1960 Dove Blue Rust Repair

[bigmau]

Photo dump. Getting busy with a 110v miller flux core. It is better than my harbor freight flux core, but not nearly as good as the Lincoln 220V with gas.

I had to adjust the length of the autocraft front outriggers to match the klassicfab tophat. Then it went together pretty nicely.

Tail light welding.

Battery tray before, demo and after.

Bullet welding, blowing through rusty shitty, thin metal. Gotta do what you gotta do.

Crossmember install, post welding and after some paint.

More bulkhead welding. Once the frame patches were in and the bulkhead welded, the whole bus got noticeably stiffer, so that's a good thing. Structural Integrity.

With the b pillar shored up, I started going after the rear crossmember, frame, heater delete and outrigger/jackpoint fitment. The second to last tophat was pulling away from the frame rails, so that's why I had them clamped until I could weld them down. Messy work, but someone's got to do it.

Crust below the torsion tube, so I made a doubler plate. A friend welded it in, because overhead welding is horrible and hard.

Rotten inner frame repair job.

Rear tophat splices and jackpoint and crossmember fitment. The lower closeout on the rearmost tophat was a bitch to weld and I blew holes through the metal. The patch isn't the prettiest, but it covered up the hole I made.

Fitting the rockers to the cargo door and then tying in the c pillar.

[bigmau]

Long Panel Install. Used a shrinker to re-flange the rotten pillars.

Grafting in new I beam ends.

Tophat repair

Wheel well closeouts

Jackpoint Install

Floor fitting with heater delete. Note the fat gap because the floor sunk up or the body sunk down. Either way I had to close the gap.

Floor Prep, mark drill paint grind.

More floor fitting

Bend the lip

Latch mod

Floor Welding, 2 man job.

Clearcoat until I figure out what I'm going to do about paint.

[BarryL]

Wow. How's your eyes, ears and hands holding up?

[bigmau]

Cargo floors in. Got it to driver status. I had some gaps between the floor and the pillars so I made tabs to tie them together. It feels way less flexy than before all the work.

Seam sealer was recommended by mike fn garage, the OSI from home depot. It's cheap and keeping the water out seems like the right thing to do.

I hit up some cruises and shows, got back to some paint peeling/scraping, a CT90 project came into my life.

Had a good run but it's got to under the knife again to deal with the crusty front floor.

This shit doesn't look stock...

[BarryL]

Hey now we're talkin'...I was wondering what happened to you.

[Stocknazi]

When doing frame repair, cargo floor, cross-members, at this level, what is the best way to support the bus while welding?

Is it better to have the bus supported on the frame rails, as level as possible, or leave the bus on all 4 tires, allowing the suspension to carry the weight?
_________________
WANTED:
58 Westfalia cabinet knobs (3 needed), roof rack, and (7) privy tent poles (silver painted).

"When the people are afraid of the government, that's tyranny. But when the government is afraid of the people, that's liberty."
"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God."

Thomas Jefferson

[bigmau]

I think the best way to support a bus is pretty subjective based on time, money and the desired end result. I cut quite a bit out, but before I freed up the frame sections, I welded the two main framerails together, top and bottom, kind of like a beefy crossmember. Before I cut out my cargo rocker, and floor I attempted to tie the B and C pillars together with a brace across the cargo door, but that popped and failed. I kept going back to it after I cut out everything for reference, and those pillars didn't move move than .090".

Best factory job would be Celette frame jig like Deluxe Customs is doing 356's. Best access would be a rotisserie tied into the front axle and the rear torsion housing with a bunch of diagonal support braces welded to the body corners. I started with a level garage floor, got is super plumb before tear down, and built it in place using a regular bubble level as a reference. I had two jackstands under the front beam and two under the torsion tube. That seemed like pretty close to the weight of the bus sitting on its suspension without the tires being in the way.

Old busses move. My buddy Chato does Westy interiors and all of his templates are 1" oversize because they all sag in different ways throughout the years. Mine ain't a Seinfeld bus, so I did what seemed right for me. Good luck with your projects, hopefully that helps.

[BarryL]

Hey I saw your Bus is back at your house. Yayyy.

[bigmau]

Yeah man. I got the front floor in and all my pedals dialed in. I never had proper return springs on my brake or gas pedals, so now it feels super legit. I drove it to work all last week. Fixing buses is fun and all, but there's nothing like driving one. Going to seam seal it up and then the interior is a blank canvas. I got the Rona and missed Prado, but Big Wednesday is coming up and San-O is the best. Take it easy Barry