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History
Got through an add on edubs this '78 was originally part-owned by a mate and myself until I
swapped his share off him for some welding.
The interior is all there just a bit scruffy. It needs, to make it nice and tidy, front & rear arches,
2 outer sills, engine lid, a front panel and a couple of other small areas - the
usual UK bus bottom 6 inches all round.
It's only covered 105k from new and has an almost full service history and an engine with appx 50k on
it according to receipts etc.
When bought was brush painted black with an A team stripe.
Plans
The interior was swapped with ours (devon) & the body was restored. For pics of the areas needing attention click the thumbnails below.
These show the usual rot spots and some unusual damage to the back end - which
we later discovered was due to a rear mounted spare wheel carrier.
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Body Restoration
Plan of attack was to work down the passenger side first (only because the other side's up against the fence), front then down the d/s.
Passenger side outer sill
The inner sills were solid on this side, so it was just a case of grind off the old outer sill and replace with the new.
This was spot-welded in place along the bottom and by short seams on top to attach it to the sliding door runner.
Passenger wheel arch & B post.
After removal via a combination of grinder and cold chisel the damage could be reviewed. This is actually better than expected. On the rear wheelarch bulkhead is the usual bits behind where the arch sits. There's also some along the top of the outrigger - just visible in the left of the
first photo
At the front the A post was completely solid! The rot in the photo is a lower edge panel for the front deformation panel that the bumper mounts
to (pics 1 & 2). This will be fixed after the arch and front panel are in place.
The quality of the repair panel was terrible. The bend was so wrong I cut it in two with a hacksaw so that there would be an
even gap between the door and the arch, and that the edge of the arch would be flush with the door.
The fifth pic shows the front arch in place with a thin skin off filler
being applied over the low spots. This will be sanded back so the area is
perfectly flat.
The final pic shows an odd area of rot I found under the p/s seat and cut out (had about 4 layers of patching. The seatbelt mount was also completely solid.
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Rear Arch / end of inner sills
The edge of the rear arch was bubbling away and the lower bit in-between
the arch and sliding door had been done roughly so a complete arch was
fitted.
As expected the edges of the inner tub were rotten so these were cut out
and replaced with sheet. This was also the only area where there was
rot in the sills. Thankfully this was only limited to the end of the
middle and inner sills. Repair panels were fabricated from sheet and
welded in before the arch was fitted.
The first pic below shows the middle sill spot welded in place. The Second
shows the inner and middle sills looking forward from inside the wheelarch.
The rear wheel arch turned out to be a big hassle due to the cr*p quality repair panel
(the brown ones - don't touch them). I ended up having to cut it in two
just at the rear of the arch to make it fit nicely (the repair panel was too short). The
edge was joggled and then spot welded onto the body.
Working in from each side more and more spots were added until it
resembled a seam weld. Moving from one area to another when welding this
type of panel in reduces the heat and thus panel distortion. a damp rag is
also very useful for keeping the temp down (being applied to the welded
area straight after the actual weld).
The welds were then ground down and a skim of filler will applied & flatted
by matt at a later date (the van lives outside so filling will take place
as close to spraying as possible).
As there was a dent in the panel further up under the window, the whole
panel was bare-metalled and this area was also underwent the hammer and
dolly treatment.
Finally the area was given a few coats of etch prime to keep the rust away
'till it's prepped & painted.
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Front Panel (See the how to section for more info)
Front panels on late bays are fairly straightforward in that the panel needs no modification (unlike pre
'73 bays that have to have a modified top
half mates to and early bottom half).
I expected the inner screen area to need some repair. However as can be seen from the photo, the inner screen panel was virtually non existant
What parts of the panel where there resembled a tea bag and crumbled in your hand. I've never seen one as bad as this before but it looks as though the panel was never painted in the factory.
After phoning around and finding only one person in the uk had one, in would
take 2-3 weeks to make and ship, I decided to fabricate my own out of
heavy gauge sheet metal.
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Thankfully the deformation panel and most of the A posts were solid.
5th pic above shows rot in the a posts behind the corner of the windscreen.
This is the same on both sides and was cut out and a repair section made
from sheet metal.
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Starting to look like a solid van now....
D/S front arch
Pretty much the same as the the passenger side - usual wheelarch rot (pic1), although the outrigger and jacking point were past it as you can see from the photo (pic2).
Nice to find a solid A post though (pic3). The front end of the inner sill has been repaired and the jacking point/outrigger is will be replaced by a repro panel. a good part of the rust seen in pic 3 is from the top of the belly pan which is being replaced with a new item.
Pic 5 shows the repair to the B post which lives behind the front arch (outrigger/jacking point hasn't been
replaced in this photo.
Pic 6 - wheelarch on - same panel fit problems as the other side - some hacksaw work needed where it shouldn't be
Final pic shows the bottom of the A post and deformation end that needs to be finished
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Outrigger
Bought one of these excellent combined jacking points and outriggers from vw
heritage - only £18. spot on fit & very easy to do. Pic 1 shows the top
hat section that runs under the floor - the ends of these are often rotten. On
this one they were fine. Pic2 what was left of the original jp - nice. Pic 4
clamped in place, tacked, then seam welded all round.
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Prep and paint
As the van was painted in many layers of handpaint stripping it back to metal
was the only option. this took the best part of 2 days using a variety of
methods. Some fillering was done to cover the joins where the new panels had
been let in. The van was then sprayed by nick, in nuneaton (0797405493) who
did a great job. This included finishing off the prep, baremetalling the roof,
primering the shell & spraying it in 2 pack olive green & white for a
very reasonable cost.
Pics below somewhat correspond to the pics at the top of the page - before and
after shots. Overall it's turned out really well. The sides are quite straight
(as this is going to be a daily driver show standard body work wasn't wanted).
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Brakes
New brakes were added all-round. This included new calipers and drums (from RMS in birmingham 0121 7061222 who delivered them to the door for no extra cost), pads shoes and brake cylinders. Problems arose when bleeding the new system, so a new master cylinder was also added.
Final bits
The devon interior was then refitted and it passed
the MOT first time.
Around this tie I'd spotted a fastback wanted so she had to go to a new home
See Finished Van
for pics
| Home | 78 History | 78 Finished Result |
