‘63 11 window

[Mid West Dubber]

Hi everyone, picked up the 63 split bus back in 2012. Will be copying the build over from the previous forum.


Here is a couple of pictures when I got it home…



And one after a wash to get moss off


Cheers Rusty.

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[Mid West Dubber]

So my bus had sat sideways in the shed for over 2 years while I saved money and collected parts for the front and rear ends. I have put a 4.5" skinned knuckles narrowed beam under and did a straight axle conversion on a type 3 rear end.

With the help of my dad we put the rear end under and the beam under.This was the first time this bus has had a front and rear end under it in 25+ years.


the rear...


The front...


up in the air...!


we slowly brought it down lowering it onto wheels in various stages...


on the ground 

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Here is a short video!
https://youtu.be/2UiHmQtZUbg

[Mid West Dubber]

The wiper switch hole in the dash was badly damaged so i cut out the bad section and made a new piece to weld in. Its not completely finished and will need a bit of refining but pretty happy with it.

The bad..




Repair section I made..

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At the start of the year I decided I wanted to make something useful at school in year 12 metal work this year. After some thinking I decided I wanted to build a rotisserie for my bus.

After searching the web at different designs I settled for the two 12 sided hoop design as it would best suit/fit the location I plan to work on the bus in future.

This is the basic idea of what I am aiming for...


So with some research and a fair bit of thinking and measuring, I had an idea of how I was going to build the two hoops.

I started off by cutting 24 (12 for each hoop) 580mm lengths of 50mm X 50mm X 3.0mm RHS with 15 degree angles on each end. (the 15 degree angles will join to make a 30 degree, 12 x 30 degrees= 360 degrees)

Ground a 45 degree on the end so the welds would penetrate better.

I then cut 4 lengths of 20x20 RHS which would be tacked into place to hold the top, bottom and side pieces square.


With it all square and tacked I placed the other pieces in place, and when I was happy I tacked each join.


The steel for the second hoop was laid over the top of this one and when they were exactly the same I tacked all four corners of each join and then fully welded the joins.

[Mid West Dubber]

On school holidays at the moment and wanted to get something achieved on the bus, so I decided to tackle the broken engine lid hinge mounts. Took a little longer than I had expected but it came up not too bad.

A few shots to show the damage and what needed to be repaired...

[Mid West Dubber]

Started by cutting out, repairing and welding the hinge guide/ outside sections



Then I started to fabricate the sections for the inside. From factory the tapping plates are spot welded to the hatch. For adjustment purposes I decided to create a cavity for a tapping plate. The OG tapping plates were buggered so I made a couple of new ones...

[Mid West Dubber]

These sections proved to be very fiddly but I got there eventually. All welded in and ground back

[Oldman]

Thanks for bring your Build Thread across.....

[Mid West Dubber]

To make for easy installment and transport I chose to join the hoops with a sleeve style method with plug welds on one side and a bolt through the other side of the join...


All of the welds/joins/mounting plates etc were cleaned back and painted with a colour matched blue to the existing RHS...


I separated the rear hoop into a top and bottom half with the sleeve joins to make the installation easy. I have circled the joins...


The front hoop was joined in 4 locations which will make it possible to disassemble part of the front hoop while attached to the car, to remove the front doors for dogleg repairs etc...


The main part of the Rotisserie is completed however later on down the track I will add RHS supports which join the two hoops together and also supports to rest underneath the chassis in the centre. Very happy with the outcome of my school project.

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Front door hinge pin repair - Part 1

I attempted to remove the left hand side front door pin using one of these Bob Drake hinge pin tools. Unfortunately I had no success and the shortest push rod from the tool snapped clean off and didn’t budge the pin.


The driver’s side (RHS) mirror stalk had been snapped off years ago so I decided to try the method of drilling the door pin out and then reaming to suit the oversize mirror stalks or hinge pin.


To make the drilling process easier I decided to remove the hinge from the door. The first step to remove the hinge was to drill out the factory rivets until the heads broke free and the rivet could be removed. I started off with a small hole and went up in size until the rivet head broke loose.

[Mid West Dubber]

Front door hinge pin repair - Part 2

Pic of the rivets removed from the door…


The next step was to mark out and cut two sections which would allow the hinge to be removed from the door. I used a small cut-off wheel in a Dremel to make the cuts. The sheet metal was then carefully peeled back and the hinge removed…

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Front door hinge pin repair – Part 3

I ground the top and bottom of the existing pin almost flush with the hinge surface then centre punched both ends so the drill bit would locate.


I then drilled out the pin, size by size until there was just a small layer of the pin remaining inside the shaft.


This pic shows the thin layer remaining inside the shaft…


This step is where the dremel came in handy again. This time with a small tip grinding tool.


I used this little grinding tool to carefully grind out a small section of the remaining layer of the pin. This released the pressure from the pin and broke the rusted seal.


I could then use a small flat punch to drive out the remainder of the pin and leave the shaft inside the hinge untouched and undamaged.

[Mid West Dubber]

Front door hinge pin repair – Part 4

A 5/16 drill bit was used to open the hole in both parts of the hinge…


The 5/16 drill bit allowed the .3220” reamer (Purchased from Wolfsburg West) to accurately remove the remaining material and create a hole which would be spot on for the new oversize hinge pins/ mirror stalks.


Using the reamer in the drill press at a low speed…


The new pin fitted through both parts of the hinge and was firm and moving freely. I used counter-sunk bolts and nyloc nuts to re-attach the hinge to the door. The hinge will soon be removed so I can sand blast and paint the cavity behind the hinge. The hinge can then be re-installed and the cuts I made can be welded and ground back.