The Splitty Panel Van - Build up has begun - more pics added

It started as a £2000 purchase from ebay, 5 years later it's painted! :cheer:
It's a 1958 VW Split screen panel van imported from California, but it had a hard life as a rubbish dump truck.
We had just finished wet & drying the body before the AGM, anybody who saw me a few weeks before would have seen my very sore hands with no fingerprints
Lots of piccys, from the start up until the day it came back home a couple of weeks ago.
We have done all the work ourselves apart from help with the final sanding and top coat of paint.
Looking forward to the best bit, putting it back together.

wow! I am so jealous!

Superb Anna :clap:

Lookin good Anna! I work on a 58 van quite frequently its a another time zone driving it,you'll be going along and people just pull alongside with their thumbs up bet you cant wait to use it.Oh and leave it as a van very rare now.

Theres me delighted with fitting my own suspension without help………………. :notworthy:  :clap:

Cheers guys
 Yeah going to leave it as a van. Got a rock n roll bed for the back, it's a sort of hot rod theme dark red and grey. It spurred us on at the AGM to get it done when we woke up lying flat on the ground when the airbed got a punture!
It's been 5 years since we sold our bay window to fund doing this, can't wait for the first trip out. We are aiming for May next year.

Massbad69 said

Theres me delighted with fitting my own suspension without help………………. :notworthy:  :clap:

I think anything that you do yourself is brilliant, such a great feeling!

wow, looks great, fair bit love gone in there

chris

Wow what a lot of work! Looks ace!!!

awsome anna just awsome!!!

foxy

looks great 8)  8)  nice work  :wink:  

looking gooooood!!! very straight looking long panel.

just one thing wrong though, surely the vw badge on the front should be the last thing back on, the finishing touch..??  :dontknow:

keep the pics coming from the rebuild.

Nice job!

Bet you are well pleased with that so far!
Keep us updated as it progresses.

richievr said

looking gooooood!!! very straight looking long panel.

just one thing wrong though, surely the vw badge on the front should be the last thing back on, the finishing touch..??  :dontknow:

keep the pics coming from the rebuild.

Cheers, thanks, my husband is so chuffed that he has managed to straighten the mangled panels. He only learnt how to weld to get a better job. Now 6 huge air cooled welding projects under his belt. (and thousands of JCB's!)
We have had so many ups and downs working on it, from new panels not fitting, new doors too big for the gaps,re-doing jobs we weren't happy with and then having it painted twice when we had a bad batch of paint.

I'm now profficient in sand blasting, filler work and wet flatting.

Agreed, the badge normally goes on last, but in this case had some good advice from a fellow split owner, you can't get the fixings on the back of the badge when the dash tray and wiper mechanisms are in!

Polished alloy safari windows fitted at the weekend and one at the back.
Fitting started of the delux trim. This weekends project is building the doors up,fitting the glass and rubber seals so its water tight. More pics to come.

wow, loving the bus Anna.
You and Elv have put some serious work in.
You coming to the 11th Sept meet?
just seen but not had a look yet.
Any chance you can send me some pics of the Bra fitted, If I pm my E Mail addy?
Will be listing it on E Bay soon, so a piccy would be great.
Thanks Hun.

chortle said

wow, loving the bus Anna.
You and Elv have put some serious work in.
You coming to the 11th Sept meet?
just seen but not had a look yet.
Any chance you can send me some pics of the Bra fitted, If I pm my E Mail addy?
Will be listing it on E Bay soon, so a piccy would be great.
Thanks Hun.

Cheers, It's Elv's dream bus. He gets so excited about every little thing he buy's for it, you 'll have to come round and have a look. He's dying to test out his stainless steel twin air horns on some more unsuspecting visitors - he spent his birthday money wisely!

We'll be at the meet, good to see you if you can make it.
 pm or text your email and I'll send over pics. Ax

So jealous! hats off to you both

One day I'll have on. Keep the pictures coming

Wow Anna that just made me grin lots, you should both be very proud

Good effort thats gona be a beaut ! :-)

looks the bizz....

Had a week of work at beginning of October, so we decided to build some sides for our carport to give the Splitty some shelter over the winter and Elv got a really nice van cover for his birthday, so he was well chuffed

Main aim now is to get it water tight, so polished alloy safari windows front and back now installed, rubber seals were a nightmare, but we got there in the end.

Cab door frames being built at the moment, super service from Schofield in Glossop, Derbyshire.
Sent all the glass by courier and all arrived safe and sound.
Even though we took photos of the doors as we took them apart, it's a bit like a Krypton Factor puzzle  

The delux trim is looking good, just started putting the red trim in it.
So here's some pics-