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[Mid West Dubber]

Spent a little bit of time messing around with the tail lights for the bus yesterday.

I've always been a fan of tail lights with a chrome bezel but I couldn't seem to find any apart from the all red US spec ones. I wasn't really all that keen on running the stock Red and Amber lenses with the painted silver style bezel built into the plastic.

So, I decided I would just fit the chrome bezel over the lenses.... But when I had all of the parts, I realised it wasn't going to be that simple.



As you can see from this pic, the Hella lense is too large for the chrome bezel...



and the screw hole sticks out the back of the lense too far, not allowing it to sit flush...



I started by using the bezel as a guide and marking out how much plastic I needed to remove from the outside edge to ensure the bezel will fit over...



Having ground off the excess from the edges it was now time to remove the bulk of the screw hole so the lense would sit flush at the base...




The bezel now fits around the outside...

[Mid West Dubber]

The next step was to counter sink the screw holes on the lense due to the counter sink on the bezel...




Because I had to grind so much off the edges of the lenses, I now had to space the lense back out to tack up the slack from the removed plastic. So I made up a spacer from a piece of alloy...





All screw together and satisfied with the result. Much nicer then the silver paint on the inside of the plastic. Plan on getting the second one finished off this coming weekend...

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Got the tail lights finished off this weekend. I think they have turned out not too bad..

Spacer made..

[Mid West Dubber]

Bought a pile of rusty pop-out frames from the DOVW swap meet the other weekend as I would rather try repair originals then buy repo frames. Some would have looked at these frames and thought they were all beyond repair. Just proves that one mans trash is another's treasure...

After studying the many rusted frames, I came up with an idea on how I could make these work for me. I will let the pics do the talking. Pretty happy with how the repairs are turning out.

[Mid West Dubber]

[Mid West Dubber]

So far I have managed to make 2 complete frames and I am confident I have enough good sections to make another 2 solid frames. A lot of work but it satisfies me resurrecting original parts for my build...

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Well, it’s finally time to bring my split out of hibernation and get to work... it is full of parts at the moment so first up I will be spending some time cleaning it out and sorting stuff out.

[Mid West Dubber]

After a few years of being used for storage, I have the bus cleaned out and ready for some work to begin.

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6 years after completing year 12 at school, I have finally had a chance to fit the lower parts of the rotisserie that I made..

Happy to say that everything  lined up perfectly...

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Started welding some bracing in today to keep the body square when I remove the roof..

More tomorrow...

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Continuing with the bracing today, this should keep everything square. One more section at the rear hatch and then I am ready to make a start on removing the roof

[Mid West Dubber]

Rear hatch has been removed. A few stubborn screws which were removed by building up with weld and welding a long bolt to them. Then they were easily removed with a socket and ratchet

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Finished of the bracing on the bus today. The last section was a cross brace at the rear hatch and one more under the roof to stop any twist or distortion...

[Mid West Dubber]

Started removing the roof today. Original plan was to attempt removing it in one piece but that was going to be a lot more work and not worth it as the roof is very stretched and not worth repairing.

The rear roof bow was creased in many spots so I cut this out and will be replacing it.

I have been able to inspect the gutters better this way, and there is more then what I was expecting to be repaired and replaced. This being rust and previous owners attacking it with hammers  :roll:




I will be sandblasting all of this to have a fresh start...






Some rear corner damage...

[Mid West Dubber]

A little more progress...

I have removed the last sections of roof that were attached to the side and rear strengtheners. Which just leaves the section directly welded to the gutter to remove.





Rear strengthener above the rear hatch removed, plenty of flakey rust in here and the metal is very thin...




Left hand side gutter much the same as the rear. Very thin and full of pin holes. The strengthener is also very thin in places and will be replaced..





Right hand right gutter is quite good, I will only need to repair a small amount on this side and I will be able to sandblast and reuse this strengthener...

[Mid West Dubber]

Air box vents on the right hand side had been smashed with a hammer. The profile was out of shape so needed to be repaired. Managed to score a donor repair section...

The damage...




repair section...






Clamped in place... the whole air box is going to be sandblasted so this will all get done at the same time.





Headliner card channel sand blasted, sprayed with weld through primer and installed..