Blasting part 2

 I was able to see if these tools could help me strip down some rusty areas on the cab door frames and all the other small pieces that need preparing such as the brake light which is reall rusty and very thin.

First I tried going over the brake light housing with bicarbonate soda, then a tried the same piece again but with sand.

Blasting with the Bicarbonate was really good,  it removing the paint with ease but nothing more.

I needed to take it down to good metal, through the rust so I tried the sand and of course it ripped through the rust and left bare metal in no time, but it was real messy, the biggest problem is the mess, sand getting everywhere and you can't see what your doing.

No sign of any heat so I must be blasting at pressure which is not to hard.

I think its back to the drawing board with the sand - might have to rig up a DIY blasting booth.

It would be really nice to try a blasting cabinet out, my biggest question is can you see what your doing when your blasting inside a booth ?

Here are results after just a few minutes messing around outside.

below, one very old center brake and number plate light housing.

below, after soda blasting a little.

below after a quick going over with sand.




Now I need to prepare everything.
De-greasing the shifter, removing rubber and stripping down the door frames and getting all the other parts ready for a clean and blast and then it's to wait for a nice day, get suited up and attack some rust.

below: Area on cab door, soda removed paint and nothing else 


Thinking about making a quick blasting cabinet - I have most of the parts to make something like one of these 



see the how to here : 

http://www.classicmotor.se/artiklar/artiklar/20090127/bygg-ditt-eget-blasterskap/

Blasting part 1

 I hadn't planned on being able to get out in the garage until the end of March at least.

Its been a really mild winter here in sweden, hardly any snow? and the temperature is much higher then usual for the time of year.
+ 6 today - so no problem to work in the garage.

This is how the garage looks tonight, bits of 55 samba everywhere...and lelles 21 in the middle.

Today started with a Sunday morning erand to Uppsala, making the most of it I dashed into Jula to buy some blasting media.

Soon I was heading home with 30 kg of blasting sand and bicarbonate soda.

Straight back home to the garage, set up the blasting pistols and clamped a hobby vice to an old hard plastic tool box.

I fixed so that both pistols worked,  NIce to be able to alternate between sand and Soda.

Update

Peka has the samba shell on the tip girl - more body work sanding and a bunch of small details gave been straightened, flattened etc like the petrol flap and the fresh air flap.

Vasterås swap meet

Today we got up early and headed across to the classic car magazine swap meet - sold some books and met some nice Volkswagen folk

VWalentines day

So today I had a tip of from fellow Brit mark at my job, he told me he saw some safari buses ( he meant split windows) so I asked him to show me using google earth ( great for bus hunting )
Even though I'm through with finding any more buses when you hear of a tip you have to go look - you just have to .

Here is what was waiting

Road tripping stories from the 1960´s

Check this out - through sahara in a 1950s Kombi

I wonder how many vw Buses have made it through the Sahara? and how many have been dumped and are buried somewhere, covered in the sand ?
This journey remind me of Mara moja and the epic journey made by two swedes, Bengt and Lars .They set off in 1953 and I was fortuante enough to meet up with Bengt during his final years.
The two swedes went from the Frozen North cape to the South cape of Africa (and back).
All this in a 1951 barndoor samba !!!

More about that story later ; )

"the keeper"

This weeks dilemas with "The keeper"

The beam that Dick built is a out, on the bench and looking a bit sorry for itself.

I checked it out, realized it wasn't good enough and got on the phone to Paul at T2d and now something nice and new is being put together and will soon be on its way from my home county of Cambridgeshire -  a whole brand new front end.

All this came about after I removed the steering box, beam and rear end to get the body ready for the tip girl.
The steering box needs looking into, and I have seen that it will need a horn wire, and a couple of bolts that are currently missing, feels good and tight at the moment, but the proof will be in opening it up and giving everything a good inspection.

It will be nice to get to the underside of the cab floor where the controls are and spend time getting this area ready for the parts and paint, it looks like we will have to mock the whole lot up before final paint, as some of the modifications to the raised steering box need final tweaking, a bit of cleaning up and proper install.

Its a huge weight of my mind knowing that the front end will be all good and brand new.
Slam beam, with rake, New king and links, dropped spindles, tie rods, and shocks.

T2D Burwell

along with the CSP Disk brake kit that will allow fitment of standard wheels.

csp brakes

At the rear it will be new long straight axles, tubes, adjustable spring plates and new drums.

Master cylinder is also coming from t2d and that along with the servo and accelerator linkage from vw Jim will mean we have a bus that handles and stops good, this has to be the main mission to get done before anything else.


Nice shot of a 56 that was for sale.

Meals in wheels

Lotta and Lelle came over today for our bi-monthly vwcc meeting, Lelle brought with him the latest couple of issues of Camper and bus magazine - here is the latest - February 2014 issue of Volksworld camper and bus magazine.

Featuring recipe and pictures from our cookbooks and Hiroaki´s fold which can be found in full detail in our follow up book  "The VW camper cookbook Rides again". 

"Hiroaki is a member of the Monkey slam dash - Hirosima´s vw club in Japan

 see his 1958 split-screen below

Video of the Monkey slam dashers ! 

and of course our Travis rolling some "cocos bollar "

see Our books

Its been good fun for me and Lelle to fix recipes every month but all good things come to an end and this month is the first for many that we find ourselves with no magazine deadline to fulfill.

  The monthly recipe slot and deadline has been a monthly ritual for some time now and recently we have been finding it more and more of a challenge, especially through the winter months here in Sweden, So this is our last recipe published in the magazine and perfect timing - more time to work on the 55 deluxe resto : )

Thanks to James Peene and everyone at Volksworld for the collaboration and a great magazine.