Chapter 5 - Please take a seat

Since i first bought the van, my search for parts has taken me up many avenues and unfortunately a few dead ends. I'm sure many of you are familiar with the frustrations of ebay, and the "Sniping" that goes on, needless to say, i have fallen victim of this practice many, many times in my search for seats, and other parts for Project Orange.

Some people must have far more money then sense, as i witnessed one rear bench seat on ebay fetch £385 !!!

For a 30 year old seat? Was it from a Oettinger i here you cry? no, it was from a normal Caravelle !!!

Given that my pockets are not that deep, nor even if i had money to burn, would i ever consider giving such a sum, i continued my quest, until luck would have it i stumbled across a complete rear set (Middle bench 2 seater, & rear 3 seater, complete with bases and kick boards) for the princely sum of.... £50

Keith, if your reading this, thanks mate, your top bloke, and one that couldn't have been more helpful,   he's a trimmer by trade,and lives the dub life

 

Turns out these seats were destined for Spain 4 years ago, but the project vehicle went off to be dipped, and a lot less of it returned, so the vehicle was never completed, and they have been sat in his workshop ever since, awaiting a new home.

Anyway I did a 230 mile round trip last night after work to pick these up, so today was the first chance to have a play with them - however when i got home from work, a few goodies had arrived in the post!

First up is my new N/S wing, another flea bay bargain.

A O/S Sill, from A.H Schofield - Quality

Before we start putting all these panels on, I'm going to have to patch up all the holes I've cut into the van, when removing the rust, so a little bit of new steel was required ;)

I bought a mig welder over 10 years ago, and to be honest, I'd not seen it in that long, i had presumed I'd loaned it to someone who forgotten where it lived, however, as is normal in my life, while looking for some cable in my shed, i found the welder rusting away in the corner.

Once i cleaned the tip, replaced the broken plug, unbelievably the welder worked! I just need to get the gas bottle refilled, and i should be good to go! My welder has its own patina......cool :D

Chapter 4 - The van that keeps on giving

While rummaging around in the back of the van, i found a few cardboard boxes, that i thought were all empty, however, it seems the original hub caps are here as well.

Result! Checked out the glove box, and even the fuse box cover is there

Generally when project fall into my hands, most of the silly bits are missing, Hell even the original jack is present! I'll be going to work on the van in a minute, so i may update this again later

 Even this Radio works! - and the Ariel is original and straight!
Think I'm going to put the Radio on flea bay, I've seen them making stupid money, they'res bound to be someone who'd love to have a original one, and the money can go towards the project!

Chapter 3 - Somebodys taking the biscuit

A bright new weekend has dawned upon me, giving me glorious sunshine to work on my project, and its a new dawn, a new day and a old van.......I'm feeling good............ (insert Nina Simone music here)

Loaded up with enough coffee, sugar and milk to see me and Lee over the next 4 weeks, I descended  upon his driveway, popped my keys in the ignition, and my beastie burst into life!
Rolled it back away from the doors, got the grinder out and started my weekend of butchery!

I started slowly, checking out the rear seams to find out how far the rot had actually spread, and if i was going to need entire side panels including the arches, or just the lower arch panels.

First signs have been promising, with the few scabs on the seams grinding out, without any holes, which I'm going to treat with a chemical to stop the rot.

I've cut all four wheel arches off ( i could have saved one, but if i'm doing the other 3, there's no point fillering the last one only to have it come back in a few years time.

Kind of before and after shots - I'm concerned about the drivers door, a lot of the rust has bled through the other side, and while i think we'd get away with fibre-glassing it, I'm going to start looking for a good drivers door, however I've been told early wedges have different doors and tailgate's to the later T25's, and ones I've been offered haven't been much better then the one i have, and with new doors costing £500,  I might be repairing it for now, and see if one presents itself (cheaply!) in the near future

I've taken a hell of a lot of horror pictures of the bits of rust that need treatment, , the worst point of the rot was behind one of the arches i cut off, and was totally hidden behind filler & biscuit tin stuffed into a fist sized hole, right above the trailing arm mount., so far we've found aluminium door strips, metal ice-cream tubs used to patch up holes etc.but at least i think I've uncovered all the horrors

 

 

 Lucky for me, the outrigger this is fastened too, is rock solid with no rot, however, I'm going to cut away most of that attached to the inner arch and fab a heavy duty plate - When i fit the scooby power at a later date, i dont want this tearing out when i lay rubber with my heavy right foot, lol

After my cutting and grinding, I've been using a zinc based primer to help keep the rust off the clean edges, until i treat, weld and fit all the new panels.

When cleaning up the arch's i discovered a small rust spot with near the seat belt anchor, and when i dug in, there was more of the biscuit tin :( I'm not going to piss about with factory panels for this, nice rectangular plate over the anchor point, and the hole will fix this, and as this is covered by the rubber mate, wont be a eye sore

One of the lads though he'd test the integrity of the impact resistance panel, give the fact that there is a little bit of rot at the leading edge of the front panel, he thought he'd catch a ride while the van was being rotated.

Seriously cant wait till pay day to get some panels ordered, and get them delivered to get this van back on the road.!!!

Tomorrow weather permitting, we might weld up that trailing arm mount, and start work on some of the scabs on the tailgate and doors, and get some filler in. 

Chapter 2 - The shits hit the van

Overalls? ......Check, Cleaning materials? .........Check, Industrial power washer?........ Check,

Today's mission, was to get all the muck and grime off the body, and see what lies underneath.

We, (my trusted little bro in law, Lee and I) decided we'd start on the nose of the van, and see what kind of paint lies underneath...........

Early tests showed there was indeed some original paint, in fairly good condition (at least on some of the van)
If you ever in this position to be cleaning a car that's been laid up under trees etc. for a long period of time, i'd like to recommend a high quality industrial strength TFR (traffic film remover) to make your life a bit easier!

While i was applying the TFR, Lee had taken upon himself to operate the lance on the power washer

 It was then i notice the ammout of crap on the roof, so we got the ladder out and had a good look,

The whole roof was covered in the most bird shit ive ever had the misfortune to lay eyes on, must have been ten pound of bird shit on the roof alone, so i spent 4 + hours removing all the crap and shit from the panels.

Came up pretty good, I think, and I'm totally amazed to find no rust or rot on the roof!

Shame i cant say that about the lower sections, like the arches etc,

The good news is its not near the seat belt anchors, and seems to only be the lips of the arches, which i'll cut away in the next few days in preparation for the new panels
Overall the van is in worse condition then i thought originally, however, some of it, has been in a time warp, with the interior still having everything it left the factory with still intact (except a knob off the radio) which for being over 30 years old is amazing.

This is the floor, which has had a expensive piece of carpet underlay protecting it, with a marine grade ply floor, of the top. I'd say that's one of the reasons there's no real rot or rust, besides two tiny spots, which I'm going to grind out! I'll be starting on the brakes soon, as they are seized, and makes it difficult to push around Lee's driveway.

More to follow.......

Chapter 1 - In the Beginning

In the beginning Man created the wheel and the combustion engine, the wheel was first formed with steel but was later improved with alloy, and got larger as time passed. 

Then man created air cooled engines, devoid of any real horse power, which was quickly replaced by forged pistons, and multi valved engines complete with turbo chargers...........

If your still reading my inane chatter, welcome and thanks for stopping by, for i am on the verge of a massive journey, which will no doubt bore many of you into manic depression, while others will point and laugh at my own many misfortunes along my chosen path, however some of you, strange and twisted types, with a penchant for all things greasy and oily will be riveted to your seat, .........or something like that........

Last week, while trawling around the many VW forums and well as flea bay, stumbled across the object of my obsession, and my current project, my 1980 VW Transporter.

Tonight was the ending of many emails, phone calls and texts, to make the purchase of this vehicle possible.

 Thankfully most of the van has exceeded my expectations, however it very clear that it will require a few more panels then i first though........But so be it!

Tomorrow, i plan to jet wash it with heavy duty traffic film remover, and see what good, and what's not

It appears that I'm going to be replacing all 4 arches, both steps, and the small rear valance panels behind the rear bumper corners, and possibly a outer sill (although we may just patch it) depending on the extent of the rot.

I will have a more detailed picture of it tomorrow, along with some before and after shots to attach to this blog, but for now I'm off to price up all the panels i'm going to need, and pour myself a very, very large JD and coke...... I think i'm going to need it ;)