Entries by Jim Ley

Gear coupling guide tube and further fabrication

Today I reinstated the guide tube for the gear coupling: And fabbed up the first cone section for the rear torsion tube. I ended up having enough of the old cone section to get the right curve profile. Hammering it around a dolly gave me the right shape so it shouldn’t need too much more […]

Gear shift tube repair and stove paint

Little bit more from today. Repaired the two holes I put in the gear shift tube when I removed it (backed the holes with copper tubing to help protect the inner). Gave it a lick of zinc primer: Got some paint on the stove build. Just need to cure this now with it’s first burn. […]

A milestone (of sorts)

With a project like this it’s often easy to forget how much you’ve done, when the list of bits to do is so vast. Today felt like a significant milestone was hit though as the last outrigger and brake cable guide tube went in, completing the majority of the frame on which the floor sits: […]

Penultimate Outrigger!

I got the penultimate outrigger/jacking point welded in today. Annoyingly I somehow have a nick in the wiring loom (It’s not damaged the wires inside though so I’ve just put some electrical tape around it).  I also welded the last edge of the repair piece I made to the chassis that sits behind the rear […]

Zinc Primed O/S cargo floor pan

I got the first coat of zinc primer on the O/S cargo floor pan today. I won’t be doing this again any time soon, it took an absolute age to strip all of the transit primer off the panel and prep it properly (hoping it’ll be worth it in the long run though).  Not looking […]

LHD to RHD cargo floor conversion

The only genuine VW cargo floor panels available are designed to fit a LHD vehicle. As such a small in-fill piece is needed on the panel on the driver’s side to extend it up to the side wall for a RHD van (I ended up buying the panel from Schofield’s as it was easier). I […]

More Chassis Fun

Odds and sods this week as I’m finishing up the bits needed before I can get the floor panels in. Front belly pan out of the rust treatment bath and it looks pretty solid. There are a few pin holes in it that I need to weld shut at some point, but I’ve put some […]

Rear Chassis repair

I’ve pretty much finished this repair panel now, I’ll probably spend a bit longer on it to get the front to fit slightly better: While the paint on the inside of the repair dries I decided to give the front pedal belly pan a bit of attention.  Before: After an overnight soak in a bath […]

O/S Front outrigger in and further chassis repairs

Today saw the front O/S outrigger go in: Both front outriggers are in now. Looking good! Before the middle and rear O/S outriggers can go in I need to repair the chassis section that they attach to (someone has repaired this in the past but it needs fixing again). Marked up and rot chopped out […]

O/S Rear Torsion bar chassis repair – part 2

jamesley: I managed to get this repair welded in tonight. Clamped in place: And welded in place. The welds were a little splattery around the torsion bar and blew through in one or two places as the metal was getting quite thin, but it should do the job. I cleaned up the welds a little […]