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EliasP Samba Member
Joined: January 09, 2018 Posts: 55 Location: Sweden
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Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2020 10:14 pm Post subject: Re: Reefblue 1976 Kleinbus |
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78BusGA wrote: |
Very impressive! I will definitely save your thread as reference. I have a '78 reef blue that I will have to do similar work on too, so this is good work to see. And very impressive that you're 17, I should have learned to weld at your age too. |
Thanks! Glad to hear that!
Cmonstart, I am using an Esab Mag C140. Orwell, good tip about welding upside down, I will test your that! _________________ Why have a good looking face? You can't even see your own face! |
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EliasP Samba Member
Joined: January 09, 2018 Posts: 55 Location: Sweden
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Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2020 10:43 pm Post subject: Re: Reefblue 1976 Kleinbus |
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Did some more cutting in the weelwell.
Incredible how rusty the seatbeltmount was!
Made a new lower b-pillar
Made a new inner wing.
I know, this should be two pieces, but I made it in one as the seam always seem to rust.
Welded in place.
Then to the inner of the wheelarch.
Upper b-pillar.
Then the upper piece of the wheelarch! Very happy with this piece.
Seatbelt mounting panel.
Painted
C-pillar welded in place
_________________ Why have a good looking face? You can't even see your own face! |
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EliasP Samba Member
Joined: January 09, 2018 Posts: 55 Location: Sweden
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Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2020 1:40 am Post subject: Re: Reefblue 1976 Kleinbus |
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removed the epoxy where I should weld and painted with the red stuff instead. That can be welded thru.
Outer sill clamped in place.
Welded small, fast spots, one in the front, one in the rear, one in the middle. then let it stand to let it cool. It took a 7 hours, because I had to wait between the welds to stop warpage.
All welded.
Went out good.
Inner b-pillar painted with a primer that can be welded thru.
Starts to look good!
Had to cut down the outer b-pillar alot to get it fit.
Inside painted.
Spot welded.
More welding.
Grinding and painting.
Lower, inner wheelwell, rear. I had to make this piece by my own using pictures I found on internet.
Outer skin on the lower rear wheelarch. This was a Klokkerholm panel, wich needed some work to fit, but then it was fitting pretty good.
Welded.
Grinded the weldings down:
It is fun to watch old pictures of how bad it was lokking before I start work on it. Before:
Now:
_________________ Why have a good looking face? You can't even see your own face! |
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orwell84 Samba Member
Joined: May 14, 2007 Posts: 2528 Location: Plattsburgh, New York
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Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2020 5:40 am Post subject: Re: Reefblue 1976 Kleinbus |
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You're making great progress on your bus. The only way to do it right is to the way you're doing it, cut out the rusty sections and replace with new. It would cost a fortune for a shop to do it. Your entire bus appears to covered with a thin layer of filler. It's one of the reasons I insist on doing my own prep. Body shops want to deliver a straight vehicle to the customer and seem to do this by applying filler over the whole thing. Buses were not dead straight from the factory. I would rather have an honest slightly lumpy bus than one with a ton of filler.
Some more unsolicited advice...sorry. You did a great job weling in the drivers side side panel. It's easy to warp it and make it worse trying to correct it. You did good. When you repair a big panel like that, it is good to get all the filler off the whole panel down to bare metal. Then you can see its condition and get behind it to do any straightening before the new panel goes on.
Looking forward to your updates. |
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metz Samba Member
Joined: March 31, 2005 Posts: 278 Location: Norway
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Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2020 5:56 am Post subject: Re: Reefblue 1976 Kleinbus |
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Doing a great job here! Looking forward to more updates.
Stå på _________________ 68 panel
64 ghia coupe |
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EliasP Samba Member
Joined: January 09, 2018 Posts: 55 Location: Sweden
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Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2020 12:07 am Post subject: Re: Reefblue 1976 Kleinbus |
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metz wrote: |
Doing a great job here! Looking forward to more updates.
Stå på |
Thanks! I have followed your panel project too! _________________ Why have a good looking face? You can't even see your own face! |
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EliasP Samba Member
Joined: January 09, 2018 Posts: 55 Location: Sweden
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Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2020 12:16 am Post subject: Re: Reefblue 1976 Kleinbus |
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orwell84 wrote: |
You're making great progress on your bus. The only way to do it right is to the way you're doing it, cut out the rusty sections and replace with new. It would cost a fortune for a shop to do it. Your entire bus appears to covered with a thin layer of filler. It's one of the reasons I insist on doing my own prep. Body shops want to deliver a straight vehicle to the customer and seem to do this by applying filler over the whole thing. Buses were not dead straight from the factory. I would rather have an honest slightly lumpy bus than one with a ton of filler.
Some more unsolicited advice...sorry. You did a great job weling in the drivers side side panel. It's easy to warp it and make it worse trying to correct it. You did good. When you repair a big panel like that, it is good to get all the filler off the whole panel down to bare metal. Then you can see its condition and get behind it to do any straightening before the new panel goes on.
Looking forward to your updates. |
I appreciate your advice, thank you. The bus has an old repaint from the waistline and down. Probably 20 - 30 years old. It is really poor done, and as you mention, it was all covered with filler. Most places it is just a skim layer, but a few places it is centimetre thick layers. I will have to bare metal the whole bus to see that there are no weird repairs and fillerwork left before the final paintwork. The paint will though wait until all welding are done and until the underside is blasted and painted, then I can start with working on the outside. I am thinking about doing a work with keeping the roof, or maybe the whole upper part originalpaint and paint it from 15 cm up on the windowpillars and down. I am going to use as less filler as possible, perhaps just cover my welds and other ugly dents, but keep most of the dents under the paint to minimalize the amount of filler. This will be a use-car, not a show winner. _________________ Why have a good looking face? You can't even see your own face! |
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orwell84 Samba Member
Joined: May 14, 2007 Posts: 2528 Location: Plattsburgh, New York
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Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2020 5:24 am Post subject: Re: Reefblue 1976 Kleinbus |
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EliasP wrote: |
orwell84 wrote: |
You're making great progress on your bus. The only way to do it right is to the way you're doing it, cut out the rusty sections and replace with new. It would cost a fortune for a shop to do it. Your entire bus appears to covered with a thin layer of filler. It's one of the reasons I insist on doing my own prep. Body shops want to deliver a straight vehicle to the customer and seem to do this by applying filler over the whole thing. Buses were not dead straight from the factory. I would rather have an honest slightly lumpy bus than one with a ton of filler.
Some more unsolicited advice...sorry. You did a great job weling in the drivers side side panel. It's easy to warp it and make it worse trying to correct it. You did good. When you repair a big panel like that, it is good to get all the filler off the whole panel down to bare metal. Then you can see its condition and get behind it to do any straightening before the new panel goes on.
Looking forward to your updates. |
I appreciate your advice, thank you. The bus has an old repaint from the waistline and down. Probably 20 - 30 years old. It is really poor done, and as you mention, it was all covered with filler. Most places it is just a skim layer, but a few places it is centimetre thick layers. I will have to bare metal the whole bus to see that there are no weird repairs and fillerwork left before the final paintwork. The paint will though wait until all welding are done and until the underside is blasted and painted, then I can start with working on the outside. I am thinking about doing a work with keeping the roof, or maybe the whole upper part original paint and paint it from 15 cm up on the windowpillars and down. I am going to use as less filler as possible, perhaps just cover my welds and other ugly dents, but keep most of the dents under the paint to minimalize the amount of filler. This will be a use-car, not a show winner. |
I think that’s a really good approach...getting the underside done and seam sealed...window frames too. I had my bus repainted decades ago but never replaced the window seals. One of the rear window frames had rusted through under the seal and the water getting in caused a new jackpoint and section of rocker panel rust through after a fairly short time.
There is nothing wrong with filler if it is used properly. I try to get the metal as straight as I can and keep filler under 3mm at its deepest points. I could never finish metal to the point that it didn’t require and but I’m still trying. |
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EliasP Samba Member
Joined: January 09, 2018 Posts: 55 Location: Sweden
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Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2020 10:20 am Post subject: Re: Reefblue 1976 Kleinbus |
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orwell84 wrote: |
EliasP wrote: |
orwell84 wrote: |
You're making great progress on your bus. The only way to do it right is to the way you're doing it, cut out the rusty sections and replace with new. It would cost a fortune for a shop to do it. Your entire bus appears to covered with a thin layer of filler. It's one of the reasons I insist on doing my own prep. Body shops want to deliver a straight vehicle to the customer and seem to do this by applying filler over the whole thing. Buses were not dead straight from the factory. I would rather have an honest slightly lumpy bus than one with a ton of filler.
Some more unsolicited advice...sorry. You did a great job weling in the drivers side side panel. It's easy to warp it and make it worse trying to correct it. You did good. When you repair a big panel like that, it is good to get all the filler off the whole panel down to bare metal. Then you can see its condition and get behind it to do any straightening before the new panel goes on.
Looking forward to your updates. |
I appreciate your advice, thank you. The bus has an old repaint from the waistline and down. Probably 20 - 30 years old. It is really poor done, and as you mention, it was all covered with filler. Most places it is just a skim layer, but a few places it is centimetre thick layers. I will have to bare metal the whole bus to see that there are no weird repairs and fillerwork left before the final paintwork. The paint will though wait until all welding are done and until the underside is blasted and painted, then I can start with working on the outside. I am thinking about doing a work with keeping the roof, or maybe the whole upper part original paint and paint it from 15 cm up on the windowpillars and down. I am going to use as less filler as possible, perhaps just cover my welds and other ugly dents, but keep most of the dents under the paint to minimalize the amount of filler. This will be a use-car, not a show winner. |
I think that’s a really good approach...getting the underside done and seam sealed...window frames too. I had my bus repainted decades ago but never replaced the window seals. One of the rear window frames had rusted through under the seal and the water getting in caused a new jackpoint and section of rocker panel rust through after a fairly short time.
There is nothing wrong with filler if it is used properly. I try to get the metal as straight as I can and keep filler under 3mm at its deepest points. I could never finish metal to the point that it didn’t require and but I’m still trying. |
Yeah, the window frames will be sorted, they are pretty rusty, I have new metal for that, and all new windowseals and doorseals, but I will do that as the last metalwork just before paint, as it can't be driven without windows and I don't want to take them out again for painting.
There will be used some filler, but not a layer all over the car. There are small dents everywhere, especially on the side panels, these will probably be left. Long time left to paint though! _________________ Why have a good looking face? You can't even see your own face! |
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EliasP Samba Member
Joined: January 09, 2018 Posts: 55 Location: Sweden
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Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 12:33 am Post subject: Re: Reefblue 1976 Kleinbus |
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Last thing I did last year was to spray rust treatment inside the repaired area. Then it was stored for the winter.
It had some engine troubles and it was not used until August when some men came and helped me fix it. I drove it some weeks, then I continued with the metal work again. My goal was to get the underside done this year. Repaired a hole in a crossmember.
And the rings around the torsion tube.
Cleaned up and rust treated the battery tray and rear corner. It is sticky, but it was already someone who had done this before and I don't had the energy to clean all that away and grind and paint it.
Bought a new cargo floor half and seatblet mounts, plus some more. Rust in the seatbelt mounts, rear.
Repaired.
Rear floor repaired
_________________ Why have a good looking face? You can't even see your own face! |
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EliasP Samba Member
Joined: January 09, 2018 Posts: 55 Location: Sweden
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Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 1:11 am Post subject: Re: Reefblue 1976 Kleinbus |
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Dent in the floor
To hard to straighten, cut it all out.
New metal welded in. For the right side of the floor i cut out some of the middle of the new cargo floor half, not 100 % like original with the pressing but good enough for me.
Under the middle seatbelts
On the bulkhead
Cargofloor all solid! Also welded som drillholes from the old campinginterior in the floor.
Heater pipe repaired
Some rust on the front wheelwell
Cut it all out
Welded
Grinded the rust and loose paint from the cargofloor
Painted it with rust stopper
Epoxy primed!
Spare wheel tray too!
Sprayed on some black bodyspray. This will protect it from stonechips and keep the rust away.
Painted with rust eater and epoxyprimer.
Grinded down and painted the new metal on the outside too.
Underside now solid from the cabfloor and backwards. Cleaned it al fith pressurewater and tar remover and let it dry. Then I removed loose rust and painted with rust eater. Not a showcar restoration, but it will help keep the rust away a while.
Eberspächer with new pipes in place.
Sprayed thin floating rust treatment in all cavaties and all over the outside.
This wheel ramps was really helpful while doing this!
Then the fat product all over the outside. This is not as sticky and nasty as the thin one and it protects against stoneships.
After that the photos was taken I have sprayed a lot of more thic floating over the walding seams ond similar spots to seal them from water coming inside and increases rust.
And now the interior is back in place! The bus looks so much more solid with a totally black underside. Now it is rainy and frost on the nights so I can't do more this year. Next year I will repair the last rust (cabfloor and some around that) then the underside is done. Then I will remove doors and windows and repair windowframes and doors, then it is time for painting! _________________ Why have a good looking face? You can't even see your own face! |
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Shonandb Samba Member
Joined: January 12, 2019 Posts: 1129 Location: Vancouver, BC
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Posted: Wed Oct 20, 2021 8:40 am Post subject: Re: Reefblue 1976 Kleinbus |
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Nice work! It seems like yesterday that I did similar repairs to my 76 Westy. Love the colour of your Bus. My 73 Panel was a darker blue. _________________ *******************************
76 Westy with a 2.5L Subaru SOHC + Vanagon (010) Automatic Transaxle
Build & Trip Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=758760
Previous 1973 Panel Bus:
Click to view image |
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EliasP Samba Member
Joined: January 09, 2018 Posts: 55 Location: Sweden
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Posted: Tue May 17, 2022 2:18 am Post subject: Re: Reefblue 1976 Kleinbus |
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Hello!
In case anyone wonders what ever happened to this project, I can tell that I sold the bus a bit over a month ago. It was just too much technical problems with it and I was just so tired about that engine who never wanted to work as it should, so I just sold it.
I am not going to buy another bus, not now. Maybe in the future, who knows. But if I should buy any, I would buy one that is mechanically in mint condition, and I am not willing to spend that amount of money right now.
A few pictures I took before I sold it:
I drove it to it's new owner who was located on the south side of Stockholm.
It went to a good, new home, though. _________________ Why have a good looking face? You can't even see your own face! |
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