Going very hard on Leo to get him done
so I can drive him. He'll be my test sled for a few engineering ideas I have.....got very close to buying an old joinery in West G (for a splitbus resto business) last week - it sold on the Saturday and I went in to buy it on the following Monday .......

Anyway...

Lifted the tray off Leo and repaired the tray support. Rear corners and front edges (behind the cab) were toasty.



Replacing the passenger's side, top hat sections, inner and outer sills and pillar bottoms. Had to go fairly high to find good clean metal.



Shot from rear. That's Dusty dawg resto manager on the left...



Shot from inside showing inner rockers, new rear wheel well closing panel and pillar bottoms. Hadn't done the 'front pillar left, but it gives you an idea of how crusty the old boy was....



Outer sills going on. Not too bad for metal finished.....



Later all and keep the faith!

RobK





[ Edited on 23-2-2007 by splitbusaustralia ]

Rob

Looks great any news on the back seat, Its great to see new metal being installed.

Now dont forget to put the glass in the right way around.

Look's like nice work. :thumb:thumb

So you eventually got it.

What may we ask are you going to test on the twin cab????

Looks like I will have to start saving up?

Job looks good.
I am trying to get mine ready for Christmas, havent done any work on it since the last time we spoke,
Front lookks a treat with your spindles on.

Cheers
Dave

hey rob
man u do some nice work!!! i admire ur work!!!
we got a dual cab too!! needs about as much work to!!!
did u fold it up by urself?
cheers
rhys

Very nice Rob.. Very nice.

You let me know if you do start that business.. I may be one of your first customers!

me too me too!!!!!!
cheers
rhys

HI Rob
You guys really need to be congratulated, the amount of metal work that has to be done to bring these buses back is really amazing. it's great to see people prepared to bring them back to their former glory! bloody top stuff!
Rob......

Dave - less glass on this one so chances of a stuff up should be proportionally less?
Lets see now 23 windows vs 7 - about 32.85 percent chance of a stuff up!.......hopefully I wont be swanning round the garage in a zombie like state at 3am in the morning trying to get the thing finished and road registered for next years Nats! Even if it happens that way, it'll be a working truck in the car park rather than a show bus inside.....

Dave, my first thoughts are about getting
discs onto a splitbus beam so you can have discs without going the bay front beam and adjuster route (who says I'm absolutely anally fixated on this topic?)

Jim, the business is something I'm looking at. I think we would still starve at the moment - but as prices and demand keep going up more people will look at buying a 1-3 grand splitbus needing 3-5 grand worth of metalwork - partic. as fewer and fewer genuinely 'rust-free' busses become available around the 8 gorilla mark (actually very very few splitbusses ARE 'rust-free' - trust me on that one). Be very hard to make a living out of a specialist splitbus resto business I think - most rest shops carry other types of business (parts/servicing) as well. The place I was looking at had an ongoing two year lease with tenant. At the moment I'm looking more to find premises, lease out for the moment (or maybe offer dry vehicle storage for cheap) and then review again when my kids are just about through high school etc and we actually need less money to live...could sacrifice income for something I really want to do then...

Rhys - I buy the outriggers, inner and outer sills and centre chassis sections from Guy Harding (a lot of these parts are based on my original patterns). The prices are good when you look at what time it takes to hand make them. I still make part not commonly available - pillar bottoms, wheel well closing panels and pressed sections I can't buy like barndoor front floor sections and cargo floor sections (although the pressed stuff is very time consuming by hand...).

Leo will be done in red oxide (or epoxy primered in a similar colour if I can't find a way to improve the water resistance of the oxide) lowered, highway geared, BRM'ed, tilted and bowed and have enough torque to pull tree stumps............



[Edited on 3-9-2003 by splitbusaustralia]

Hi Rob.
As you know I agree with your comments on King and Link pin beams so a disc set up with out widening the track would be the way to go.
as long as I can keep the dropped spindles?

As for setting up a business, I think this would be tricky ,, aussies still have the "I can buy a splitty for $500 and then spend $1000 on it to get a show van?" mentality, just be careful, we know how much it costs but as it seams that splits are the flavour of the month at the moment, just be careful.
Any way good luck if you go that way.
Cheers
Dave

Great work there. Looks very nice so far :-)
If you set up a business maybe you can do bay's as well :-)

my bros interested in metal work and the likes maybe u could teach him the tricks of the trade (he can use my splitty as his first test)
u making up a new cab deck?? there got smaller ripples in them!!!
cheers
rhys

Greetings all,

When we last left Leo he looked something like this.......



Had a day at home today (thanks to State teachers bless them had to Mr Mum it) - repaired the bottom of the front post, the front wheel well, got the outer rocker on and replaced the outer LHS floor...



Had to fab and replace a lot of metal in the front pillar/front LHS wheel well. Have suspicions that previous owner used Leo to trawl for Cod in the Barents Sea.......or perhaps he was built from plate stripped off the U-259? The new dogleg will cover most of this......



View from underneath




And shot from passengers compartment




Actually it looks like twin cabs get really crusty because there is one helluva lot of braze used in their assembly. Probably something to do with being a semi special build and not having spot welders set up to access everything. When braze and steel meet and are exposed to water and air the steel is sacrificial! Lots of braze left and no metal!

Leo's rear subfloor will come out next and I'll replce the front and rear centre chassis sections and heater pipe. Replace the floor and then work up the other side. Hope the RHS is better than the left but I doubt it - got some previously repaired accident damage (80% job) to attend to on that side to.

I still reckon I'll have all the metal done and him in primer withing a year of starting...

later

RobK



[Edited on 22-7-2004 by splitbusaustralia]

:thumb nice work, looking good

Your a god splitbus australia:jesus

Love your work:thumb

:sandrine
Go Leo....
Good to see he was bought by a loverly
guy who loved him enough to fix him up
& give him a good home...
Judy

looken good. great to see the progress pictures. lokking very shmick :thumb

Keep the pics coming of his progress

i drop to my knees and bow before your majic! great work, cant wait to see it complete!

Pulled the rear subfloor out last night. Thought I'd post a couple of 'before' pix (to compare with 'after' when done). Looks worse than it actually is - chassis rails are fine and rear top hat section is actually OK.








[ Edited on 23-2-2007 by splitbusaustralia ]

:sandrine
Leo looks like he had a very hard life before you bought & saved him from the
vicious evil madman called "RUST'.
Thank god you saved him....he will be soon back to his ol self....all shiney new
Go Leo...
Your hard work is being noticed....you are truely a legend...
Judy

Quality is seriously the name of yor game. :thumb Just out of interests sake, what do you do for a living? I need to learn how to weld....
Steven

You're an absolute legend, dude! My hat is off to you.
-Cam

ive said it before and will say it again and again and again i love your work!!!!
did u ever sell the 23 window??
cheers
rhys

top work !
looks 100% perfect !
:bounce

full-on Rob,
you are one-helluva guy :thumb

yeah - do keep those resto pics coming.
was it more work than you though it would be??

In our last episode we had removed leo the split twin cab's sub floor and revealed this.......




A bit of cutting, fitting and welding and leo's looking better. This is the part of working on splitbusses that I almost dislike - I hate crawling around under them and I do get get quite disoriented and don't sleep well if I spend a lot of time underneath one (figure that one out?). Because of this I like to access all I can from the top.....but I'm going to have to do the front center chassis section soon which is going to be another not-fond-of job (have to do it all from underneath).




I wonder what the midnight movie is tonight?

later all!

RobK



[ Edited on 23-2-2007 by splitbusaustralia ]

[ Edited on 23-2-2007 by splitbusaustralia ]

Nice work, gotta love the weekend bonding...is that stainless you're using?

Rob, like always your work is incredible.
I'm not here to blow smoke up your bum, but it dumbfounds me to the extent of the quality.

I found something recently that someone like you might find useful, and was considering getting made myself.. Just a friendly offering, thats all. What do you think?

Might save crawling under them so much, thats all Rob..