www.dsk.com.au

Hey folks.
I have a resto thread over on the Kombi Club, But I know that a lot of guys on here don't make it over there and I am missing out on a huge amount of knowledge that I will certainly need from time to time.

So here is the condensed catch-up.

I bought this bad girl of Juri a couple of years ago. He described it honestly and the deal was stuck over the phone before I flew down to collect it from Newcastle.
Drove her the 11 hours home non stop. Only issue encountered was I ran out of fuel (thanks to me underestimating the lack of servo's open in Northern NSW at 1am. Had a jerry fortunately).


After driving her for a year or so and getting a huge amount of enjoyment out of her I decided to take her off the road to fit a new turbo motor that I have lying around.
(The whole family loved it)


This was a father in law + me project that turned into more of a full running gear and wiring job. Unfortunately he passed away suddenly last year and as I am time poor I decided that I was going to enlist help and attack the bodywork to start with.

I stripped it back to bare metal so I could assess how much I was in for.


As you can see she was a pretty solid beastie.

So she was sent back down to Northern NSW for full blasting, Inside + Outside + Under.


And like every bus she turned out to have a few more issues once the blasting was done.


And this was after getting fully stripped back with the cut and strip disk and wire wheel. So it would be easy to leave paper thin steel in place.

So now she is getting the full treatment from a very skilled metal + bodyworker who is looking after her for me in his spare time whilst not at work.
The list roughly includes;
- Most the window sills.
- Both of the doglegs complete.
- Cargo door sill outer.
- Long side complete sill and full height skin.
- Misc items all over the place.

Al has already supplied some good funky green to go in and more items have been custom fabricated.

Lower A pillars were redone.



Windscreen Apetures have been done.


B Pillar has been pulled apart and re built.

I stopped in on Sunday to check how things were and was happy with the progress.
Basically the front through to the rear left wheel has been 90% done.

My front door gaps are even again - Still needs the oversize hinge reamed and installed to tighten it up but getting there. And the cargo doors will be gapped now the mech has been dropped off by me.





Nice full replacement

Sill and leading floor edge has all been re-done.


And cargo door inners were bought. Outers were fabricated.


At this stage I am planning going period correct colours but switching to 2 tone as I like the idea of it having driven a solid colour bus for a bit now I feel like a bit of a change.
Interior is undecided if we will go TMI or vinyl. Either way it will be kept simple.

looks awesome mate - good progress, you must be stoked!

i agree with chris, looking good.

Great work

Your metal work fella is supreme!

Looking good! It'll be so worth it when it's all done and on the road.

Bus is coming along a treat and love the pic with your daughter...

We have a photo with my wife and son in there too but in the process we all kit our heads on the safari bolts and broke the horn an made the boy cry. So it is no where near as relaxed

So some more of the bus is missing now. Decided to take out the entire long side. It was 50/50% as it was in good nick rust wise but was pretty battered and bruised. The clincher was looking down the inner sill and seeing crud in there that has survived 2 clean outs by me and one in the shop. I would rather pay that little bit extra and have it nicely cleaned and rust proofed in there before the new long side goes back on.

Unfortunately there is a lead time for getting the panel in of over a month. But not the end of the world. Brad is going to keep going with the rest and if he runs out of rust work the body fillers will be commenced on the inside, roof and passenger side. Sure that will keep him busy.



Fortunately the structure itself is good in there.


The plan is to fully weld the perimeter and attach the middle of the panel with sika so as to avoid any future distortion from movement in the frame apparently.




On a side note - Up until now I have been a little bit cagey as to who is doing my work as they work for another company and this is out of hours. I was not sure they wanted public recognition.
On the weekend Brad said he was now trying to get his name out there as him and Barry (I think thats the offsiders name) are wanting to get more consistent resto work on the cards.
So this is the shout out.

I was put onto Brad by a few different people or significant reputation within the VeeDub community. His pedigree is he used to do bodywork at Das Resto Haus and has worked on a number of busses that are in the top tier of the Aust vw scene. He then took a job with a hod rod restoration company who specialise in the high end gear. He still works there but my bus is being done under his own company in his own shed. (all work based on a budget worked on. Invoiced as real work through a real company)

The offsider / partner is also a panel beater from Das Resto. I have not met him yet but his quality is supposed to be as good.

The clincher for me though was after speaking and meeting with Brad he seemed genuine and truthful. Also has the tools and knows his stuff. (he even got my wife's approval which is big-ups as we have dealt with some absolute drop-kicks in the past)

So that is a good shout out from me and I think the work speaks for itself so far. Just drop me a line if you want to look at getting resto work done. They would be willing to tackle anything from part resto's and welding to full resto's I am sure.

Nice one Brad, I'm glad to see a pro wants to fully weld and then bond the long side panel, I've done it this way also as It was far less work than trying to stuff about with what i had to work with. I've then run the 1mm cutting disk along the weld to replicate a seam. It ain't going anywhere!. I wish my door bottoms looks as pro as those !!

It's all good from my end. Brad is a very talented panel beater and I certainly wish him well - when he moved up from NSW he always intended to start his own shop doing fab work so its not like it is unexpected that he is doing vw resto work on the side. Likewise for Baz, his skills are also very well developed - hoping that after his stint doing some movie work, he'll still be spending some time at DAS Resto Haus. I'm glad that someone else is doing good quality work out there as there is more than enough work for all of us…..I'd rather see Brad doing this type of work than someone dodgy ripping people off with shitty resto's as we've seen in the past.

Good luck with the rest of the bus.
Cheers
Al