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Dec 10, 2018 18:58:26 GMT
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and here was me thinking it was just going to be a case of shoveling up left over body parts , swilling out the blood , blowing a coat of colour on it and chucking a beer fridge in the back. how wrong can you be... keep at it! Cheers mate, wish it is going to be that easy but i´m guessing i´ll end up investing as much time on this as i have on my other projects in the past (which means the wrong side of 700 hours!) I´ve been welding up all the holes in the floor and took it all back to bare metal to make sure i´d caught all the rust. The floor is definately looking better for it... which can´t be said of the garage floor.... and after a coat of primer the first half is looking half decent again. Cheers, Dave
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Last Edit: Dec 10, 2018 19:00:09 GMT by Oldbus
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I´ve chopped out all the grot, ground off all the old welds and scraped off all the old paint, glue and sealant so that i could weld properly... I didn´t fancy making up a repairsection so i bought a readymade repair plate... and after a few hours welding (i´ve seam welded it in) it´s all nice and shiney again. The good thing about the ambulance is it has loads of goodies fitted, 230v heating and aircon, extra 12v heating in the back, 230/12v inverter, battery charger and loads of lights everywhere and and and... the electrics are going to be a nightmare to sort out though.
Next i´ll weld up all the screw holes from the wooden floor and give it a lick of paint. Cheers, Dave
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Last Edit: Dec 9, 2018 16:06:14 GMT by Oldbus
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I´ve spent lots of time cleaning up the underbody, it´s still not finished but getting there slowly whilst i was under there i chopped out the rest of the go faster side steps, it was just a load of angle iron but where it had been screwed to the sill the small holes had turned into big ones so i needed to make up a patch. One on the inside and one the outside. The good thing about totally stripping the van down is you get to know it a lot better, the floor was looking a bit iffy in places so to fix it all properly i´ll need to take the wooden floor and insulation out. First i had to scrape off two layers of lino, i don´t know what glue they used but i must get hold of that stuff as it took me ages to get off and needed some gentle persuasion from the heat gun. Anyway to cut a long story short it left me with this... i managed to get the plywood out in one bit which was handy as i´ll be reusing it hopefully.... plenty of glue was used and all the wood has been screwed to the floor so i´ll need to weld up all those holes too.. which leaves me with the floor looking something like this...the small holes won´t be a problem to weld up. This little lot will take a bit longer though...... never mind anything is better than scraping off underbody sealant. Cheers, Dave
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Last Edit: Dec 6, 2018 17:08:59 GMT by Oldbus
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While you have the rear subframe off, now would be a good time to install a rear ARB. it will make the van much nice to drive on the bendy bits of road. I still haven't got round to fitting one to my T4, but I'm currently hanging my excuse hat on the fact that I don't have a rivnut setting tool to do the job..... Good idea, thanks for that. I´ve been reading up a bit on the subject and apparently an ARB was an option on the Ambulances, shame mine doesn´t have one. I´m not a fan of those rivnuts, they might be ok when fitted at the factory but i wouldn´t trust myself to fit them properly and i don´t have the setting tool either so i went to plan B.
I drilled out the hole where the rivnut should be fitted so that it would take an M8 nut and after cleaning off the zink plating just welded it into place. I´ll give it all another coat of paint and once its all fitted fill it with wax and hopefully that should be strong enough to take the ARB once i´ve found one. Guten Tach! What the hell happens here!!New project ahead!How could i missed that? Incredible work like always.....you shopped out the freshly wheelarch....! "Zielorientiert,Endstadium" Time for a phonecall..... Greet Cheers mate, nice talking to you the other night. Normally i go by your motto " do it once and do it properly" but i couldn´t say no to those 10" Projekt Zwo wheels, so the new wheelarch just had to go I´ll spare you the details but most of the underbody sealant is now in the bin. I took out the left hand rear axle which sounds quite straight forward but it fought me all the way with every single bolt seized, even the screws that hold the disc and dustcover in place needed drilling and retapping but with the anglegrinder warmed up i got there in the end. and it cleaned up quite nicely too so after welding in the captive nuts for the ARB and a lick of paint it´ll be ready soon for refitting. Cheers, Dave
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Nov 18, 2018 17:49:31 GMT
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I don't know how the middle runner works on a t4 but on a t25 you can extend the centre arm to push the door out a bit I´ve ordered a new set of runner bearings and with a bit of luck i should be alright. I fancy trying to fit a table on the inside of the sliding door so i´ll probaly need to play around a bit as i´ll need a few millimeters leeway. If push comes to shove i´ll shorten the top roller to pull the bottom out a bit. I don't know how the middle runner works on a t4 but on a t25 you can extend the centre arm to push the door out a bit Cheers mate.
I´ve spent all my garage time the last few days laid underneath the T4 with a scraper and heat gun in the hand. Not much to show for all the work except a pile of rust/wax/ old underbodysealant on the garage floor... but at least the underbody of the van is looking better for it. I´ll give it another coat of primer in a couple of days and then i can give it all a couple of coats of "Schutz" before i sort out the left hand rear wheelarch. Cheers, Dave
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Nov 12, 2018 18:26:37 GMT
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agree wedge aint to pretty,but its what is the "norm" now on T4 with banded steels or dished alloys,other systems/fixes tend to be expensive,allways wondered if the bottom runner could be modified to send the bottom out a little further,looks to be possible with a bit of thought to the mechanism The good thing with mine mate is it´ll be getting a respray anyway so it doesn´t matter too much if i play around with the bodywork a bit. Basically i´ve got two issues to solve. No. 1 is that the 10x17´s rub on the inside of the chassis and No. 2 is they stick out a bit too far ( added to that if you pull them out to far the sliding door won´t open.) In the TÜV engineers report for the wheels it states that a spacer needs to be fitted between the brake disc and wheel to solve issue No. 1 Obviously thats why the door won´t close so that was the first problem to solve. Now we´re talking a couple of millimeters here so i rebushed the axle, cleaned all the rust off, fitted a new brake disk and the new lowering springs and had another look.
Well it was still catching.... so i ground a bit off the chassis... it didn´t evolve grinding any welds off and you can hardly tell the difference. and can now get my finger inbetween so happy with that.... With that out of the way i got stuck into problem No. 2 The TÜV report says that the wheel needs to be covered when viewed from above, it doesn´t say how though. Most people buy aftermarket wing extensions but they´re not exactly cheap and look pretty naff too. So i chopped off my freshy restored wheelarch... bought a new wheelarch repair section, modified it a bit.... and welded it into place. As it´s still got the original contours you can hardly tell i extended it out by 25 millimeters and it covers the whel so that´ll do me. The last job to sort out was the door issue. Now that the wheel is 5 millimeters further in it nearly worked out, but not quite. The sliding door has a lip on the bottom that was catching the wheel... so i chopped that off, welded it all back together and yo and behold the door now opens properly, with 255´s on 10j wheels and no wedge. To be honest it´s still pretty tight so i´ll renew the roller bearings on the door and adjust it all propely just to make sure, but as long as i don´t put too many coats of paint on the wing or wheels i should be ok. Chuffed with that Cheers, Dave
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The problem with the sliding door and the rear wheel can be fixed, if you can find the original Projekt Zwo part. Search for - PROJEKTZWO SCHIEBETÜRKEIL AUSSTELLKEIL. It just push the track for the door runner out, and the door clears the wheel. Maybe it is possible too fabricate it yourself? A friend had the same wheels on his T4 small wedge on door runner will allow it to open past the wheel,easy an common fix Cheers guys, the bloke i bought the wheels off had one of those wedges on his T4, it´s a quick and easy fix for the problem but didn´tt look too good.
I´ll try and bodge something up myself...... I´ve spent most of my "bustime" latly scraping off all the curse word off the bottom and whilst i was underneath i thought i might as well take out the rear axle and give it some neu bushes and a once over with a wire brush. After twenty years and 880,000kms it definately needed sprucing up a bit... but it cleaned up welland after a couple of hours work it´s starting to look half decent again and with everything out of the way i can get into all the corners to scrape out all the gung. paralell to this i´ve ben collecting some spare parts. I picked up a rust free tailgate and a couple of reversible consoles for the front seats The rest of the goodies are all new, a complete set of brakes front and back, exhaust, front and rear lights, door seals, springs, shocks and a couple of new front wings. Looking forward to fitting it all, Cheers, Dave
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awesome job as always!..... very inspiring, indeed. I like the color application idea you presented...it seems to help the design by following the roof moldings....I see your stripe would go the other way, but I thing that would still look great. 2 tone may be the way to go.....red, silver, like the pic, or other colors. great wheels! JP Cheers JP, the reason i bought this one was the shape of the roof. Most of the high roofs look a bit out of proportion and with the dark grey/ red combination following the lines of the roof it breaks it up a bit. Talking of wheels... i collected them today and couldn´t resist a trail fitting... still needs dropping a bit but you get the idea. To get them through the MOT i´ll need to extend the freshy done wheelarches a bit but it´ll be worth it. To get the sliding door to pass the rear wheels will be a bit more difficult though.....
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Oct 30, 2018 16:31:13 GMT
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We don´t need to bother about those wheels. I´ve found some better ones... Similar to these in silver, 8,5j & 10j x 17´s I´ll be collecting them on Thursday Happy days.......
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Last Edit: Oct 30, 2018 16:32:00 GMT by Oldbus
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Oct 29, 2018 17:45:42 GMT
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Great work looking forward to the finished result Cheers, me too dave....... DAVE....... volkswagen?!?!?!?!?!! WOW sorry to hear about the medicals good to see you hobbying again can i ask is there a lobbach in 2019?? was planning on essen and or retromobile but reading your tina estate thread made me think heidelberg tschuss! Cheers mate, we´ve always had a VW parked up here at Oldbus garages. T1, T2 T3 so it´s time for a T4 methinks... They unfortunately stopped doing the Lobbach meet two years ago.. Did hose horns ever work?! I'd have left the lamp pod on, an extra 4 reverse lamps! Good idea but the german MOT rules are pretty tight over here so that´s a no go. Just checked the second one and both horns are dead unfortunately. I´ve spent the last couple of days sanding the roof down, sometime in the past it´s been resrayed with some underbody sealant to cover over the joint between the roof and the gutter... i wasn´t happy with the finish as it was split in places and rusting underneath so i´ve sanded it off on the right hand side and have been trying to get it looking half decent again. it´s nowhere near being ready for paint but at least all the rust is gone and sarting to look half decent again. I´ve been playing around with a few ideas which colour to paint it in. I found this pic on the web which is pretty close to how i´d like it to look once it´s finished. Ours has the LWB so will not be exactly the same but you get the idea. What do you guys think? Anyone got a clue what those alloys are called? i´ve not been able to find them anywhere. Cheers, Dave
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Oct 25, 2018 15:49:25 GMT
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carrying on with our rustbucket... With all the brackets and inner side of the wing replaced ..... i gave it a a couple of coats of primer and welded in the outer panel... The panel was zink plated and i made the mistake of just welding it in without removing the zink coating. What a PITA, kept blowing holes and took me ages to get it looking half decent.Still, i got there in the end, it´ll probably need a bit more filler than i´d planned but hopefully you won´t be able to see the join once i´m done, at least all the rust is gone. I got lucky the other day and picked up a bonnet and drivers door, and it´s just not worth welding up the old ones when the panels are readiy available (and cheap) Cheers, Dave
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Before i carry on digging out the rust i thought i´d remove the extra light pod thingy off the back of the roof. it was only held on with four screws and a bit of glue so it didn´t take too long. I´ll be losing the roof indicaters too and i think the roof looks a lot better for it. Moving on to the rust problems at the back, the rear valance doesn´t look too healthy. and by the look of things the whole left hand corner will need replacing too. So i got the anglegrinder warmed up, chopped out all the grot and a couple of buckets of rust later... i could start to put back some strength in the structure. I didn´t fancy making the outer side panel and wheelarch and as repairpanels are readily available and cheap, i bought myself a whole side panel repairplate and chopped out the bit i needed. It´s nowhere near being finished yet but at least the corner is started to look a bit more like a T4 again Cheers, Dave
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Last Edit: Oct 21, 2018 7:13:39 GMT by Oldbus
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Oct 13, 2018 19:20:26 GMT
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Whilst i was welding in the front sill and repairing the bottom of the A Post i´d got the door lined up but for some reason the door didn´t fit well, the gap to the B post was miles off although the door fitted at the top and bottom. It doesn´t come acros that well in the foto but you can nearly get your hand in the gap and no adjusting of the lock or hinges got it any better... as i don´t have a hydraulic ram i dug out the biggest hammer i could find, got some tension on the B post using a ratchet strap and brute force and gently whacked it into shape. Well actually i knocked hell out of it for nearly an hour but got there in the end. to cut a long story short it left me with a rather dented B post but i got it to come out a couple of milimeters... and after a bit af sanding and filling (read it took me ages to get it looking half decent) it fits quite nicely. and the door gaps are ok too. Got lucky, happy days!
Dave
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Cheers I dug off all the old "Schutz" using a scraper and blowgun, horrible job but believe it or not the later T4s were zink plated and i wanted to keep as much of the zink as possible and using an angleginder would have been quicker but i´d have rubbed off most of the zink in the process. It wasn´t as rusty as i´d expected and only had one hole that needed welding. The repairplate was pretty straightforward but to get at it properly from the inside the original ambulance side cupboard needed to come out....PITA as they´re glued in but got there in the end. The rest cleaned up quite nicely, next i´ll give it a coat of primer and give it a couple of weeks to cure off before i redo the "Schutz" The rear corner needed a bit more work though.... Rather than patch it i drilled out the old welds and removed the whole outer panel... good job i did when you see how bad it was from the inside... The repairplate wasn´t to difficult to make....
and went in quite nicely...
that´s the right hand side more or less welded up. Next up is to sort out the door gaps and the B Post, looks like it´s had a bump at some stage. Cheers, Dave
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wow, seems like very quick progress! looking good JP Cheers guys, much appreciated. Cool project ! Just had to do all the same bits on my caravelle, same issue with the rust hidden under the underseal in the inner arch, all t4s seem to do it, they also go up further around the rubber grommet.. Cheers mate, you´re right they do seem to rust in all the same places but to be fair it´s twenty years old and has had a hard life. Carrying on with my sill repairs... it wasn´t worth buying a sill repairplate as it´s only a strip of plate with a couple of angles in it so i knocked up my own the bit under the sliding door was a bit more complicated so i ground out all the grot and strengthened the inner sill which was fortunately still intact... and after a few bits and bobs..... got the rest sorted. This bit is where the door seal attaches to... looks like i´ll be needing some new springs...any excuse to buy a lowering kit
Next up is the rear wheelarch and right hand corner.... does´t look that bad though...fingers crossed.
Cheers, Dave
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The front corner needed a bit of attention but the repairplates were simple to make... and didn´t take too long to get done. With that sorted i had something to fit the wing to... My original plan was to buy a new wing but i hate throwing away stuff that can be reused and the wing was only a bit rusty on the bottom.. the arch was a bit more tricky to fix but the bit i´d chopped out yesterday had the right curve... and after a bit of mucking around the wing was looking half decent again... and should look ok with a skim of filler sorry for the lousy foto but the panal gaps are good, another reason for fixing the original wing, Next up is the sill... cheers, Dave
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Sept 30, 2018 5:49:44 GMT
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My wife had a really early T4, the 1.9 non-turbo diesel. Damn slow, rotten as hell but ran on neat veg oil so pretty economical. When we bought it it had 18" Audi replica wheels with rubber band tyres and sat at stock height but drove pretty badly. Just before it was written off in a smash we put 16" Audi A6 alloys on it, which transformed how it drove. Lowering was next on the list - springs on the back and torsion bars on the front - but we didnt get the chance. Keep it a mild tickle (30mm drop) and it should ride pretty much like stock. That´s a good point, thanks i´ll keep that in mind. I´ve only ever driven T4s with standard wheels and ride height, so i´ll keep that in mind. Don´t want to ruin it as they´re nice to drive. A mate of mine had the 2.5TDI 88bhp, not fast but ultra reliable. But I see the rust issues, his one was crusty in places but not that bad. Did it live in Rostock all its life? It was damn cold up there in January, Warnemunde was the first time I'd seen the sand on the beach frosted over! Mine´s got the 2.5TDI with 102BHP so it´s not exactly a race car either but as long as we can cruise a bit faster the the lorries on the motorway i´m happy. The bus came from a town called Rövershagen although with 880,000km on the clock it would have been on the Autobahn for most of it´s life. I'm reading this thread from the drivers seat if my (parked) T4 waiting to get on a ferry to Spain. Looking forwards to your progress. Storm grey is a nice colour on a T4. Maybe burgundy and Storm grey, have a nice holiday. As this won´t be a checkbook restoration (i actually don´t have a checkbook) i´ll be making up the repairplates wherever possible myself. The wheelarch is one exception however. The inner arch i made up out of a repairsection for a W123... and as i don´t have any fancy metalwork tools i knocked it into shape using two hammers and a vice..... after a bit of tweeking and a dab of paint i ended up with this... The outer section i bought off deebay and after a bit of playing around it fitted a treat. Next job up is to sort out this mess... it´s what´s left of the front right hand corner where the wing and bumper should be attached to. Cheers Dave
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Last Edit: Dec 20, 2018 16:28:21 GMT by Oldbus
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Sept 28, 2018 17:34:53 GMT
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Would you sell said sirens...? yes mate, no probs. When i get round to checking the electrics i´ll make sure they work ok and get back to you. getting stuck right in, eh? gotta start somewhere and also investigate your dilemma...errrr opportunity for more fun! I do love a good welding story......looking good so far! JP Cheers JP, it´s one of those 50/50 cars...when it drives past you at 50 MPH and you´ve had at least 50 beers it doesn´t look too bad With the front end jacked up i thought i´d start with inner sill/A Post bottom, it´s been welded through the TÜV a few times so there´s quite a bit to chop out The inner arch didn´t look too bad until i got the angle grinder warmed up... before i get the arch done i knocked up a couple of patches and butt welded thwem into the step, then i grinded back the welds and gave it a lick of epoxy primer... ....job done Next up is the arch and outer sill. Cheers, Dave
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Last Edit: Dec 12, 2018 17:30:57 GMT by Oldbus
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Sept 27, 2018 18:50:24 GMT
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Always love a good welding thread...... Carry on sir 👍🏼 was it cheap?? :-) i can see the potential here.... looking forward to the journey. colour? ..at the moment my favourite is dark grey but the bloke i bought the bus off had another one in burgundy which looks rather tasty Does it still have its super cool siren? Stayed in a place in Lutten Klein, and sirens passing constantly it certainly does sir....in fact it´s got two... shame i can´t use them though.
how much insulation does it have? i´m not sure about the sides but the floor has a couple of inches so should be alright especially as it´s got a massive heater that runs independantly from the engine Is there anything you can do which will stop the rot coming back in later years e.g. change how VW made it to reduce mud/moisture traps? Good question mate. All the plates that i´ll be welding in are butt welded so no overlapping joints which notoriously collect moisture. If i chop out all the rust and seal it all up properly i should be ok for a few years. It won´t be a daily driver and will be parked up in the carport which should help too. Cheers, Dave
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Last Edit: Dec 12, 2018 17:22:08 GMT by Oldbus
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Sept 26, 2018 17:25:05 GMT
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I managed to get the T4 in the garage, it was a bit of a tight queeze because of the high roof and had to diconnect the garage door to get it in, but got there in the end. As with most of the old cars i´ve ever owned the T4 will be needing plenty of welding but as that´s the best part of the restoration i´m looking forward to that bit. It be needing all 4 corners sorting, both sills and probaly the front and back too So without any further ado i jacked up the front end, took off the bumper and right hand front wing and had a mooch around. It´s hardy surpring that these things rust as bad as they do, all this grot was hidded between the inner and outer wing. It was still damp although the bus has been off the road for two years. ...and the sill will be needing a bit of attention too... Next i took off the passenger door and chopped out some of the the rot... i managed to dig out a couple of handfulls of (damp) dirt out of the sill so it´s hardy surpring it´s a bad as it looks!!! Did i mention i got it cheap!!! Hope you like welding threads? Cheers, Dave
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Last Edit: Dec 12, 2018 17:15:34 GMT by Oldbus
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