Bedford Astravan MK2

[3cav3]

Then followed 2 coats of etch and the same with epoxy. It has gone quite dry in texture in the middle, this is caused by a combination of heat and me being realitvley short (only 5' 11") so I struggle to reach. Should make applying the top coat interesting.

[Robsey]

I have never heard of 5' 11" being referred to as short...
I am told that I am tall at only 6'1" - lol.

Many women will disagree, but 2 inches doesn't make that much difference.

Maybe you need a little caravan step to give that extra height, to reach the centre line of the roof.

It is still looking good though.

[3cav3]

Maybe, but I was really struggling to reach the centre of the roof. I was balancing on a spare wheel a lot of the time to help, bet health and safety would of loved that. I guess I feel I'm short as a couple of people I work with are 6ft3 and 6ft4.

[3cav3]

On the last 2 weekends Ive simply been to busy to go up to the unit and work on this Van, so this morning I went before i fell out of the routine again.
Ever get the feeling something wasnt meant to be? After a few hours I got a call to say my elderly mother had been rushed to hospital, (fortunatley it turns out its nothing serious- she just requiers a different course of medication), as i was packing up to go and see her I got a call from my wife to say she'd just been offered 2 job interviews, one for tomorrow morning and one for Tuesday, so Ive had to go home to help her prepare.

Any way what I was doing this morning was grinding back where i had joined the pattern sill to the genuine rear quarter panel. I think with hindsight I should of just fitted the whole sill section as if you look far enough back on this build thread you will see that both pieces had a very slightly different profile.-Page 11 and 16.
After grinding, rewelding where the metal had gone a bit thin, and regrinding, then a couple of skims of filler the join has virtually vanished. By the time the filler is finished and the whole sill is stone chipped, it should be invisible.





Doesnt look a lot but still about another 3 hours gone!

[Robsey]

Body prep never looks much, but takes far longer than the non-cosmetic stuff to do.

Good to hear that your mother is okay... but nothing worse than a sudden hospital admission to throw you mentally out of kilter.

Fingers and toes crossed for your wife's interviews.
Hopefully a new post will give new stability to the family finances.

[3cav3]

Body prep never looks much, but takes far longer than the non-cosmetic stuff to do.

Good to hear that your mother is okay... but nothing worse than a sudden hospital admission to throw you mentally out of kilter.

Fingers and toes crossed for your wife's interviews.
Hopefully a new post will give new stability to the family finances.

The one interview we've already withdrawn from, after researching the company and visiting the place it was obvious that they wanted to pay minimum wage for a managerial type position, plus even though its close in terms of distance due to traffic it would be a nightmare traveling to it.
The other one however sounds promising so as you say fingers and toes crossed as the money would come in very useful. Just wish they'd give more notice as I've spent all afternoon running round like a blue arse fly helping her prep for it.

With bodywork even though I badly want to get it in paint, its looking less and less likely to happen this year, but then there's always 2024...

[3cav3]

about another 3 hours gone this morning, just sanding back the filler. will still need a bit more work but at least its close to the shape its meant to be.









This is why I absolutley hate filling. Hours and hours gone to make seemingly very little progresss. On a more positive note though, my wife got the job so at least i'll be able to afford to run this van once it is finished.

[Robsey]

The only thing I can say is...
What you put in, affects what you get out.

So as tedious, frustrating, and downright time consuming the sanding is, it is totally necessary to get a good final finish.
The old "hapeth 'o tar" phrase comes to mind.

Just like you, my work on our van also takes the form of three hour sessions.
But for me, twice a week to try to boost the rate of progress.

[3cav3]

The only thing I can say is...
What you put in, affects what you get out.

So as tedious, frustrating, and downright time consuming the sanding is, it is totally necessary to get a good final finish.
The old "hapeth 'o tar" phrase comes to mind.

Just like you, my work on our van also takes the form of three hour sessions.
But for me, twice a week to try to boost the rate of progress.

I do try to have 4-5 hours on a Sunday morning but recently I've had to much going on to justify/get motivated to get up even earlier. I keep slowly plodding on and know eventually it will get done, it just can be a bit frustrating as to how long it is taking. A lot will depend on what weekend shifts my wife gets, if she ends up doing Saturday and Sundays then I guess so will I.

[3cav3]

Over the last month or so ive been trying to make progress with the very tedious job of body prep.





Nearly there,





Trial fitting the rear lights to check the lines.





Hopefully a few more Sundays will have the main shell ready.

[Robsey]

Coming along nicely.

You will be glad that you had put the effort into the van, when you get to the paint stage.
Spending the time now will hopefully save you from too much rectification work later.

Cars and vans look tons better in one colour, rather than 30 shades of paint, primer, filler and bare steel.
So it will look fab when it is fully primed and ready for paint.

Keep going fella, you are doing grand.
I know from my own exploits, how easy it is to get bored, dis-illusioned, and lose the motivation.

Best to do what you can now, before the cold damp weather comes along and spanks your motivation into submission.

[3cav3]

The biggest problem aside from the boredom of continuous sanding is the rheumatism in my hands, can only do it for a short while before the pain sets in.

[cavalier1990]

The biggest problem aside from the boredom of continuous sanding is the rheumatism in my hands, can only do it for a short while before the pain sets in.

Great bit of progress there on the van, things coming along nicely! I have had a few times where I've been grinding or sanding lying at awkward angles and woke up the next morning and can hardly move, frozen shoulder usually the resultant outcome. Bodywork prep is indeed a major pain in the tits the amount of prep work can be sold destroying, my absolute pet hate is taking out rusty bits, dressing the affected area and fabricating new panels, so time consuming, but a major sense of achievment once it's done.

[3cav3]

Had a few more hours on the van this morning. Firstly I ground down all the plug welds on the sills, and where I had joined them to the bottom of the A pillar. Here they are after the first skim of filler, obviously the lines will need a lot more work.

[3cav3]

After etch priming the sills, I then dug out some stone chip and after masking I sprayed the sills and rear valance. I know its not strictly original but it should help to preserve the van a bit longer.









It must be a trick of the lens as now they are uploaded the images look quite smooth but in the flesh it has a nice textured finish.

[Robsey]

If you were looking for strictly original, it would be a twisted mass of rust and holes.

Besides - in the eighties, it was almost standard practice for owners to coat the lower extremities in "Stone Chip Protect" which was more or less what you have there.

All cars rotted very quickly back then, so the tools of choice were glass fibre matting kits, bodyfiller and stone chip protect.

So maybe not factory original, but definitely '80s Original'.

Photos often do make things look better or smoother, but either way - you should be able to hold off the rust moster for a lot longer.

[3cav3]

With the sills i only went to the line on the body, I ordered Black stonechip but the supplier had sent Grey, with the primer it looks like I went a lot higher as its an almost exact match.

[3cav3]

One of the biggest problems i get with my canopy over Autum/Winter is condensation forming. Over the last 10 days or so by us the weather has changed from almost heatwave to hovering around 4degrees in the evening. In order to protect the shell, even though it isnt fully ready I decided to hit it with Epoxy Primer this morning.

Id forgotten how long it took to mask vehicles.

[3cav3]

First I applied 2 thick coats of Extra High Build Primer, then 3 High build Epoxy, even though its still slightly wavy I'm very pleased that the sodding Filler line seems to of finally vanished. I was begining to get driven insane by it refusing to go!

[3cav3]

After going tack dry the masking was removed.

[3cav3]

At least now the shell should be protected for the winter months. As and when I will go round and remove the minor blemishes.

This morning was the first time that I'd used a gravity fed spray gun, took quite a bit to get the feel of it.



Ive also learnt that when the time comes to apply the top coat it probably isnt best to do it in the same room as youve sanded the vechicle down in, even after hoovering the van and the near vacinity theres still a bit more than ideal dust in the paint, its not the end of the earth at this stage though as I will be hand sanding the whole van down with 800 grit wet and dry before the top coat goes on.

[cavalier1990]

Good job there, at least you shouldn't have too much to mask up. Yeah it becomes a problem when you're painting and the temp starts going down and the humidity goes up, perfect environment for paint not properly drying and absorbing moisure before it gets anywhere near dry. Talking about painting/prepping I was looking at the rust eater I use and it says it doesn't work in temps I think it was lower than 5 or 6 degrees, and also not to put it on then overlayer it with more, something I always used to do when I was working on any car. Something I should really do more of i.e. read the instructions!

[thomas]

It's a huge step, be chuffed with it, it looks brilliant. I think you've just made it before the winter comes in with a clang. I was lucky that the little bits, the boot-floor and around the rear-arch/bumper mounts, got painted the same warm evening as I got the car back and the paint went on beautifully. Left even another couple of days and the weather -cold and damp, would have been against me , the job poorer for it.

[Robsey]

The ideal temperatures for paint are between 5 and 15 degrees.

Below 5 = too cold to paint and your breath will condence whilst you work.
Do not be tempted to use accelerator liquid to help the paint to go off quicker. You may risk a white sheen in your lovely paint finish.

Above 15 degrees = increasing ambient humidity.

[3cav3]

Good job there, at least you shouldn't have too much to mask up. Yeah it becomes a problem when you're painting and the temp starts going down and the humidity goes up, perfect environment for paint not properly drying and absorbing moisure before it gets anywhere near dry. Talking about painting/prepping I was looking at the rust eater I use and it says it doesn't work in temps I think it was lower than 5 or 6 degrees, and also not to put it on then overlayer it with more, something I always used to do when I was working on any car. Something I should really do more of i.e. read the instructions!

Yes I've had that before, when I blew my old Subaru Pickup over, the temperature suddenly went down about 10 degrees and the top layer bloomed up. A heavy cut back made it better for a while but looking at it today its come back with a vengeance ( its still buried in the hedge).