Right where to start, I guess at the beginning!
In the middle of last year I was luck enough to be able to buy an early 1964, built August 1963, UK RHD converted panelvan, the previous owner had owned him for 29 years, the last 13 of which had been spent under a tarp in his back garden. I was moving house so saw no sense in moving him before I'd moved so it was September before he was gracing my driveway...


...a mate lent a hand, Superstar ...






As you would expect from a uk bus he's in a bad way, but he could much worse...






...the money shot ...


Here is some of my previous work, not complete unfortunately, but one day he will be
http://www.volkszone.com/VZi/showthread.php?t=252595

So on Sunday I finally started with the resto, I started by removing the doors and seats...


WARNING...I'll be posting so many pictures it'll almost be like a flipper book

...the doors are absolutely shot, so stripped them I'll be keeping the scrap until the end though, as you never know when you might need a repair patch and what better metal than genuine VW?...




...removed the drivers seat to find a brake servo!...


...so onto the front panel, to make stripping the dash easier, off it came...

Good luck fella i will keep an eye on this one

Looks good to me

What are your plans eg colours interior etc

I'll be keeping an eye on this one too, your work you did on the bug and bay was top notch Moler!

Everyone can weld, only a few people can weld properly and you are certainly one of those!

Nice resto... yeah its a lot of work but a nice history to a bus makes up for it..

Will be watching this develop for sure..

Thanks for the kind words, it's the kind of encouragement I need

Plans? initially, straight axle conversion, 1641 to start with (cos it's sat on the garage floor) , red primer , but structurally and mechanically sound all done properly....I want to use it for Vanfest THIS year?

looks like a big project

good luck with it , i will be following this

Are you welding up the window cuts and putting it back to a panel?

That's the current plan, although I'm little concerned about the kids in the back when it'd finished, they aren't though, because I happened to mention "DVD" and "PS2"

Having said that, if anyone has any window appertures for sale, I might be interested, just in case

This shows just how bad the front is, about what you'd expect for a uk bus that's had no previous work around the front, or if it had it's gone now...


...both sides are like this...


...lower valance, inner and outer totally gone...




...this was the previous owners solution to a 12volt fuel gauge, 2 x 6volt ones in parallel.


So off came the front...


...picked the rest of the floor off, and the old repairs around the bottom of the inner arches, anyone know of repair sections for this area?...







...now, where does all this go?

Right, little bit of progress then.

And little it is, all I've done is removed the O/S wheel arch and started to look at the B pillar bottom...


...this entailed the start of the removal of the long side


Should be some good progress at the weekend, I'll have to get the good camera out as well

WOW this looks way to familiar, looks not quite as bad as my front end but well worth the work

Good to see another UK bus being restored

Keep up the good work

I've been doing a bit today so thought I'd show y'all oh and I've got the good camera out so the quality is much better.

This is the state of the B pillar, outrigger, sill...you get the idea...




...I took the front beam off today too, not happy with the way it supported though, will have to chage this tomorrow. Considering the state of the rest of the underneath I think the chassis has faired quite well, there are a few repairs to make, but not many.


The current plan is ready the front, from the B pillar forward, for letting in the repairs so I've started removing the cargo floor...






...only intended doing front bit, but carried away...


...nearside arch removed too, and some old repairs to the inner arch...


...does anyone know what this catch is for?

I've been looking at that brake servo too...


...this is how it connected to the original master cylinder...


...quite ingenius really

And this is what's in the back...


...W code 1700 injection, unfortunately the installation was never finished although it does run and move, I've decided to remove it and fit a the 1641 I have for ease, and because ultimately he's having something much bigger

You have the world of work ahead of you there man. The lower part of the front wheel tubes should be easy enough to make. I dont know anywhere that supplies those bits. It looks all to familair I'm looking forward to seeing more. Take lots of pics as you go. Have you got a donor front ready to go.
I love watching these unfold.