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[splitthis]

I’m in Cairns for a family holiday but will be getting into it over the next few weeks. If you need pics of anything in particular just let me know mate. I have hundreds of pics of all the work I’ve done, I can email you directly.

[splitthis]

I've had the last couple of days off so was able to make some progress, as usual I didn't get as much done as I had hoped but any step forward is good at this stage.

I already had the lower windshield welded to the nose and thought it would be a 1 day job to have it all welded on and sorted, took me 2 days because i ended up having to mess with it more than expected. The KF panel left a lot to be desired and there was some serious cutting and shutting to get it to work. I also finished it off 100% rather than leaving follow up welding/cleaning for later so it took longer than expected but it's 100% done.

Initial rough fit


All welded up


Welds cleaned and primed


Then i fixed the last of the engine bay hackery. I previously fixed the engine bay sheet metal but i still had to sort the valance mounting triangles. Thanks cooper for the donor sections, I really could have made them up but OG German steel is always a bonus.

Roughing them in


All welded up

[splitthis]

When i replaced the section above the drivers door and the top of the A-pillar i needed to remove this area for access to weld. Because I was trying to get the nose 100% dialed i decided to fix that now too. I spent 45 minutes trying to run a fish wire down the centre pillar and lost my shit, gave up and got onto fabbing the closeout piece. An off cut of KF panel is the perfect thickness, one bend and then a joggle on the end. Weld through primer in the cavity (this thing will last another 60 years easy).



Welds cleaned and looking tidy.



I also got the last of the seatbelt mounts sorted, 6mm steel with a nut welded on the back plug welded in. Semaphore slots make the front seat belts easy!

Passenger B-pillar



Rear seat anchors, have told the wife its a 2 kid max family because theres only enough good belts for 2 and then just a lab belt in the middle.

[rusty 55]

Nice work Matt, keep chipping away at it

[braddick]

Thanks for the update buddy
Great work as always

[vanell]

Good work Matt, great to see your back on it, had a bit of a chuckle about the 2 kid max thing, as if you have any say in it?. Better get a middle seat in it

[Cam Biscuit]

Lovely work Matt

[chuck85]

Awesome work mate

[Jockster]

Looking great big fella..

[splitthis]

I was bored the other night and looking for something quiet I could do while the wife and kid slept. OG 68/69 rear hubs, with all new parts including backing plates (very good quality from VW heritage) NOS Japanese bearings, German bearing seals and wheel cylinder and then Chinese shoes, spreader bar and springs. Came up bloody nice if I do say so myself. One thing to look out for is the repro adjuster bolts have a wider slot than the OG units, I didn’t like them so swapped in a set of cleaned up OG bolts, the repro adjuster stars are also about 2mm narrower in the “Star” section and I thought the that would make them easier to round off/break, they would probably be fine but I swapped in some OG ones I had.

I have a few days off over the next month so hoping to finally smash out the last of the welding on the body and start on the removable.

[vanell]

Yeah mate, that is exactly how you get these things done, reco-ing stuff, gotta do something each day, coz when it's painted your only at lock up stage, good work mate, now reco something else, Ian

[gazztan]

Great work Matt, very inspiring!!

[splitthis]

I've had a few hours over the last week or so and I managed to get in the garage and get some work done.

The vents on both side of the bus had been hammered in to add scoops (fully sick). I had tried straightening them out but the big issue was the ends were stoved in and I couldn't get behind them to hammer them out proper. I spoke to a couple of pro panel guys who said they can be fixed but it will be a few hours work and $$$. I had some super mint sections from a bus I cut up a few years ago so I decided to weld in the new sections.

This is what I started with.






I kept the top vent on both sides because that mean I didn't have to mess with that seam. On the drivers side i cut through the fuel opening to shorten the weld I needed to do.




One side all done (forgot the final pic on the other side)
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The vents were the last of the big stuff on the body! I still have a few small things to do like pop-out hinges and steering box raise but the body shouldn't need any more big welding (fingers crossed).

So on to removables, I started with the engine lid. As you can see this isn't the "correct" lid for my year but it has been on the bus for 20+ years and so I'm running with it.

Both hinges had previously been torn out, one had been repaired pretty well but had a snapped screw and the other was a dodgy repair that had then failed again.





After looking at the funky truck thread on the samba I decided I would copy his method but beef up the new screw plates to try and avoid the area failing again down the track. I started by making 2 of these



They were deliberately way longer than necessary because that means the load is spread over a larger area hopefully making them much stronger than OG.

I used a piece of scrap to hold it in place while I plug welded the plates in and then welded right around the openings and cleaned them up.









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They turned out really nice and should be much stronger than OG. I just need to run a bead of seam sealer along the front skin to stop water running into the frame.

[splitthis]

The bottom of the inner frame had rusted out but the front skin only had a few pinholes.





I was able to save one side by welding up the pinholes and patching a small section.



The other corner required a little more fab work. I started by cutting out the rot and then treating the rust inside the frame. Another old scrap of KF panel was used, at first I was a bit worried how this was going to turn out but I'm really happy with it. It's not 100% right but it looks pretty good IMO.







This is where the engine lid prop bracket attaches. The frame is pretty thin and they are renowned for ripping off like this. I wanted to weld on a later bracket because they are longer so have more room for extra welds but couldn't find one. I decided in the end to put a long piece of thick flat bar on the inside of the frame to reinforce the area. I plug welded that in first, then replaced the skin. I put the holes in the skin so I knew I would be welding the prop bracket directly to the flat bar making it as strong as possible.









I thought I was finished but my paranoia got the better of me. I dont want the prop bracket to break off in a couple of years meaning I would have to weld and repaint the engine lid so although its not OG I ran a bead on the top and bottom edges to make sure it would last this time.



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That's the engine lid done, 5 more doors to go.

[63 left hooker]

Very nice work there!