Candy and I stopped at a garage sale one day on the way home from King Salmon. While Candy was looking at the many treasures in the garage, my attention wondered to the wreck in the back yard. There partly hidden in a small fenced area was a older (1970) VW transporter. I didn't know the detail, but I saw a really neat little van that would make a perfect project for my shop class. I know, I'm a wood shop teacher, but I had recently talked to the school administration about my desire to teach another shop class. After some drolling and dreaming I found out that the bugs (yes I said bugs plural , the other one was behind the garage a bit farther) had been there for more than a few years. Karl, the owner, had gotten them with the desire to restore one of them and drive it as a daily driver (hoping it got better gas mileage then his full size Chevy, for here in Naknek we are paying about $5 per gallon for gas). Fortunately for me Karl has more ambition than time, and his jaw nearly hit the floor when his wife said "you can have them if you get them off the lawn". So, a few weeks later I showed up with a trailer and loaded the first one. Karl help a lot with the ordeal (4 flat tires), but the whole time I could tell he wasn't as happy to see them go as his wife. I thanked his and was nearly on my way when he said "if you guys decide not to do this project, please be sure to return them to me and I'll do them some day". I assured him we would do the project but assured him I would let his drive it when it was done.
Monday, the next morning, the shop kids showed up to find there
new project outside ready to push into the shop. As the snow melted it uncovered our LITTLE project. As it will show in postings to come the little project is only a little bus, but really a BIG project!!! The Bus really is ok for a 1970 Alaska Katmai Air service taxi. But, it really could be better!!!!!
The bondo mix and the hardener before it got mixed together.
When mixing bondo, it must all be mixed together very well so there isn't any soft spots.
When the bondo was getting put on, it had to be put on very quickly before it got too dry to work with anymore.
This van had a lot of dents in it. Which, they had to be pulled out. then our help came; Emmit Mitcham came with a dent puller. thank you, it helped us move alone smoothly!
Drew was trying to pry the dents out as much as possible, while Emmit put more studs in to pull out the dents.
Alex, Ole, and Bugs all put a few dent pulling studs into the sides of the van.
As you can see in this picture at the tip of the gun it has a red glow. The end of the stud gets hot and welds on to the side of the van and then gets pulled out with the dent.
Jordan is taking the gas tank out in this picture because that area needed to be cleaned. the tank also needed to be checked for leaking and rust.
As you can see from these three pictures, there is no rust on the inside and barely any on the outside. There is also no leaking. We got pretty lucky with the gas tank.
When we first got the van, the floor was coming out and it was totally trashed. So, Brycin cut the floor out, so a new one can be put in.
After they began to cut out the floor, they had to push it out of place to see how much they had to cut and how much would just push out because of rust.
This is what it looked like after the floor was cut out.
After the van got put onto the side, the axel needed to be removed to be undercoated and to get the rotors turned.
After the axel was taken completely off, it was cleaned and sprayed with rust inhibitor and undercoating. The break shrouds and the caps were grinded on and cleaned, sprayed with rust inhibitor, and painted. We then got the rotors back and put it all back together.
new project outside ready to push into the shop. As the snow melted it uncovered our LITTLE project. As it will show in postings to come the little project is only a little bus, but really a BIG project!!! The Bus really is ok for a 1970 Alaska Katmai Air service taxi. But, it really could be better!!!!!
