Introducing 'Manfred'

thebear · Post by **thebear** » Sat Jun 30, 2012 2:10 pm

Lower door section - green stuff of course.

A rear safari will be fitted. You gotta love the warning on the DRP website - its not recommended to drive with rear safari open and no other windows or risk intoxication by exhaust gases! Noted.

thebear · Post by **thebear** » Sat Jun 30, 2012 2:58 pm

Had a request for a few shots of the seat belt mountings. Front will have retractable belts with middle lap sash with belt in the rear. Not sure what i'm doing about a middle seat?? Have an original 50's seat in good nic but undecided... Hope these help?

IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a145/ ... /Jun48.jpg[/IMG]
IMG]http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a145/ ... Jun411.jpg[/IMG]

Dasdubber · Post by **Dasdubber** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 6:37 pm

Hopefully colour should be all finished in the first half of this week so reassembly can begin. As Kent mentioned the respray is just a quick tidy up since so much of the original paint had been damaged when the last respray was done.....there just simply was not a lot left to salvage. As such we are leaving all the dents etc in the bus and shooting it in a satin two pack finish.

Had a question or two re. the hydraulic clutch setups - we've fitted these to a number of our resto's now and hence are confident to put them together as a kit. Should have more details (in the business section) in the next month - all the mounting brackets have been cut and a few master cylinders/slave cylinders etc in stock.

Lots of people also curious on the Red9Design height - yes it can go lower. The height in the rear reflects A) the fact no engine etc is in the bus, but also B) the springs included by Red9 aren't designed to lower the bus too much. Even with the coil overs in the rear wound right down, it still does not slam the bus. We will be fitting shorter springs (available locally from King Springs etc) which will enable us to drop the height more and also fine tune the ride stiffness (depending on spring rate chosen). Once you go to low the benefits of the double wishbone design are negated with the impact on roll centres and other geometry considerations.....so if you want a really slammed bus, stick to straight axle and king and link front ends. The Red9 setups are designed to improve handling and ride quality with a reasonable drop in ride height, if you slam it and only have one inch of suspension travel, no point spending so much cashola on the setup

Cheers
AL

FrankenCab · Post by **FrankenCab** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 6:51 pm

thanks for the info Al I'll wait till I'm over my driveway scraping n kidney punishing stage

before i look at fitting something like this

Tonz Magonz · Post by **Tonz Magonz** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 9:06 pm

Thanks Al,

Look forward to the hydraulic clutch kit..

thebear · Post by **thebear** » Thu Jul 12, 2012 8:40 pm

Hi, all happening with Valla just around the corner. Thankfully we (i mean DAS) are still on track. Have visited the last few weekends to do a few bits and pieces but the real work is happening during the week. A few shots the body work in primer before a lick of satin sea blu.

thebear · Post by **thebear** » Thu Jul 12, 2012 8:55 pm

I am really happy with the paint considering the body had minimal prep. Sure, a light skim of filler in some places but most panels were relatively straight. As evidenced by Al's work on the many shiny buses he and the team produce, Manfred has come up a treat with character bumps included. After all the body work, apart from a front door, (and the green repair panels), all the panels are original. The roof was one of the more straight i have seen.

thebear · Post by **thebear** » Thu Jul 12, 2012 9:12 pm

The colour has come up a treat.

FrankenCab · Post by **FrankenCab** » Thu Jul 12, 2012 9:18 pm

D-Train · Post by **D-Train** » Thu Jul 12, 2012 9:35 pm

That's lookin killer now

thebear · Post by **thebear** » Thu Jul 12, 2012 9:51 pm

Thanks fellas. We have gone with a deluxe belt line to break it up a bit and i think it does the trick. Much thanks to Steve for making t happen as these things arent easy to get right. A few more shots....

thebear · Post by **thebear** » Thu Jul 12, 2012 9:59 pm

A few snaps of the inside. Plenty of dynamat to soak up the noise.

thebear · Post by **thebear** » Thu Jul 12, 2012 10:07 pm

I made the call to leave the dash in its original paint. I didnt realise the paint would come up so good and was a little disappointed when it first rolled out the booth. After a few hours cutting and buffing it didnt turn out too bad. I'm not out to win any shows so keeping a little bit of originality is not a bad thing.

thebear · Post by **thebear** » Thu Jul 12, 2012 10:22 pm

Just waiting on front hubs and discs and it wont be long before we hit the road. A few engine bay pics. The power is courtesy of a 1916 with A1 exhaust. Cant wait to hear it turn over.

thebear · Post by **thebear** » Thu Jul 12, 2012 10:33 pm

Thanks to Frogsta for the rear latch. Pale Ales on me mate.

Door frames

Brake set up

One of my favourite shots so far. Now so close....

Introducing 'Manfred'

Door repairs and rear safari

Seat belt mounting points

Body and paint

Paint and panel

paint and panel

Paint and panel

interior - door cards

Dash

Engine in