1965 VW 13W Deluxe

[dukebradbury]

After throwing up some Christmas lights and knocking out some honey-do items I was able to work on the front beam.

I narrowed the beam 2.5". It's almost ready to go in the bus!!!

[Doodoob]

[bugpack]

damm duke. the ride home was awesome. you did an awesome job burning in the seats. i can actually see where my headlights are hitting the ground.
I love it.
thanks again. i hope to help you out with your bus.

[dukebradbury]

Dale, glad to help. It looks like it turned out nice!! If you need anything else, just yell at me!

[klokwerk]

Great looking project! Really impressed with how well the bottom side looked after sandblasting.

How did you manage the mess? Did you build a tent around it?

[dukebradbury]

Thanks. There really wasn't a mess when I sandblasted it.
One of my buddies said that the abrasive would get everywhere...he wasn't kidding. I did frame up some walls and cover them with plastic. That helped a little. I still had dust everywhere.
I am very happy on how it turned out though

[dukebradbury]

A little update. Been trying to get this back to roller status. Got it off the rotisserie!!

Cleaned up the brakes and painted the wheel cylinders with VHT high temp paint. We will see how it holds up.




Finally got the bus back on its wheels!!! Need some bigger tires on back to fill in the gap. Any recommendations??






Kids already having fun!!!!

[dukebradbury]

Got some sanding done. Have the roof and the front doors to go. got the suspension pretty close. Need to throw on some 195/60r15 tires on the rear and dial it in a little closer--w/ engine weight as well

[Asesapie]

Looking good Duke!!

[dukebradbury]

Dan, Thanks bro. A lot of work!

[Doodoob]

Looking Good!

[dukebradbury]

Here is a little update on the progress. I had previously worked the right rear corner of the bus and applied filler. After getting more comfortable with my "skills" I decided to sand out the filler and work the corner a little more. I was able to work out a couple of the low spots that I was concerned about.

I also did some work on my cargo doors. They werent terrible, and I went back and forth on whether to replace the lower metal on them. I finally decided to replace the metal. Not finished, but getting close with the rear cargo.

I finally got the r/f door in filler and fitted to the bus. After installing, I noticed that all the body lines line up except at bottom of the door where it turned down along the dogleg. After some massaging/manipulation...











Cleaned up the dogleg and door jam.





Did some work on the front door and fitted it.





Started on the cargo doors. They aren't that bad, but they do have some rust through and the metal is pretty thin.



Got the inner support cut out and new one fitted. The inner support required very little work to fit pretty well






Inner support tacked in



outer skin on and fitted.

[dukebradbury]

A little more work done on the cargo door.

Inner support primed



Verified fitment. Very happy with how it fits.



Welded up. I feel like my welds are getting better.



After grinding and some hammer and dolly work. STOKED!! Still have a little welding to do, but the hard stuff is done.







A little more hammer work left but I am pretty happy on how it came out.

[Doodoob]

The door looks great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dukebradbury]

I've been working on the bus on and off. Here is some pics of the front cargo door. It had some rust issues. Not as much as the rear door.

Here is the before pics











Here is the inner support/ frame removed. As I expected, the rust was worse than I thought. I still could have used the outer skin, but I had the metal.





New inner support fitted.









Sheet metal removed and outer skin in place. I ended up laying the outer skin over the door and clamping it down and cutting both pieces as one to get the perfect cut. It ended up working very well.



Both pieces fitted up together. Pretty happy with the results. I have just a couple minor adjustments to do to the new sheet metal before welding and finishing. As you can see in the first pic below, the outer skin is a little "wide" and there is a little gap between the skin and the outer support.







Had to push the bus out and take some pics to get me motivated!!





More pics of the cargo door. this is the second cargo door that I've done. I feel like my method is better on this door and the fitment is a lot better.







Bottom lower skin tacked in. On all my previous sheet metal repairs I used air from my compressor with a blow gun to cool down each individual weld. this time I just let the metal cool naturally. I did hammer and dolly the welds to stretch the heat effected metal. I am still learning and testing different methods but I am very happy with the results.







After some grinding and minimal hammer and dolly





Almost all done!! I fit it up to the bus to verify fitment and door gaps. Super stoked!! I had an issue with the top of the front cargo door actually hitting the body while the bottom had a normal gap--no matter what I did. I even tried bending the door hinges themselves. I ended up fabricating a "wedge" for the upper door hinge and it set it out perfectly.

Here is a little more progress. Had to modify the inner support because it was a tad narrow. Not bad and it was easy to remedy. Ended up blasting off the protective coating of the inner support. Also got the inside of the outer skin and the inside of the support prepped and primed.











Doors fitted up!!





All finished with the dash as well. Getting so close to getting this in primer! Just have the drivers door, engine deck lid and the apron!!