'Let's Go! Scotland-Croatia and onwards in our Kombi!'

[1970fun]

Oof i think i leave my underseal in place

[mcdonaldneal]

[jaket3]

That looks great.

I think you could just paint POR15 directly on top of that and it would be fine.

Will look great when you've done it. Planning to do similar on my Bay window but might wait for some warmer weather!

[Slip356]

78 Westy purchased in Canada 15 yrs ago. It was Zebart type rust proofed apparently since new.
Once per year put it on my lift and scrape off the flaking undercoat which shows clean painted metal underneath. Wash with lacquer thinner, let dry and spray with 3M rubberized undercoating from spray can.
Works well for me, but do it once per year or water will get between flaking undercoat & body metal causing rust.

[RalphWiggam]

I would highly suggest looking at masterseries silver paint as your first coat. I've tried all the rust paint's and it is by far the best. 100x better than por15.

[mcdonaldneal]

I’m making good progress removing the old underseal. I figure I’m best while I’m at it taking off as much as possible and it’ll get cleaned and re-undersealed at the very least.
This clip shows the pneumatic needle descaler in action. It just a quick first pass, but you can see how well it deals with the seal and leaves the paint. The volume is a bit variable because the tool is so loud!


Link

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1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper

Stop dead photo links! Post photos to The Samba Gallery!

[mcdonaldneal]

Random progress photo while I was under there this afternoon!

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1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper

Stop dead photo links! Post photos to The Samba Gallery!

[1970fun]

Nice work Phil, that is a great tool wich makes it a lot easier than scraping by hand!!

[mcdonaldneal]

It so happened that I got another clip of the pneumatic descaler in action again (just in case anyone is considering buying one!)
This is the top of the rear wheel arch. You can see the surface rust that is hidden beneath the underseal. Not too bad.


Link

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1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper

Stop dead photo links! Post photos to The Samba Gallery!

[mcdonaldneal]

Sadly, almost as I was on the last section of the whole underneath, I discovered the only really serious section of rusted metal. I guess it is a water trap between the two skins of metal, at the upper edge of the outer wheel arch.
I’ll cut out the damage, but I’m not sure what to do from here. It might be I could get a mobile welding service to weld a patch, or I could complete the underseal project and separately take the bus to a body shop some time next year. There is a restoration guy I have used before a couple of hours away, but we are in lockdown just now still, so it’s pretty academic!

You can see the rest of the under wheel arch is pretty solid once the old underseal is off.

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1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper

Stop dead photo links! Post photos to The Samba Gallery!

[jaket3]

Looks great. Nice to see nothing lurking underneath.

I'm going to do similar on mine in the spring. I'm so bored with lockdown this actually seems like fun.

I think I'll just leave mine painted and not underseal it. Currently my underseal is so flakey that it just holds moisture.

If I just paint it then once a year I'll just jetwash the underside, then take a look and touch up as required.

Did you look at electric needle de-scalers? I don't have a compressor. Maybe time to get one.

Cheers, Jake

[RalphWiggam]

That doesn't look too bad. Do you see any bubbling on the other side of those holes?

I could be wrong but I think the only way water can get to that point is down from a leaking side window seal.

Looks good otherwise. Congrats on all that work.

[jaket3]

Sorry in my last reply I hadn't seen those last photos. I think if that's the worst bit then you have done alright really. How many hours in total do you think it took with the descaler?

[Abscate]

How’s your weather in Bonnie Scotland? I think we have you in the snow department.....

First part of my projects will be finding them.

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.ssS!

[mcdonaldneal]

[deepcflea]

Oh man... I recently finished removing the undercoating on my 78. I wish mine was as easy as that. Mine was all gooey which required scraping it off.

"pneumatic needle descaler" when I was in the Navy... we called them "needle guns"

P.S. Not sure if you did that descaling with your wife present, but mine almost killed me after using mine. It is so loud and she was working from home and it was driving her nuts. She couldn't wait to get back to work.
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1978 Bay Window Double Cab (1600cc) - Marilyn
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...005b041ddd

Formerly owned VW's
1983 Westfalia
1956 Oval Ragtop
1967 Bug
1970 Ghia
1969 Buggy

[mcdonaldneal]

[MorkC68]

Damn

Have you thought about contacting someone like FBI VW see if they have a wheelarch tub cut off any buses they have broke?
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Major; 1977 Westfalia Campmobile
- Subaru EJ20
- Koni Classic adjustable dampers & Empi Heavy Duty Anti Roll Bar
- 180W Solar System

My blog: https://twolatebays.wordpress.com/

[mcdonaldneal]

Most of the work is not interesting enough to take pictures of, but an hour a day every now and again is having an effect!
You can see the general state of the main underbody here, the old underseal did a pretty good job...

_________________
1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper

Stop dead photo links! Post photos to The Samba Gallery!

[mcdonaldneal]

Slight change of subject. We’ve had a spell of freezing weather, and an eBay package of goodness arrived, so I investigated that.
On the advice of Samba member 1970fun, from the Netherlands I have purchased a Chinese made 2kw, aluminium bodied diesel heater. They can be bought incredibly cheaply, this was £125, and I was keen to get a good heating system into the Kombi for camping in the spring.
The heater comes pretty complete, but some things will need to be replaced or upgraded:
The 10 litre diesel tank is too large, I will go for 5-7 litre
The heater itself is good and pretty well put together. The aluminium casing seems robust. The fan spins very freely, which can be an issue. The fittings like fuel line clamps are better than basic quality.
I will upgrade the air inlet filter, the exhaust hosing and the fuel filter, maybe add a quick disconnect, so I can take the tank out to refill, and a priming bulb as these are much better manually primed to save wear on the pump.
I will use a full turret plate to pass the inlet and exhaust pipes through the floor of the bus.
The heater body fits snugly in the locker under the sink, and I think I will run the outlets under the rock and roll bed.
Anyway, pics...

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1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper

Stop dead photo links! Post photos to The Samba Gallery!