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I should first admit that I am crap at welding, spraypainting and serious mechanical work (engines and gearboxes). I am reasonable at putting things together once someone else has done the hard work. I certainly enjoy getting involved in restoration projects and have "project managed" a few including a couple of minis and a bugeye sprite. So before I share the build so far, I need to acknowledge those who have done the hard work.

All the welding and design work has been done by Kruzinwagon and I couldnt recommend them more highly. This was not an easy project and Kimm Garland has been extremely helpful along the way.

Body preparation and spray painting was done by Joscars, a small father and son shop in Revesby. They dont do smash repair work only restorations, mainly big American cars but this was their second Kombi and they did an excellent job.

Engine was done by Garry Williams at Veedub Classic in Kirrawee and the gearbox by Dunham Autos in Russellvale. Black Needle Upholstery will be trimming the seats and internals over the next few weeks and then back to Kimm to get it engineered, and then back to me to finish the fitout.

I have plenty of pics so hopefully I dont go overboard.

The bus was perfect for my project, the amount of rust meant that all the floors would need to be replaced and given the rot was structural as well allowed a few modifications to be made, primarily making the bus more solid for towing. Bigger fully boxed beams, larger strengthened sills and extra supports. The bus will still flex under load, just not as much so there would be less chance of stress cracking in future.

As usual there was more welding than initially thought, and this is the obvious stuff before the bus was sand blasted which showed up a heap more

I'll post some more later

Looking real good, never can have to many pics , post away

Kimm loves his drop sills ...should be cool , but would have left the window in makes I little bit different to the others

Hi rob lived in mittagong for 30 years didn't know there's another bus there ,there was a samba floating around a couple years ago but haven't seen it for a while , might have a look when your finished ,the kids still live there but I'm up working on the goldy

Nice work ..

looking sweet,what you going to be towing with it???

kombi niko wrote:looking sweet,what you going to be towing with it???

The aim is to tow a 1964 mini race car to historic events. There are a few guys that use period tow vehicles and I onced owned a red 1962 splitter between 1979 and 1982. So I suppose I am reliving my youth as a grow old.

So after the initial welding was done the bus was sandblasted and primed. As was expected there was quite a few additional rust holes and bogged patches that needed to be removed

The next task was to sort out the tow hitch, not an easy task for a kombi, particularly if you want the engineering certification. I have some experience towing with a kombi, basically a tow ball bolted on the rear bar but a stock split with reduction hubs it would pull anything up to about 60km/hr. My desire to tow on the highway and to satisfy a zealous cop or RTA inspector that what I was doing was legal meant I needed somewhat more than the flimsy Westy tow hitch or similar.

Started with a 3.5 tonne hayman reese tow hitch from a landcruizer with modified plate adaptor hung from boxed main beams each with three welded crush tubes prior to closure. This enabled adequate torque settings using high tensile bolts.

FrankenCab wrote:Kimm loves his drop sills ...should be cool , but would have left the window in makes I little bit different to the others

I wasnt sure about the drop sills at the time, but it seemed the best way to get the heavier beams across the floor. You lose the dog legs and jack points but get a heck of a lot more metal instead. Im glad the extra windows got at least one vote to keep but they are gone now, the frames were rusted through and I have no idea what they were off originally. I suspect an old caravan or similar. My plan is for an SO42 interior and there will be a cupboard behind where the window was so it had to go.

And then came the painting, I took it to a small restoration panel beater in Revesby called Joscars. All they do is restoration work not smash repairs and it is popular with the Chevs and large american car nuts. But they have done a few VW's and they came well recommended, a father and son team and they did a very good job. They work well with metal only and dont use body filler.

The colour choice caused a bit of interest as it had to be the same colour as the mini it was going to tow. Perhaps in hindsight it would have been better to change the mini to match the correct VW colour of beige grey and sealing wax red but its done now and Im happy with the result.