'53 Deluxe Restoration.

December '00

The floor was removed because it was a repair panel from a later bus leaving easy access to the chassis. The top hat sections were bad so they have been removed together with the inner sills, and outriggers. Notice that in a barndoor you have three sets of outriggers (i.e. one more than a later >57 split bus). The bar you can see running across the bus is to keep the c-pillar in position. The picture on the left is the huge elephant ear of a jacking point which some kind previous owner made. Horrible!

Feburary '01

The black parts here are Brazilian VW parts, whereas the galvanised parts are parts I had copied from NOS German parts. There are some notable differences between the two. The Brazilian parts have many more holes than original German parts. I had started to weld up all of these holes but soon realised it was going to take forever. Instead I had these galvanised copies made from genuine German NOS parts. The differences between Brazilian and German parts extends to the outriggers. The original German outriggers have a small water drain hole and a tongue which goes under the main chassis rail, whilst the Brazilian parts finish short of the chassis rail and let water drain out in that way. To be honest the Brazilian outrigger is better designed with respect to water removal but, being a slave to originality, I was duty bound to copy exactly the German part.

March '01

The first picture shows that on outrigger removal, small holes appeared in the main chassis rails. Luckily they are not serious. The remaining pictures show the new rearmost top hat section and third outrigger going in. Notice the good fit of the outrigger right up flush with the chassis rail and the new inner sill. There is a flat piece of metal spot welded into position under the centre of this top hat section.

A lot later!!

The back bit under the rear seat was completely bent. Therefore I had this part made. It turned out very well, with identical swage profiles to the original part. It will need some extra work to give the swages nice curved ends but is a very good part.

More to come!!!!

RETURN

December '00

The floor was removed because it was a repair panel from a later bus leaving easy access to the chassis. The top hat sections were bad so they have been removed together with the inner sills, and outriggers. Notice that in a barndoor you have three sets of outriggers (i.e. one more than a later >57 split bus). The bar you can see running across the bus is to keep the c-pillar in position. The picture on the left is the huge elephant ear of a jacking point which some kind previous owner made. Horrible!

Feburary '01

The black parts here are Brazilian VW parts, whereas the galvanised parts are parts I had copied from NOS German parts. There are some notable differences between the two. The Brazilian parts have many more holes than original German parts. I had started to weld up all of these holes but soon realised it was going to take forever. Instead I had these galvanised copies made from genuine German NOS parts. The differences between Brazilian and German parts extends to the outriggers. The original German outriggers have a small water drain hole and a tongue which goes under the main chassis rail, whilst the Brazilian parts finish short of the chassis rail and let water drain out in that way. To be honest the Brazilian outrigger is better designed with respect to water removal but, being a slave to originality, I was duty bound to copy exactly the German part.

March '01

The first picture shows that on outrigger removal, small holes appeared in the main chassis rails. Luckily they are not serious. The remaining pictures show the new rearmost top hat section and third outrigger going in. Notice the good fit of the outrigger right up flush with the chassis rail and the new inner sill. There is a flat piece of metal spot welded into position under the centre of this top hat section.

A lot later!!

The back bit under the rear seat was completely bent. Therefore I had this part made. It turned out very well, with identical swage profiles to the original part. It will need some extra work to give the swages nice curved ends but is a very good part.