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Once all the rust was all gone, I moved to some of the fun stuff and some of the needed small stuff. I found that one of the side cargo doors had a sag/tilt to it. After a bit of investigating, I found that the section of metal that holds in the upper hinge captive “nuts” (not really nuts but a strip of metal that has 2 threaded holes) had cracked and split apart. That caused the door hinge anchor to wobble and the door to drop about a ¼” on the top. The rest of the metal is solid with no rust or damage, so I couldn’t justify the replacement of the entire section.

But no matter what I could come up with, I couldn’t avoid removing the center section of that pillar. Besides, I figured if I couldn’t make what I needed, I could always just buy it after I failed (that has happened a few times so far!). After a bit of cutting, bending, drilling & spot welding I came up with a suitable replacement. All I needed to do now was pop the captive anchor plate in, weld the tab and put it back in.
I also started work on making a hard top for the new convertible. I want to have the bus look as normal and original whenever I can, so I bought a roof section from a single cab (pickup truck version of a VW bus). It appears to have been rolled at some point, so I got it cheap (he even delivered it!). I needed the rear window panel to be intact since that is something I knew I couldn’t make and no one sells reproductions. I already had the top metal & side sections from my bus to use as replacements for the bent & dented metal of the cab top.
The goal is to make the single cab top a suitable looking hard top for those rainy Atlanta days. I will also attempt to make a soft top & frame but that will come later. I think it will look pretty good once I get done, which will likely be several weeks out. This is a mock up of it after I separated the rear panel from the single cab bent up top
I also got the bus off the wooden rotisserie and back on its wheels. The front end rubber suspension parts & brakes & RGBs (reduction gear boxes on the rear end) still need rebuilding but the beam (front suspension cross member) is cleaned up and repainted with all new bolts. Even got my first new bling, shiny new bolts for the rear suspension covers. I really needed it more mobile again to get it rolled out of the garage so I can clean up the space. The garage is covered in grinding & sanding dust and is no place to shoot primer. It’s also driving me nuts being so messy.

I was able to get the main interior painted in its final surface texture and I got several layers of primer down on the main body as well. I shot the interior with a tinted bed liner using the original pale blue VW color from 1963. It is really looks white and will be the same color used for the top half & deep V on the nose. Should go nicely against the Turquoise of the lower half when that day comes. I used bed liner on most of the interior because it is very robust and should hold up really well when this bus moves to the beach with us one day….I think it will be more durable & less slippery on sandy feet when that day comes. I will shoot a final color layer over top of all this when I shoot the upper part of the finish layer of paint later. I shot 2 coats of epoxy primer then 4 coats of high build sandable primer on the exterior body. I still needed to shoot the doors & other removable parts but that happened later. Once that was done, the long process of sanding and tweaking the surface to get it flat and true for paint began. Long board & finish sanding is a long and tedious process but it's key to getting the final shiny finish.

Whew, just tires me out at the speed of progress and posting the pix.

Lee

I wish my work was indeed this fast but these are not real time and reflect work in the past. I have ben posting progress on my work's internal social media so these are "re-prints". I only just found this forum and thought I'd share here too. The most recent post reflects work that happened in Jul of 2018.....The project started in Dec of 2016 and will likely run another 6 months before completion. I have estimated approx. 400 hours so far with another 100-150 to go but we will see. There are probably 3 or 4 more to go before it will be caught up and in real time....

Chris

Since most of the skim coat has been finished with the exception of the tailgate & the engine cover so I was be able to put the last thick primer coat to start the full block sanding. I got tired of sanding and was looking for some non-sanding work so I started on the soft top.

Even more fun, after a ton of research, I discovered that the soft top from a 2 year only (89 & 90) factory made Dodge Dakota pickup convertible should be pretty close to the dimensions of my newly chopped top. I took a chance and ordered one and it is so close, it's almost like it was made for it. I will need to make a few modifications but not near as many as I expected. Since the top was made in North Carolina, I was able to buy some extra fabric from them, so my changes will match exactly. That’s a huge relief and now all I need to do is make a foldable metal frame.

I started with a Miata top frame (yes, I know its not VW) since they are cheap and plentiful, a lot less expensive than a used VW top frame, I figured it would at least help me with the geometry. I did need to widen it and add a lot of length, but the real challenge was making the header. I used sheet metal vs the wood header of the VW bug conv since I am not much of a wood worker. I got the header finished up and welded to the extended Miata top frame. However, I just couldn’t get the Mazda top to fold right and the sides curved in too much for my liking and to fit the top material so I ended up scrapping the majority of the Miata top frame and just made my own from flat steel & steel poles. Lots of adjusting and tweaking until it ended up folding back nice, a lot like a bug conv. I will add some ball lock pins to make the folded frame easier to remove if not needed or when you want to put the hard top on.
I used VW Thing top latches and an early VW top handle and it took a while but I am happy with it overall. I just really needed to prove I could do it as planned before I moved into the paint stage. I took it off for now and put it away until after the body is painted and ready to go. I do still have a few things to do on it later (like side cables, header seals, and getting the front side edges smoothed & riveted to the header) but I’ll finish that after I get the bus painted. For now, it’s pretty much done and now I am working on the hard top....

Great progress

My main focus since Dec has been on the hard top. I took the crusty top front off my bus and the rear window section off a rolled over VW single cab top to start the process. Since the edges of my top were very rusty, I had to start out with replacing a lot of edge metal. And since I was (keyword here is was) planning on using custom door windows & frames, I needed to make new top edges for the door window tops to meet. This was to deal with a shorter edge on the soft top. Once I had actually gotten the shorter sides made, I didn’t like the shorter side look and went back to factory door window frames and put the factory metal back on the hard top sides. I will have to adjust the soft top later to match up to the shorter window frames now. I'll do that when I get out the sewing machine to start on the upholstery.

I did have to make one side upper frame since the factory part was like swiss cheese and not usable. Took several steps but I am happy with it as well. I needed to bridge the gap between the rear window section & the crusty top since the old cab top had been pretty much destroyed. That mean a long section of compound curves. This took quite a bit of time and planning to get the curves & shapes made from flat steel. Not exactly as the factory but close enough to look nice, once I ground it all down.
Still lots of sanding, touch ups, edge fixes and other fixes but I was able to get some of the skim coat done and the first layer of high build primer. Hopefully, it should be all ready for final primer by the end of next week. After that, I'll finish the interior of the top and then back to the skim coating & surface prep for the body of the bus.....

This is what I am going for in the over all look, a single cab at first glance. (pardon my very messy shop, been way too rainy lately to clean up much). This also brings me up to real time so the frequency of posts will slow down from here.

Now that the welding & grinding is all done, it’s time to get back to the prep & prime of the body. I got the body & parts all as smooth as I could with the metal replacement, hammer & dolly, & grinding work so now it was time to get the primer coats on and then some thin skim coats to smooth it all down.

This is the tedious work (that and post paint color block sanding) and takes up so much more time than expected. Every time you touch a panel it seems like you find more small flaws. Fortunately, they have been minor surface defects and not anything that require reworking of the metal.

I was able to get the bus out of the shop to do a big clean up so I could assemble my paint booth. It’s made up of painter’s plastic & PVC pipe plus a couple of filtered fans. Last time I used ropes & pulleys to make it like a Roman shade to raise and lower it easily. This time I felt the effort required for all that was more time than it was worth, so I am just raising it from each side as needed. Keep it simple! My fans are identical ones with the inlet fan runs one speed faster than the exhaust to keep a positive pressure on the booth. I don’t want it sucking in any dust particles. I got a fresh double coating of epoxy primer on and 2 more layers of high build primer. For this stage. I left it all assembled since I already had several layers of epoxy & build primer on it all and assembled made it much easier for this coat. After the skim coat, I will have it fully disassembled for the last high build & blocking layer before I shoot color. I then got busy on the glazing...The downside of these things is the square footage of all panels. So much bigger than my previous 2 seaters and even way more than the Mustang I did a few years ago… I forced myself to do all the doors, hatches & removable stuff first before I can move onto the main body. They are all done and waiting in the wings along side the pile of other bus parts.

I will hopefully finish up the body skim & block this week and shoot the final high build primer on by the end of next week. Then one final block sand by the end of the following week and the first color goes on the top half! (at least in theory)

Finally! Got some color on bus, at long last.....I finished the block sanding of the final high build primer last week and after I re-assembled my paint both with fresh plastic. This color is L-289 Pale blue. It really looks white once its on but looks faint blue/green in the gun.
Next I'll pull the bus out and move the doors, hard top, etc into the booth for their color coat. Hopefully I can do that early next week. Then I'll put the doors back on and then shoot the bottom in Turkis.

Pretty big milestone....

Great work on the roof.

Thanks...The soft top frame will likely get re-made. I am just not very happy with it but I'll revisit that once all the paint work is done. Especially since I am much happier with how the hard top came out....

I was able to get the doors painted their white and get them mounted back on the body. After a quick shop clean up & some final sanding of the lower half, I should be able to shoot the green toward the end next week. I also got the hard top painted inside & out with only a few minor runs to color sand out. I will put the weather seals on it and then mount it on the bus for the next painting phase just to get it out of the way.... Very exciting to see this stage finally arrive. After a TON of color sanding to get rid of any orange peel and runs, it's on to upholstery and interior!

Wasn’t sure I’d ever get to this stage, but the bus is wearing its final color at last.
It’s not quite done as I still need to do a lot of touch up along the split line between white & green as well as a bit of color sanding out a few runs & the orange peel. All of that will wait however since I am very, very tired of sanding things.
Next on my list is the interior….I already have the refurbished front seats frames & padding so now all I need to do is break out the 2 hides of top grain green leather that I bought last year (a killer sale) and figure out where I stored my sewing machine.
Then I move onto the door panels, etc. Once all that’s done and if enough time has gone by for me to forget all the sanding pain, I’ll color sand all teh orange peel.
Otherwise I’ll do the suspension & disc brake upgrade and finally rebuild the engine & transaxle and save the hard sanding work until the end.

Dat purty

Thanks! I have been working on the seats the last few nights using leather. (I have also added seat heaters.) I got the basics done (sew foam, pleats, etc) but I still need to secure them to their frames. I am also not happy with one of the upper side panels being a little too narrow so I'll likely take it off and re- do it. Part of the process is being willing to re-do work to get it right....

After all that I'll steam, heat & clean them to get out the wrinkles and the marking chalk.....