Well it’s been a pretty slow, tough week for bus progress, but we’re getting there. I’ve doubted myself quite a bit with this whole “body work” thing. Every time I look closer at this stupid bus, I see a panel that has holes, or some hack job from a previous owner – it seems like a mountain of work!
Basically everything on this bus is slightly cribbled – It’s sometimes original, sometimes hacked, sometimes rusty, or sometimes a mixture of all three. Nothing really seems to come together very easily at all. I mentioned how I was starting with the “easy” cargo door project, but this devolved into peeling away thick layers of bondo and realizing the full extent of the rust issues. After a few episodes of freaking out in self-doubt and project anxiety, I got to work figuring out this welding stuff.
“This thing is junk!”
It works best if you assume the correct position (I was going to crop this pic, but kept laughing every time I looked at it – I feel like it’s important for people to see me in all my bus working glory!)
Ok now we got this thing working.
Welded a piece of sheet metal over the heater tube – also finished wire wheeling the floor – whew a lot of work.
Finally, after a week of running back and forth to various tool stores (Harbor Freight is my friend) and fumbling around with welding grinding (and then repeating that process over and over and over) and body hammering and fiberglassing and Bondo-ing and sanding (and then repeating the process over and over and over)…. yeah I’ve decided I like working on mechanical stuff like VW engines… but a love of auto body restoration I do not have!
Before
After
The door looks great now that its welded and primered. I feel great; I’ve learned a ton this week; I’ve gotten over all of my doubts, and now its just a matter of time before we around out there getting lost and breaking down in the beautiful American countryside!!
