Lazy day

Ok so today was really just a slow day just pottering on the bus - am waiting for something to arrive for my welder. So until I get this I am resolved to simply cleaning up the body as much as I can in preparation for cutting rusted tin off and splicing new panels and metal back in place.  Also removed a lot of the tinware on the engine and prepping that for primer and paint eventually.

Continued to grind way some of the bondo on the rockers and it was much worse than I though .... swiss cheese completely along the whole rocker. The previous owner had inserted some of sticky gunk and matting inside the rocker and then  sealed up with no more nails and bondo'ed over the top. Muppet repair number one. 

Spent a couple of hours on the nose and the only thing holding it together was a couple of screws an the bottom, a welding tack in the odd place at the top and a heap of bondo. It is in dire straights and I don't know if I will be able to fix this. Even corrigated iron has less waves in it. Also the surface was not prepared properly and it had a layer of rust over the surface. Muppet repair number two

Roll on next weekend.

Floor work

Another lazy day working on the Kombi. Decided today to scrape of the floor and see what was underneath the carpet and coat of roughly applied paint. After I removed the carpet found quite a few pieces of extra metal screwed over the rusted holes, mainly where each of the jack points and outriggers secured to the floor.

The long top hat under the bulkhead is completely stuffed and rusted through. Despite sitting in a dry garage since it arrived in New Zealand, it was really moist and rusting away merrily ....... what was it Neil Young said in a song..... yeah that's right, rust never sleeps.

Looks like I will need to order in some floor repair sections. Am hoping that these won't be too expensive now that KlassicFab panels are available in New Zealand. While I wait for a few other parts to arrive I will keep on scraping away and looking around at what else needs going - looks like the bottom portion of the B and C pillars will need replacing just to be on the safe side and get a good margin between the current rust surrounding them. 

The nose which is sporting a couple of different colours (half original sea blue and the other a shitty cream) has had a bump in a former life and once again a bit of bad cutting, splicing and bondo has disguised a very poor repair ..... why oh why? Anyway I have the complete floor section to put in along with replacement inner and outer valance metal behind the bumper so looks like it will be off with the bottom 8" or so of the nose and dependent on how much re-welding and repair of the nose, I will decide if it will be simpler to do the lot in new metal.

Not much doing today

Not much really been happening ..... have been a little slow getting going but my book arrived which I purchased online from Amazon. It is the "VW Transporter Owners Workshop Manual". Should prove very useful as I get down to business, especially as I am not really mechanically minded but as I strip things down will definitely come in handy when I pull it all back together. It is gonna take months to do what needs to be done and no matter how much I tell myself that I will remember exactly where every nut and bolt goes, I am sure I will forget and don't want to be left with a box of parts that have no home.



I did have, when I restored my 1969 VW Beetle, another great book "How to keep your Volkswagen Alive"by John Muir but telling myself when I sold the Beetle that I would not be owning another VW, I flicked it on. I should have realised that owning one VW in a lifetime is just not gonna happen.

These are definitely worthwhile having in your reference library.

The motor is out and I have removed the fuel tank, just to clear completely the rear for work. Now that I can have a good look both rear corners are rusted through. Have a couple of corners I purchased from Wolfsberg West but these are slightly different gauge metal, definitely more sturdy and should be solid for many years to come. Will knit these in first and then slide in new metal for the battery tray and drivers side tray.

Will need to fabricate the raised 'lip' for both sides as they are well and truly rusted away. I have seen a few restorations where this piece has been left out and the trays are welded flush with the surrounding chassis. This is ok but its attention to the small details which will pay dividends in the rebuild.