The basic plan is to attend to the main repairs required on the body as a primary focus. This will mean some cutting out of damaged and rusty panels, welding in replacement panels, and removal and treatment of the many areas of surface rust, mainly on the roof and gutters.
So to start.......
Although this photo is poor quality (taken pre purchase), it is easy to see that both rear corners have sustained damage and developed rust somewhere along the way. This seemed like a good place to start. Out came the wire wheel and off came the rust, and the filler. The left rear corner had a shallow dent which had been covered with filler, then, perhaps due to poor adhesion or maybe further impact, had come off and left the metal exposed.
After removal of filler back to original well adhered coating , I had a patch three times the size of the original area. Rust had crept its way under the filler, but the damage was not too serious and the dents came out with some patient work with hammer and dolly. The result was satisfactory. A relatively straight (straighter than before) left corner, free of rust, and one happy worker.
As mentioned in a previous post, without a shed this project is going to be a challenge, mostly in terms of protection of work done or underway.
The next manditory step here was to get a coating of something on the bare metal. First up is rust converter, which needed to be left overnight ....
I haven't really decided on a final colour at this point, but may stick with the original factory colour. If you have had a look at the youtube clips in previous posts, you may be getting the idea that a rustic, ratty, worn kind of patina is where I am heading, and you are right, for now at least.
The current paint work seems to be 1mm minimum thick, consisting of the original factory blue, then maybe a spray putty, then a different shade of blue on top, interspaced with a plethora of primers and undercoats. I figured that a thick application of primer would be good to try to match some of this thickness. At some point the whole body will get a thorough sanding back, so patches of brushed primer will be smoothed over for a final even surface.
This is definately not the end of work for the left corner. On the inside, the tray needs to be replaced and the bottom edge will need to be tapped out.
The right corner is a bit more involved.......
In the first picture in this post, this corner looked like it had only one dent level with the taillight and not much more. I thought that it would be similar to the left corner. The more I poked and proded, the more bog fell off....... the worse it looked.....
This piece was almost 40mm deep! It was all that was left of the lower part of the corner. The metal it covered is as thin as tissue paper and highly perferated. I did spend time tapping the damage out best I could, but in the end decided that to replace this coner with new metal would be smarter. In addition to the exterior damage, the battery tray fell out and will be replaced. I have left this corner be for now. A welder is on the shopping list!!!!
While hanging about the rear end of the kombi, I started to look into a small crack in what looked like filler over the left rear wheel arch.....
I'm sure you can guess where this goes..... I'll tell you about this adventure next time.
