Funny you mention Bris Refinish Supplies Matt - I 've been buying all my stuff from them for years now! I go to the one at archerfield although now I'm down the coast it is a bit harder to find time to get to them. I've found another supplier on the coast who stocks spies hecker so I'll save some travel time (just hope the service is just as good as BRF). 🙂
Bit more progress today - a few bits received their coats of colour (3 coats of white base, 3 coats of pearl, 3 coats of clear) including the engine access hatch:
The inside of the doors also were painted:
Hard to capture the pearl in the sunlight so forgive the extra pics of the same door!!
Apart from a few dust nibs, the finish is quite good. A clay bar will be used tomorrow to tidy up the nibs and worst case a bit of colour sanding will give it that 'show quality finish'.
Alan
Bit more prep and primer today including the fuel tank cover and engine bay:
Both rear panels are now ready for final sand (just before paint) same with roof. Now just the sliding door and middle panel on drivers side to do, and then inside - hopefully will start to come together pretty quickly over next two weeks.
As a rough guestimate, what is the bill looking like?
You realise there is going to have to be a new class @ dubs by the pub? The Done by DasDubber class.
Great work Alan.....
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Allan,
Another sensational job. Do any of your resto's keep any original metal in them ? 😂 you seem to love cutting and welding, no wonder your bloody good at it.
Question please. The areas for example where there were half dozen holes in the area under a side window rubber. You cut out the complete section and replaced it with a new small strip. Could you not tak weld the holes and then grind flat or is this done because there is likely to be rust holes starting in other spots close to where those holes are?
Thanks Andrew
1971 Type 3 Fasty - EJ20T
I love 242HP sleepers. 🤪
How many sets of lights does it take a $229k Carrera S to learn? 😂 UPDATE: Cayman S, M3, B4 now added to the list.
koolkarmakombi wrote:As a rough guestimate, what is the bill looking like?
Derek is lucky as he is a friend of a friend
😉
Last night and this morning the brakes and wheel arches needed a quick clean - they certainly weren't the worst I've seen but still pretty dirty:
Front disc:
Since the bus isn't a show car, and the resto brief did not include body colour 'underbody', everything was cleaned thoroughly then painted in gloss black kill rust paint with brush and small disposable foam roller to avoid brush strokes:
Shocks will be cleaned up later...discs and drums were painted in high temp caliper paint. The rest of the underbody will be pressure cleaned before being painted in the same gloss black. Without sand/media blasting it would take me around 2 full days of work to get the arches etc ready for two pack paint.....since Derek and Lee want to use the bus as it was inended, such an approach was not deemed feasible/cost effective, hence the black paint.
GTMac wrote:Question please. The areas for example where there were half dozen holes in the area under a side window rubber. You cut out the complete section and replaced it with a new small strip. Could you not tak weld the holes and then grind flat or is this done because there is likely to be rust holes starting in other spots close to where those holes are?
G'day Andrew, where possible I always cut out the complete section where requried. Sometimes if the pitting is very minor and only like surface rust, it can be treated then sealed and painted. If rust is present even pitted and you try and 'tack' weld the holes, it just keeps blowing bigger holes until it reaches solid metal - hence why it is better just to replace the whole lot where possible.
Today the inside of the engine hatch was painted in red which will be the lower half of the bus - this was about 5 mins after the clear was shot (had to put a picture of my ugly mug in this thread somewhere eh?) - pretty glossy.
Under engine access hatch also received a lick of red - as I didn't have to use much reducer, the die back of the clear was kept to a minimum (ie. it retains its gloss well) - as you add more reducer it will flow out better (less orange peel), but will result in more die back - there is a fine line between too much and too little (2% vs 5% vs 10% etc).
Fuel tank cover was also painted in red - was going to contrast it but didn't have any darker colours on hand and didn't want to paint it white (too hard to keep clean)
Engine bay was also painted so slowly but surely the old girl is coming together!
The underside will be painted black (ie. all the chassis parts that will be hidden by the engine sealing tin)
Another job out of the way (many more ahead though!). The medium speed hardener was a good choice for todays temperature etc - any slower would have resulted in runs and any faster would result in more orange peel....so happy days!
Been slowly chipping away at the camper but decided tonight to make a new long board for sanding to get the sides straight.
Cut up some 10mm perspex and using a jigsaw, router and sandpaper it has come up nicely. 1m lengths of sandpaper of various grits will be attached via spray adhesive as per the balsa long boards. Screws holding handle on are countersunk underneath so sanding surface remains flat.
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Obviously no paper attached yet - just for demonstration purposes 😉
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nice work al. you're not wrong, its very red!
nick
well you did say earlier you liked your work to be transparent🤓
lookin good
as per the gas.. if there is none actually 'fitted as a fixture' into the vehicle it will be a lot easier and cheaper to insure as i found this out a while back when i had my last campmobile
no probs having a portable unit to cook outside with and easier on the hip pocket - no certs etc
something to think of for ya mate das..
fractal geometry; the inner most limits of mind altering abuse
Fantasy
http://seventhchronicle.com
Z = Z2 + C1/r = 1/0 = infinity
Barrels
www.barrelman.com.au
VW Workshop - aircooledgarage.com.au
allcooled.com.au
Cheers guys. And cheers h for the gas details.
Alan
Got stuck into the interior today (got sick of looking at the green!) - sanded all the original paint and scuffed all the pressings with scotchbrite pad to take all the gloss off. (not taken back to bare metal due to it being solid original paint and budget).
The rear was given the same treatment and the patch panels were seam sealed and treated.
Derek and Lee wanted nice clean sides so only the water inlet was retained. Despite welding extremely slow and cooling/hammering and dollying as I went there was still more warpage than expected. I therefore had to spend quite a bit of time stretching and shrinking the metal back into shape then lots of time sanding with the long blocks to get it straight.
Another 2 to 3 applications of guide coat and block sanding will be required to get it right.
Derek and Lee were going to have aftermarket seats installed but have decided to revert back to the originals so I will be welding the seat rails back in place after I get my mig back from servicing. Primer of course will be touched up afterwards.
Nice to see dash all looking smooth (and not green any more).
Interior will just need a light sand to ensure surface is all smooth (quite a few hrs to get it all right even though most of it will be concealed by interior some time next year)
Damn these buses chew up a lot of material - need to get more primer tomorrow (close to 8L already used due to repeated applications during block sanding to get the exterior straight).
Will hopefully get some more done this weekend (surf has been cranking so combined with endless hours of sanding my arms are looking forwards to a rest!).
Alan
After seeing this project happen Alan it is certainly getting my brain going on how my van is going to see her resto sooner rather than later.....
By the way i will get you to give me an idea on what it would cost to tidy her up perhaps sometime in the 2nd half of next year if that is possible.
ACCEPT THAT SOME DAYS YOU ARE THE PIDGEON AND SOME DAYS YOU ARE THE STATUE
Alder Outlaws VW Racing - check it out on fb!!
No probs Brendann - second half of next year will suit me just fine! I'm sure I'll talk to you many times before then. 😉
Alan
Well today was pretty productive - got the drivers side middle panel all sorted and reprimed after several applications of primer/filler and sanding with the long boards etc. Also got the roof (above rain gutters sanded with 600 wet paper after guide coat, then) painted in base/clear.
Came out really well off the gun which was great.
This was tonight just to get another pondering reflection shot in as you know I love em.
More tomorrow (although going fishing early (no surf) so not sure how much I'll get done!)
Parts of the interior were painted this arvo - floor (rear and front) plus seat bases will be painted after I get my mig back and reweld the seat rails back on.
I don't often use newspaper for masking but I am running low on proper masking paper so I had to improvise!
Even though most of this will be hidden by the dash, at least we all know it is done right 😉
All white interior will keep things nice and bright! (not white upholstery though, that would be too hard to keep clean!)
As per all other bits that have been painted in the pearl, the interior received 3 coats of white base, 3 coats of the pearl, then 3 coats of clear - all spies hecker products used = great results, but = $$$
I can't wait to start putting some of this back together rather than stripping it down for a change!
Today saw the rest of the interior receive its paint including the doglegs (so doors can be hung and outside can be painted maybe next week)
Front floor is nice and glossy.
The wheel arch mat retaining lip was the best place to divide the two tone - more fiddly bits will be done tonight.
Too good - way too good to cover with seats and crap!
Pay your debts, CxxT
Thanks Glenn!
Today saw a little progress including straightening and priming the sliding door and putting in dash and wiring etc (still a bit to go). Just another couple shots of interior in sunlight. You can see I've just painted the jambs which will be back masked after the doors are hung when the outside is painted.
"Sparkling graphite" coloured dash went back in - it will all be masked off before paint goes on outside.
All the edges of the bolt on panels (apart from slider) have now been shot with colour which was quite labour intensive as not only the insides had to be masked effectively to prevent overspray, the two tone paint means the edges that needed red base coat had to be sprayed first....then allowed adequate curing time before those edges were masked so the upper pearl white edges could be sprayed (remember, 3 coats of white base then 3 coats of pearl)....then all masking removed so the edges could be clear coated.
Although lots of red went onto the outside, a lot of it is sanded off when the doors etc received its final sanding before paint.
This is where the high build primer is useful - it provides an adequate thickness of material so when guide coat is applied it shows up sanding scratches and imperfections from body work - so basically you sand all these scratches out with a finer grit (first with 400 on the dual action sander to speed it up, then 600 wet paper by hand with a block.
After bolting the door back on, you can see the 600 wet paper provides a dull lustre 'semi polished' surface evidenced by the reflection here. At this stage it can be good practice to wet the surface using prep wash (grease/wax remover) which will show if the panels are straight or not - if not......back to sanding, filler, sanding, filler etc etc!
Before the doors went on, the inside edges were remasked along with the jambs to prevent overspray getting inside on previously painted surfaces.
The rear panel can be seen with a flash of water on it - this is not as good as prep wash to show imperfections as water can fool you due to its thicker film (can hide problems).....but anyway you get the picture. Despite several hours of panel beating it was impossible to totally get out the high crown in the rear panel (ie. the high spot in the centre of the panel that runs vertically (you can see it where the brick lines kink)). If this was a show resto I would have cut and shut the inner support structure to straighten it out - but that would add another day just for each rear quarter panel which wasn't feasible in this resto.
Derek has decided to run a few autometer guages (oil temp and pressure which will be mounted under the dash) and a clock to fill the blank plate in the instrument cluster. Derek cut the blank filler piece to fit the clock, I just gave it a quick coat of paint and it was then bolted in place.
Should see some big progress this week!
Nice work as always Alan,
After reading about all the shit with neighbours in sunny Qld It might be prudent to get them all a gift hamper or bottle of wine or something to keep them freindly
👍
Keeping it real !
Yeah I am always considerate and before starting any noisy work I always do a quick door knock to see if it is okay - they are all really good and I think they appreciate being asked first. It also helps the house directly next door to us is a holiday home so for about 11 months in the year no one is home. I'd love an industrial unit though, that would make life easier - pity $ doesn't grow on trees!
Dasdubber wrote:- pity $ doesn't grow on trees!
Seen the price of Cherries!
Keeping it real !
Been having late nights trying to get the camper ready for collection on saturday (hence not too many updates). Had a few midnight finishes and long days - arms looking forward to a rest from sanding! This was from the other night (final sand with 600 then 800 wet - here is a pic after sanding with a flim of grease wax remover (sprayed on).
Finish off the gun - could be left as is and most would be very happy with it, but being a bit of a perfectionist (some say anal), it will be colour sanded to bring out the finish it really deserves!
I had a booth lined up for hire but it fell through at the last minute which left me with no choice but to do it from home. I consulted all my neighbours and explained the situation which they were all understanding of (seeing I need it finished by this weekend).....as bribery I bought my immediate neighbours a family pass to seaworld today so they didnn't get annoyed by any smell. All precautions were made for safety and to minimise spray drift to not annoy anyone - all was good. I don't intend to do any future spraying at home for a number of reasons.
You can see the reflection in the door of the fluoro light with a bit of orange peel (hard not to get it when you can't see the surface due to inadequate lighting (I was using the force most of the time)). This will come out with colour sanding though. All I can say is that two tone painting a kombi takes so bloody long it is not funny - masking alone takes so many more hours that I anticipated - ah well, I know for next time!
More pics tomorrow before it leaves on saturday (the oval will finally get its garage position back!).
Alan
Well, I forgot how long it takes to colour sand properly! Not really, but I always seem to overestimate how much I can do in a day.
Here is a pic of the front corner of the bus - purposely holding up a spreader to demonstrate good gloss, but a bit orange peely....Although it would be good enough for a daily driver, I guess I am destined to build every car as if it was my own - which means pretty much show quality (fortunate for Derek and Lee).
This is after a quick once over with my small orbit (2.5mm) dual action sander using 800 grit (better for finishing - not good for heavy sanding like filler work etc - in that case you use a bigger orbit like 5mm). I purposely stopped early to take the pic to show the shiny low spots - if these are left, even after buffing you would still see tiny ripples/peel in the finish which I don't want. So after this pic, more sanding with 800 to completely flatten it out, then 1500 on the DA.....then 1500 wet by hand, then 2000 wet by hand....
....then using the sander/polisher with firm foam pad and cutting compound, you bring back the shine....then using a softer pad with finer compound you remove the swirls....then a machine glaze (which I will do when the whole bus is done. That is why it can take well over 50 hours to do a bus properly - so if you want that mirror finish that will stand up in a show, either get your arms ready for lots of sanding and polishing, or get your wallet out to pay someone by the hour to do it right! A picture tells a thousand words.
The front of the bus took about 6 hours in total to colour sand today but was well worth the effort. There are many other tips and tricks but I don't want to write a novel - shoot me a question if you want to know anything in particular (like blocking (fixing) runs or dust nibs etc).
Happy days
Last pic for today - I might get around to doing the front doors tomorrow morning before my family gets down for pre-chrissy celebrations, so the bus will go back to its home (Derek and Lee's) for a few weeks before coming back to me to complete the colour sanding - just ran out of time unfortunately.
