Bus body repair nightmares

[Campy]

I've had some odd body work that had been done on some of the buses that I bought, over the years:
My 1958 VW bus body on the jeep chassis had had some holes drilled in the middle of the driver's side door so the thicker layer of filler would have something to grab onto. He couldn't have just removed the door panel and used a hammer and dolly on most of the dent, then spread a thin layer of filler over it.

The same bus had filler one and one-half inches thick on the front one-third of the right side outer rocker to the pillar. I removed it and it was so heavy, I saved it to show people and to use as a weapon when I go down to east Oakland. I replaced both rockers and the pillar.

My 1963 bus had had a large (about a five inch diameter) round hole in the left corner panel on the side, a ways above the floor panel inside. Instead of butt or tack welding on a round piece of sheet metal, he cut out a larger round piece of sheet metal, put it on the inside where it overlapped the hole, and, apparently, filled up the outside of the plate with welds.
To avoid rust issues, I ground off the inner plate, the welds were strong, and spread fiberglass reenforced body putty over the inside.

[VWBobby]

Campy, maybe the guy who owned your bus worked on mine also!

I love it when people bondo over cracks in a panel only to have it rust and chip out. I have found at least 3 two inch circles cut in random places in the roof with matching peices Bondo'd into place, not welded. Probably for some CB setup. A friend had a decent 66 Standard that had a roof vent in it. Instead of letting me weld a panel in, he opted to take it to the local body shop where some idiot glued a 1x1 foot flat sheet under the roof and leveled it off with filler! He tried to tell me, "You can't weld a roof, it will warp!!"

Slide hammer holes are my nightmare. At some point, my '65 bus had someone drill 20+ holes in each rear corner and fill over them. I ended up replacing both rear corners, and the hacked quarter panels. The other day I found 6 more holes in the passenger dogleg. Oh, I almost forgot the 20 more holes in the roof on the driver's side. It was better to graft in a new section than to try saving it.

Pulling crushed rockers that people have used as jacking points is fun....

[67stang302]

My 67 has about 2 inches of bondo covering the rocker that is completly rusted out. Also the rear corners are full of bondo. Don't even get me started on the textured wagner spray gun special
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[arthurnugen]

That says it all. I'm fixing it properly, so the next person who owns this bus won't have such a headache!
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[Campy]

And I thought that mine were bad. I knew that there were more nightmares out there. Filler over a plate on the roof? Filler just loves vibration. What is it with people and drill bits?
It looks like my nightmares were just average but here are some more:
The bus body on the jeep chassis had a whole line of thick filler on the right corner panel going through the wide rusted out hole where the battery floor used to be spot welded to it. I had to weld on a new corner panel and battery floor. Since the V-6 engine is in the middle of the bus, he had a big piece of sheet metal lying over the engine compartment where the engine used to be, and had an unstrapped batter sitting on it, believe it or not.
The 1957 bus that I got 29 years ago looked great but the body man had, recently, done a "quickie": it looked good but filler was spread all over and after a year ot two it cracked at the side of the "V" on the nose panel; and he did a "Pimp my Ride" on the right side outer rocker, putting fiberglass over a rusted out section, which, in a few years had bubbled paint due to rust.
Another good post would be what was found inside of sealed bus panels. Two of the four buses that I replaced right and left rockers on had what looked like big pieces of hasish in the rear of the left side when I opened them up. The free 1960 bus that I cut up had sand filling the outriggers, crossmembers, and rockers.

[oldschool64bus]

[thom]

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-Thom
1956 Single Cab
1957 Porsche 356A Sunroof
1957 23-Window Deluxe
1957 Mercedes Westfalia single cab
1963 Unimog 404
1965 E-Type

[VWBobby]

Looks like someone was trying to turn those rockers into surfboards....

[OG Velvet]

[ratlook63]

3 words.... Pimp My Ride........
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‘60 SWR walk-thru Kombi
‘60 Mango Standard
‘66 EZ Camper

[Mario J G]

I have a peice of rocker from one of the restorations I did that looks like that with wire mess and cardboard mixed in the bondo. Its about 10" long and weights about 10 lbs. I also have a 2'by 2' and about 3/4" thick in the middle peice that came from the side of a bus I restored, it must have been 40+ lbs of filler on its side.


At some point I will have to take pictures of the S#!T body work I have cut out of restoration projects I've done in the pass.

Mario
Vintage Werks Resto

[Campy]

Thom, it looks like frosting over a bee hive. That is truly a nightmare. You get the award, so far.

[bastardbus]

Hey....at least you guys have rockers or something there!
I had a roof and some frame rails...the rest was flapping in the breeze!

If you notice in this pic I already have replaced all the I beams, outriggers and inner rockers, think it looks scary here....you should have seen it before those were welded in.

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Samba Member #95

[Box on Wheels]

[krisbeetle]

[Matt K.]

This is what i found on my 57 DD panel, it was drywall screen popriveted to the rocker than about an inch or so of the finest bondo Kmart could supply, but the funny thing is that they did all this to patch two little rust holes in the rocker I have found all sorts of crazy repairs done to this one........................sometimes i just have to say WTF? and then laugh at it.
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This is my 23rd year in the Auto Body/Paint Game!
*Take a look at some of my custom paint: http://s110.photobucket.com/albums/n119/mrpaint_2006/ .( NOTE: these are some older jobs but still neat.)

[arthurnugen]

Wow, bastardbus, that's incredible! That kind of depth scares the heck out of me, because once everything is cut away or rusted away, where do you start? I mean, your OG reference points are gone! I'm going slow on the driver's side rocker because so much of it is crap, but dang dude! Keep it up!
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[Campy]

Airconditioning? I should have let someone in Canada have that free 1960 bus that I cut up. It would have been a daily driver.
I studied geology and Matt K.s picture look like a geologic formation: Tuscan formation above Chico formation.

[jeremyrockjock]

[Metalwizard]

Well let's see where to start, Ok brillo pads, steelwool,steel and aluminum wire MESH, Playboy mag, Screen door MESH, spray foam, newspapers, steel expanded metal, bluejeans, all this was filler for bondo and fiberglass, oh and tarpaper. A certain "Restored" 57 23 window had a nose section that weighed about 150lbs, Both rear corners were scuplted(sp) from bondo, they probably weighed 30lbs each. Every skylight had to be rebuilt to the gutter rail. Kents 56 standard sunroof had a drivers side wall the was a galvinized sheet about 4' x 5' and was forced to roll at the bottom, brazed in, the damn thing poped off as i was cutting the brazes loose and slapped me onto my arse in the driveway. Pics of these and other crap are in amongst my archives. In Thom's gallery on Vintagebus are 200 plus pics of Kents 56, severly cut apart.
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http://s461.photobucket.com/albums/qq335/Metalwizard/

Kelly aka
"Bubble & Nut Buster for wannabe BadBoy's of Restoration"
"There is no cure for Stupid"
ITMC "Drill SGT"