Flipping My Lid

I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.
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Sometime before Marigold left Germany in the early seventies she was fitted with a side-lifting Dormobile "pop top" roof. This allows fantastic headroom and also allows room for the fitment of two stretchers, quite suitable for kids although a tight squeeze for most grown ups. My younger sis and I spent almost every holiday night in our youth sleeping on these stretchers.

As always, you can click on the pics for a larger version. Or not. Hey man it's your choice.

The combined ravages of time, neglect and the harsh South African climate have had their effect on this fibre-glass masterpiece and it is showing some wicked wear and tear. One of the translucent pop-up skylights was destroyed loudly and violently against a low concrete beam in an underground car park. The other departed suddenly and with a loud BANG at full speed (Speed? Lol, poetic licence) on the road to Heidelberg Kloof some years ago on the way to the local version of the Woodstock music festival. This caused some interesting and exciting swerving and fist-waving in the long line of already impatient traffic behind us, and startled my pre-teen daughter into wide-eyed rigidity. Ah, happy memories - yet another item on my wishlist.

I can get replica replacements for these on a Brit website for some nasty high price (36 quid each plus postage, *gulp*, that's nearly 15 gazillion rands with the current exchange rate).  but I have decided to either find a similar and locally-available substitute or to replace them with fixed windows. Maybe one from a caravan or summat. A friend on one of the local air-cooled forums has suggested a bain-marie dish so we have lots of possibilities. I'll be on the hunt over the next couple of weeks for something suitable.

The window rubbers were rotten and brittle so we pulled them out and removed the windows for cleaning. While at it we decided to do a proper job and remove all of the other fixtures and fittings too. We started sanding down the fibre glass surface to prepare it for paint, partly with an electric sander and partly with sanding blocks where the electric proved to be a bit too aggro. What a way to take off the autumn chill. Blood, sweat and tears: not just a bad singing group for nostalgic parents.

I grabbed hold of some modern inertia-reel type safety belts for the project. I don't like to buy second-hand for safety-related stuff so I bought brand new ones. The originals were well worn and didn't look very safe. Nor even very belt-like, come to think of it, more like giant, grey, furry caterpillars breeding in the seats. We made up some extra-heavy steel brackets to support them and they'll be fitted correctly once we applied some proper paint.

Sorry for all the rubbishy pics, I keep forgetting the better camera at home and end up using my old phone to take the shots for the project diary. Just live with it and use some imagination. Or bring some beer and come and see it for yourself.


Thanks for visiting, do come again!
CooP

Bay Window Blues

When you stop doing things for fun you might as well be dead.
Ernest Hemingway, True at First Light

This model type of the VW Kombi was known to many as the Bay Window. This is because the large, curved front windscreen was such a noticeable change from the twin, flat windscreens of the previous "split-screen" models. The windscreen has not weathered well and was particularly affected by the fire that caused so much other damage to the front end of the white donor bus. (As usual, click on the pics to enlarge them a bit.)

The screen was cracked at the bottom right, and the glue within the laminated glass had boiled and bubbled and turned a blueish brown colour. I removed the pristine screen from Marigold before I gave away the leftover sections of the project and it's been carefully and lovingly stored away. So I do have a replacement and will just need to get a new seal and some assistance with fitting, when I'm eventually ready.

I cut around the rubber seal and popped out the old glass with little effort. As I expected the steel surround is badly rusted and pitted, there are a couple of holes that go right through and much of the rest is thin and useless. This is a fairly common problem with these old Kombis, the design of the surround makes it a water trap and the rust is almost unavoidable without taking special precautions.

I have been scratching, scraping and scrubbing at the side windows to remove all traces of many souvenir stickers and transfers that once graced the old girl and boasted of her successful travels and conquests. They were, in most cases, faded and peeling and looking rather tatty so they had to go. I'll start a new collection of my own when I hit the road!


Thanks for visiting, come again!
CooP

Plodding Along

One is almost always a slave who cannot live on little.
Horace

I'm not getting a lot finished in the main project but I am using my spare time to continue working my way down the list of loose ends. Lots of the little items that need cleaning and painting are being cleaned and painted.

Dashboard vents, bumper brackets, towbar etc are all being carefully sanded, wire-brushed, primed and painted. I am also working on some of the camping equipment - gas bottles, cookers, tool-boxes, folding chairs all need to be taken down, dusted off and tidied up.

Unfortunately I discovered that my secure storage room had sprung a small leak in the roof. Most of things that I have put away for safety have been rained on regularly for the past few weeks, oh crap!

Luckily the mildew and the mould had not completely taken over. I laid it all out on the grass during a gap in the weather and most of it is still perfectly serviceable. The now-dried mould came off with a wire brush and the canvasses have been carefully repacked and placed back on the now-dry shelves. The sleeping bag, Marigold's curtains and a few other bits are sadly beyond use and have been tossed out. Lots of rusty nuts and bolts will probably be easier to replace than to try and restore. A pity but there you go, onward and upward. The leaky roof has been repaired so we should be warm and dry from now on.


Thanks for stopping by
CooP

Nice Pair of Hooters!

Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today.
Ernest Hemingway

It's amazing how your mind can wander when you are browsing around an auto-spares supermarket. When I asked the young lady to show me her hooters she barely blinked. I explained that I was looking for a nice pair, not too big and on the cheaper side of the market. She started frowning and looking towards the security guard when I asked her opinion on size and shape. She sidled away before I could get her view on whether anything larger than a handful is a waste. So, as usual, I grabbed the cheapest pair and headed for the checkout.

Am I the only one that finds this funny? Or am I turning into that creepy old man that our teachers used to warn us about?

I've cleared most of the crammed-in crap spares and equipment from the interior of the project and thrown it away/cleaned it/stored it/hidden it as applicable. Roof-racks, bumpers, a complete dashboard, ventilation systems, chairs, tables, stools, cushions, cooking equipment, gas bottles . . . Much of it will be re-fitted inside Marigold, a lot of it consists of duplicated parts that I shall probably sell, trade, gift or dump after the main project is complete. Click on the pics to enlarge 'em, go on.

I scraped most of the souvenir stickers from the right-rear window, the left-rear shall be attacked with a scraper-blade on Wednesday. I also removed the two side windows, the ones immediately behind the cab doors. The rubber seals on both were badly perished and cracked. They will need to be replaced with new ones.

My ever-friendly neighbour has invested in a new toy - a pressure washer that is remarkably powerful; for it's diminutive size it packs quite a watery punch. He made short work of removing the collected dirt, mud, insect nests and small garden of live moss (really!) stopping up the sliders. They slide back and forth just lovely now. The water jet even managed to put a little shine back onto the worn and weathered aluminium frames, thanks mate!

More soon, we've still got the last of the wiring loom to solder up (in? on? together?), should be able to make some progress later this week.

Thanks for stopping by
CooP

Cleaner Air

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
Anais Nin

I didn't get much work done this week; my friendly neighbour and I were busy working on one of HIS projects for a change. We are supposed to alternate on Wednesdays but my projects have been hogging the labour force lately so I can't complain. I have used some of my spare time to tidy up the oil-bath air filter. As usual you can click on the pics to enlarge them slightly.

In a previous post (Click here to view) I gave this device a mini-service by making new rubber O-rings and refreshing the oil. But it still looked a bit shabby to me so I sanded down the worst of the old paint and gave it a couple of coats of new.

I couldn't bash out all of the many dents because of the double-walled design of the main cylinder. But it certainly does look better to my little eye. Another job has been jobbed and we are one more step closer to the end. Next week I hope to finish the joining together of the main wiring harness.


Thanks for stopping by
CooP

Spaghetti Junction

There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy, and its charm.
Theodore Roosevelt

We managed to get some of the new wiring spliced in, soldered and sealed last night.

It helps to have prehensile toes! The rear section has been matched up, labelled and soldered. We have wrapped up the individual joints with a sleeve of shrink-wrap, then the whole lot has been sleeved with a larger piece of shrink-wrap. This lot has been bound with a bit of insulation tape, then the whole lot has been bunged into a plastic conduit. Finally that conduit has been stuffed inside the hollow chassis rail.

Should be fairly well protected I reckon! That's the rear end finished, next week we'll do the front section joins.

In my spare time I have been tidying up a few loose parts, mostly plastic and rubber bits. I love rubber bits. They looked pretty rough to start with but a simple scrub with some soapy water already got them looking a bit nicer. Pictured are air vents, step rubbers, mirror, door handles and cubby door.

A lot of polishing and buffing with regular shoe polish and they all look like new! Loads of elbow grease but it's all worth while and these bits will look luvverly when I refit them.

Thanks for stopping by
CooP

Staying On Course

There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.
C.S. Lewis

In our attempts to remove the old and useless ignition switch we also managed to damage the steering wheel quite badly. It'll still work but it looked a bit naff so I took it home for a bit of extra tlc.

The Plastic was a bit old and brittle and a couple of larger chunks had been dislodged, although the main metal frame is still strong and undamaged.

I filled it with a two-part epoxy putty and gave it a few hours to set. I filed it and sanded it until it resembled the original a little more. Re-fill the holes and low spots and sand it down again. Repeat a final time to fill in the blemishes caused by my own drunken careless file work. It's very much similar to the earlier work that I have done filling dents in body panels, but this putty sets really, really hard!

I sanded down the entire wheel after I had tidied the putty work. This to give it a bit of a key for the paint, which I applied from a rattle-can. Eight coats on the centre hub but just two on the outer ring 'cos I want to bind that with leather strips.

A few unfortunate slips with the rasp means that I left a couple of wee blemishes in the final finish but . . . so what? It looks pretty good to my weary eye and I have more important jobs to get on with right now. It looks okay fitted back in it's place and I think that I can learn to live with it as it is :)

Thanks for stopping by
CooP