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Post by 77eurobus on Nov 3, 2014 18:29:29 GMT -8
Over the next couple of weeks i'm going to add pics of the bus build. In the 90's I owned a beautiful 1966 split camper bus, fully restored. Sold it on to finance building my AC Cobra. A trauma surgeon from Massachusetts bought it through a small ad I put in Hemmings and I built a 2 page web site with a couple of pics. An huge 50' enclosed car hauler met me in Blaine at away it went. I was blown away, $15,000 Canadian dollars. Little did I know what future bus values were going to be! The kids grew up and 16 years later my son bought a bay window bus. Hightop Rob owns the bus now. Helping him with the bus got me thinking how much fun to build another bus. Splitty hunting ensued. No buses locally available until a 15 window bus on the sunshine coast popped up. White top with black bottom, paint and body done, needed finishing and mechanicals. I was all in and then my wife tells me we have a family commitment in Seattle that coming weekend. Got back and the bus was sold that Saturday. I was totally choked. A couple of months later I saw the "French" bay window bus for sale on the VW Victoria site. I liked the lowered look, big Type 1 motor which I feel comfortable working on, nice rims etc. Decided that that entry cost of a bay was a lot cheaper and it won't break the bank. My vision was very clouded for I was in for a real awakening. With the bus I received a roof rack, an extra set of new wheels and tires and a very nice 1600cc dual port motor, built by Russ for a backup. My plan was to build a custom weekender interior, fix the rusty rocker on the sliding door and roll with it like that for the summer. A couple of months of work and it would be done. I had visions of plasti-dipping the bus to cover the patina look or doing a full vinyl wrap as that is what I do at our sign shop. The 2 month build turned out to be 18 months and i'm still figuring out the front seats. I worked on the bus every evening after dinner and also every weekend. Sounds crazy but it would never be this far otherwise. Hope you enjoy the progress pics. Bus home Nov. 2012
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Post by tony on Nov 3, 2014 18:45:54 GMT -8
Great story , keep it coming , it's the story that brings the pics to life
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Post by CrazyBrit on Nov 3, 2014 20:26:30 GMT -8
So good to see that this bus received a top notch rebuild. I was never into the "sanded" look it wore before.
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Post by Volktales on Nov 3, 2014 20:50:31 GMT -8
Glad to see that this bus was properly done up this time!!! I had always hoped to see it back in shiny paint again. The owner who brought it with him when he moved from France will be very happy it is nice now.
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Post by 77eurobus on Nov 4, 2014 16:49:59 GMT -8
After having a look over the bus I proceeded to remove all the interior panels and such. Noticed some rust on the rain gutters. Got some really nice coated metal from metal supermarkets and welded in some pieces. Used metal glaze to fill and then topcoated both sides with por 15. Finished up with 2 part epoxy paint just before the por 15 setup. My first go at welding and it worked out pretty well. Next I yanked out all the windows except the windshield. Got a real surprise! The corners had rusted right through in 2 of the side windows. The lower corners. Someone had cut strips of a coors beer can and laid them in with some kind of silicone! I actually saw the coors logo on the pieces. LOL. This find started to worry me. Got metal supermarkets to bend some metal for me and I welded them together to create the lower metal channel that holds the jalousie window in place. So things were already starting to spiral out of control. Major metal work on the windows and roof done. Getting to know the guys at the metal place and Rondex the paint store pretty well and I'm 2 weeks in. Starting to learn about weld thru primer and clekos for holding stuff in place, different welding wire, needing gas for the welder...wow. Being that the bus is so low its hard to look underneath. Got the bus on jackstands and this is when things took a turn. Not only did the outside rocker for the sliding door need fixed, the inner rocker was gone. I needed to replave the whole piece. As in cut out the whole piece and try and weld in a donor piece and actually have the door work again. Then it was apparent half the floor was fibreglass. Then the front splash pans in the wheel wheel wells were fibreglassed. More prodding showed all jack points and outriggers were toast. On the drivers side the same thing. I came into the house and had a melt down! F**k what do I do! My first option was pull the motor and front suspension and get the bus parted out. The amount of work needed was unbelievable. Having never done this before it was daunting at best. I mulled it over for a couple of days and after feeling huge buyers remorse and feeling sorry for myself I decided to give it my best shot. First plan was to remove the floor to get access to the jack points and such....Thanks for reading
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Post by 77eurobus on Nov 4, 2014 16:54:44 GMT -8
When your at this point, you know your in it for the long haul! HAHA!
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Post by 77eurobus on Nov 4, 2014 17:06:14 GMT -8
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Post by tony on Nov 4, 2014 17:22:06 GMT -8
what a pile......................................OF WORK! the van was well disguised , wouldn't have guessed it was in such bad shape! glad it didn't beat you!
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Post by 77eurobus on Nov 4, 2014 17:22:32 GMT -8
Starting on jack points and outriggers No one said it would be pretty!
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Post by 77eurobus on Nov 4, 2014 17:33:55 GMT -8
Jack point and splash pan almost done. Floor going back in. Felt great to get to this point. Floor Done!
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Post by 77eurobus on Nov 4, 2014 17:38:21 GMT -8
Of course the other side awaits....more to come. Cheers JON
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Post by Brenticon on Nov 4, 2014 17:45:22 GMT -8
Wowsers .........
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Post by PICTUP on Nov 4, 2014 18:48:13 GMT -8
Oh, it's pretty all right…pretty SPECTACULAR! Great stuff! Love seeing pics like that. Lotsa work!
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Post by magikbus on Nov 4, 2014 19:34:44 GMT -8
All I can say is wow! StanAttachments:
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Post by 77eurobus on Nov 8, 2014 14:04:22 GMT -8
Started working on the drivers side. Inner and outer rocker needed replaced, outriggers and jack points, splash area inside wheel well. At this point I started to really feel for my neighbors. I tried to keep the cutting and grinding down to a dull roar but I knew to get it finished I would need to find a space somewhere else. Rocker work underway. I couldn't source the garson 2 piece rocker so had to get the CIP metal. Not ideal but it worked. Slowly but surely tacking stuff in.
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