'66 Deluxe

[SlashKirk]

Just a curious question....is the hinge still in the window area for the pop out windows or had it been removed for the camper conversion windows?

[Dual Port]

The hinges are still there and look perfect. I was surprised to see Aarons pic with the camper windows in it, there are some screw holes in the frame that I wondered about but they'll be covered up by the w/s.

[rokemester]

Stopped by Bruce's shop to check out the new beast. What a cool project! I have a few shots of the master at work adjusting the new doors and prepping the passenger side floor and rocker assembly for welding.

[wwebner]

OK Mike,did you buy the bus in Sandusky

[rokemester]

I WISH!!!

[vw7266]

lets see some sparks flyin!

[Dual Port]

lets see some sparks flyin!

I welded the lower B post in and it went really well, the gaps and alignment are much better than I would have guessed being that I'm a diesel guy and not a bodyman. The top front hinge needs a slight adjustment but other than that, check the gaps out:


The quarter extension is just "hanging" there.

Tacked the floor, then started putting in a bulkhead patch:



The doors work really well in spite of the bottoms being trash. Sometimes my welds look really nice but most of the time they still look like shit and need a ton of grinding. I'm glad most of the bulkhead will be covered by deluxe interior panels. I ground out the B post welds and all they'll need is a skim coat of mud. The w/s rails and everything lined up really nice considering the old B post/lower hinge was torn out by an impact on the lower hinge. The saving grace was that it was rotted so nothing twisted on impact.

Tacking the quarter and installing the Gerson lower door panels are next. Has anyone here put door bottoms on? I'm not really fond of those panel clamps, it seems like I can do a better job shoving the panels together and tacking them. The clamps seem like they hold the panels too far apart for me.....

[SlashKirk]

I've done a few door lowers, pretty straight forward stuff. I usually replace the inner and outer, tweeking along the way to get profile of door as close as original as possible. I bought some of those panel clamps because everybody seems to use them....never made work easier or better in my case, use only once in awhile nowadays.

[Dual Port]

I've done a few door lowers, pretty straight forward stuff. I usually replace the inner and outer, tweeking along the way to get profile of door as close as original as possible.

I'm thinking it will be easier to do most of the cutting, fitting, and tacking with the door on the bus to maintain gaps and fit, and maybe pull it off to do the final welding. Is this how you did it? I do have Gerson inners/outers, but strangely they're different heights- I think one is 5" and one is 6" tall.

Thanks!

[SlashKirk]

I do them off the bus to start with. Unless the bottom is totally gone. You can fit the new panel to the old panel making all your cutting marks and be very very close on all the gaps. After all tacked up I hang the door and some final adjustments and weld it all together. Note: only cut out bad metal and leave as much original metal possible, no matter how much it kills you to use all that fresh new metal.

Bruce, it looks like your patch metal has some galvanizing to it? If so, be careful not to breath it.