Split pea splitty resurrection

[TDCTDI]

Yes, I know it’s supposed to be Mango green but a quick search of split pea yielded far fewer results.

If you have tripped across any of my other resurrection threads, you will realize that I focus on bringing these beasts back to being a good, solid, drivable vehicles usually using less than conventional means.


That being said, if you’re a purist or perfectionist, look away now.


After purchasing a rescued Oval from me a few weeks ago, fellow Sambanista viral1 has brought me his Bus & tasked me to bring it back to a drivable status & supplied me with the necessary parts to begin the process. I will be using this thread to show how & what I have done along the way & hopefully allow he & others to learn along the way.


Here goes nothin.

Here is the beast today...

My first task is to repair the structure.

So I grabbed some 2x4 rectangular tubing and began to lay it out to support the chassis before I cut out the rot leaving space so I would have access to cutting & grinding out the old metal.

After clamping it in place, I welded it to the frame & torsion housing.

3
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Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[Braukuche]

_________________
Go Reds! Smash state!

Retirement is here!
1956 Ghia
1959 SO-23 Westfalia
1960 double cab
1960 Baja Bug
1963 stretched double cab
1962 Golde sunroof Ghia
1963 356 B coupe
1963 Notchback
1967 21 window less rusty now

[earlywesty]

Too bad he fucked up all the og paint on that bus. It was actually a good og paint candidate with all the lower welding taken care of.

[TDCTDI]

[EverettB]

[TDCTDI]

After tacking the splint to the frame rail, I noticed that there was quite a bit of flex in the forward section of the rail so I grabbed another piece of steel & tie the upper & lower “C” channel together & tacked it to the splint.

Satisfied with the integrity, I made a couple of cuts through the frame rail to extract a section while strategically avoiding the wire harness.

According to the owner, he was not able to source repair sections for the frame rails so I will be taking this section to a local sheet metal fabrication shop to have them bend up some new ones.

2
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[TDCTDI]

Today was the day that I really started to tear this thing apart & see just how far it was gone. Most of the frame rail is far thinner than original if it’s there at all.

So I started at the factory seam at the center of the bus & cut it at the weld...

I then cut it free from the cross members.

And removed it.

I then grabbed my favorite chisel & began cutting the spot welds attaching the inner box section to the frame rail.

If you look closely, many of these spot welds were no longer connecting the two pieces of metal.

I also found a sheet metal fabrication shop willing to recreate the rails & took a section to them.






4
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[Busstom]

Sorry if I missed it: curious why you don't just pull the harness out? Too much work out of scope of the contract?

[TDCTDI]

[TDCTDI]

After poking & prodding in an attempt to find decent metal to attach new to, I made the decision to go all the way back to the torsion housing. The only part of the frame rail that isn’t straight is where it kicks up to envelop the torsion housing so I clamped a piece of angle iron to the bottom to use as a ledge for a template.

Then, I made a template out of some cardboard.

My decision to go back to the torsion housing complicated things a bit since I tacked the splint to the frame rail.

So I cut another bit of steel to get a bit more surface area on the torsion housing so things wouldn’t move it I cut a bit too much out of the tack welds.

And then tacked it in place.

Once attached, I then attacked the frame rail.

And removed the last bit in the way.

While inspecting the forward section of frame rail, I found that it too was almost completely rotted through behind & forward of the outrigger.

Mmmm, flaky layers.





3
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[TDCTDI]

I picked up the new frame rail sections today...

Oooh... shiny.


Using the template, I determined where the rise over the torsion housing needed to be & cut the beam so I could bend the top plate.

And then added a filler plate.

Unfortunately, I got in the zone & forgot to take a few pics but after roughing it out & several fittings to get it absolutely correct, I drilled a series of holes where it will be welded back to the box plate (which will also be replaced.), and also recreating the factory holes, I made some new harness retention tabs & glued them on too.

Then a final fit.

Once satisfied with the fit, I fused it to the torsion housing & tacked it to the forward rail.

It’s amazing just how fast this unprotected steel flash rusts due to my sweaty paws & high humidity.


After anchoring the frame rail, I cut the spot welds securing the splint to the frame & dropped it out.

I then tacked a longer one in place so I could tie the front beam in so I could replace the forward frame rail.

The frame just forward of the front outrigger would probably fold on a heavy bump.

*6
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[TDCTDI]

So... after the last few days of torrential downpours, I decided that it would be best to bring this beast inside to continue repairs. This also was a good time to get it up on jack stands & level off the ends to avoid welding it back together with a twist. I spent all day moving cars & shit out of the way to get it inside.


After getting it level (side to side anyway.), I began making a clamp to attach the splint to the front beam by welding a couple of exhaust clamps to a section of angle iron clamped to the beam.

I then rotated it downwards & welded pieces to it to extend down to the splint.

Aaand... promptly ran out of welding wire.





1.5
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[TDCTDI]

With a new roll of wire loaded in the welder, I tied the splint to the chassis.

Then I pulled the remains of the forward outrigger off & trimmed off the rest.

Then I poked at the frame rail to determine where I could find good metal.

Nope, not here.



Then I made a template to transfer the shape to the new frame rail.

And scribed it onto the new rail.

Once done, I began strategically hacking the old rail out.

And cut the welds attaching the cross members to the rail.

With that done, I cut the tack welds attaching the new rear rail to the old front rail & dropped the front one out.

And then started cutting out the frame rail section that bends up & over the front axle beam.

The mud’s packed in there like concrete. This thing must have been sitting up to the axles on a river bank.

Unfortunately, I’m not finding good metal yet.

But I have found plenty of Canadian soil.

5
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[TDCTDI]

Not finding decent metal to glue new to...

I continued hacking until the blade met more resistance, which damn near takes us to the front beam.

Yet even up that far, mud was still packed in, so I dug it out as best as I could.

And continued to add to my pile of Canada.

After assessing what I had to work with, I decided that this was at least workable.

You can see how much more material there is on this section.

Then I tacked the pieces back together to make sure that the template was long enough.

Unfortunately, two of the frame rails that I had made were not.




3
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[TDCTDI]

Yesterday I went to pick up the new forward rail sections only to realize that one was incorrectly bent...

The one on the right was bent 1/2” too short on the lower lip.

So I went back today & got all the new pieces including the incorrect one, just to have spare metal.

After mapping out where to cut with the template (Sorry, that pic failed), I proceeded to cut into the new rail.

And then I made a few relief cuts & bent the upper lip up.

And lopped the diagonal into the rail...

After that I clamped the rail to the original piece of 2”x4” rectangular tubing that was used as a splint & flipped the removed section & tacked it back onto the rail.

I clamped a piece of angle iron to the rail & tn clamped a discarded section of rail to that to ensure that the end profile would match.

Once it was all tacked together, & checking the profile against the template, I slipped it in place to check fit.

4
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[TDCTDI]

Today I fused it all together...

It ain’t the purtiest but it’s stuck together.

And it cleans up OK.

3
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[BarryL]

Great replication work. Do you have to be careful of warpage on that thicker stuff?

[TDCTDI]

[TDCTDI]

I finished yesterday by welding the seam between the front & rear rail sections...

Here it is after a quick cleanup...

Then I drilled all of the factory alignment holes...

Once done with that, I repurposed a section of old frame rail & tacked it in place as a support for the cab so I could cut out the inner wheel tub.

Then I turned my attention to carving out the inner wheel tub panel in as complete a piece as possible.

Once removed, I then tried to lay it out to recreate it on a new piece of steel.

And after Finish welding the frame rail to the bus, this is how far I got in recreating the inner tub...

7
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[Culito]

CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) - you love to see it.

Excellent work!!
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Copyright CJ Industries, Inc.
'64 standard w/2.0L type 4
'62 bug