Dry Rot!?!

The pop-top has been stripped, it seems that some ill-advised holes with poor sealing has resulted in some dry-rot/mold (Mike Holmes would be horrified!).  Should have it off to be repaired soon.

Rot

Worst vent install ever! - I was able to remove it without drilling out any rivets.

lining up the hardware (polished)

And... some progress has been made on the left side!

Left midsection from the outside

...and the inside

Currently, we are working on templates for other missing pieces, it also seems that we need some front jack-points :(

Much more of the same, but making some progress...

Well, another week has gone by and my hair seems to be perpetually full of fine rust granules.  On the upside, I can give my bangs the 80's treatment without any product!  The downside is that in spite of wearing a dust mask, I'm going through a lot of tissues -Yucky!

Bumpers are all done! - the front bolt holes in the body are repaired and the rear mounts cleaned painted and repaired too.

Remember this? - It's where all the bondo and spray foam came from (check out the cracks)

J has been working very hard building new pieces to repair that damage

All (most) all of the rusty bits are gone

A new c-pillar and the frame rails are treated with rust-killing primer

Before and After for the louvered windows (middle on both sides)

Even got new screening - take that mosquitoes!

Before and after for the pop-top support

Pop-top support (rear hinges done too) buffed and clear-coated

Next fun project is the mural for the right rear window.  It is behind the wardrobe so it is non-functioning as a spot to look though.

The left side bodywork continues.  Its similar to putting together a puzzle when you don't know that the picture is supposed to be.  Darn that spray-foam job, it caused that whole area to vanish!

More Grinding and Polishing

Well, this will be the theme of the day for awhile.  Lost of parts to refurbish and lots of patch pieces to bring Suzanne's body up to par (gotta keep that bod lookin' Good).

Front bumper - inside "before"

Front bumper - outside "before"

Workin' Hard

Front bumper -after

Front bumper-primed

Headlamp Bezels - Before and After (guess which is which!)

Some shrapnel

Tidying up the left side floor

Boy, oh, Boy, it will be nice when the rust and corrosion is gone!

Moving on then...

So, there were several projects today:
Built a new C-pillar base

New pillar

Where the pillar will be seen next

Polished and refurbished the quarter-light windows.  Waiting for seals for the front door ones but the left rear one is done.

Painting the trim

All done!-new seals, paint and polish

Polished the hub-caps.  I can almost do my make-up in them now!

Before and After

The worst one

Ta-Da!

Holey Roof Suzanne!

Well, the many, many holes in Suzanne's roof have been welded up and ground down.  The perpetrator who installed (rather poorly) the pop-top had a lot of misses and used really big wood screws to intsall the lid.  So, there were a lot of holes to repair.
We also got the sun-roof out.  Pretty grungy back in tub.  Not sure how we are going to get that cleaned out yet.  The space might make a good hidey hole for awning poles or something while we are traveling.

After Welding

The Welder

The Grinder

Up next...quarter light window overhaul.

Cheers!

Back to the Grind

So today was a day of sanding and grinding, sanding and wire wheeling, sanding and popping dents (thanks to a knowledgeable person - not us!)

Suzanne's Rear-View

Up Top

Suzanne is definitely shinier but there is much more work to be done as there are many rusty spots that have to be ground down so filler can be applied.

Rust on the Left Middle Window Sill (After much grinding already)

Close-up

I must go wash all the bits of van out of my hair now....

The Fate of the Green Van

If a Tree Falls on a VW Does it Make a Sound?

Jason  Contemplating That Question

Shiny!!

So, we have Suzanne down to her skivvies...

Stage One - Jaw breaker

Stage Two - Done with Stripper

Stage Three - Grinder

Rust-Mort is one and working it's magic.

Bondo Nightmares and Champagne Dreams

So, we stripped Suzanne's, interior out and started on the paint.

A few things were discovered:

a) Suzanne used to be a Champagne Edition 7-Seater Bus before she was a red camper van
b) Whoever made her red, really liked Bondo.  I mean really liked: it cast shadows when we ground into it!
c)Spray-foam, fiberglass and Bondo do NOT make an appropriate filler for rusted out body panels.

Questionable Body Filler

What was in that hole in the body (by left rear fender well)

Bondo shadow

Introducing... The Red Van (AKA Suzanne)

Who will forever be known as Suzanne.  We cannot revive the green 1977 since a tree fell on it.  The Red Van is the body we are using for our project.

We were looking for a name for the Red Van when we acquired the green one.  When we stripped down the interior of the green van we found a lovely portrait of a working girl in a rather comprising position in one of the cupboards.  That sweet gal was named Suzanne.

From then on, our van-to-be was named Suzanne.

The cupboard where the picture was found.

Suzzane

Aquisitions in Antisipation of Mergers

Well, we imagine that most of you know that we have acquired not one, not two but three VW buses in anticipation of coming up with one working model.
They are:
Miranda (1971 VW -Nelson BC)
    *purchased for her interior

Miranda heading down the road

Suzanne (1977 VW - Comox BC) -More on the name later!
   * purchased for her engine/transmission, etc

The Red Van from the line up behind the swather in the movie "RV" (1978 - Calgary AB)
   * purchased for her body (not bad for a 33 year old Albertan! Looks good from far but far from good)