Friday 28 November 2008

D-livery day....

D-livery day.

After a full autostyl remanufacture - this late bay is off to its new home. We sourced the base vehicle for the customers, a totally solid shell with only 40,000mls on the clock. It has been fully stripped, straightened and repainted, before being rebuilt with new components where required. Now set to take on another 30years....





After Jef finished the metal replacement, and got onto getting the repairs painted on the Disaster bus....


Minimal filler and a good coat of 2k primer, wet flatted ready for colour...





Amongst a few other bits, Ben has been sorting out the headlight tube fixing points on Martin's '55 Cabriolet... thin and rusty, cut out and replaced with some fresh steel..... sweet, job done.



Monday 24 November 2008

Monday Mayhem!

Lots going down today in the shop, i'll let the pics do the talkin....

Jefs been TIG'n some new steeeel into John and Karen's disaster bus - more on this awesome truck soon...









While Ant got busy chopping out the corrosion in the Disaster bus cab step, and let in some new panels, while getting some panel beating and then filler time on Mike and Glenda's '72 bay....







Sunday 23 November 2008

Engine engine number 9.....11

Bit of a while since the last update, but rather than cram this one full, i'll post some more up tomorrow....

Main success of the week was getting Dexter's engine hung in his '63 Split. The back mounts are in, and just require some refinement to trim the engine level. This week we'll get the front nailed down too. As far as my net trawling has found so far, nobody seems to have gone for this engine and box combo before - 911 3.0 litre SC motor mated to a T25 auto. The auto box is the bigger part of the challenge, quite literally, but with some clearancing and some smart thinking regarding a-arms, mounts, shifter mechanism etc. we should be able to post up pics of the front set up later this week.






Some stud welder and dent pulling action on the front of Mike and Glenda's bay this week, getting pretty close to a filler skim now....




Also managed to get the framehead modification on the Brasilia a step closer, TIG'd up the holes left after cutting off the pressings to allow the link pin beam to fit.

Tuesday 11 November 2008

shelling bays......

So far this week, Mike and Glenda's westy is now a bare shell, and the bodywork has commenced! Battery tray and issues on that corner all now repaired. Back to factory and some...









Meanwhile, Evil Ben has been making great progress on MArtin's cab, with a mix of original stuff, grafted into new panels, originality is being retained whilst getting rid of any suspect metal.






Front panels welded together off the car, should have pics of this assembly installed tomorrow.......



Also going down - some good progress on designing the mounting configuration of the 911motor in Dexter's '63, pics to follow!! The link to his ssvc thread, top right...

Wednesday 5 November 2008

Fireworks.

Fair bit of welding going on today at Autostyl. Ant got down to welding in the open ends of the chassis rails in Dexter's '63 Split bus. Thus adding more rigidity to help support the porsche engine. It will also give good mounting surfaces to which the engine mounts can be attached.


Meanwhile, Ben's been throwing out some sparks whilst repairing the bottom edge of the inner wing on the cab.

Jay's got the underseal removal technique dialled in, and the results have only revealed good, factory paint arches, with no corrosion at all!!!! Love this bay - its just so damn solid!!!



Then, this evening, i managed to get a bit more strength back into the brasilia. After TIG'in the new longitudinal supports, i popped in the beam to check fit. Some adaptation to the framehead is required - as Brasilia's are balljoint from factory, but we're converting to link pin for a smooooth low ass ride......

TIG Tuesday.....

Had a bit of a move around yesterday so that we can get back onto Dexters '63.

First task is to finalise the location of the Porsche IRS mounts... looks like we need to narrow the arms in order for it all to clear the automatic gearbox. Watch this space, unlike many people, we'll publish exactly how we do it....

Evil Ben Lewis has been rebuilding the front end of Martin's 55 vert. Previous damage meant that it was necessary to disassemble much of the structure in order to get it spot on before rebuilding it with as much original steel as possible.

Jef and Jay are busy working on Mike and Glenda's bay. Jef's fitting a new battery tray- the only panel required! While Jay has been steadily removing the underseal to check the condition of the underside, and to enable it to get a full gloss underside too!

In addition, when everyone's gone home and many are tucked up in bed, the Brasilia elves have been out TIG'in some new steel into the front end - With a good strong structure in the front end now, tonight the front will be reconnected to the body properly, check back for progress...