We're getting morning frosts here now. I've gotta get a move on - I can heat the garage in the morning and paint by 11 am. That usually works okay. I plan to finish painting the floor and under the dash black today, I will probably have the dash out ready to paint red too. _________________ Robert and Emma (and 4 kids so far)
1979 Bay Window Microbus (Restoration for daily driver due Xmas 2008 - well, some time in '09
1976 DC (daily driver - when it is running...)
It’s been a while… I've really only done significant amounts in this last week or so.
Dash came out very easily. Take your time unscrewing every thing, don’t forget the single bolt holding the steering column up on the very front of the dash. The gauge cluster will fit back through the hole so that you don’t have to unplug anything other than the speedo cable. The whole steering assembly can be taken apart and the wires are long enough for it to lay on the floor. I unhooked the wire for the heater booster fan from the heater controls to make it easier to move them about. I also unhooked three wires from a single connector cluster above and right of where the fuse box was.
Sorry- there’s a lot of dust floating about that the flash has highlighted for us.
I started painting all the other things that sit under the dash in the same Satin Black. It turned out to be a lot closer to gloss than I expected, but that just means it will be easier to clean. I wasn’t very happy with the results painting these things so I will redo them some time soon. I am hoping that there is a sand blasting cabinet at school that I can use. It is all covered in sanding dust in the photo.
The driver’s door had a few dings in it, and needed some work. I got some advice from a panel beater. Basically, Guide Coat and sand to identify high points. Heat and hammer these down, treat for rust and fill with putty. So I bought a little propane gun with canister and did exactly that. It felt like I made a real mess of a not-so-bad door. But with some carefully applied putty it has come up very well. After the third thin layer of putty I gave it a few coats of Spray Putty/Primer, then a Guide Coat and a good sanding. This showed me that I was very close to finished. It also made the application of the final putty much easier on a smoothed surface. I then sprayed Spray Putty again, and it is now waiting for me to sand the Guide Coat off.
Other than the heating & hammering I did the same thing on the sliding door.
Here’s how I hung the doors and did most of that work on them. I’ve sprayed the passenger door with Spray Putty and found two small dings near the front. So a littly putty and another Spry Putty and it looks really straight now.
This is just a cute photo of the bus’s grin.
_________________ Robert and Emma (and 4 kids so far)
1979 Bay Window Microbus (Restoration for daily driver due Xmas 2008 - well, some time in '09
1976 DC (daily driver - when it is running...)
Yesterday Emma and I spent about two hours masking the bus so that I could spray the inside in white, but only behind the front seats, not the front cabin at all. Masking takes forever…
I gave it 3 or 4 coats for Primer Surfacer around midday. Next day I gave it a quick sand with P600 and just this arvo I painted on the top coat – Pastel White.
Photos later when it is dry and the light is good.
When spraying make sure you have lots of light. I set up two globes inside the bus, and three would have been a lot better. _________________ Robert and Emma (and 4 kids so far)
1979 Bay Window Microbus (Restoration for daily driver due Xmas 2008 - well, some time in '09
1976 DC (daily driver - when it is running...)
I was using energy savers, I should have used normal globes, a bit of extra warmth wouldn't go astray. It was 13 degrees outside by the time I was finished. I use the patio heater in the garage to warm it up before I spray. _________________ Robert and Emma (and 4 kids so far)
1979 Bay Window Microbus (Restoration for daily driver due Xmas 2008 - well, some time in '09
1976 DC (daily driver - when it is running...)
I have made some progress since last post. I have rust converted and primed the two dash pieces and the bumpers. Well, I didn't quite finish the bumpers because the pray gun started spitting badly. I took it to a local paint supplier and he helped me to fix it up. It was getting air into the paint stream from the needle. A bit of vaseline on the gasket has fixed it up.
In the week just gone I have done a lot more work on that front door. After all the putty you can see on the driver's door in the photo above I gave it a good few coats of Spray Putty/Primer all in one. Don't bother buying this stuff. It is actually quite hard, very difficult to sand. I put in a lot of time and effort to get it as flat as possible but there was still some way to go, lots of the guide coat left. Also, the Spray Putty/Primer left plenty of holes right across the door. So I bought some dedicated Spray Putty (the yellow stuff, much easier to sand). With another guide coat I was able to get the door flat and perfect (well close enough to perfect - I gotta draw the line somewhere, I could continue to work towards perfection but that last 1% will take an extra week on each panel.
I have also been working on the rear hatch, there was two small dings which I was able to fill with Spray Putty, applied at the same time as I sprayed the driver’s door. Again, some guide coat and it is now beautifully flat. Just this afternoon I gave them both 4 coats of Primer Surfacer.
But for some reason that driver’s door wants some more TLC. There are some rough patches, about 4 of them around the handle. It is as if the Spray Putty has shrunk away to reveal the rough putty job underneath. Perhaps I didn’t leave it long enough to harden properly – I thought overnight would’ve been enough, but maybe not with the cold weather here. So tomorrow I will mask around that area and give it some more Spray Putty and leave it.
The rear hatch is looking good, so tomorrow it will get a sanding with P400 as per the directions on the can, and maybe even some final coat colour – Tomato Red and Pastel White.
Sorry about the lack of photos, I’ve been working too hard to pause for photos _________________ Robert and Emma (and 4 kids so far)
1979 Bay Window Microbus (Restoration for daily driver due Xmas 2008 - well, some time in '09
1976 DC (daily driver - when it is running...)
I've also been fixing a significant fuel leak in my dual cab, often being rained on as I go. The carby has been leaking, the fuel has run down the manifold and into the sump. This is a pretty significant problem that everyone should be aware of - I've sat the vehicle for a week since first noticing the problem, and today I drained 7 L of mostly fuel from the sump.
Anyway, up early tomorrow, get the heater going in the garage and begin sanding again.
_________________ Robert and Emma (and 4 kids so far)
1979 Bay Window Microbus (Restoration for daily driver due Xmas 2008 - well, some time in '09
1976 DC (daily driver - when it is running...)
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