Lottie, a 79 full restoration Part 1/2/3/4/5

Moved on a bit and have finished all the bottom metalwork, sprayed the arches with stone-chip and re-positioned my roll-over frames and wheels back to the arch positions so that I can refit the handbrake cable and heating conduits and also re-position the gearshift tube back through the new front x member.
Note the holes for waxoil were masked off so as to allow proper fitting bungs after the sticky stuff is done. I would quite like to apply it now but I have read some dire warnings about avoiding waxoil until after spraying as it difficult to ensure none interferes with paint adhesion.

 

Was it heavy?

 

What stonechip did you go for? Are you overpainting it? Reckon I will.


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The empty shell is still quite heavy and I use my hydraulic engine hoist and rope to start the lift, however when it is close to the tipping point you can take the weight to make fine adjustments to the props that keep it safe. The stone ship is HP Body 950 which I got from my local "Refinishing Systems". Its Greek and has a rubber content and web reports seem good. I did have a bit of interaction with a patch of relatively fresh Rustoleum but it dried solid and not flakey. I do plan to overspray with the final finish which will be a baby blue but will test carefully for any reactions. Still not sure if I will use cellulose or 2K.

Progress will slow a bit as my press previously mentioned for body panel making is back to its proper job.....turning apples to juice and cider and its been a good crop down here in Somerset. Between pressings yesterday I took the opportunity to 'ground run' my engine and cycle the gearbox through the cogs. In the background a DiY 'scratting machine' made from washing machine and kitchen cabinet bits, churns the apples to mush which then goes into mesh "cheeses" with 3 stacked to a pressing.

 

You could use the VW engine to drive the apple crusher..
@martinvention

We used a garden shredder to do our Apples a few years ago..

 

Hi Art, I have known garden shredders used for 'scratting' apples some quite effectively, however acid apple juice does them and itself no favours en-route.

Moving on with Lottie and getting a bit puerile with bottom photos: but philosophically I have turned a corner; no longer just replacing rust with steel but now actually re-assembling serviceable bits to the box, handbrake cable conduits and heater ducting including the dreaded Y piece. The latter fitted in 3 parts (see earlier post) then welded together and I used GRP tape 'buttered' with filler as it was wound around the joints to make them a bit tidier and airtight.

a bit prettier after Bonda and Rustoleum

 

Repairing the OS window openings and realized I had missed a trick. Lottie was a panel van so the openings were in the 1mm thick sidewalls and it seems std VW bus windows and rubber seals were used. Looking carefully at the rubbers I am sure they were designed to fit over the 2 thicknesses of steel formed by the inner frame flange and outer skin, spot welded together to form the openings of a bus. So far I have repaired the rusty edges with fresh 1.2mm steel and joggled to provide a flush lip where I have removed the crud. Doing the final opening for the louvered window I found the bottom and side edges were good and the top rusty in places. I took careful measurements from the louvered window frame and discovered the original opening was too wide by 10mm as also supported by the seal witness marks on the aluminium frame. So I decided to make repair panels for all sides and plug weld them inside the current edges thus providing a double thickness opening. The photo shows left opening with Joggle and right with overlap:

 

The underside is a joy to look at @martinvention ..
I keep thinking it would make a great picture framed..

(I may need to get out more)...

 

Clever stuff. Is the idea with the joggle that the seal will sit back a bit more then?


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Hi James, Sorry I did not fully explain the plan. The joggled repair on the left places the edge in line with the outer surface so the seal/glass are in the same place are as the original conversion but on a single 1mm edge. On the right I have overlapped the reasonably good outer skin to double the thickness of metal sitting in the seal groove much as VW intended. The reason the new inner frame is proud by 5mm is to make the opening a better fit on the louvered alloy frame. I will use a skim of filler to even up the 2 skins, fortunately the top and bottom edges are parallel and 400mm apart so the new inner frame strips are level with the old edges and support the seal better supported on 2 thicknesses of metal. In sum to better support the rubber seals I would recommend a repair scheme that doubles up on metal thickness if their current edges are not completely shot.

 

The final sheet metal jobs? I fitted a wheel-well kindly provided by PanEuro Paul in exchange for the flat plate put in by Holdsworth who had the mains power plug/zig unit and furniture on the nearside. Unfortunately Holdsworth failed to note that the wheel well was an integral part of the firewall between the engine and fuel tank compartments and did not fit a suitable plate to separate them. The front panel on Lottie was a victim of a shunt with a front mounted wheel so if I carry a spare at all it will go where VW intended or perhaps just an emergency inflation kit? in the well under a cover plate. My intention is to fit a 3/4 width rock and roll bed on the NS with the furniture on the OS. Photo: wheel well fitted and mains socket hole plated over.

I have been worrying that the panel above the rear hatch was rusting through from the inside because of trapped condensation, as I could see some rust patches and a hole. Finally I took some tools to it and happily discovered that it was very localised and in fact another Holdsworth botch. The top of the hatch seal channel was drilled for self tappers to secure the curtain rail, unfortunately the self tappers were too long and the threads scored the finish above the seal and of course the fizzing began almost from new and unnoticed. I will fix with a couple of small welded patches and hopefully Mr MIG will have a long rest unless I find any horrors when prepping for paint.

 

It's looking great under there martin

 

Thanks Paradox, I guess most of our best efforts will be hidden to the world.

 

It will be fun to see the mot testers face though

 

Autumn and the now virtually rust free box has come out of the garage and is under its many covers to overwinter and make way for daily drivers. However work not completely ground to a halt as I can fettle and paint smaller bits in the the 'cider shed' where a DiY bead blast cabinet also resides. Made from timber and 5 old double glazing panels it has a metal shelf and the 30Kg of glass beads in a tub end up in a seed tray at the base along with copious amounts of crud hence the media needs to be sieved through a fine mesh flower sieve each time it is recycled. The blast gun is a simple device operated by compressor with venturi pickup sucking media via a rubber hose. Suffice to say despite the occasional lack of huff from my 50 lt holding tank, it removes most of the old paint and rust and after a coat of etch primer and a couple of satin black I have another geeks line of washing. Phots below




soon this lot will be wrapped boxed and labelled to join the rest on my shelves and hopefully make the reassembly a much more pleasurable task.

 

just read all your thread some amazing work going on
keep it ul

 

Thanks Damon, James and others who have looked and liked. Now that I have finished pressing apples and have the cider bubbling away tis time to fettle metal again. The engine hatch was in a bit of a state with lots of rust along the bottom inside and out. So after taking some measurements I cut away the bad bits:


The inner frame is crimped into the edge fold of the skin, but I figured it would be better to make the replacement sections from a single sheet especially as my steel is a bit thicker at 1.2mm. However I also decided to make up left and right sides separately to make the folding easier. So here is the first side, with skin and inner frame made from one piece of plate with a joggle ready to weld to the original skin. A bit more work needed in the middle when the other side is ready to mate up:



This photo shows the other side after the first few folds and the underside of the almost finished left side plus template, rusty original edges and a repair for the latch doubler plate.

 

So the pieces are now all attached, 'stitch-welded' to minimize distortion and seem to be flat, straight and the right external dimensions.
You can just see the latch doubler plate (above) coated in weld through primer, I was not happy with the part repair I first made and in the earlier photos, so made a new full plate which was a better fit and is plug welded to the upper part of the inner frame as well as to bottom edge.


I will do a second pass of stitching and then flat and fill before painting with Bonda primer. It will then go into store until the spring when I will concentrate on prepping and spraying.

 

So here is the hatch finished for now and ready for storage, The inside of the join was seam-sealed and I poured some thinned Bonda into the void between skin and frame then slowly turned the hatch to make sure it got to the places a 10 mm brush would not reach:
and the front:


I also did a bit of pressing to make parts for an access hatch for the fuel tank sender unit:

 

Nice one. That's one of the only panels you've repaired that I've ended up replacing. Ours is toast.


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