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from Silver to ? - a '78 Westy refresh story...
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SLVRSRFR
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PostPosted: Mon May 25, 2020 8:35 am    Post subject: Re: from Silver to ? - a '78 Westy refresh story... Reply with quote

Away she goes for bodywork/paint!


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Brian

'78 westy, '64 sedan
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SLVRSRFR
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 23, 2020 11:37 am    Post subject: Re: from Silver to ? - a '78 Westy refresh story... Reply with quote

Started on some cabinet re-finishing.

I originally re-covered all of the cabinetry in grey back in 1999.

Going back to woodgrain, using Formica - "Glamour Cherry"

I purchased the laminate from a local counter top place. I got 3 sheets (4' x 8') - they were around $110 (Canadian) a sheet.

Colour is definitely "redder" but I think it should look pretty good.

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Before removal:

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After

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I used 14ga stainless steel to make some new brackets, a liner, and a top channel for the rear seat cabinet.

Here is before:

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and after:

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I picked up a bunch of stainless carriage bolts and locknuts for re-assembly

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My 11 year old daughter helped me all weekend - what a great helper!
My wife chipped in with blasting and re-painting the hinges.


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Brian

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SLVRSRFR
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 22, 2020 11:27 am    Post subject: Re: from Silver to ? - a '78 Westy refresh story... Reply with quote

Couple of photos from the body shop.
Old paint and bondo gone - down to bare metal.
Black primer will get block sanded down. There are 2 other colors of primer beneath the black (dark grey and light grey) so the amount of primer remaining can be seen while sanding.

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SLVRSRFR
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 7:22 am    Post subject: Re: from Silver to Dakota Beige - a '78 Westy refresh story... Reply with quote

Here are a couple of photo's of some progress at the body shop.
First beige sighting!!


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Brian

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metz
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 7:45 am    Post subject: Re: from Silver to ? - a '78 Westy refresh story... Reply with quote

Hell yes! Super nice work.
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 10:42 am    Post subject: Re: from Silver to ? - a '78 Westy refresh story... Reply with quote

Can we get an estimate on paint and body work please? I really want to get my bus in the body shop before it starts wasting away.

Looking good, real good!
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SLVRSRFR
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 3:09 pm    Post subject: Re: from Silver to ? - a '78 Westy refresh story... Reply with quote

metz wrote:
Hell yes! Super nice work.


thanks!!

ivwshane wrote:
Can we get an estimate on paint and body work please? I really want to get my bus in the body shop before it starts wasting away.

Looking good, real good!


I think I am going to end up somewhere around $20,000 CDN ($15,000 US) for paint and bodywork - I should have an exact number in the next couple of weeks. Good thing I only paid $900 for my bus back in '99...
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oprn
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 3:32 pm    Post subject: Re: from Silver to ? - a '78 Westy refresh story... Reply with quote

I just found this thread and must confess to liking the silver... a lot!

There are two colors of primer because the first is a real primer designed for maximum adhesion and the second is a surfacer or filler designed to be sanded to fill imperfections.

Now here is something that as an old body man and painter gets my ire up constantly. There is rarely ever a need to take any car totally back to bare metal. The original prep and primer is VERY durable and an excellent base for a refinish. It is nearly impossible to get the quality of base in a body shop setting that the original has. More damage is done to vintage car bodies by this single misconception than any other single thing.

If it is rusty or damaged, yes. Otherwise sand it for adhesion only and leave the original base alone! It's a waste of time and material and you end up with an inferior product.
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SLVRSRFR
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2020 8:20 am    Post subject: Re: from Silver to ? - a '78 Westy refresh story... Reply with quote

oprn wrote:
Now here is something that as an old body man and painter gets my ire up constantly. There is rarely ever a need to take any car totally back to bare metal. .

Agreed - unfortunately I had the outside of this bus sandblasted back in '99 when I originally did the silver paint job. That paint job was a total hack - so going back to bare metal was definitely a necessity this time...


Doors will be mounted later this week - I have been working on cleaning/blasting/zinc-plating the door hardware


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2020 8:44 am    Post subject: Re: from Silver to ? - a '78 Westy refresh story... Reply with quote

That latch looks fantastic! (The rest of the Bus does, too.)
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SLVRSRFR
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 26, 2020 8:24 am    Post subject: Re: from Silver to ? - a '78 Westy refresh story... Reply with quote

vwwestyman wrote:
That latch looks fantastic! (The rest of the Bus does, too.)


Thanks! my new favourite thing is restoring door hardware...




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picked up the missing spring from Buslab - will be nice to have that working.
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 27, 2020 6:23 am    Post subject: Re: from Silver to ? - a '78 Westy refresh story... Reply with quote

SLVRSRFR wrote:
Thanks! my new favourite thing is restoring door hardware...

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picked up the missing spring from Buslab - will be nice to have that working.

The only thing I can say is...
Applause WOW! Applause
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Cars of today are so bland in comparison. It's like driving a celebration!"
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 27, 2020 7:27 am    Post subject: Re: from Silver to ? - a '78 Westy refresh story... Reply with quote

How are you replating them?
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germansupplyscott
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 27, 2020 8:28 am    Post subject: Re: from Silver to ? - a '78 Westy refresh story... Reply with quote

I kid you not—dude has a team of plating elves in his garage.

Sorry to be a downer but the door mechanisms are no good and will have to be re-done. They are supposed to be YELLOW.
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SLVRSRFR
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 27, 2020 8:39 am    Post subject: Re: from Silver to ? - a '78 Westy refresh story... Reply with quote

vwwestyman wrote:
How are you replating them?


I clean and sandblast everything (except for the door latches - I didn't want to pack them with sandblasting sand) and then wire everything together with copper wire (bought on Amazon). Then I take the stuff to my local zinc plater and he runs it through for me.

I have a lot of zinc plating done through work, so I have a connection with the plater, they recommended wiring everything together so it was less labour on their end (this stuff is all so small they actually just run it through for free).


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SLVRSRFR
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 27, 2020 8:42 am    Post subject: Re: from Silver to ? - a '78 Westy refresh story... Reply with quote

germansupplyscott wrote:
I kid you not—dude has a team of plating elves in his garage.

Sorry to be a downer but the door mechanisms are no good and will have to be re-done. They are supposed to be YELLOW.


Haha I know! I was going to get the front door latches done yellow (like they are supposed to be) but then I thought it would look better if they matched the rest of the latches on the other doors... sorry to all you purists out there...!!
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orwell84
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 27, 2020 8:55 am    Post subject: Re: from Silver to ? - a '78 Westy refresh story... Reply with quote

Your bus story is similar to mine in some ways. My bus was given to me by my grandmother in 1990 after she got a new car. I was 20 and knew nothing about cars. A friend did some rough patch up welding and I took a night course in welding and did some of it too. I bondoed all the repairs and got a cheap respray. I thought it looked fantastic at the time.

The last 10 years have been a mix of rust repair, mechanical repair and driving it. I have ended up redoing a lot of those old repairs as they were awful and my metal work skills and patience have improved a lot since then. Like you, I am pulling it to bits and taking care of all the details now that I am older. Your bus looks to be in very good condition. Those cab doors look pristine.

I was a little discouraged by how much the bodywork and paint costs after all the metal work you have done but I’m well aware of how time consuming all the stripping, blasting, prep and sanding a high quality paint job is. My own plan is to do my own prep and have a collision shop paint it. I think what you are doing is well worth it. I would farm out everything after the metal work if I could. I have tried painting with decent results but fighting weather conditions, bugs and kids yelling for me out the back door as soon as I’m all masked up has made me decide it’s not worth it.

I’m quite impressed by the work you did on the cabinetry and the quality of your metal forming and welding. Are you using TIG? My welding has improved a lot. I can do decent work when I’m in the zone but sometimes I’m just not. I did my windshield lip the same way you did and that job really took me to school. Btw, the silver looked good on your bus, but I like the color you are going with. Mine has always been the original orange and I can’t imagine wanting anything else.

Anyway, your bus looks fantastic and I look forward to your updates.
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 27, 2020 9:01 am    Post subject: Re: from Silver to ? - a '78 Westy refresh story... Reply with quote

I just noticed that you live in Guelph. My sister and her family moved there over the summer from Toronto. Her husband is originally from Guelph and they met at university there in the 90’s. I’m sure they will spot your bus at some point.
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SLVRSRFR
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 27, 2020 12:53 pm    Post subject: Re: from Silver to ? - a '78 Westy refresh story... Reply with quote

orwell84 wrote:
Anyway, your bus looks fantastic and I look forward to your updates.


Thanks - I just read through your thread - you have done some great work!

It is definitely nice to be doing this project again with more patience (and money)!

I am not looking forward to the final bill for paint/bodywork (I should be getting it this weekend) - as always, they found a lot more repair work being needed than we originally thought (I figured I had done most of it, but unfortunately not). I guess I could have done more stripping and found some of it before it went to the body shop, but oh well - too late now. All of the welding I did was mig - I used .024" wire and tried to keep things as cool as possible. I found it very frustrating at times - I'd weld one pin hole, only to make 3 more. I feel like I was improving towards the end though.

I am hoping to have everything re-assembled for summer 2021 - but I don't want to rush it. The paint looks so good, I need to make sure the interior matches... You'll have to tell your sister to flag me down if she see's me to say hi!




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SLVRSRFR
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 9:47 am    Post subject: Re: from Silver to ? - a '78 Westy refresh story... Reply with quote

.
Got her back from paint on Saturday! All thats left to do is everything...

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Cleaned up hardware looks real nice! I guess I should splurge on an aluminum door handle.
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