1980 VW T3 Double Kab

So, now the van is over the pit, I took the opportunity to have a look underneath, and ultimately remove the fuel tank. Why? Well, there's a lot of welding needed in that area and the bodyshop man asked nicely

It's not too complicated to remove, just 2 bolts in fact that hold the straps in place. A PITA on a driveway (been there done that ) but easy with a pit After draining off about 20 litres of petrol, some of it into my face and eyes (cue, mad dash to the sink and lots of flushing!!!!) and decanting it into the 205, it was empty enough to take out.

Now for those that don't know the T3, it has a frankly ludicrous breather arrangement, with 2 breather tanks in the wheel arches and no less than 4 pipes to each one! I have no idea why, but hey, VW would no a lot more about the methodology than me, so I guess it's there for a reason. Anyway, after much faffing about getting those off (made much more difficult by the Eberspacher petrol heater that is fitted alongside and above the fuel tank it was out!



Looks a bit crispy in places and swilling what's left in the tank around makes a few ominous noises. Think I'll be getting a new tank just to be on the safe side!!

Off back into the garage for a bit more today! Mainly in the rust area!!

Pete

Sooooo, the 50 hours has been and gone, and the RHS still isn't finished They reckon another 12 hours should have it done, so the budget is climbing (Again!!) Still, it's a keeper, but I'm still stood here thinking that I could have bought a better base!! (BUT, we do have history together!!) So, no pictures yet of the van, the guy has done a nice job though, I'm going to have to try very hard to replicate his work on the other side

A shiny new fuel tank arrived. Bit bent, but hey ho. A quick tap with the hammer, and it looks a bit better. It'll get some more paint too, It needs to last another 30 years.....



Meanwhile, surfing the Brickyard a couple of weeks ago threw up an advert for an Ej20 Subaru engine, fitted with all of the necessary bits and running Megasquirt. Removed from a T3 to be used in the guys van but never used, he was selling it for what was a pretty good price. So a quick chat with the bank manager (SWMBO) who suggested that I price up the parts I'd need for my current Scooby lump and megasquirt, EDIS etc and exhaust for the WBX 2.1, both of which would be about the same........

So, I went and picked this up.





I now have a box of bits, lots of wires (fortunately they are labelled!!) and a certain amount of trepidation about making it work

Nothing new there then ;D

Well, it's cost me a few quid already so I might as well go the whole hog Engine wise, having already spent over £2K 10 years ago (when I first had this van) on the current engine, and 12,000 kms later, it still isn't reliable it was always going to get something different. If the 2.5 lump that I had before doesn't sell, I might even put that in instead of the 2 liter ;D

Big fan of your van by the way

Well, that's good to know about the MS setup. (should have asked before ) I do have the complete engine with ECU and everything on the other lump in the garage..... But, I'm going to try with this one first though as it was running before. Food for thought though.

I ordered some Rustoleum to paint the bumpers as I wanted to give it a try and see how it came out (I'll be using it to do the van in when we get to that stage!) I gave the bumper a good sand and threw on a coat of zinc primer. Rollers came from the pound shop (Not a good idea as it turned out, the paint thinner disintegrated the glue holding the roller on which made it pretty messy......

It was a bit of a gash job truth be told and I've spent some time on the internet actually paying attention to the videos instead of drifting off like I do

Took a while to dry and was very orange peely, so tonight I spent 20 minutes wet sanding it with 800 grade wet and dry. Not looking too bad at the moment, so tomorrow I'll get some better quality rollers and put another coat on. Happy so far though.

Well it rained So, the body shop have kindly kept hold of the van until Monday (Fingers crossed it'll be dry) I've had a pretty productive day though. Finished stripping the dash with a variety of electric paint removal tools and finished off with a dose of Nitromors which did nothing at all apart from mean that I had to spend time getting rid of it all before painting.



Before paint though I filled a couple of holes. This one is the additional fan for the back which mine doesn't have.








And the lighter hole as I'll be fitting a 3 way jobber in the ashtray. Used a ground down washer, and then flattened copper pipe behind to fill in the hole



Came out OK and with a bit of filler I'm sure they'll disappear nicely (Well, maybe!!)





Primer and matt black. Hasn't gone on too badly for a first coat but need to get some satin to finish it off. Filled holes don't look too bad, but I think they'll need another skim before it's right.







Then moved onto the bumpers. I'd wet sanded the rear one after a bit of a gash job, so this time I mixed the paint and thinner properly and applied it with a better roller. Looking pretty good so I bashed some of the dents out of the front one and did that too. They're drying in the garage now, although that may take a while as it's pretty nippy out there and I threw the last bit of paint on the top of the new fuel tank to give it a bit of extra protection.





Finally I spent a bit of time filling in the chop job I did on the clocks. Needs more, but getting there now. Bit of black on to show up how I'm getting on.



More tomorrow.

Pete

Indeed there are

So, on Monday, as it was fairly dry, we decided to risk it and have the van delivered home. The driver bought a mate as we knew we'd have to try and get it up the slope into the garage! Good job too as the engine wouldn't start (no fuel tank, remember) but luckily the battery had enough juice to spin over and "drive" the bus up on each turn! Typically we had unloaded too close so had to do it in two goes They deserved a cup of tea and a biscuit after that.





None of us getting it in the garage obviously!!

As soon as they left I had a good look around and so far it looks very good, although I still have plenty to do.......

Pics

New front right wheelarch with fuel cap blanked over! I do have a plan for that......



New rear passenger floor, and there's a new chassis rail under that.





New locker floor and locker door catches



and a new rear right wheelarch



New front panel (there was a newish one on there. The only problem was that it had been welded straight on top of the rusty old one )



And onto the other side! New rear wheel arch, closing panel and bottom bumper panel





And a new front right wheelarch



There's also repairs to the locker floor, bottoms of the B and C pillars on both sides, both jacking points front and rear, new sills under the locker doors, repairs to the front battery boxes and floors.......

Still to do welding wise is windscreen repairs and rear screen repairs, a couple of rust patches in the engine bay and a couple of other small holes around the rest of the body! And that's what I'll be cracking on with when I get back home!

There's a lot to do, but this has been a major mojo boost and now I just need to get stuck in

Merry Xmas.

Pete

Looks like they've done a really nice job there!

This is the first time I have read this thread. I have to say it certainly looks like the pair of you have 'history' together . It is also great to see that the project is heading in the right direction.