Beetlebums Panel

well done dude...looking forward to seeing this van

You have put a lot of effort in to the panel dude, lets hope the summer gives you your rewards on the road!!

moup's will vouch for me....I love a good homebrew .........and your vans gonna look sweet as, from the prep you've done ,fair play you deserve a top looker from all the hard work you have put in dude

Thanks guys, all your kind words have meant a lot to me, it really does keep you motivated to plough on. The workshop manager at bridgy had a good giggle at me when I told him it had all been done in a council car park in the dark and rain. Even K said 'it'll be good to have my boyfriend back on evenings/weekends'.- little does she know that the interior is still left to do! Apart from the welding, all the other work has been my own. I wish I had taken more 'before close ups' pics, but hey ho. I bored K's dad yesterday by showing him round every inch of the van 'oooh that used to be dented'... 'now that bit used to be gauged and scraped'...


Today I finished rubbing down, my big guns are aching, but very pleased with it. As primer highlights all the imperfections I found a lickle bit of rust about 2 inch long by 1cm wide, which I dug out, treated and filled with metal filler. I know its silly to have done it, but to weld a snip in it at this stage seems uneccassey, especially as it's only cosmetic, and I can repair it in 5 years time should it start to bubble- I'm getting overly critical now. I've also found a few places I should've rubbed down a bit more, but my philosophy all along has been 'as long as it's better than it was before then I'm happy'.

As I have no hosepipe I started to wash all the primer dust off the van with a rag and bucket. The Merc Kompressor parked next to it ended up with white splodges on his shiney gold paint, woops! That'll teach him. On the plus note, another neighbour popped by and donated me an old trolley jack- nice of him.

So I took it down to the jet wash at Morrisssons- the people on the forecourt must've thought 'why the fuck is he washing that ratty old thing', but 5 minutes later, I left with a cleaner van and Morrissons have adopted a new white floor. Pics on their way tommorrow. Cheers me dears.

So, as promised, here's some piccies of the paint flatted:

lookin good mate, final lap of the track now dude.......finish line in sight!

She's a credit to all your hardwork & when someone at a show asks you how much it cost to be restored, you can say :

"I did it myself"

Managed to get a price from our in house artist to sign write it to the above picture. To do the outlining on both sides, based on me going round after and filling in..... £100.

My other grand plan is to get a roofrack, and mount my UK plates front and rear onto it and plumb a light into the rear one, thereby making it legal. Then I'm going to put my US spec ones where the UK ones woulda been.

looking loads better dude well done i like iy in white

be nice when its painted but looks great at the mo!

Cheers chaps, yeah oddly enough I do quite like the white. Was in the worskshop for the final time last night (before respray), and 500'd the qwhole thing and got it seriously degreased, its now smoother than a baby behind, so painting it should be much easier. Only 4 days to go..... sooooo excited! Plus the artist at work said she;ll paint the sides for £50 each (outline only).

Come on buddy when the pics of this fine beast gonna be up on here cos it looks fu#king awesome now it's painted...

It'll look even better with the ass end on the floor...

come on dude I'm itching to see it.......(the itching is nothing to do with my other problem)

Well, ta da, it is finally painted and you could NOT take the smile off my face yesterday (as Rich and Cliff will tell you). As per usual Sunday weather it is raining the so the cutting of the paint will have to wait until a drier day, then its 5 coats of wax (which should give me something to do for the next few weeks!). Incidentally does anyone know of a good t cutting agent? I've tried safe cut and the original t cut and neither are cutting the bobbles out as much as I'd like.

I wish I could post some piccies, but I took them all on the works digi cam and I dont have a USB adaptor to make it fit. Tommorrow moriing though.... watch this space! I still can;t belive its the same van.

I can't wait to see it dude, it should look awesome!

hope you dont mind me doin this Ol'?

Not the best pic (cos you cant see the f*ck off great grin on yer face!)

But heres a flavour for all who's been waitin to see it

Top work bloke, hats off to ya

dude that is some top work there, you are indeed allowed to have a massive grin. look sweet!!!

just needs to be on the floor and it will be spot on, looking forward to seeing this sign writing!!!

it will look great on the flooer dude looks good mate top job

rock on that looks the balls.. it looks good pitched down me thinks.

does look loads better want some more piccies though you no what we all like

Here goes a lengthy update because I'm bored as they're watching a DVD downstairs.

Cheers guys, your comments mean a lot. Thanks for sticking the pic up Impy, it defo needs the arse putting down, which will be done in the next pay cheque hopefully (thankyou mr crewkid). Today the weather was abismal, but I persevered. It will be a miracle if I DON"T get a cold from today! Came in at 7pm because I could no longer see proper as the snot was all over my face.... yum yum. The hail stones were summit else eh.

Today I used 2 bottles of T Cut to cut it back, which had sweet FA use, as I wanted it to be uber flatted. But then I tried rubbing compound, which is much harsher, but when used sparingly and watered down with rain it was safe to use. Then safe cutted back, and managed to get 1 whole coat of wax on. I have found some more 'high bits' which I will try and cut back a bit more, but because I have waxed now I'm not sure if I can be bothered. I think the minimum would be about 5 coats of wax, but time (and weather) permitting I want to get 10 on. The paint looks stunning, but I have also found some places I would have liked to have spent more time on, but that'll be something to do in 5 years time when it needs a freshen up. At the end of the day my whole ethos has been to make it better than it was, and use it, I don't want a show queen (I wish!). Something I was kindly reminded of when K opened the sliding door too much and scuffed the runner channel (after shouting it at her 3 times! Grr- why don;t women listen!). A few of K's neighnbours have made some nice comments too which is great. The farmer type from next door said 'oooh well done young 'un, you'll be able to use that for going to the coast now and playing with your flowers or whatever you hippy types do'.... god bless him, that was his way of saying it looks good I think.

Pics to follow tommorrow, although to be honest they're already outdated as it looks better already (since tweaking the finish etc).

I'm actually thinking that I might hold fire from brining it to the end of month meet, reason being I really want to get it 'just right' (i.e. sign written, chrome repaired etc etc) before you guys see it, but I'll play that by ear. Fingers crossed we dont get the snow eh! Pics coming soon.

Looking good dude! Don't be bloody daft, bring it to the next meet so we can get all exited about it, then bring it to the meet after when it is all sign written so we can get all excited again!!

agree with harv you get us all excited twice then

Cheers lads, ok I'll bring it. I've just found out I have to go and de rig a marquee job in Bath so won;t be able to log all my piccies on this morning, but heres a quick selection:

Here's some more rust porn, started like this,



then hit hit and it was crusty, so cliff welded:



This was in the cab area, other side was worse;




More to come when I can blag the works computer... right off to do some work....

looks bloody cool mate well done