Viking Restoration, Blood, Sweat, Tears, Tragik

Hopefully this thread resurrection from google cache will all go ok................Scratch that, only the 1st page is available, and the html for the photos doesnt carry across, so I'm going to be busy for the next hour or so!

Sorry about the poor quality of some of the photos, as some were taken as an afterthought with my iphone,

The plan was to fully photograph before/during and after but things never go to plan!

Heres the Viking, purchased as an unfinished project, non runner, and to be honest I barely looked at it, as from other peoples experience, I assumed most of the bottom 6"s would need work. No interior to speak of, but the roof worked and did not have any tears. Somewhere along the line I've lost the photos of the front, but I'm sure they'll turn up.




The grey primer with black guidecoat hid a multitude of dents and rust!

Upon initial inspection in the snow, the work required as listed below did not appear too extensive,

1 front wheelarch,
Replace rear splashguards by the battery trays,
2 outriggers/jacking points
Repairs to inside rear hatch area,
Tidy up sliding door/engine lid/tailgate,
Tidy up dents with filler,
Repaint,
Fit out interior,

Got the van into a friends workshop for a proper strip down, and found more filler, holes, fibreglass, newspaper and then some more rust. Got to work on cutting away the obvious bad bits to reveal more rusty holey areas that would need repair, I didnt get too carried away but just removed what seemed necessary

Previous work revealed on the van, had included to varying standards,

Both inner sills,
1 front OS jacking point,
NS outer sill,
OS rear arch,
NS rear arch front and rear sections,
Both rear lower corners,
Rear valance
Repair to lower sliding door
Windscreen surround repairs


After these there is a real lack of detailed and chronological photos taken during the 'work in progress' stage, I think this is mainly due to either being too engrossed to take photos or being at the rock bottom and I want to cry stage as happens with most restorations

So heres a fair representation of whats been going on,







Then, I started cutting lots of bits off,















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After cutting out the inner/middle/outer sills, cargo floors, os cab floor, front panel, os+ns front tubs, bits of the rear arches, top hat sections, outriggers, jacking points and belly pans it was time to start putting some metal back on.


























Then I started stripping the 7 or so layers of paint,







Apply liberally with pudding,







1st Etch/primer session, as the van is going to be abandoned over the winter until Spring.





Next update, will be Spring onwards after the van emerged from hibernation.

 

nice to see your resto thread back

K+ for posting

how you getting on with the window surrounds?

 

Out of hibernation, enthusiasm partially resumed, a move into a much nicer and cleaner workshop, and the summer is upon us, time to crack on.

Stripped some more bits from it as its time to give the van a proper coat of 2k hi-build primer,











Then I started on the tailgate and engine lid which had both some rot issues, In hindsight I should have brought a good replacement, instead I made one good one from 2 poor ones,

Grafting a good window frame into another tailagte :-





Lower window frame tacked in place.



Then just a few repairs,



Up next, 1 step forward 2 steps back, Me backtracking and deciding to change the coverted panel van windows to proper factory camper window frames. :

 

nice work mate, its really starting to come together now

 

you owe DAN £20 for gas don t forget owen nw cracking job k for that

 

look`s great
lots of good work on that shell
8)

 

good work mate, starting on my windows very soon... 8)

 

Top work bud 8)

 

Nice work M8.

 

Great work there.

 

god you`ve been busy great work there 8) 8) 8)

 

Coming along nicely, it will be all worth it in the end

May i ask where you gt your cargo floor from and did require much fettling to fit?

 

Great resto thread. Thats a hell of a lot of work you've done there... Fair play to you for fitting those window frames, that couldn't have been easy.

 

Wow! super work very impressive.

 

Kruger that is phemominal work. It's a pleasure to watch a transformation like yours! Karma for your hard work. Really impressed with the window work too!! K+

 

Wow, your bus is really coming together now. It must be nice to sit back and actually see the results of all your hard graft. Are you going to push to have her on the road by April? 2012 that is.