Panels and Interior

My mind wandered today to looking at panels needed to finish the bus. I reckon I might need to do the nearside dog leg after closer inspection. That will also take me into tidying up the nearside inner arch as well. Also need a new rear bulkhead panel and possibly valance and engine lid. I stumbled on this picture of a crew cab today on another DC blog. I've decided the bus will be Dove Blue. The original and best!

Good progress

Life is an awful lot easier with good fitting panels. That's my biggest learning point of this restoration so far. I've offered up and riveted in Gerson's dog leg this morning and it fits very well after a bit of humouring (as my grandfather would say) to get it into place but its day and night compared to the Schofield panel (just needs welded in place now). I may well do the other side while I am at it. Front valence also finished and given a rough coat of paint to protect it from the elements. It came out o.k. in the end. Not my best job and not my worst. I'm learning as I go with this and I've loads of respect for those beautiful restos I see on the SSVC website. Anyway, a light skim of filler will shape it up nicely. I feel I am turning the corner now. It wont be that long before I've finished the bottom half. I need to take a good look at the other side. It has been repaired before but it might need cut out and redone. We'll need to wait and see. I don't want to compromise now that I have got this far.

Gerson's funky green panels

After 6 months wait, Gerson's panels arrived today and they look fantastic. I've offered the dogleg up to the bottom of the door and it is a perfect match. These panels came all the way from Columbia. Isn't that just crazy?! The dog leg in particular is a fantastic fit but the small panels butting onto the bulk head are a real treasure to have. Gerson is the only one making these panels and I'm pretty lucky to get my hands on a set. Spent a bit of time this evening measuring up and straightening out the front lower valance. It is coming in quite nice. It still needs a bit of lining up but we are getting somewhere with it now. I need to shift the panel over a few millimetres and then tightening it up with the panel holds. It is looking quite good but still needs a bit of humouring before it is ready for the welding torch. She's beginning to take shape now. I'm undecided on the nearside dogled. I could attack it too but might try and see if I can straighten it out. There is a bend in it at present but from memory the door profile fitted quite well against the dog leg. Anyways, I've got my work cut out with the valance and the driver side dog leg for the time being!

Lower Valence welded in

I spent a bit of time on project chitty this weekend. After waiting to see if I could get a hold of a spot welder for long enough, I decided just to make do so ended up having to drill quite a few holes and fill them with weld. I'm quite pleased with the end result. Next panel is the tricky top half. I need to deliberate on it first though as it appears to be a bit of a complicated shape. I've already tapered the front and welded up the ends. I had two wee helpers this weekend in Calum and Alasdair. They were wanting me to weld wings onto the side of the van so that it could fly...