front door hindge replacement

So that when I weld the wheel arches in place I get a true line to compare against the door bottoms I’m replacing all 4 front door hinge pins. The doors had only dropped a little from the 40 years of wear, but this movement transferred to the end of the door meant the door bottom scrapped on the arch when you closed it. One of the mirror stalks from the top hinge was welded to the top. This was a quick fix to stop the wear getting to bad, but means I needed to carefully cut off the stalk and grind off the weld to free up the top of the pin. I first tried to squeeze the pins out with a G clamp and small socket hopping the pins would be louse enough to pop out. But quickly gave up to getting the flame thrower out. I’ve been reluctant to attempt this job because of the fear of it turning into a nightmare and ending up damaging the hinges or even worse the doors.

With a fire extinguisher and bottle of water close by and some help from a friend we got the plumbers torch lit and started heating up each hinge. I concentrated the point of the flame only on the upper and lower parts of the hinge as these are the parts that secure the hinge pin in place. After about 3-4 minutes of heat applied evenly on both sides top and bottom, we rested the hinge against a vice and persuaded/eased/whacked the pin out from the lower side. For the first attempt I wasn’t properly prepared, I bent my first punch and lost the heat only getting the pin out half way, The next attempts using a cut down allen key were surprisingly easy, with the pins sliding out and we managed not to scald the doors or burn down the garage.

The next task is to replace the pins and do some thing about the cracks around the hinge rivets. The new upper replacement door mirror arms are 8.5 mm over size, and the lowers are 8mm. my first mistake is presuming the lower pins wont be that worn. The new lower pins slid straight into the hinges and wobbled, so I'll have to replace the 8mm’s to 8.5’s. This had held me up till I can replace these.

Some time later...... Now with replacement 8.5mm bottom pins and access to a pillar drill I was able to ream the hinges to a tolerance fit. This was done with an adjustable reamer, not my first choice but because I was messed about getting the correct size originally this got me through. Adjustable reamers are not the most accurate to use, it took a bit of trial and error to get the exact fit I required, and each pin had a very slight size variation and tapper that effected a tolerance fit.

Porsche brake conversion

Helpfully link below from Vdub engineering
porsche-brake-conversions technical info

After having a bit of a break from welding up the van, I spent a few late nights on the net working out the best option for the wheel and brake set up that I'd like. About 10 years ago I bought a set of 15"x6" Porsche Fusch alloys, I later found out from a friend that the guy I bought the wheels from had said they couldn’t be fitted to a van. Well, with that in mind, I saw it as a challenge. There’s been plenty of bolt on products and fitting kits on the market since then. Some are good quality, some well over priced and others not quite the look I’m after. I’ve decided to try and save a bit of money by getting good quality parts by sourcing all my own, this will mean hunting for the bits I think Ill need and a few modifications here and there. I hope my discoveries will help anybody else trying to fit Porsche brakes. After reading a few split screen van club forum discussions and a few tips from members, I’ve started by getting hold of a set of front and back Porsche 944 hubs (non turbo) and rear swing arms. This will allow me the choice off aluminium arms or the VW type 3 set up I have had laying in my garage. But that decisions for later.

I’ve stripped the Porsche spindles to work out bearing sizes and spindle lengths, I also have a choice of which spindles to try and fit the hubs too.

• Split 1964 king and link pin drums.
• Bay 1968 ball joint drums.
• Bay 1971-ish small stud Pattern discs brakes.

I spoke with Paul at T3D who along with other bits of advice recommended fitting my king pin set up back on the bus replacing the current ball joint beam I replaced years ago from a scrapped 1968 Bay, as it was cheaper then than getting my original link pins overhauled. This is no longer the case as scrapped Bays are harder to find and link pin referb kits are a lot cheaper. Stripping and comparing the parts, to my surprise the spindle diameters are the same, just the length is different, and sliding the hub on to the spindle with the 944 bearings in the hub I could work out what thickness spacer Ill need for the rear bearing.

Front Valance Pt2

Getting back to finishing the front valance with a hope to get it wrapped up in a weekend was a bit hopeful. I should have learnt by now how long things take .

The left hand lower portion of the A pillar was as rotten as the right hand side so this was removed, keeping the original radius just below the hinge bolts to help blend the seam of the weld . Again most of my time was spent cutting and filing the two repair pieces and trying not to rush ahead and grab the welder out.

The inner valance was then trial fitted up with only a little trimming required. Using the bumper mounts as a guide I was able to line up the bumper mount holes, and then clamp the valance into position. With almost no gap between the panel and the forward chassis faces, this allowed me to drill spot welding holes at the original positions that I had grinded off keeping a good gaping and shape for the cover panel.

I secuired the clamps close to each hole trying not to weld the clamp to my van, this was to ensure a tight fit onto the front chassis supports. A few more spot welds to attach the top of the inner panel to the cab floor and this panel will not be going any where fast.

To finish the ends I kept the panels I originally cut off to use as a template, this turned into more of a guide. These panels I hope will be a little stronger that just welding a piece of angle in the corner, they also help with the profile of the outer skin, because the new valance curves in to steeply to match and support the front skin profile ill use these to weld the skin onto at the ends.

I was then able to trial fit all the other closure panels and found that the cut out for the nose, on the lower front skin does not match the correct profile! When the panel is at the correct height (by my calculations and measurments) it does not reach up to the lower portion of the nose either. Frustrated and just wanting to get this done I was tempted to just patch up the gap, but a short break from the cramped garage and a quick sugar rush I deciede to return the panel and get one made with out the cut out, Replacing this panel would also help as the original panel was too short to wrap over seam at the ends as origenally manufactured.

front window gutters

So far all the jobs I've tried to start have been held up or I've had to stop because of not having the right parts or bits need modifying. Hopefully patching up the front windows shouldn’t be such a problem.

Nope, think again.

Ordering parts on-line means you can’t see how how good the parts are untill you get them on the van. Nearly all the panels I've tried to fit need fabricating, so learning panel beating skills is becoming a necessity. I started repairing the window gutters with two corner repair panels, but trial fitting these panels and I found they didn't meet in the middle. I had a word with Schofields at a show and they made me up a pair of gutter that would stretched the whole length of the window frame and bend up enough to cover up the holes I’d already cut out.

A job that I thought would take a day, had taken that long just to get the area and parts cleaned, cut and filed to fit. This included picking away the sealant that I'd originally used under the windows, to stop rain comimg through the rust holes and filling up the van. When this repair is done I hopefully wont need a towel by my feet any more.

Before I got the gutter welded into place, a few bits of the dashboard lip needed patching up, and one of the new gutters repair panels needed cutting and splicing back together, because it was a couple of milimeters too long. With a lot of patients and a brand new light sensitive welding mask (well worth the money £80), I managed to get both gutters tacked and welded on the second day. After grinding down the worst of the welds, I used a large dreadnought file to clean up the front radius, this gave me a flat and even finish compared to rotary file or sanding disc, any remaining pits I re-welded and filed down again. A final rub down and a coat of primer and this is the vans first completed repair.

wheel arch (Dog leg) Pt 1

So that the front valance will fit OK, I decided to repair and fit the wheel arches so that every thing will line up and fit straight. I bought a pair of Schofield arches, and removed the original right hand arch when the van was in the damp garage. The repair arches are made up of 4 pieces spot welded together, where the originals are only 2. Because of this the outer skin is pitted from the spot welds and the top skin has a joint over lap which looks really bad.

I decided to get rid of this problem by splitting the panels beating the outer skin and running a seam weld along the inner side of the lip. Don’t look too hard at the welds I’m still learning. I then ground and peeled the top lip from the panel, to then radius to look clean.

On a trial fit on the van some thing didn’t look straight, so I decided to lay it against the door. Opps, getting carried away with the welding has warped the panel from the heat, this is a lesson learnt. Ill either have to cut this into three parts to straighten it or start again with a new panel. Those NOS front arches I saw for £320 so long ago don’t seam so extremely over priced now.

Life before its slumber

Although a lot of my stuff stored in the damp garage was destroyed I’ve managed to recover a few photos of the van before parts started being pulled off. It’s amazing what fresh paint on the wheels and badge can do, and a can of primer can hide all sorts of rust.

A trip to Beetle Bash and with the van parked up ready to watch the drive-in movie. The trophy unfortunately isn't for best paint but for the bug push, didn't realize how sticky the drag strip is until I tried to push a bug down it.

The hippy paint job is for a fancy dress party on the Isle of white. I spent £10 on poster paint, and with some help from friends we got this rolling art piece done in a couple of hours.

The Stonehenge took the longest to do, but my favorite part is the sun burst flames. 

The lyrics that stretch around the bus were penned in with dry marker; well that’s what I thought. As I washed the paint off after the weekend trip, I found strategically placed letters in permanent marker spelling out all sorts of rude words!

Door pillar replacement

Because of the front valance not having any decent material to weld to at each end, the door pillar bottoms need replacing. With a lot of cutting, fabrication and trial fits, the replacement parts finally fit. The front skin is peeled away at the corner to later hide the join, because of the lack of orignal structure it will take a bit of research to find out how this is finished at the bottom of the pillar and to what length.

Where to start (front valance)

Seeing that access within my garage is limited to the front or back of the van. I've decided to start at the front valance working towards the rear. The valance was originally patched up when I first got the van to keep it on the road. To get rid of all the rot the whole lots coming off.

Grinding away the filler revealed the rust hadn't spread up the front panel too high.

Instead of drilling off each spot weld, with help from a chisel I cut and peeled away the rusty panels, without any drill holes this keeping the good material , all it needs is cleaning and beating straight before the new panels goes on.

Cutting the old metal is the easy bit, fitting the panels is going to take a bit more skill. But before the inner valance goes on, the right hand chassis front closure plate needed replacing, and the lower door pillars are too bad to weld, so need to be replaced.


The joining plates that fix between these also need to be fabricated, a piece of angled plate would do the job but I'm not sure what strength is in this join. So, I will fabricate this as close to the original as I can get using the bits I've pulled off as a guide.

cleanup

Managing to survive the tow to its new home, the van was treated to a well earned wash to get rid of mould and other creatures living in it. And to get a good look at the real damage, from being shut up in a damp garage for so long.

Unfortunately, because of bad communication for some reason, the garage owners friend living in the flat thought the van had been dumped and decided to leave a message with marker pen. "No 11 Very annoyed get this moved or 999" the problem was soon solved with a message explaining everything left on there front door, in marker pen!

With all that room in the engine bay I'm sure you could fit a turbo in there somewhere, although it may take a bit of time and work before it gets to that. The body and chassis is suffering from surface rust pretty much all over. Its going to take a bit more digging to find out how deep it all goes.