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'63 Panel Camper to Deluxe conversion project
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edgood1
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 14, 2016 10:54 am    Post subject: Re: '63 panel camper project Reply with quote

had about an hour, ground down welds non-stop. made it about 3/4 way around the big window section


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nice and smooth:
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that whole part i ground down and there was only one pinhole!!!! you can see it in the middle here:
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Heres the link to the new google photos album. There are about 500 images in there:

https://goo.gl/photos/JdaPjwTH7XPuNnLeA
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BarryL Premium Member
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 14, 2016 6:54 pm    Post subject: Re: '63 panel camper project Reply with quote

That is really fine looking. Compared to MIG how careful of heat do you have to be with TIG? What was the longest bead you dared do?
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edgood1
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 5:49 am    Post subject: Re: '63 panel camper project Reply with quote

BarryL wrote:
That is really fine looking. Compared to MIG how careful of heat do you have to be with TIG? What was the longest bead you dared do?


This is all done with MIG. I haven't yet experimented with TIG welding. Ive been told that its much harder to butt weld with small gaps using TIG. With MIG i actually dont mind a small gap. I can get good penetration with less heat/distrotion and a flatter bead meaning less grinding.
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BarryL Premium Member
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 9:45 am    Post subject: Re: '63 panel camper project Reply with quote

Sheesh, my bad. I saw the pic with the red handled thing and thought that was your TIG. Now I realize it's your hammer.

What is the longest single MIG bead you did on that long window repair?
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edgood1
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 15, 2016 10:04 am    Post subject: Re: '63 panel camper project Reply with quote

BarryL wrote:
Sheesh, my bad. I saw the pic with the red handled thing and thought that was your TIG. Now I realize it's your hammer.

What is the longest single MIG bead you did on that long window repair?


maybe an inch. there's some minor heat distortion. maybe an inch is too long. When I'm done grinding i'll start working it with the hammer and try to get it close enough to hide with priimer during blocking. its pretty close. might be able to get away without filler. we'll see.

I have a technique that I've kinda figured out that works for me where I push a small maybe 5mm bead and then start the next weld 5mm before where I started it and push it to the previous starting point. if you work quick enough it melds the two parts together without making a ton of heat. Its like pulsing a bead in a line, but moving away from hot spot. I'll do 4 or 5 of these together and then move about a foot down and repeat. It seems everyone has their own tricks. I'm not sure if my method is good or bad but I get really good penetration and and very little warping if any while still being able move a long pretty quick.

I've read on the net a lot of people claim to MIG without any heat distortion on flat sheet metal. I'd like to see it.... and see the back sides of their welds. and if such welds exists I'd like for them to show me exactly what they are doing. I've done a lot of experimenting and I'm feel pretty confident that I'm using the least amount of heat to get a good weld. I get some heat distortion but nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer and dolly. I've warped the hell out of some other stuff in the past. lots of trial and error and practice...
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edgood1
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 20, 2016 5:00 am    Post subject: Re: '63 panel camper project Reply with quote

I finished the grinding on the big window section. Im still waiting on donor sections.


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Did some more sanding on the nose too.
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edgood1
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PostPosted: Wed Jul 20, 2016 11:39 am    Post subject: Re: '63 panel camper project Reply with quote

I had the idea of trying to form the skylight outer sections in-situ on the existing roof skin. I made some forms out of wood and did some experimentation on some thin ducting metal. This is my first attempt at doing anything like this:

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we'll see where this goes. Its sloppy but not bad for a first shot. The left side was a complete failure, but i got better on the right side.



more on that here:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8152445
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edgood1
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 2016 11:49 am    Post subject: Re: '63 panel camper project Reply with quote

I got another donor window in the mail:

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cut it out:
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I really struggled with where I was gonna put this, cargo door vs deluxe extra window. I guess I'm approaching the point of no return in regards to a deluxe conversion. someone stop me!
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I cut out the supports on the passenger side rear to make room to fit the section in:
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I cut the pillar section. I discussed this before on this thread. Jehu confirmed that this section stops here on pre-'64 deluxe buses. Its going to get hidden behind the inner window panel
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Here's the section clamped up for initial fitting:
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mandraks
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 2016 2:01 pm    Post subject: Re: '63 panel camper project Reply with quote

i am totally with you on the windows. With the roof situation, though, you will need parts, anyway. I think i would do everything but the roof, and then head out to california to grumpy's.
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edgood1
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 28, 2016 10:49 am    Post subject: Re: '63 panel camper project Reply with quote

mandraks wrote:
i am totally with you on the windows. With the roof situation, though, you will need parts, anyway. I think i would do everything but the roof, and then head out to california to grumpy's.


I have a lead on donor skylights. I considered Grumpy's $4000 kit and putting it in myself...we'll see.


i have officially passed the point of no return:

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Pinetops
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 28, 2016 3:14 pm    Post subject: Re: '63 panel camper project Reply with quote

Clean looking work. Personally, I vote to make it a 15. It would be just as cool as a 23 and WAY less of a hassle and expense.
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edgood1
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 04, 2016 11:34 am    Post subject: Re: '63 panel camper project Reply with quote

I didn't get a lot of time to work on the bus this week. just an hour today. I finished welding the latest window addition in, and just started to grind down the welds.

I opted to weld this one in from the back side in an effort to reduce the grinding needed on the front.

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I bought some more donor sections off the classifieds, but they are in much poorer condition than I was expecting...
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I'm weighing the option of repairing the sills or just getting ones in better shape. anyone need some rusty cargo doors?
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edgood1
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 09, 2016 11:28 am    Post subject: Re: '63 panel camper project Reply with quote

Welding in windows to make a panel look like a deluxe motivates me.

Fixing rust de-motivates me:


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I finished grinding the passenger side window I started last week and then spent 3 hours separating inner and outer window panels, cutting rusty sections out of them and sandblasting ...ugh.
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edgood1
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 11, 2016 11:54 am    Post subject: Re: '63 panel camper project Reply with quote

man this is really turning into quite the project...

I spent a good chunk of time today repairing the rust in the latest donor window section. This is the one pictured in my previous post:



sandblasted and cut out the rust and welded in good pieces of metal, fabricated to fit the weird curves and bends in the sill :
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ground down. its gonna need some dabs of filler for a bunch of pin holes but it will work. this one was in really tough shape to start with.
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I enlarged the existing cut-in camper window hole in order to overlay the donor section:
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The inner metal panel on panelvan cargo doors has some extra metal on the stamping. when this bus was converted to a camper they were hacked up. Ive seen this on almost every panel camper ive looked at:

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luckily it can be trimmed to be exactly like a window bus's door:
heres a test fit of the donor section:
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tacked in:

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rough cut of the inner panel. I'll clean this up when i weld the sections together and grind them down together, flush:
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it was 95 degrees out today and I was in coveralls, welding smock, thick leather gloves, boots a hat and a mask. fun times. I spent so much damn time on fixing the rust... its REALLY tempting to just buy a good cargo door off the classifieds... but then i see the prices $400-$500 for good ones...wow.
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 11, 2016 12:10 pm    Post subject: Re: '63 panel camper project Reply with quote

you wouldnt have as much fun just to pay 400$ now, would you? Very Happy

how much of the metal do you overlay when welding?
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edgood1
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 11, 2016 12:13 pm    Post subject: Re: '63 panel camper project Reply with quote

Enkiel wrote:
you wouldnt have as much fun just to pay 400$ now, would you? Very Happy


EXACTLY!


Quote:
how much of the metal do you overlay when welding?


I just overlaid it so I could cut the two panels together and get a perfect (sorta) fit. I butt weld everything. I had to do this here because I wanted to keep the inner cargo door panel in place.... the other ones Ive been putting in from the back side where I can just lay the panel up on the inside and trace it out....this makes the cargo doors a little trickier.

.
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Last edited by edgood1 on Thu Aug 11, 2016 12:17 pm; edited 1 time in total
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 11, 2016 12:16 pm    Post subject: Re: '63 panel camper project Reply with quote

edgood1 wrote:
Quote:
how much of the metal do you overlay when welding?


I just overlay it so I can cut the two panels together and get a perfect (sorta) fit. I butt weld everything.



ohh, damn, never though of that, that's a pretty nice trick.
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 11, 2016 12:20 pm    Post subject: Re: '63 panel camper project Reply with quote

I should also add that it sucks that I can't really planish it doing it this way with no access to the back side of the welds... Sad
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 11, 2016 12:34 pm    Post subject: Re: '63 panel camper project Reply with quote

The cargo window looks good. I'm enjoying the updates.
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 11, 2016 3:41 pm    Post subject: Re: '63 panel camper project Reply with quote

edgood1 wrote:
I should also add that it sucks that I can't really planish it doing it this way with no access to the back side of the welds... Sad


If you weld nails to the dips in the metal and use a dent puller to move them out....

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