Wow so again its been over 6 months since I last posted an update on here.

If your not aware of my blog here in brief is what I've been up to.

layed on some Red on the under side


used a can to get into the tight spots


covered it in clear coat


patched the hole at the rear hatch hinge





Dealt with a fiddly patch in the rear hatch seal carrier




Made a tool to pull my trailing arms out of the front beam because I bashed them in to tight


used some wood angle and threaded bar to pull the arm out.


was kindly lent a massive reamer from a fellow club member to correctly ream my bushes


assembled the front beam back together


Repaired my door bottom






Started to flatten my roof

Day 1

Day 2


Day 3




Discovered the factory Lead loaded joints



Brought a body soldering kit


Loaded up the lead




patched up the rear corner



Wrote a piece for the club magazine


Dragged the van back out side and rolled it right side up



patched up some holes in the side window frames




filled some small gaps in the sill repair Id been meaning to do for ages


Go my bumpers blasted decided I could have done a better job my self



mixed up the oxalic acid to remove the rest of the rust



prepped my bumper




swapped out my mismatched rear bumper


welded up the cut out


Made some new bushes for my rear hatch hinges


... previously on pauls split blog. knacked engine lid



tried to make a repair piece with a block as trying to find a decent engine lid at a decent price is hard


but trial piece came out curved and wonkie


So finally found a doner engine lid with knackered outer skin and hinges but with a good inner frame to repair the inside of mine.





made a rear seat belt mount





see here for more on that subject fitting seat belts in a split screen bus

Got my old school RAF mechanic uncle over to help tidy up the outer body




dragged out my shrinking disk to drop down those high spots in the panel repairs


used a template to get the sill shape straight as its sooooo long.


flattened down the spot weld dimples in the front arches.


covered myself in filler dust


primed the bulkhead




made sure I filtered the paint that went into the spray gun


Sprayed the roof with a gravity gun, this is not easy


Let Rachel have a go at spraying the cargo floor



Had a few problems with my gun leaking


let the dog inspect the work


prepped the doors for primer




sprayed one side once the doors were aligned


then the cab



then the front


dragged the van out and spent the day hanging the doors



one day before the delivery to the paint shop that I put of for a week already I decided the belt line trim holes were more important than the body prep and primer on the other side of the van so I raided my pile of fresh parts to get the belt line trim out.


got a friend to help me fit it






run out of time to finish all the prep work I wanted to so last shot in the garage before off for paint

BOOM

now that's an update



well done and great skills on show

bus is looking good dude


Mark

Amazing work, this is going to be a great bus!

Looking good.

It maybe six months but with work like that worth the wait. Lead loading love it! I have not put my project on here because progress is not as rapid as many but maybe I should.

Just a quick up date from the paint shop.

Hired a bloke and a trailer, to much hassel doing it myself last time


Gutted I didn't get all the prep done that I wanted to do and the van was a week late already


Delivered it to Gavin and his Dad at The PaintShop Pros near Aylesbury check out there work on there face book page.


Gavin hires his booth out so I wanted to have a go at spraying the inside myself, but it took 3 days of prep before I could rool it in for paint


rolled the van in the booth


quick set up of the gun


And on with the paint


used a small gun to get into the corners first then laid on the main coat


Baked for twenty min and pulled the tape off



Not to bad for a first go, will update my blog with more details when I get the time.

I was just about to do an exciting update on my Blog with the van back from paint and then share all the juicy details on here, only to find all the previously posted pictures have had the links broken due to google changing the address. If I cant sort it out there's a lot of picture posting required. Bit gutted.

So here's a little teaser while I try and sort out my Blog.

so Im over my rant at Google, so I changed my public setting by mistake, blog and thread photos all back to normal.

So anyway the good bit, the results from the paint shop.

Had a bit more prep to do


last coat of primer


inside of doors painted


engine bay done


lower part of cab done


Dash and cab roof done


I like this shot, top ready for colour


Base coats on


below the roof lacquered


touch of sun lite to show off the paint


stencil being applied


patten cut to wrap over the corners


Gloss black applied and stencil removed


quick roll out in the sun


touch of air brush


second stencil removed


A couple coats of lacquer then a few more


A cut back


quick polish


job done


Finally got the call to pick up the van


Loaded into a trailer


Back home safe.
I'll let the pics do the talking










One very proud splity owner

well done

it looks fab

I can feel ya excitement from here buddy


Like the roof ....... it's nice to be different from the norm some times


so stop cleaning it and stop looking at it ...... and start putting this bad boy back together again


Loving the colour combo dark over light ...... But there again I would say the wouldn't I



Mark

Mark

Hi Paul, great update

I was particularly interested in this bit as I'm about to repair my "new" cab door.

orange wrote:
Repaired my door bottom

Did you unpick the fold from the door skin and then let in the repair piece or just butt up to what remained after cutting out? It also looks as if you may have plug welded to the door skin from the inside?

This is all new to me and it's a steep learning curve!

Thanks for any advice in advance

Steve

wow

rusty1962 wrote:Hi Paul, great update

I was particularly interested in this bit as I'm about to repair my "new" cab door.

Did you unpick the fold from the door skin and then let in the repair piece or just butt up to what remained after cutting out? It also looks as if you may have plug welded to the door skin from the inside?

This is all new to me and it's a steep learning curve!

Thanks for any advice in advance

Steve

Hi Steve check out my blog entry a lot more detail how I repaired my door bottoms here
http://www.paulssplit.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/cab-door-bottom-repair.html

The edge lip that holds the inner skin was spot welded in a couple of places, I drilled these out from the inside then used a pick to lift the edge of the seam. at the curve it split due to the tight radius.
this allowed me to slot the repair piece in place. the plug welds are from just filling the pin holes left from the rust.
If I was to do it again I would probably try and make my own repair patch to match my door, like in this post
http://paulssplit.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/cab-door-bottom-repair.html
the patch I got did not match my door curve and took a lot of work to re shape a compound curve rather than make your own.

Hope this helps Steve.

markp wrote:well done

it looks fab

I can feel ya excitement from here buddy

Like the roof ....... it's nice to be different from the norm some times

so stop cleaning it and stop looking at it ...... and start putting this bad boy back together again

Loving the colour combo dark over light ...... But there again I would say the wouldn't I


Mark

Hi Mr P
Thanks for the comments, Your right I have spent a week looking at it and dusting it down,
I'm just trying to remember how to put it back together. It may take a while as I still need to restore a lot of bit now that the body looks so fresh.
hopefully rolling by Vic farm if the cash doesn't run out.

Cool

Will be great too see it in the flesh

What's the name of the colours you used. ..... The top looks black .... But in sun it's looks a black with gold metallic ?

Love the roof ... Look idea


Mark

orange wrote:

rusty1962 wrote:Hi Paul, great update

I was particularly interested in this bit as I'm about to repair my "new" cab door.

Did you unpick the fold from the door skin and then let in the repair piece or just butt up to what remained after cutting out? It also looks as if you may have plug welded to the door skin from the inside?

This is all new to me and it's a steep learning curve!

Thanks for any advice in advance

Steve

Hi Steve check out my blog entry a lot more detail how I repaired my door bottoms here
http://www.paulssplit.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/cab-door-bottom-repair.html

The edge lip that holds the inner skin was spot welded in a couple of places, I drilled these out from the inside then used a pick to lift the edge of the seam. at the curve it split due to the tight radius.
this allowed me to slot the repair piece in place. the plug welds are from just filling the pin holes left from the rust.
If I was to do it again I would probably try and make my own repair patch to match my door, like in this post
http://paulssplit.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/cab-door-bottom-repair.html
the patch I got did not match my door curve and took a lot of work to re shape a compound curve rather than make your own.

Hope this helps Steve.

Thanks Paul, very useful.

Cheers

Steve

Really looking forward to the build up! The paintwork is Awesome!