65 California Patina Sundial Kombi rust repair

[ryans65]

A local buddy of mine picked up this killer Sundial Kombi. While the body is incredibly straight it suffered some bizarre rust in the front floor, doglegs, cargo rocker and battery tray. We are doing this in two stages, the first being the front floor and the doglegs along with the battery tray. After that he is making this a runner then removing all the cabinetry so I can tackle the rocker repair. I am going to try and save the outer passenger dogleg but the drivers side is too crispy!

on to the pics-

long side is out of this world straight!

[ryans65]

Hit it hard this morning, started at about 8:30AM and finished removing the floor and cleaned up at noon.

[ryans65]

[Skim]

See you got that full front fp this time
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1953 Kabriolet
1954 Sunroof
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[western auto]

that bus is a prime candidate for the clr treatment

[ryans65]

for sure!! even though mother nature had removed some of the floor for me the rest of it came out nice with no extra surprises

[ryans65]

that's the plan! the body on this thing is just so incredibly straight, my buddy got a nice one!

[turkis-deluxe]

Looks good! Also those are some of the most common rust areas, not too bizarre at all. Good luck!!

[ryans65]

I probably should have clarified what I meant, the front floor for instance was swiss cheese but the long side rocker doesn't even have a pin hole in it. The cargo rocker is non existent but the rest of the cargo floor is great. Me and my buddy concluded it probably sat at an angle and water pooled in the front floor pan and then the rocker area. I dunno it was just sort of randomly rusted!

[ryans65]

knocked out the passenger a pillar patch tonight and started trimming the dogleg, I am saving as much of this dogleg as I reasonably can

[nineteensixtyfiveVG]

[easy e]

If center is good... I think not having to dick around with the heater pipe & shifter would be nice.

Sometimes the std size corner pieces are not quite enough & it makes more sense to buy the whole floor to piece out... let’s someone else weigh in though.
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[ryans65]

I was thinking the same thing too with the heater pipe but it didn't take very much time to cut the tack welds and remove it. It is a little tedious drilling or grinding all the little spot welds that hold the floor on but you won't have to make two huge butt welds like you would with the floor patches so you'll save some time there.

[ryans65]

[ryans65]

Inner dogleg

[ryans65]

Inner valence was a little crispier than I thought so I am working that area now

[ryans65]

had a snow day today, didn't take a lot of pictures but managed to get the floor fitted and ready to burn!

[dschup]

Wow, I have a similar 65. Cant wait to see more pics, as mine is a blank slate on the interior.

If you don't mind sharing, what serial number is on your sundial plate? I'm curious how close ours are. I'll have to look at mine when I get home.

[ryans65]

whoa twins!!

This one actually belongs to a local guy, Ill snap the serial number later this week. This one has quite a bit of interior left although most is going to get pulled so I can take care of the nasty cargo rocker. Not sure what his plans are for restoring/ replacing the sundial stuff.

I'm going to try and take in one bus at a time for metal work and see if I can turn this into a full time gig. I really enjoy this type of work and look forward to the next bus project! I won't be doing any bodywork/ paint just metal work for right now.

[dschup]

The lower black Sundial plate on mine is S1414. Please take and post several interior pics if you have the chance.

Good luck with the metal work!