Viking Restoration, Blood, Sweat, Tears, Tragik

Is that where you are? You thing says you're in Luton. If you want to borrow the air-fed for the rest just shout, you're not far away - I live in Ely.

 

That looks great dude

 

Just a couple more pics, as it looks soo much better outside, & I keep admiring my shiny handiwork




The overnight elves have failed to show this week, so I've been back on it this weekend, more welding (just roof catch plates to go now ) and sandblasting.

Removed the beam and steering box to get some proper access for sandblasting, jesis the beams are heavy fully built up!

What I thought was just a small hole on the base of the off side chassis leg, revealed itself to need more invasive surgery, and a small patch putting inside the leg where it splits to the outer leg extension, just the 1 pic of where I opened the leg for some keyhole surgery.



Made another claustrophobic blasting cave, to recover/contain the media, and bang my head lots,



Welcome to my world.


Its not too bad before I start, but it needed doing behind the beam before I can put any paint on as theres old dried out underseal.



Top tip, should be mandatory for sandblasting....



Did'nt manage to get the blasting finished today, *******ed off, dirty and cold, I ran out of time To be continued some time this week.......

 

Kudos for blasting it yourself dude it's a mission of a job and I don't envy you one bit for doing it!!

 

Keep at it dude its a crappy job but your bus will be so much better for it in the end
The engine bay looks good dude are you leaving it as a gun finish or will you be getting the cutting compound on it?

 

I don't envy you blasting on ur back dude but it is the only way to get in those nooks and crannies, is the bottom pretty dry or did it have plenty of wax oil on it?

 

Probably the dirtiest and most unpleasant job to do in a workshop, especially when your sitting inside the blasting cabinet so to speak!
I'd never planned to go this far with it, and ideally should have sent it away to be done at the beginning, at the moment I'd pay someone very good money to dive under there and do the last couple of hours its going to take to finish!

The engine bay is staying gun finish! and the rear corners were never going to be 100% as have got hammer marks, welds and ripples and I've put some stoneguard in there to disguise it slightly, but the original dry dusted look is what I'm happy with for what will be seen above the batteries.

The main chassis was in very good condition as I think it had been undersealed from new, as was heavy wax coat that could be chipped off with a chisel, the rest (floors etc) had been redoxided and waxoiled at some other point and had probably stood upto to years of use before drying out and letting the elements in, so generally its all new floors now, just the walkthrough above the front beam needed blasting to be treatable/paintable in keeping with the rest of the underside.

 

underside is looking awsome

the time and effort is paying off

......good luck for the easter deadline

 

nice work buddy, loving the face paint lol

 

The easter deadline came and went, and not one Marmite was given that weekend!

I have'nt touched the bus in over a month, with the weekends I've been to Spain, Volksworld, Banger racing, and played golf and just generally had a timeout from it. So time for an update..........

Been tinkering this week though sorting through bits and working out what's left to get and planning whats to do, and spent the whole weekend back on the van,

Started by clearing the inside of the van out, as it resembles a rolling shed - surprising how mush you stuff you can get into a bus shell!

Trial fitted the early style bumper I got cheap on ebay (think its a Brazilain one.........edit - been told its a late split rear one) which was a lot easier than anticipated using the original late bay rear bumpers irons. I just had to cut the mounting plates from inside the bumper, and then luckily the late rear irons are a perfect fit, and just had to be adjusted into position, and drill the mounting holes, just need to get a square edge file so I can file the new holes to take a coach bolt as it'll look crap with 13mm hex heads sitting out the top.

Remove the original mounts, push in old mounts - easy.


Fits nice to body.


Fits very tight to the rear quarters, but not sure of the differences with other early bumper styles/models.


Made a mess of fitting a seat swivel, and as such they'll be no pics yet! Firstly I had to mount a flat base on the wheel tub for the swivel to operate on, that bit was easy using a bit of angle mounted underneath to add some rigidity. I mounted a platform on the base of the seat between the runners so the swivel would mount up to it and only raise the seat height by about 10mm. The problem surfaced immediately after trial fitting the seat - I had welded the swivel on upside down, so the release lever did not spin with the seat, but would get caught as the seat tried to turn past it. At that point it got abandoned for another time, as the seat swivel is 'well' welded to the seat platform, and will take a while to unpick without butchering it

Just tacked,


To be welded down the sides to the wheel tub/seat mounts.


I wanted to finish painting the underside this weekend as, its just the front cab area/wheelarches to go, and then I can start putting the gear linkage /gearbox/engine/ and wiring back on BUT before that can be started, I did my familiar 1 step forward, and 3 steps back routine, as I was'nt happy with the front tubs where I'd cut the walkthrough bulkheads, many moons ago when I was full of enthusiasm and camping only seemed a few months away. I cut the bulkheads down level with the profile of the front arch tubs, not realising that the factory way, which looks much better has them level across the seat base. plus at the factory they'd added (an afterthought) a small triangular gusset panel to add some support, I also had to finalise how the passenger seat swivel base would be fixed down, all these bits needed to be done before I can start painting the underside. The pictures do the talking, but all the metal work going on is done in 1.5mm sheet, so nice to work with.

No before/after pic, but got the lower panels welded in here.


Then the gusset panels went on,




to be continued........

 

Also I had the idea, (or perhaps it's a revelation) a while ago of seeing if a propex could be mounted in the void space under the front seats where the brake fluid reservoir is. the slight problem of not owning a propex yet would not stop me though, and so I made my own using the dimensions of the HS2000 from their site. I'm pleased to say it fits, although it might be a bit more of a struggle getting in with the inlet/exhaust tubes on, but thats just a small detail for now! the box I used was 20mm wider than the actual unit, so I think it should be ok. The inlet/exhaust will exit into the wheelarch, to finish I've got to get some more metal to make a bolt on closing/removable panel, so it reinstates some of the webbing I removed from the seat base.

El cheapo fuel efficient Propex HS2000


Marking out for the cut.


Fits in easily + put some 60mm pipe in the pic to see how easy it'll be to route.


Plenty of room at the air outlet end, to put a Y piece in and have 1 pipe going back to the cab and the other facing into the rear.


As finished tonight, with a bit of spray etch on.


I'm knackered now!

 

Nice work dude, really nice work.

Mmmm Sea Blue, I love it, I hate you, I love it

 

Ha nice heater were can I get one ;-) are they themed environment friendly heaters

 

I'm doing a group buy on the new Eco-Propex's, if we can get 40 people, I can do them for £10 posted - flat packed for self assembly

(will help pay for my own gas guzzling Propex )

 

Your Propex idea is pure genius! I will be following up to see how well it works out!

 

Can tell everyone else is out working on their vans now the weather is getting better, as this had slipped to page 3!

Been putting plenty of time in with not too much too show, but heres a few pics I've taken,

Beam off again, but this time welded an old dolley trolley to the jack footplate to make removal/refitting alot easier, then measured up and welded a bracket on for a servo, if I get round to getting 1, added some measurements for the standard servo bracket if anyone needs it for reference. Hopefully this weekend I'll have it all stripped back and painted up.







Been removing alot of previously applied redoxide primer and sealer as the panel seams were going rusty underneath, This has only been on there the best part of 2 years or so and has always been kept indoors!, not impressed so I've burnt/scraped alot of the sealer off to clean it up for a fresh treatment of kurust, etch, and jotun mastic primer, PU sealer, and then to be followed by stoneguard and then paint. Alot of prepping and cleaning but hoping it will hold the rust back and keep the moisture out.








Ready to go, so tomorrow its stoneguard on and then finish the underside paint

 

Underneath is looking great, worth all the effort blasting it I think.

 

Did you angle the servo bracket at the pedal like the OG ones? Can't tell from your picture...

 

great work, love the heater idea...

 

The mount I've put on is just vertical on the beam, Now got me wondering what can go wrong....

I was rolling around underneath another bus in a barn to get the dimensions, but didnt notice it being mounted at an angle, what do you mean by angle it at the pedal?