GolfDriver's 74 Bus project

[Golfmad]

It didnt take that long - what took long was the spares shop that gave me the wrong boots the 1st time round and I had to go and exchange - I would say if you have all tools available and somewhere to wash the old grease and gunk probably no more than 2 hours or less.

[Golfmad]

Ive been a bit slacking with updating here !

What ve done so far is build the frame for the bed in my bus -


After fitting the plank


Made it pivot at the back where engine is

With matress


Also started making door panels from hardboard
Back Flap


Sliding Door

Painted them with clear laquer, and must say it looks kinda good !

Also got some new back lights, just like the originals from Volkspares

[Golfmad]

Small update

Removed the windscreen the other day to sort out the rust

Some holes rusted through, but not as bad as I thought it will be


Bought me some of these for the job


Doing some of this - correction - a LOT of this


Got a few holes rusted through and Ill need to fix this with fibre glass when I get some time during the rest of this week, not that I am at all any kind of expert on fibre glass, but what the hey - Ill give it a try maybe I learn some new skills.

After all the brushing and sanding to get the rust off I put some of this to stop the rusting from continuing furher


Now that the window is out, I can paint the dashboard nice satin black again as it too has a bit of surface rust. I am still lookin for a cheaper place to get a windscreen....

[RICKY-R69]

Nice to see your project coming along so nicely. Keep it up.What did you pay for the new taillights?

[RICKY-R69]

When I did my CV boots I couldn't find the correct boots in our little one horse town. So I had to make a plan. Used golf 1 outer CV boots that I just cut the lip that clamps around the boot off. then I cut the metal caps of the old boots so tha the new boot fits through. Drilled the holes through the rubber and voila.... new CV boots for under R160.

[Golfmad]

Nice to see your project coming along so nicely. Keep it up.What did you pay for the new taillights?

Thanks man - its a slow process, because of time restraints, but Ill get there one day.

A friend bought them for me at volkspares, he paid something like R370 per light, but thats the whole light including fittings and lense, but I had to put in some tinfoil inside the chambers around the globes, as they are plain grey, so they reflected poorly in daytime.

[RICKY-R69]

Surely you could have sprayed it with mirror chrome paint. What happened to your old lights, are the up for grabs perhaps?

[Golfmad]

Yeah, also thought of painting the reflector parts with mirror chrome, but the foil worked like a charm, and no risk of fcuking up the expensive lights with spraypaint.

The old lights were some universal bakkie type lights that the previous owner made to fit, so they dont look like the originals at all. Ill try and take a pic and post it up.

[Golfmad]

Did the fibre glass thing, and sanded it down



Put some spot putty on to fill the small undulations caused by the fibre glass


Just have to sand it down smooth - having the glass fitted on thursday - eish expensive !

Also painted the dash satin black, as it had a bit of surface rust, and made the airvents surrounds mirror chrome silver, just for a bit of contrast, but I have to sand it down and redo it as it didnt come out all that great in my opinion.

[RICKY-R69]

Nice going there. That spot putty needs a lot of sanding down. Are you going to paint it before fitting the glass?

[Golfmad]

Nice going there. That spot putty needs a lot of sanding down. Are you going to paint it before fitting the glass?

Thanks man.

No, will have to fit glass first, because she is not ready for paint yet, still some other rust spots to sort out, but I have to get her running again, as I have to go to get police clearance on the engine so that the papers are in order, before I can consider getting a COR and transfering to my name, as I want to do all that in one go.

[Golfmad]

Ive been a bit slow in updating here, but so far I have fixed some more rust spots underneath the bumper where the ruberising was removed with some more fibreglass, painted most of the chassis & pan with a good Etch Primer in black so now underneath looks good.

Fitted the new sliding door roller wheel I got from Sean - thanks a million once again man ! Also repaire the top guide where the top door roller comes to a stop when sliding door is closed, as the thin metal was worn out so the door had a fair bit of play when closed, and made a helluva rattle noise when driving. Got the original "ossewa wiel" steering from the previous owner and fitted that - now I am able to turn the wheel while at parking speeds

Sanded down most of the body, and repaired small areas with spot putty and sanded down smooth.

I dont have new pics, but Ill take some where I do more work etc, but I simply dont have enought time it seems these days to work on her..... and we going to Sodwana bay for the week before easter so getting more leave from work after that is a bit of an issue to, but Ill get there for sure.

[Golfmad]

So finally we did the paint thing yesterday.

MS Primer on problem areas




Then we sanded it all down and started the white paint 2K.




Got a few runs, as winter temeratures are not ideal for paint, but we put around 6-7 coats on so Ill sand down the runs with 2000 grid sanpaper and buff and polish to get the finish smooth. I must admit the slightly greyish white paint looks sweet and it came out ver shiney, since I used 2k fast thinners.

[Golfmad]

So been busy with the interior when time permits.

This is what it looked like before


Fitting the wood for the storage area below the bed, keeping in mind that my best tool I have is a Jig Saw, and using 16mm marine plywood was a mission to cut, but not too shabby I think



Some wood stain varnish, still wet


I thought of fitting hinges for the middle part of the box, but, after some thought, I decided to make the whole middle section removable which would make it much easier to put things in there, and I want to fit my fridge just behind the drivers seat, which would make the hinges idea a hassle as one would have struggled to open it with the fridge taking up that portion of space.

Covered the rear metal sheets behind the front two seats with dark capet like material, the ones used on speaker boxes - looks much better.
Before

Now

[Bugger]

Progress is slow but you`ll get there any new pics after it is sprayd