1973 Devon Kombi

[pb]

Back in 2011 I decided to but my first ever VW campervan, a 1973 Devon Kombi with original Devon interior (except for the curtains).
The plan was to use her whilst doing a rolling sympathetic restoration and then sell her and retire on the profits. I mean what could go wrong............


That's my son in the photo btw not me.

So first order of business was the replace the 1600 type 1 the PO had fitted for an original spec 1700 type 4, oh and sort a bit of rust out.



Only I couldn't find an EA code engine so a W one with some twin 40's would have to do and I would just have to live with the extra power, ho hum..



Rust


Rust 

and more rust

It was also at this point that Mr Bondo started to appear!!!



Further investigation revealed a lot of rust and even more filler!!. In fact we reckon that the bust was a least an inch wider at the back than a standard bay 

So like all good restorations I stuck on the drive while I decided what to do and then left it there for 5 years 

[pb]

Fast forward 5 years and after much procrastination, time wasting, dawdling, stalling, pausing and just plain shilly-shallying I decided to pay someone to do a full restoration. What could go wrong..........

I ended up choosing Blasting Die Past (who will hence forth be know as BDP or Will, because I can't be arsed to type the whole thing each time) based just the right side of Bristol and commissioned them to do a bare metal restore to as near concurs level as my wallet would allow. The plan was (yes, was, we'll get to that in a minute) to blast the chassis, cut out all the rot, update all the electrics, replace all the suspension (Red9Design wishbones up front) and get the body work so straight (with no filler!!!) you could use it as a straight thing.
 
So here's the story (so far) of my 73 Devon restoration

Arrival day... Note to everyone, covers don't like transport!


First BDP did a full strip and I must admit it was was starting to look worse than I first thought













Bits removed for storage.



Lots of parts seized on as well needing heat and freezing to remove.

The handbrake pin was completely seized in but popped out in the end.



Then it was on to the chassis roller, ready for some cutting.



Turns out the front was held on by rust and underseal, what you can't see in the photos is the metal plates they had to weld on to stop the front twisting off when they rolled it over.



That all looked good before the underseal came off, I now know that belly pans and underseal are not a good combination



Ah more rust, but hey its only the chassis



Oh dear, what's under this? Anybody guessing more rust?



Now the belly pans are off they are staying off



At least they kept the heater lagging nice and clean 







Apart from the rust and the bodged repairs it doesn't look too bad, hahaha famous last words..






Now off to be blasted.......

[pb]

So it turns out the last owner was filler happy and after coming out the blast room it's in pretty poor condition with every panel pretty badly dented and creased and would require some major work to get straight and true without slapping the filler back on. So unfortunately its not the not right bus to go full concurs on as planned.



But don't worry I'm not going to part it out (I can't it doesn't have a straight panel to part out ) luckily for me the guys at BDP are up for a challenge so the bus will be back and it'll be solid as OG as possible and low, very very very low.



BDP are cutting at the moment in preparation for the custom full air suspension to be fitted.



I'll get some more photo updates soon.

[chad]

A plus point of this is that you won't be worrying about it every time you park it - at least I would be if I had a concours bus.

I feel your pain with this - mine went away for blasting with a floor and came back with an excellent view of the road beneath it.

[pb]

True and I didn't want it to end up a trailer queen so just as well.

Yeah I really wasn't sure about blasting to begin with but I'm glad I did as the rot went dangerously deep.

[Zed]

It doesn't look bad before work commenced. Is that where you are with it?