Mk5 camper / hobby van restoration

[tartboy]

Hi guys,

About a year ago i brought a tired Mk5 that was kitted out by the previous owner for my hobby, with a large storage area (for bikes etc) as well as a double bed, sink, cooker, fridge for living in whilst racing.

Anyway, ive finally got round to starting the restoration process and sorting it out with a few additional bits for comfort.

I need to replace all arches and wings, fill and spray as necessary, repair the rear door, im also going to fit new speakers and fully noise insulate the cab/engine area as its so noisy!

Here are the pics of the van and what ive done so far:

Wings; in bad shape!


Rear arch


Rear door


Stripped out the cab, not looking good!


Cleaned the floor up and applied Kurust to the light surface rust


Started applying noise insulation


Painted over the kurust for additional protection and applied insulation


Stripped all old insulation from engine bay, excuse the leisure battery wiring!


Removed the tow bar, going to strip it down and hammerite it


Removed bumper ready for spraying


Removed lights ready for removing thewings


So it was all going pretty well...... until! I removed the leisure battery, only to realise there was no tray, i removed the battery and looked underneath and it didnt look to bad, so i prodded around with my finger and look what happened!


Oh well i guess its just another job for the welder!

I will post more as i go, any tips will be mush apprichited

Cheers

Will

[rover]

At least your rear crossmember is in one piece mate, thats a bonus

Re the front wings, paint the insides BEFORE you weld them on

Rover.

[Ucof]

MOAR PIKCHURES!

[tartboy]

Does anyone know if you need the outer edges of the under arches for MOT?

Mine have rusted, but the rest of the under arch is good?

Any ideas?

[tartboy]

Right ive been cracking away over the last few days.....

I managed to get the wings off, and the driver side arch, not as easy as everybody makes out!! Found another hole (or soon to be) from the mud guard mount, annoying.

So, just as we got the wings off, my dad smoothing out the old welds...


I needed to remove the mud guards to get the the lower part of the front arch, all the bolts were ruined, so i moved it around to see how tight the fit was and it fell off! The mount with it, so yet another hole on both sides for the welder!




What a nightmare, does anyone know how hard this welding will be? Is it going to cost a fortune??

The welder is out on monday to have a look, so wish me luck

[Ucof]

Get Intransit89 to do it for you!

Im not sure about the MOT question. Sorry!

[dachre]

Its hard to say how long its gonna take without seeing it and i dont know what sort of guy this welder is... does he do a lot of vehicle bodywork anyway?.... but you've got to be looking at £200 a day in a basic body shop...... also, the difference to a profesional body shop as opposed to an amature is the profesional guy will do the job in half the time...

I think there was link on here a few days ago about a guy with a mk5 pick up who took it off the road Friday, put it in a body shop, replaced the front wings etc and re-sprayed it all in a weekend so he could have it working for monday morn.....

Yours looks like it has a lot more work (sills, ect) but not a drastic amount more....So, you have a few days of welding.... not much more than that id say......

All the best, anyway......

[tartboy]

Get Intransit89 to do it for you!

Im not sure about the MOT question. Sorry!

Is he in the south east?

Cheers for the replys guys.

[intransit89]

Get Intransit89 to do it for you!

Im not sure about the MOT question. Sorry!

Is he in the south east?

Cheers for the replys guys.

lol here mate have a look at my progress report

i just remade my inner front wings mine was worse then yours tho

i think long as the rot is cut out and the new metal is seam welded all round its will be ok

but make sure you keep a eye on the rubber mat on the bulkhead ie in side the van theres a rubber mat there before the glove box it usly gets warm from the welder and catchs fire i did this on my drivers side
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=28966&start=0

ive re done the sills and iam now on to doing the front archs

have fun reading just skip the pagers till you find some pics you want thats what i do lol

[tartboy]

Well i got a quote from a welder today! And to be honest i think £600+ is very excessive!

So, i purchased a haynes manual on automotive welding and am borrowing a mig welder from a friend at work! Sound like a good idea?

Anyone else started from scratch, any tips?

Will

[Ucof]

I've never welded and have no idea bout welding, however my common sense tells me to practice on some random bits of metal first, rather than getting started on your van right away.

Do a load of reading online about welding too.

[tartboy]

Bit of an update,

I have sorted a good deal from a local mobile welder, booked him for monday the 21st, so ive got my work cut out as im away all weekend

I took the front wheels off today, and thankfully all the holes can be done very easilly from underneath, as there all nice square edges so finally a bit of good luck. Ive got some metal, so ive just got to get the shapes then i can cut and bend as appropriate at work

So i recon the hardest part is going to be the arches, getting the lined up etc and building the under-arch to a good standard, but i think a 10 hr day should surffice?

Im replacing the p/s wheel bearing, both disks and putting some performance ebc pads in and slapping a full new exhaust on.

Once this is done i think undersealing the whole lot will be a good move!

Will

[tartboy]

Well, time for a MEGA update.

I have pretty much finished the van nowe, apart from tidying up and spraying. But mechanically it is sound and all the welding is done! Heres pics:

Hole on p/s wheel arch, now solid!


Step is also solid


Rear arch in place


Fron arches and wings in place and looking sweet


Image of van


Started on the filling and smoothing


Back door fully repaired


Sound insulated the engine bay


And the bonnet




Added a layer of Edeads foam too


Then for the vegerable oil conversion kit... Roughly in place


My new diesel tank... Although i dont intend to be using much of it


Engine bay fin....


Speakers mounted on the ceiling, sound awsome and not drowned out by the engine noise like the origionals that are on the floor!


And some nice new seat covers, the cab looks brand new now!!


So it has come on very well. I found a private mobile welder that did all the work for me, plus many other holes that were found in the process, as well as about a third of the front cross member! With a total cost of £390 in all metal and gas! Bargin.

I have also replaced the wheel bearings, EBC performance disks and pads to go with the new shock absorbers that i fitted about a month ago.

So its all looking good, just waiting for some good weather to spray it now!

Let me know what you think.

Cheers

Will

[dachre]

It’s looking really good mate.

What sort of roof have you got on it. is it a high top?.

I thought I’d do my cab pretty much the same as you and was wondering on the how much engine noise gets into the cab now with all that sound proofing done. How much difference has it made?

Cracking job mate.... So, what colour are you painting it?..

[tartboy]

It’s looking really good mate.

What sort of roof have you got on it. is it a high top?.

I thought I’d do my cab pretty much the same as you and was wondering on the how much engine noise gets into the cab now with all that sound proofing done. How much difference has it made?

Cracking job mate.... So, what colour are you painting it?..

Hiya, well it has had a high roof camper top put on it, got reciepts for a couple of grand

TBH its not much different to an ordinary high top, but i think this one started out as a semi hi.

Im going to stick with the white, saves me repainting all the inners of the doors etc.

Well i shopped around and got all the insulation for around £230 which is good compared to rrp. The reason i spent that much was becasue of the other thread on this board that said it was amazing, it took about 4 days to fit too! When i got the van running again i couldnt wait to climb inside and check it out; however when i did i was a bit dissapointed It wasnt as dramatic as i though it would be, however im sure it has made a massive difference and i must take into account i have been driving a car for a while which is nearly silent!

I will be able to tell you the full results when it is on the road again, so i will let you know.

Cheers