... And so it begins.

kombi niko · Post by **kombi niko** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 7:58 pm

Nice job mate, your killing it!! Gotta love doing it all your self makes it so much better once shes on the road knowing you built it!!
Keep up the good work!!

Fathermarc · Post by **Fathermarc** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 8:00 pm

kombi niko wrote:Nice job mate, your killing it!! Gotta love doing it all your self makes it so much better once shes on the road knowing you built it!!
Keep up the good work!!

Cheers Niko.

Fathermarc · Post by **Fathermarc** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 8:55 pm

Whilst I was playing I thought I'd put together a before and after shot up to present date. I will have to do it again later on.

067DUB · Post by **067DUB** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 8:59 pm

Impressive !! I'm about to start mine, i need inspiration !!

Fathermarc · Post by **Fathermarc** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 9:12 pm

067DUB wrote:Impressive !! I'm about to start mine, i need inspiration !!

Take lots of images and keep a blog... It's good to look back. Good Luck with the resto.

gazztan · Post by **gazztan** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 9:16 pm

Hi Mark,

Gary here mate, I delivered this rusty bus to you.
I have just read the majority of this thread and can't believe what you've accomplished in such a short amount of time.
It wasn't even a year ago I dropped this off and you've made this bus rust free.
A real credit to you mate and inspirational.

Hehe my barndoor is pretty much rust free and I haven't touched it since I got it home, although I have been working on other projects.
What colour are you going to paint this? I suspect it will be in paint within a couple of months the way you are going haha!!

Congratulations mate, look forward to following your progress.
Regards

Gaz.

Fathermarc · Post by **Fathermarc** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 9:26 pm

gazztan wrote:Hi Mark,

Gary here mate, I delivered this rusty bus to you.
I have just read the majority of this thread and can't believe what you've accomplished in such a short amount of time.
It wasn't even a year ago I dropped this off and you've made this bus rust free.
A real credit to you mate and inspirational.

Hehe my barndoor is pretty much rust free and I haven't touched it since I got it home, although I have been working on other projects.
What colour are you going to paint this? I suspect it will be in paint within a couple of months the way you are going haha!!

Congratulations mate, look forward to following your progress.
Regards

Gaz.

Hey Gaz,

Happy New Year... Long time no hear. How have you been?

I think you dropped the bus off in March if I remember correctly. It smelled of rats and was leaking juice all over the place. well I stipped all the piant off to find out that it wasn't in too bad condition considering it's age. Now she's virtually rust free and ready for the next episode.

Send me some images of your Barn Door. i never did get to see what it looked like. Except for the images on Ebay. Did it live up to your expectations?
Wish your Mum a Happy New Year!

P.S. we're going to go the Original Dove Blue for the time being.

gregdonohue · Post by **gregdonohue** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 10:46 am

Hi Mark , Just read your thread from start to finish .Great work wish i read it as it was happening .
quick question for you why did you tig weld it and not mig ? just mig is a whole lot easier to do especially as you had to learn.
well done anyway its looking great.

Fathermarc · Post by **Fathermarc** » Wed Jan 08, 2014 1:09 pm

gregdonohue wrote:Hi Mark , Just read your thread from start to finish .Great work wish i read it as it was happening .
quick question for you why did you tig weld it and not mig ? just mig is a whole lot easier to do especially as you had to learn.
well done anyway its looking great.

Many thanks. It's on going and is developing all the time so I guess you have caught it in the beging so keep popping back. The reason I opted fot TIG was that it's a cooler weld and therefore doesn't tend to warp the thin body panels. It does require some getting used to as your using both hands all the time but the finished of weld is a lot neater (once I got the hang of it). Then there's the added bonus of being able to weld all types of material. Mild steel, Stainless, aluminium etc so it will be more useful too.

Thank you for the encouragement and I'm pleased you enjoyed the read.

gregdonohue · Post by **gregdonohue** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 10:35 am

Fair play to you .I am a welder and don't think I would of had the patience to tig it all .
Looking forward to seeing you get her finished .
Have you checked out my thread ?
59 full resto I think its called .

kombi niko · Post by **kombi niko** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 11:30 am

I thought that TIG produces way more heat then MIG does??

kombi1976 · Post by **kombi1976** » Sun Jan 12, 2014 2:05 am

Just read the whole thread. Super impressed. Super, super impressed. Man, do I feel like a lazy bum.

Fathermarc · Post by **Fathermarc** » Sun Jan 12, 2014 6:20 pm

140112_Resto

After working on the Kombi over the Christmas period a weekend doesn't seem like anytime at all. Working in the city during the week has interrupted my flow. Never the less Saturday morning I was back on the front again. There was the welding to finish off and turning over the lower lip. I devised a tool which I got the idea from a thread on here... I think. I can't for the life of me remember who's thread it was, so if it's you invention then thank you very much. (Give a shout out.) It worked a treat. Although the neighbor came out to see what all the banging was about. So I stopped... But the half I did turn over looked pretty good.
I finished off the nose section and welded up the aftermarket holes in the nose panel.

Today I focused my attentions on the Near Side front window which had a little bit of cancer. After unpicking the spot welds I realised that it went a little deeper. So this I removed too and cut a replacement profile from the donor bay-window rear hatch. That hatch has been pretty useful when it comes to chopping out replacement sections. I can highly recommend having one to hand when it comes to a restoration. I could have just treated the rusty bit and covered it with the new window profile but then that's defeating the object. However long the restoration takes is how long it takes. Short cuts are not going to be good enough.
When I take my time I enjoy it more and the results are neater.

I did notice right at the end that the replacement profile I fitted (by Correct Fit is not the same as the original. The round over has a 2mm radius where as the original has a 6mm radius round over. I wish I would have spotted it earlier. Now I am going to have to cut, weld and re-shape to match the original later on... When preparing the body work.

Enjoy the images.

Fathermarc · Post by **Fathermarc** » Sun Jan 12, 2014 7:06 pm

kombi1976 wrote:Just read the whole thread. Super impressed. Super, super impressed. Man, do I feel like a lazy bum.

Thank you for reading the whole thread.. That's pretty impressive in itself...

This is a burst of inspiration and I'm itching to get on and finish it. Believe me on glorious days like today. There's nothing I want more than to take a trip to the beach for a swim and spend some time with friends.

Fathermarc · Post by **Fathermarc** » Sat Jan 18, 2014 12:34 pm

Today I'm taking the day off. I was working from 5:30am until 11:30pm last night getting a deadline completed and out the door. I had a surprise delivery on Friday but due to deadlines at work I could only moove the boxes inside and wait to open it this morning.

My wife has been away visiting her parents for Xmas and she sent me a Christmas present. It was a nice surprise when I opened the boxes.

Really great and I'm very lucky.

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