DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

murph2309 wrote:Suspensionist

One of Stevie Wonder's best

Very

What's the issue with Red9 then? thought theirs was all spanky?

Best not in public....

Just caught up, lovely project to have, I liked the two tone with the black roof, you could always decide on that later.

Have we done the suspension yet ?

Interesting:

So, with the engine underway, and the shell underway (and the suspension not yet decided at this stage of the narrative.....) it was time to get to my most difficult decision.... the pop-top. Front or rear hinge.....

I know. Exciting....

Well the early bay should have a front-hinge. It's what they came with and what they had available at the time. But, the front hinge doesn't allow for a proper 'upstairs' bed, it could only take about 80kg. Which sadly counts out anything more than a couple of small kids. The bed is also also quite a bit shorter, like you'd have to sleep diagonally up there.

So, even though I'll probably be banned from all shows and take a load of approbrium from those in the know, the second outlaw-ish decision was made by my family. Go for the later pop-top. It's more practical, better space, weight of (I think c. 150kg) and you know what, whevs. Because family, because better space, because my bus.

So here it is, a newly installed rear-hinge.....

And here's to a good night's sleep and a happy family

The struts for the pop top act as a kind of suspension

There was one more shell mod I wanted to make.



Yep. As it's a walk-through model, I wanted to make better use of the space when you're using the cargo area to live in. This is a really simple mod, but it does look quite dramatic when it's done. You can see the factory-style bracing that was added on the lower left hand side of the b-pillar. The seat base simply has one of the type 25 turntables welded to the rails and you're good to go.





It was finished off by raising the height of the driver's seat base so that we will have level seats in the cab. I like this a lot - the chair swivels through 270 deg. and should really make a difference to the living space when we're all in there....

murph2309 wrote:There was one more shell mod I wanted to make.



Yep. As it's a walk-through model, I wanted to make better use of the space when you're using the cargo area to live in. This is a really simple mod, but it does look quite dramatic when it's done. You can see the factory-style bracing that was added on the lower left hand side of the b-pillar. The seat base simply has one of the type 25 turntables welded to the rails and you're good to go.





It was finished off by raising the height of the driver's seat base so that we will have level seats in the cab. I like this a lot - the chair swivels through 270 deg. and should really make a difference to the living space when we're all in there....

Very nice rich, looks stunning but balls to a swivelling seat mods, what suspension are you fitting, we all are dying to find out

Job done...

So.... let's get the shell painted inside and out, top and bottom.

First up was the underside - now normally this would be painted body colour, but frankly I didn't see the point in replicating that. Paint's also not that good at stopping all the stones and crud from getting through to the metal. I decided that the coating we used on my 911 (which was factory) would make a good upgrade to the underside. It's also a lot less fiddly than painting and I quite like the moodiness of black arches Yes, I considered the emotional impact of black wheel arches. What is happening to me.....?

So, a lot of scraping and wire wheeling and general crap getting-rid-of activity ensued. Glad it wasn't me. That's one kickarse tedious job.... Thanks to Steph at Johnson's for putting the grungy hours in on this one. Done it once myself. To be avoided if at all possible

But then as if by magic - this is what we ended up with....













Which I think you'll agree is looking pretty spangly....and a little bit moody yeah....

It's also going to be drowned in waxoil make sure that we keep all that moisture out of the metal. That should be good for a little while yet.

SUS

PEN