1959 Ford Thames camper van restoration

Kev,you've gone above and beyond the original mfg's construction.Painstakingly and meticulously reproducing each little piece.Great job bud.We enjoy seeing your labor.Keep up the good work.Very inspiring.

Hi Dude, Been watching ya from the begining and I gotta say Your work's fantastic. I've got the same, a thames Dormobile. Mine only looks good from a distance though !

Welcome denniss!!! Love the Thames

Cheers G-Man. Yours looks mighty fine too but pardon my ignorance, what is it ?

Thats OK !!! It a 69 Chevy, look around the site so you can learn about American ealys. Glad your here, Thames are one my favorites

Cheers for the replies guys. Sometimes when i get as bit fed up or off track its good to read through what everyone has said, keeps me motivated.

27/11/2011

I got the guttering all welded up.



I think it was around 200 of those little slits to weld (booooooring), it has distorted slightly but ive been able to get the worst of it out. I went and bought a new toy to help me, a sliding hammer. Similar to this one.



It came in handy as i cant actually get a hammer in to tap the gutter out. and if i used a bit of wood , the angle i have to hit it at would push the gutter down at the same time. With the sliding hammer i can pull it out horizontally...... if that all makes sence? it does in my head anyway.

Unfortunatly, just as i got to welding the joining pieces of the guttering on the outside i ran out of Argon gas, bugger. I now need to sort that out, I usually get my gas through BOC which costs about £80 for a yearly rent, £60 a re-fill, and £15 misc. Ive heard of a place local that does it for £57 a bottle and a refundable £55 deposit, think il check them out.

In the mean time i thought i better cut the bracing out of the door frames and check to make sure the doors still fit and the guttering looks ok with the doors inplace.





Passanger door looks ok, the frame doesnt have the rubber seals in so the door is fitting further in than it will be when finished. the gap looks pretty even all-round.



Mmmhhmm, looks like this door skin and frame will need a bit of work too.



Drivers side looks not bad either, there is a bit of a bigger gap at the top between the frame and gutter, mabey about 3 or 4 mm bigger but i could make up for that in the door frame if it comes to it.







This door skin and frame isnt quite so bad.

When i went to the garage today i had planned on just washing my car but i decided to start the roof plans. I had to make a table 4 and a half foot wide and just over 11 foot long. My brother got me 2 old tables that his work was going to chuck out so using them and two bits of 50x50 from the bracing i made a frame for the table. I then screwed down some MDF down to make a large work surface.





My mate Crighton came over after his work and helped me to put the roof ontop of the table. It was good to see the roof at a better angle again, ready to asses what needs done. 3 of the corners are pretty crap and all along the drivers side has rotted too.

Passangers side front corner.



drivers side front corner.



drivers side rear corner (probably the worst corner).



along the driver side.







The main panel overall isnt that bad though, just around the edges.





The plan is to now cut off the remainder of the old guttering on the roof, strip the paint and rust, repair the sections that need done and re-attach. It has a few strengthing ribs inside that bolt to the main body of the van and originally a lip that went aroudn the perimeter of the rood that would be spotwelded to the guttering. Im not going to do that though as the chances are, water could go in the seams and start the whole rust proces again. Instead, im going to not do the lip and i will run a continous weld all around the roof. With the tig it should keep it neat.

More picture of the roof repair to follow when i get some more argon.

Those gutters turned out nice. lots of work welding them all up, but you hard work is paying off. Can't waite to see that roof welded on.

kevbarlas,
The work your are doing is amazing! Keep the pic's coming!!!

Dan

Amazing what you have done so far!

Looks like it's time for you to build an english wheel so you can fab up some patch panels for the roof. I'm looking forward to this!! This outta be good!!

Duane in Tennessee.

I'm in awe of your skills!!! But I don't know how you accomplish so much AND have time to document it all so thoroughly! Kudos!

You are truly saving a early van there, most wouldn't or should I say couldn't do what your doing

Insane Fab work man. Excellent!

southern man wrote:I'm in awe of your skills!!! But I don't know how you accomplish so much AND have time to document it all so thoroughly! Kudos!

Ha, it can take quite a while to write up a decent post. Having to change the size of the images, then upload them and write up a decent story can take about 2 to 3 hours.


December update

Its been quite a busy month at work. One of the guys got made redundant so its put my work rate up a bit. Its also meant having to work late and help out on Saturdays, extra money so i cant really complain but its meant less time at the garage.
Last time I wrote I had just laid the roof on the table, ready to get cut up. I thought I would start on the front corners and work my way round the drivers side. The first thing i done was take the paint off around the edges of the roof to assess the metal work underneath.







This was the first corner I started on, It was the worst front corner so best to get it done and out of the way.


I flipped the roof over to take the surface rust off the inside edge too. You can see the cross brace i welded in to help it keep its shape when I removed it from the van.


This is the offending corner upside down.



The corners are a compound curve so that made shaping it a little bit more tricky. I did a lot of humming and hawing at it. Trying to figure out how to go around making a repair section for this part. I came up with a plan of cutting it out and making a basic template to work from. I haven't tried a compound curve repair before, so this probably isn't the right way but it worked for me.


No use for you anymore.


I taped a thin bit of cardboard to the area.


Then after a bit of snipping and more masking tape I had the rough shape mocked up.



Cut it out and I have my template.


I seem to have jumped a few steps ahead here. Basically I traced the template onto a sheet of 1.2mm and cut it out. I clamped a piece of 50x50 angle in the vice so that it was clamped in a V shape. I then used a round head hammer to tap a concave and trying it against the roof numerous times, using my hands to give it a final tweek and shape. I tacked it into place, i cut strips into it to help me with the stretching and shrinking principle.



Then all welded up when i was happy with it.

And a good dress up.


Yey! a complete corner, that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

The next again night i went back and started on the other corner. This one was in a bit better shape than the other.


Marked out, ready to get cut up.


I done this section in 2 patches, the mainly straight side and a tighter corner.


Tacked up and ready to weld.


*grind, grind, sand, clean*




Close enough to the opposite side for me.


I called it a night, looking forward to getting back to it again shortly.........
Unfortunately, the week before the caustic tank at my work burst. We use it to strip the paint off the old Cast fireplaces and radiators. Coincidentally, we have just got a lot of radiators needing done, quickly. The tank was made from plastic and had been repaired lots of times in its 20 year life span with Fiberglas so it was starting to look past its best. I checked out prices for other tanks big enough but the cheapest plastic one was pretty thin material and cost £1050. I thought it would be best to make a new one from scratch out of 3mm plate and 50mm angle. I was annoyed as it meant losing a weekend and a few nights on the van but it was actually good to do something different from the usual, a little bit of a challenge. I made it 8ft length, 45 inches tall and 2 foot wide. I gave it a lid and as it was metal i could add a heater. Caustics working properties increases tremendously when even a little bit of heat is added so i used a basic 27 inch central heating boiler coil. I also made sure to weld on a drain tap to this one, the plastic one had to be emptied via buckets and long waders, not fun. I added insulation to help with the heating and keep costs down.


Was really happy with how it turned out, lets see if this lasts 20 years.
I also had enough time to make a unique handle for my fiances boss's stove.


After the tank was done i had to miss a few nights at the garage to get the radiators done and ive just worked yesterday to give my boss a Saturday off ( he never gets them). So, back to today, the 18th.
Meet the newest addition to my growing garage stuff. This heater has been here since i moved in and its never been touched. I remember trying it out when i first moved in and it never worked so its been collecting dust ever since. Well since its now officially winter i thought id try to fix it. I changed the ignitor as it was looking quite duff but that never helped. I thought id service everything and that never helped, occasionally it would light up and go out, so id strip it all down again, try something new and it wouldn't work at all then it would etc.. After a lot of head scratching and time wasting i figured it wasn't making much pressure, all the seals were ok but on closer inspection to the back plate could see hairline cracks around the bolt mounts. I used soapy water to confirm my suspicions and yep, the back plate was knackered. All the air pressure was being lost. I ordered a new one and i thought id may aswell replace the filters. Since then its been great, works a treat and heats up the space fairly quickly with its 77,000 BTU rating. I'm using diesel to fuel it right now but will be moving onto paraffin when i get the time to get some as it burns cleaner and cheaper.


Enough of that crap. Back to the roof.

This is the drivers side, which was pretty bad all the way along. Oh, i forgot to mention. You may remember how i tried to make my own guttering which never worked very well and so i was left with 10 pieces of 50mm wide 1.2mm strips 4 foot long. They are now being put to good use as repair sections for the roof. Never through anything out, thats my motto! (probably got it from my dad).
I tried a couple of experiments before i got on with the roof, what would be the best way to put a curve on the strips. I tried the angle in the vice in a V shape first.

It kind of worked but I couldn't get enough pressure on it with the hammer so i flipped it around in the vice so the jaws pushed the tube into the angle.

That probably worked a bit too much, it did curve the strip but only in one place. The next idea was clamp the strip in 2 bits of angle and tap it around a piece of tubing. Like this :

This gave me the effect i was wanting, a nice gentle curve.
Back to the actual repairs, i forgot to take a photo of my first repair part. This piece of the roof held a hinge for the pop up roof and consequently had rusted a little higher up which required a bigger repair section.

New panel made up , i joggled all the top edges off the repairs to help with lining it up and clamping into place.

I done another repair after that and that was 3 sections all tacked up.

I was leaving to go home in the next hour so i thought id finish off this section.


The other difficult thing about the roof is trying to figure out far down the panel actually comes. The passenger side is pretty complete so ive used that as my reference and measured from the centre out and a bit of free hand to cut the edge off the panel.


A little before and after.




I then went home and had a nice roast beef and veg dinner, delicious.

The Christmas holidays are coming up soon which means i get a full week off. So with a little careful planing spending time with Jana and the van i should get more done. I would love the next update to be about the roof being attached back on atleast, we shall see.

Good work. Makes me want to clear out the garage and get my Dodge in to knock the roof work out.

Excellent as usual, Keep it Up Kev. Looking forward to seeing the roof on. Merry Christmas.

2/1/12

Happy new year everyone! , lets see how far I can get with the van this year.

I continued progress on the drivers side of the roof. After getting the first half of that section done it was time for the rear. My battery was going flat in my camera so theres not so much detail for this day.

I started by doing the rear corner then meeting in the middle.

I pretty much followed the same idea as the front corner, marked what i wanted to cut out and made a template.

Then cut it out, tap tap, tack in place, weld and dress up.




Corner sorted, time for the side. There was another larger section which held the Fiberglas pop-up roof in place that need replaced.

New piece in.

All the other smaller sections in and welded.

And cleaned up, this was when my battery did die so i couldn't get another shot of it from the rear.

That was that for that day. Before I left I checked over the other side of the roof and decided that the metal was still not bad and any little repairs i could do would be ok done on the van.

When i went back I figured out what i needed to do to re-attach the roof. I flipped it over upside down to inspect it.

I had intended to leave the ribs in place and clean around them but very quickly realised that to not do it would be foolish so they came out. (cross bracing was just to stop it warping.)

You can see the repairs from the other side with the joggled lip here. Quite a lot of surface rust from what im assuming would have been condensation. Luckily none of it had rusted through and the top was still smooth to the touch.
I took all the paint of the ribs first to refurbish them.

They were ok, just a few bits of weld to fix them from when i was removing them.

The smaller rear ones were also drilled out from the rivets and painted. I etch primed them, then a coat of normal primer and then i used some Citroen white from a job i done to paint inside the channels of the ribs, just to protect them. This is another thing i recommend, a white board. Its good to write lists, doodle pictures and communicate with the guy i share the garage with.

Larger ribs done. They had felt stapled onto them to stop drumming against the roof panel. I decided to just use heavy-duty sticky foam to do the same job.

Whilst i was doing the ribs and waiting on the paint dry i took all the paint of the underside of the roof. easier to do it on the table than the van. I etch-primed the areas that would be covered by the ribs.

With the piece on the front that had surface rust, i cleaned as much rust off as i could and gave it a coat of the special rust sealer primer then more etch.

Then I bolted the ribs to the body of the van. It was easier this way than to attach them to the roof first.


Then!, it was time for the next stage. The thing which i had been waiting on since taking the roof off. Now it was time to stick the roof back on. My dad came along with a nice welcoming flask of coffee and muscles. Alastair ( the guy i share the garage with) was also roped into helping with the lift. It went pretty smoothly, lifting it up and walking from the front to back and dropping it into position. I felt really quite excited to see it with a roof on again. Like im getting nearer and nearer. When big things like this get done it looks so different!.
less talk, more pictures.


























I still need to tack the roof into position which means lifting and pushing to get the perimeter parallel to the guttering but its looking promising so far. The only thing thats annoying me is the passengers side rear corner which i think i may need to add metal onto but il see once i start tweaking and welding. I'm feeling quite happy and chuffed with myself, another big step made!.

He has his hat back on.

Nice to see that its one piece for the most part again, looks great!!! Looks like your getting close to painting what color???

You continue to amaze me with your no fear metal working skill. Just hammer out some compound curve patch panels, no problem. It's looking great. Good progress getting the roof back on. That's a major milestone. Like G-Man said it's getting close to think about color. I know it was white to start with but maybe it should be something that really pops! A project like this should really stand out from the crowd. Plain vanilla white just may not be good enough. What other factory colors did these come in?

Looking Good,

Duane in Tennessee

Your skills with welding and fabrication have impressed me from day one. At this rate you will be getting closer to a finish, summer time?

Im thinking two tone, a nice cream/white upper half with a light pastel green lower and roof. As far as a finishing date, defintyl not this year. I hope to have the body all welded up for the middle of this year then its time for the mechanicals then after that i will repair the doors and side skirts. So probably another couple of years for it to be atleast road worthy.

February 2012

I have done a lot of welding since my last update. With the roof back on it gave me another boost to get on with it. The next task was 'How do i get an even gap between the roof and gutter'. After a bit of thinking i cut some 12mm thick MDF into rough 3 - 4 inch squares and wedged them in between the gutter and roof which gave me a good size of spacing and held everything down tight.




With the wood in place i could go inbetween them and tack weld the roof in place, then when i took the wood out i was left with a nice finish.






I started to weld it up once everything was tacked, starting with the front.


The majority of the roof was sitting nicely on the gutter but towards the rear the gap was huge, about 12mm in places. I just decided to put lots of weld down and build it up. Once it was welded it gets ground down anyway.






Once it was all welded and cleaned up I got a bit carried away and couldn't wait to start the lead-loading. I really wanted to lead the roof to fill any pin-holes that may have been left with the welding but i also wanted to lead between the gutter and body to add extra strength. I took more photos of this part but its not really relevant anymore, I will explain why.




I had spent about 2 hours or so on this bit, it was my first try with the lead and after spreading it about, heating it up and sanding it to a nice shape i realised i was wasting my time. You see, when i would go to put the lead inbetween the body and gutter i would have to re-heat the gutter area up again which would melt the lead and it would all fall out. I'm really glad i realised that before i had done the whole roof. Another one of those restorers lessons, think and plan always. The plan now is to do the lead-loading between the body and gutter first then i will use body-filler to tidy up the welds on the roof.
Easiest way to do lead-loading is on a flat, where gravity can help the process. Time to flip the van on its roof. I had never actually put the van a full 180 degrees over before so this was novel for me. I got Alastair ( guy i share the garage with) to help me roll it over as the weight of the chassis being at the bottom would now be at the top and just a bit more likely to keep going once i start to roll it. I did hurt my back though, i was trying with all my might to lift it and i never realised Alastair thought it was going to roll too much so he was putting resistance against me rolling. I did feel something in my back twang a little but it wasn't until the next day the pain started., anyway, it will heal. It was unusual to see the van upside down so i was quite excited to care about my back at that moment.




Heres how i have been doing the lead-loading.
First i get the grinder with a wire wheel attached and clean the metal up, then i get a rag with white spirit (turpentine) to remove any grease or oil that may be left.


Once thats been done i get my tinning paste and brush it on to the metal. Using a handheld blow torch i heat it up until it starts to bubble and all the lead in the tinning paste melts onto the body. Once its cooled down slightly i use a damp brush to wipe away the paste but leave the thin coat of lead on the panel.


Then i use the blow torch to heat the end of the stick of lead and kind of push and twist it on the body until it snaps off. Then using the wooden paddle rubbed in tallow i heat the lead up to different states depending on what i want to do with it, usually a buttery consistency. Then i use the paddle to smush/prod/poke it about until I'm happy with it.


Once I'm happy with it its time to file it down then sand it smooth with 80 grit. I will be going over it with a light skim of filler in the future.




I managed to get the whole drivers side and front done in the same way.








Getting there, slowly but surely i will be nearing the stage when i get to prime the upper half and thats the next milestone I'm looking forward to.

Excellent work as always. And your colour scheme is similar to what i am planning. Althouh i am considering adding a stripe in a sort of tan colour. I suspect your van will be finished before mine though...!!!

I'm blown away!

I just read all 7 pages straight through, couldn't stop what talent, what dedication, and energy im inspired now ,dave

This is awe-some I checked on this a while back. Great progress. You should just start your own Scottish
Custom Van Company. Bravo Kev!