niko's 61 microbus

[Ged]

Nice work!

[gford]

Nice work!

I'll say! Looks as good as new.

Mine is pretty cracked up - is it safe to just fill the cracks? I assume there is a solid bar internally...?

[kombi niko]

She feels smoooooth, no problems with strength as the internal wheels has a steel rod right though it. Give it a good clean and prep and its all go.

[067DUB]

Dude, that buggy is INSANE!! what engines in it? You have some seriously cool shit! Love your work..

[kombi niko]

Had a play with the chassis rails, heaps of red dirt in side them. Ended up cutting out windows and cleaning them out. Used the best rust converter out there (Feronite) to treat it then welded them back up.

[kombi niko]

Dude, that buggy is INSANE!! what engines in it? You have some seriously cool shit! Love your work..

Cheers brother, its has a 600 4 banger in it, goes like a rally car, super light weight. Selling it for $7k to help pay for the bus resto

[kombi niko]

After finding more rust in the above the A-pillers and not sourcing the right replacement panel I decided to make my own.
Drilling out the spot welds and cutting a small part out first.

[kombi niko]

Here's the rest of the job, Hope to be in the new garage/workshop next week once the concrete and rollor door go in too then I can get into it full blown.

[Leroy]

Nice work

[kombi niko]

Concrete's going in the workshop so the bus took a little drive.. kind of

[kombi niko]

Waiting for concreters!! grrr decided to get stuck into the windscreen lower section which was quite rusty. I scored a gerson green panel in the states cheap and brought it back in my ski bag. Here's the pics of the instal. Only took 5 hours to get it to fit right!! Far from just chop out the old and weld in the new.


Always scary cutting the center pillar out!


Primed and treated the rust on the inner section before welding the panel on.


holes drilled for the welder. You can see the panel was too high at the front nose point and this needed pushing down with a small jack to get it to fit flush.

[kavman]

First class work mate

[bleiner]

Coming along nicely. Look forward to seeing it progress even further.

[joshroom]

[quote="kombi niko"]Waiting for concreters!! grrr decided to get stuck into the windscreen lower section which was quite rusty. I scored a gerson green panel in the states cheap and brought it back in my ski bag. Here's the pics of the instal. Only took 5 hours to get it to fit right!! Far from just chop out the old and weld in the new.

^^^ You'll find there's not too many repro panels that are a straight fit, sometimes klassicfabs are the best, sometimes autocraft, sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised by some of the cheaper stuff. They can be painfully close but its enough to require hours of reworking. All part of the fun, great work Niko keep it up.

[kombi niko]

Thanks for the encouragement guys, Some days you just want to pull your hair out with this resto game. I just spent 3 days working on the rear engine lid cutting out rust and replacing metal.
Was going to throw it as it was real bad but then I saw what they go for.
Now have to wait another week for the concrete to set before the bus can return to the shed!!