

Clutch tube bracket made and welded:

Spent what seemed like forever tidying all the welds up, and prepping the chassis ready for epoxy primer:

[nineteensixtyfiveVG]

[wcfvw69]

[mabbo]

Got a bit more done...

The chassis has been epoxied:

Spent today cutting the body from the chassis and seperating the front and back half. It dont look as bad in the pictures as it is... Its a pear.

Planning on getting the front half repaired first... the back half dont look too bad

[peecee69]

Wow. Incredible work. Love the updates!
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1973 Standard Beetle - running maintenance thread - https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=675712&highlight=
1966 Doublecab - Starting resto - https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=668518&highlight=

[j.pickens]

My favorite current Samba forum topic. Can't wait to see the next step, and the next...
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BBX BBXII and BBXXI Long Distance Award Winner

[mabbo]

Thanks for the comments

We wanted to get the body sitting over the restored chassis so we could make a start to the repairs on the body. We removed the remains of the original inner valance so the body would sit at the correct height on the new inner valance on the restored chassis. Also removed the remains of the front bulkhead that had previously been hacked out, and the patched up lower B posts so we could see how the new bulkhead from BBT fit - overall its not bad at all.

Body sits nice on the chassis and everything seems to line up as expected, but the new bulkhead isnt as good as we had hoped. Id never fitted one before and every other panel from BBT has been good, but the shape at the top of the panel where it meets the B post isnt right and will need some work. I know the bulkhead is the wrong one but my customer isnt bothered. I would be if it was my bus, but its not, so this one is going to be fitted.

Anyway, we had a good look at the rear section of the van, and luckily the area where the fuel tank sits and the surrounding metal that we need to re use dont look too bad. The inner framework under the bed looks pretty good too. Will know more when its stripped down... but its pretty grim under there:

[mabbo]

So, we had the rear half of the bus ready to strip down to go to be blasted:

We stripped everything that wasnt reusable and were left with this:

I decided to have a look at the heater pipes under the dash which had been hacked. My customer supplied a replacement but it didnt have the captive nut mounting for the wiper motor:

Modified close enough to factory for this piece:

The dashboard had been hacked too:

Supplied donor section was slightly too short so extended it before welding in place:

Here it is welded in place. I cant find my file to finish the welds at the top and bottom of the vent:

Although the rear bulkhead panel was pretty solid, it was battered. We had a new KF panel to fit so took it apart and the posts were worse than expected. Pretty glad we are replacing it now as we were considering repairing the original:

And placed the new panel to test the fit. Seems to fit really nice, just need to get the seat mounts spot welded onto the panel before its ready to be fitted:

Hoping to get everything blasted next week.

[silkvw]

Your welder and grinder seem to work like a magic wand!
Excellent work!
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https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=641871&highlight=