Re-tyred

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

Not much going on at the moment. I'm doing a little work on the various remaining dents and scratches and saving up the spare change for the major work that remains to be done. I did manage to release some funds for some new tyres, nothing fancy, some CV2000s, fitted and balanced beautifully by Hi-Q in Ontdekkers Road.

We'll sort out the minor electrical issues and hopefully get the old girl running again early next year.

Thanks for the visit, come again soon!
CooP

Primed mover

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined.
Henry David Thoreau

So the yellow primer ran out half way through the completed job and the moronic "suppliers" couldn't supply any more, despite two of their branches claiming telephonically to have some in stock. The main reason for rushing through this priming job was to make the project look reasonably presentable for the big move to my current, shared dwelling. Aargh well, I managed to find a good ms primer product at The Toolman in Krugersdorp, together with some solid advice and friendly service. Unfortunately it's grey, on the other hand it seems to be a better product that covers more easily and is a pleasure to spray on.

The roof and the pretty backside were coated in the grey while the sides that were already done with the yellow primer were left just so. Time is of the essence at the moment as we have to move soon.

If I could start again then I would have done the whole thing in the better quality grey primer. No matter, although she looks a little odd in her new two-tone suit she still is starting to look a bit smart. The steel wheels are a temporary fitting and will be replaced by the correct originals when they have been cleaned up nicely and fitted with some new bootees.

And so the day of the big move arrived and there is no more time for minor details. When I washed the bus before painting I was a bit over enthusiastic with the water hose and managed to soak the dashboard quite well through the gap left by the missing windscreen. This has created a couple of short-circuits in the wiring causing some lights to work when they shouldn't and other things to fail when they should be working. Rather than risk any real damage we chose to disconnect the battery and abandon the idea of a self-propelled move to the new residence.

Unfortunately the move itself, under tow, was a bit too busy to worry about photographs. It was accomplished fairly late at night under cover of darkness and on streets that were ghostly quiet. It was a great thrill to be behind the wheel and under some minor form of control, I can't wait to do a proper test drive.

It was an uneventful move, my ever-friendly neighbour was calm, patient and sensible as usual and we now have the project neatly slipped into place outside my wee rented room. Now I can do a bit of work occasionally without having to leave home :)

Thanks for popping over, come again soon!
CooP

Prepping and Priming

Happy are those who dream dreams and are willing to pay the price to make them come true. ~ Anonymous

The past fortnight has been two weeks of muscle-sapping effort in all of my available free time. The old paint has been flatted down with 150 grit sandpaper, all over. All of the loose rust has been wire-brushed and treated with rust converting goop. As always you can enlarge the pics by clicking on them. Or not, whatever works for you ;)

I spent another four hours washing, scrubbing and rinsing the entire bus to get it ready for the next step.

Masking and taping off the windows and door handles took another two evenings of patient but frustrating work. As I've discovered with most of the tasks in this project, it's not as easy as it looks.

Eventually, after months of anticipation, we can start throwing some primer at the project. After a quick wipe-down with with a rag dipped in thinners we could start at the front, windscreen surround and the foremost part of the roof. We started off using a smaller spray-gun for the detail work around the 'screen area and then moved to a bigger one for the more open, flatter areas.

We made it as far as the driver's door before the exhaustion started to wear us out. It was after 11pm and time to give it a rest. Over all it looks pretty good. The coverage is fairly neat but it's tricky to get a nice, clean layer of paint laid down and it's not perfect. The nice new layer of clean paint also seems to really highlight every little blemish and imperfection in the bodywork. On the plus side the paint seems to be going on well and the careful preparation seems to have been worthwhile.

Next session we'll continue with the priming, lot's of hard work left to do still but excitement levels are high!

Thanks for the visit, come again soon!
CooP

Noise and Dust

All I want is to stand in a field and to smell green, to taste air, to feel the earth want me, without all this concrete hating me.
Phillip Pulfrey

The only progress that I seem to be making lately is in the joint irritations of excessive noise and too much dust. I have been generating loads and loads of both. Thankfully the neighbours of my neighbour seem to be a pretty tolerant bunch. I wish that my own constitution could stand it better though, I coughed less than this back in my chain smoking days. And the ringing in my ears - don't ask 'cos I can't hear you properly.

I have started filling the horrible dented frontal area above the windscreen. I had planned to complete the remainder of the filling only after giving the whole bus a coat of primer, but this section I'd like to finish off as I want to get the windscreen back in as soon as poss. It has been flatted down in an approximate sort of way and won't be perfect before the primer coat, but it's a start anyway. I can go over the project at leisure after the primer coat has been chucked on.

The whole of the old girl's paintwork has been completely sandpapered with 150 and 180 grit paper. It's been an exhausting two weeks but the end is in sight at last. I have flatted down most of the existing paint and treated much of the rusted area with a magical rust-conversion muti to prepare it for the primer coat. 

I have only a couple of weeks remaining before the project must vacate the current premises and be moved to the small car-port outside my little rented room. As long as I have a fairly tidy, even coat of primer thrown on then I am hoping for my landlady to be tolerant of the presence of the big bus. After that then I can focus on the remainder of the bodywork and then the finishing coats of paint.

So...progress is being made, fairly surely although seemingly rather slowly. The preparation of the old paint has taken longer that I had expected and been physically far more effort that I imagined. But it's almost ready for a protective primer coat in the next week or two.


Thanks for popping over, come back soon! We'll be throwing some paint at it soon.
CooP

Turnkey Operation

Happy are those who dream dreams and are willing to pay the price to make them come true.
Anonymous

We're running again!

We're putting the new wiring harness to a proper test and actually starting and running the engine using the "proper" tool - the key! So the battery needed a boost from the jumper leads but she starts and runs. These are certainly exciting times, what a rush!

Thanks for the visit, come back soon! Prepping for paint next.
CooP

Time to Dash Off

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined.Henry David Thoreau

We're getting on with body work and preparation for paint now that the bulk of the wiring has been completed. I've whipped out the dashboard panel and the attached, vinyl padded plasticky bit so that I can paint and polish them separately from the bus. Lots of dust and crap under there but now is a good chance to clean it up properly and double-check our wiring and electrical connections.

Pictured above is a bolted-in plate ahead of the steering column, the existing version of which is slightly bent from the front-end bump that this bus has suffered. I have replaced this with the original Marigold one from the orange bus. Despite being from a left-hand-drive bus these parts appear to be identical and interchangeable. As with many of these Kombi parts - they were designed to be used in different parts of the World with the minimum of fuss, too clevah.

The surrounding rim of the windscreen is badly rusted and consequently pitted with occasionally holes going right through the thin sheet metal. We set up some little bits of backing plate made from old angle-iron and filled the holes in with weld. After grinding down the protruding welds I then mixed up some fibre-glass resin and spread a good, thick layer over the entire bottom section of the surround. I'll have a wee look on Saturday and see how it sets. I'm hoping that it'll serve the dual purpose of smoothing out the pitting and sealing out any water in future.

Thanks for the visit, come again!
CooP

Let There Be Light

All I want is to stand in a field and to smell green, to taste air, to feel the earth want me, without all this concrete hating me.
Phillip Pulfrey

We've had  a long struggle to sort out the dusty, dirty, burned mess that was the wiring harness. We finally got to slap in a battery and start testing. With a fire extinguisher at the ready we cautiously started working our way through the lighting systems. Click the pic for a bigger version. Or don't, your choice.

To my faint amazement it all seems to be working!

The headlight and indicator relays attached to the underside of the fuse box were rusted through and completely unusable. I managed to source replacements locally, although the indicator relays from the nearest parts shop turned out to be repeatedly duff and failed to work at all. After returning three times for replacements I ended up demanding a refund which I then spent at Krugersdorp getting a suitable (and working) replacement. Exciting times, it's good to see the various bits coming to life again.

We had some rather dodgy connections in the rear light clusters and most of the lights did not initially work at all. They are now stripped and all of the copper contacts have been gently sandpapered back to shiny beauty. I'll leave the clusters out for now so that we can start prepping the surrounds for the imminent painting.

I still need an indicator switch. Nothing yet from the various feelers that I've put out, I may have to import a new one or simply stick an ordinary toggle switch on the dashboard for the time being. But we have shorted out the wires and the indicators are all working just fine.

Over-all the new wiring loom seems to be a great success, the ignition switch works, the starter turns over the engine, the lights all seem ok and the dashboard gauges and lights all seems to be doing what they should. Powaaaaaaahhh!

Thanks for visiting, see ya soon!
CooP