10 years in the making.

Hello all,

Long time no post for me, been in and out of the VW scene the last few years mainly due to work partly due to certain let downs some know about causing me a certain lack of interest.

Anyway, I've recently taken delivery of our 72 bay which has been 3 1/2 years in a bodyshop getting botched up! (more on that later)

Ok so long story short.... I'll try I promise!

I bought this van in 2006 with my dad, at the time we weren't looking for one (and really had no interest in aircooled VW's at the time) but it came up at a price we couldn't refuse through a van dealer that my dads mate knew who had taken it in as part-ex against a newer motorhome.

It came with 12 months mot (although I still don't know how),

As bought,




First job was to bring it a little closer to tera firma, so out came the axle.



Which was shot blasted, repaired where necessary, lowered and then powder coated.





And re-fitted making a massive improvement.



So rather than just using the van (with its current 12 months mot) and seeing if he could live with it my dad decided to take a grinder to it!



With that the start of the horrors to be found...

 

So the van got moved to my garage where it was rolled over and on and off for around the next 5 years between other projects and working abroad it was welded on and ground upon.



To reveal even more horrors.. (baring in mind this had 12 months mot!)

 

Not only was the van mostly made up of filler they even used the instructions for repairs, waste not..




So all sills, x members, top hats, outriggers and jacking points were replaced.



We even went completely anal and removed all the protective shipping paint from the repair panels and made sure they were prepped properly inside and out.

 

So with all the underside completed it was put back upright to fit the front arches etc

Then things went a little sideways for the little 72, I was getting constant grief for her in doors to have our own van finished and working with my dad we don't always see eye to eye so in 2012 I decided to buy my own van and imported two bays a 68 and a 71 (A headache in their own right)

So the 72 was shoved outside and unloved for a few months, looking a little worse for wear.



So basically we had the decision to sell it as a project or have someone else finish it, so thats what my dad decided to do. There is a guy local to me who shall we say is a bit of a back street garage who does mainly classic cars. Someone I know had there bay welded and painted by him, he's cheap and you get what you pay for I know but his work was solid and presentable.

So he quoted six months....

3 1/2 years later it was ready...

So we thought!!

 

Roll on to September 2016..

And we get the call that the van is ready for collection,




And back to its temporary home




Not everyones a fan of the louvres (me included) but they are growing on me and plans are to hide most of them with the rear number plate anyway to they should be functional if nothing else.

Bonus points to anyone who can see whats missing in this photo.... but ill get to that later.



The van looks very presentable but its certainly no show piece but given how much welding its had and the cost paid plus the fact the guy paints in a Marmitety dusty unit its not bad. There are lots and lots of faults but weve decided to cut our loses and just fix it ourselves.

This vans going to be build to be used,

I've not taken many photos but the underside was supposed to be sealed and finished off, he'd done it in places but still left bare steel panels and repairs.

So we've decided to seam seal, underseal and waxoyl now before anything else.



My dads been loving it anyway getting his hand back in.




So far its all been etch primed, seam sealed and stone chipped ready for a top coat in green. Just waiting on the paint code for the green paint as the painted had his own mix done. (hopefully not just tins of paint he's had lying around mixed together!)

 

Also didnt expect to be welding holes and repairing things on a 'restored' shell.



Rear bumper mounts.. apparently lol




Mechanically everything going on the van is pretty much brand new including the 1776 engine.

First up will be the brakes, I built a servo mount on a spare beam in work.




I have since learnt that the mount should be angled?? the servo is a tight fit and places the pushrod on an awkward angle that im not happy about but its going in and if need be i'll modify the pedal end to accomodate.






Plenty of fun and games ahead but im hoping this is going to be a pretty quick build just to get it ready for its mot. The my dad can sort the interior out himself including new headliner and there's a westy interior to go in.

 

With me in work and my dad laid up this week I've not been able to get paint sorted for the underside so all that's on hold, so I moved on with the ever growing job list.

Pulled the dashboard out to find yet more botches by the bodyshop





I didnt want to loose the devon badge but there was no choice as there were more botches to repair, never knew you could fit a radio with a knife and fork but somebodies given it a go!







I quite like the clean radio'less look so I may just leave it blank or perhaps some extra gauges, im not sure yet.

 

That's an amazing transformation. What engine you going for with the louvres? Water cooled?
It amazes me hoe many radio holes you see like yours. It's like they've used a ball pein hammer to make the stereo fit!

 

I was thinking more like a knife and fork.... actually a fork and spoon!

I'll be honest we went through a phase of buying genuine engine lids only to find most of them rotten or too much work to repair, the louvered one was just one my dad picked up at a show for a song which was a brand new item that someone had had louvered (at probably a pretty penny). So basically we kept them as my dad likes them, thankfully a tactfully placed number plate should cover most of them.

Engines going to be aircooled, got a brand new 1776 lined up for it if I can find the time to get it running.

 

Ok so I'll bring this right up to date, I took last week off work to trying and crack on with the van. The wife's not too happy its here and getting done (mainly because my own van has sat two years untouched!) and she is expecting it gone by Christmas.

I'm trying to get the back broken on the big jobs but one thing leads to delays with everything else, Getting the underside prepped and finished has been holding up refitting axle/brakes etc ive started on the wiring but waiting for the dash to go back in is holding that up and my dad has decided he wants the dash green (where I'd personally paint it black but it's his van) so I'm waiting on paint which he's sorting out.

I'd decided to go right through the loom and since it hasn't had too many botch jobs down the years (apart from the paint shops attempt to wire the lights in)

One thing that had to go though was the old fuse box,

So it was out with the old crusty box,



I wanted something that would sit, function and be removable just as the old fuse box did.





With that done the dash loom was pulled out and all the wiring and terminals cleaned and checked, some of them were quite heavily corroded



I also gave the rear of the front panel a coat of primer and some stone chip as the bodyshops attempted repairs had yet again been left in raw steel.



Then start re-assembling everything,




The very first signs of her fighting back to life, which always puts a smile on my face

 

I'm useless with filler work, dirty dusty and monotonous.. but at this point believe it or not without parts etc I was scratching for work to do.




It still needs more work but I'm going to let my dad finish it off before paint.



I've also started collecting parts for the electric steering, not as straight forward as I'd hoped but should come together eventually.

I won't go into too much detail as it been covered elsewhere,

Standard corsa column,



Remove all the stock brackets and ignition etc



Start making plates to mount motor the the van,





Mount plate to torque tube that'll sit on the floor,



Note to self... Make sure the plate is the right way up before welding!! So... Cut plate off and re-weld the correct way up!!

Just got to mount the original bay shaft to the spline part of the corsa shaft. I've actually ordered a lathe to turn down the shafts to that they'll sit inside each other with an interference fit, weld weld and probably fit a roll pin in too for safe measure.



Then it's a case of mocking it all up into the van and tacking it up prior to final welding.

 

Thankfully with a week off and good (enough) weather a lot of big hurdles were jumped.

It feels the underside has set things back about 3 week but its finally finished, well finished enough for now anyway.

Not sure how long it'll last but it believe it looks a lot better than it did and its hopefully supplying a bit more protection than the raw steel and filler was underneath








All this allowed the re-fitment of the restored (believe it or not as its covered in 3 years of bodyshop filler dust) front axle, complete with new servo.



There fun to put in on your own but using 3 jacks and taking it slow and steady, its in and no paint scratched! lol

 

Then on with everything else underneath,

Front and rear brakes and lines.... tick done!





Dashboards back in but I'm still not happy with the paint so it may come out again or we may choose to just live with it. Need to get it in as its holding up the progress with the wiring etc



And while I had some down time I was searching through boxes of parts and found the drive shafts, one of which felt like it had been down the beach.

So they were pulled apart and cleaned up, since I dont like puzzles and have been caught with these in the past I learned to mark everything up.



Nice hot de-grease,



Then a thorough strip and clean,




Ready for a rebuild with some new boots.

Phew! that's it, after 10+ years I'm up to date..

 

Its missing the steelwork the sliding door track cover slots into


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Correct that man! its actually missing both sides even though I gave them the original tracks which they lost then bought crappy repro ones which they probably forgot to fit.

Just another one of the laughable headaches the bodyshop left us.

 

Great work...

Make sure the drive shafts have been assembled the right way ,there is a wrong way ..

I would have drove it with the 12 month ticket...

 

I would of sold it with the 12 month ticket! lol

 

Great work and enjoyed the read