Iris the 1972 panel van conversion

What panels had the rot dude?

 

Looking like the sills both sides are going to need replacing at some point. Balls. Had it patched up to pass the MOT for now.
I'm not going to worry about it at the moment though as it's just another thing to add to the list. For now I just plan to make the most of the remaining warm weather and get out in her for a bit.

 

Also had a good chin wag to Mark at Kombi Klassics about my plans to start doing some more of the work myself. I've got the motivation to do it, just need some cash and time to get more up to speed with it all. No plans on doing anything too heavily involved at first, think I might look at giving the engine bay a freshen up.

 

Hi sorry to be a pain quick question ,how the hell do you refit these type of side windows ,rubber in the hole first ,rubber on the glass ,string,. they came out ok seals are in good shape my mate sent an autowindscreens man round yesterday after nealy 2 hours he gave up .it cant be that difficult can it any advice be more than welcome thanks

 

They are a complete pain in the balls. Rubber around the hole first. Then jam the window from the side so that it's in the top and bottom of the seal and push the widow across to seat it in both corners on one side. Then it's a case of working your way along the window with a plastic edge (I used some cutlery I found in the kitchen) to force the seal over the window. Spraying a small amount of water helps lubricate the channel. I remember it taking two of us a hour or so of cursing to get it in. Mine still leak though so I need to sort something better out.

 

Sounds like fun! NOT! We have done it this way. Put rubber on glass, take twin and run it twice around the channel in the edge of the rubber. Get friend to hold glass up to Van panel, and push in, fit seal over the lower edge and up one side as far as you can. Use lots of dish soap between rubber and body, start and pull the twin , from inside the van, in over the groove so the rubber flips over the inside edge of tin. Continue this around the window, moving along the seal toward the place you have already fitted it over the lip. It some times takes two passes to get the rubber to flip out over the lip, that's why I wrap the twin in the gloove twice round the seal. To get the window to seal once in, I've cleaned the window very well, and slipped a screw driver into the channel on the outside of the glass and cleaned in there as well. Bought a tube of black silicone, cut the spout so it is quite small a hole. Slipped the tip of the spout into the groove and squirted silicone around the whole channel. Then wiped away the extra that comes out. once it's set it seals the glass to the seal and not water can get in. I've had to do the same to the outer edge of my windscreen seal to body as well, but once done it work great.

 

So Iris will be going away for the winter next weekend into storage for a few months. This should give me a chance to recover my savings a bit after getting the new roof fitted. I had one of those doubting days today about the van as the list of bits that need sorting seems to keep on increasing (realistically new sills, front clip, battery trays, the list goes on ). On the plus side I'm hopefully picking up a Sealey Supermig 170 tomorrow so I can try and improve my welding skills over winter. I'm a stubborn bugger and the restos on the late bay by people new to it all like me gives me some confidence.

Rant over.

 

In a bid to save some cash for further work on Iris over the next few years and to get her out of the winter rains and salty roads we’ve put her in managed winter storage for a few months with the guys over at Quantex Motorsport car storage.



[Full photo credit to Car Storage Dorset - Original image here]

I’ve also started amassing welding and restoration equipment so I can try and get up to speed over the next few months in anticipation of doing some work on her late next year (what have I let myself in for!).

Rest well Iris!

[Originally posted on tumblr]

 

And I now have a welder and bucket of scrap to get practising on. New year's weekend sorted then!

 

Love reading this blog, we've just bought a converted panel van.....and after seeing yours I know she will look amazing when we plough some money into her and get the experts on the case, myself or my hubby are not diyers so unfortunately better get saving!

 

Thanks! I've still got a loong way to go though. Took on way more than I realised. Pretty happy with the upper half, but most of the van still needs work. She'll get there. Plan this year is to use the roof to sleep in over summer while I work on my welding skills and then start some of the resto over winter. Bit by bit!

 

We think we may need a new roof in ours .... So nice to see yours a success....

 

Gutters are the areas to watch out for.

 

Roof Bed Boards
So this weekend I finally got around to making up the roof bed boards for Iris (now that the weather is getting better I’m trying to get her at least sleepable for the summer, albeit only the roof bed as the rest of the van is an empty shell).

A quick trip down to Buildbase got me a sheet of 18mm WBP plywood. I had doubts that it would fit in the back of the van but it was a perfect fit (a few small scratches on the hatch, but I’m not too worried as she’ll be getting re-sprayed at some point). The guys down there had a good chuckle at the “OMG” numberplate too.


This job also gave me the perfect excuse to use my latest tools for the garage, the workmate and router (I’ll eventually be building the furniture for the van, I guess that’s a few years away though).



With the boards cut I then applied a light coating of spray glue for the headlining material and stapled the headlining to the back of the boards. An air stapler would’ve made this job a lot simpler as my cheapy hand stapler kept misfiring.

And here’s the finished product. Looks pretty good to me. The small crease on the front board should fall out over the next day or two, it’s just where the material has been stored folded at that point. Now I just need to sort the bed foams and we’ll have a usable bed for the summer!


Size Reference

Large bed board- 1170 x 1168 x 18 mm

Small bed board - 1170 x 620 x 18 mm

[Originally posted on Tumblr]

 

Automotive Welding Day!

Today saw me heading back up to DCRS (Dorset Centre for Rural Skills) near Blandford Forum to build on the initial welding course I went on last Autumn. This time taking a look at Automotive techniques.

We covered how to approach chassis and thicker materials, practising on pieces of scrap before having a go on some rotten Land Rover bits. This is my first attempt at some chassis sections. We cut the outrigger off and I then had a go at welding it back onto some fresh(ish) steel. It’s by no means perfect, but it’s good experience non the less (and looks better than some of the welding I’ve seen on the cab floor of Iris!)



We then had a look at thinner sheet metal more akin to what I’ll expect on any bodywork I might need to tackle. Not to surprisingly a blew through the metal a few times, but I think I’m starting to get a hang of it. This is a patch I welded into an old tractor wing, with a bit more grinding back I think this wouldn’t look to bad.


All in all a great day. Hopefully with a bit more practice I’ll be at a stage where I can think about looking at the van.

This was my buddy for lunch, I now want a lurcher to keep B company!



[Originally posted on Tumblr]

 

mines a panel conversion and the same.

 

Looking very nice

 

Cheers. I'll get there in the end! Just waiting for my alternator to come back from the specialist then we'll be up and running for summer!

 

hey man thoes who no me know i drive my bus while it morphs into a resto type thingymajiggy thingy get it used.....