After stripping the exterior of it's bumpers, lights, door handles and windows it was time to look at the condition of the bodywork, the rear panel was corroded on both inner and outer panels, both rear lower corner panels needed replacement, the offside battery tray was also way past it's sell-by date. As usual the rear uprights were also totally corroded and needed repairing before any other work could be started.

Other areas of corrosion were the rear seat-belt mounting points, these are parts of the rear wheel arch tubs and often corrode, although there are no rear seat-belts fitted to this van these areas needed repair because the rear seat frame bolts onto these.

Moving around the sides onto the rear arches found more of what we expected, by now the rear corners were welded in place to the correct shape and position. The outer skins were removed, revealing yet more corrosion, this was cut away and new inner arches were grafted into place, the new outer arches were then cut down to size and spot welded/glued into position.

After all the rear end panelwork was complete work could start on other areas of corrosion, namely the window frames along the sides and the front screen area, new metal was welded in place after the corroded metal was cut out.

The new metal was first spot-welded and glued along the rear edge, before the glue has a chance to dry the front edge was seam welded and then ground smooth, a thin layer of body-filler was then applied to some areas. The clips along the rear edge hold the two panels together while the glue dries hard.

Spray-filler was then sprayed over the areas of body filler over the rear wheel-arches and the lower front screen area, the inner rear wheel arches around the rear seat belt mounts were also sealed, primed and then painted white.

Before and after photo's of the rear seat belt mounting area.

Because this vehicle has been resprayed a number of times already we needed to sand off the top layers of paint, this is a time consuming job but eventually the body was ready for masking up and spraying on the primer coats, black topcoat was then sprayed around the door apertures and the cab area.

This van needed two new cab doors fitted, first the doors needed the hinges changing after which they were trial fitted, these were then removed and then sanded down and primed, the tailgate, engine lid and sliding door were then sandblasted where required, sanded and prepped, satin black paint was then sprayed to the inside of these and then refitted.

After re-hanging the doors and checking the gaps were correct, the door locks were fitted in place, then the body was sanded down smooth.

Masking off all the door shuts and the top half was then followed by spraying on six coats of pink basecoat and the clear lacquer.

This was then followed by re-masking the lower half, the door shuts and the windows again. Then painted black metallic.

Finally re-assembly could begin, new window seals, door seals and chrome cab door scraper trims, freshly painted new bumpers, and the interior re-fitted.

After re-building the interior and exterior the cavities in the doors and sills etc were flooded with wax-oyle. Finally the micro-bus was taken for a MOT test, which it passed with flying colours.

Completed.

Built by VW Restorations.