darrenjlobb's Adaptronic Managed Compound Blown Derv Bus Build

[procta]

Darren do you still have your field cars? or are they all dead now?

[darrenjlobb]

Darren do you still have your field cars? or are they all dead now?

Erm scrapped the last of them a while back now, sadly just dont get the spare time anymore to go out thrashing around in them, sad times!

Still often take  cars for a last joyride though before they are broken up / weighed in!

[Kezzieboy]

I really hope this is being sprayed the colour I photoshopped for you all those years ago!

Awesome to see it getting some love again, I'll be keeping a close eye.

[Poodle]

Good to see this making a come back, look forward to seeing what you've got planned take shape, it's always fascinating.

[darrenjlobb]

I decided I would have a go at smoothing out the rub strips on the side of the car, although wanted to keep the contour line, so just smooth out the holes which hold the clips on.

Again didn't fancy welding the holes given my level of experience with bodywork / was worried about warping the whole thing / making it worse, although don't get me wrong I'm sure this would be by far the better way to do this!!...

However, I ended up fiber glassing across the back of all the holes to make it rigid / the filler have something to attach to, and then just small amounts of filler in the holes...time will tell I guess...

To start with I was having a problem with trapping "air" behind the filler, as you can see in this photo:



Resolved this by changing the application technique, and proceeded to fill all the holes in...



Then smoothed it all back flush with the doors / rear quarters:



Then some filler primer to help build:







Seems to have ended up flat / cant tell where the holes were, I guess time will tell if it will last / work in the long run, but so far the re painted owes me very little, so I guess if it fails its lesson learnt / find a better way of doing it! 

A video showing a few bits:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EhyE6pi8HI#t=118

[Choppin]

Looking really good mate, nice to see the old girl having some love again!! Haha from what Iv seen your picking my trade up far to easy haha

[MarkHam]

Looking well. Do you have any issues with rust around the sunroof area? That's where I ran into trouble!

[Paul Baldwin]

 As some have said dust in the surroundings is going to be your enemy. I helped a mate prep and paint a cavvy in a barn years ago and it was a nice job apart from the odd daggy bit lol. If you're spraying it where it is I'd definitely take a compressor and lance to the roof and all surroundings and leave it a while to settle before you sheet it out with plastic just to make sure.
 How old is your compressor you're going to use? Does it spit oil? I know what farmers are like with constantly resurrecting old kit

[ginge191]

It's refreshing watching you doing something you're not too confident or even a 'dab hand' at

Great work mate!

[bashbarnard]

Looking good after the second video. Loving the car and loving the fact the storey of dented rear quarter is slowly being told through the video series

[andyyy]

Looking good, glad you've decided to get this car back on the road, awaiting the epic power plant that I'm sure will end up in this.

Also I used the same method on my 106 to fill / smooth the sides and never had an issue with the filler coming out so you should be fine

[procta]

looking great there Darren! are you keeping the car basic black?

[darrenjlobb]

Looking really good mate, nice to see the old girl having some love again!! Haha from what Iv seen your picking my trade up far to easy haha

Heh dont worry, I have a lot to learn / have upmost respect for people who do bodywork. Its quite a skill to have, and 99% of people wouldn't have a clue just how difficult it is to make something look decent!

Looking well. Do you have any issues with rust around the sunroof area? That's where I ran into trouble!

Luckily not! No rust at all on this one bodywork wise, well anywhere that ive found yet anyway...

 As some have said dust in the surroundings is going to be your enemy. I helped a mate prep and paint a cavvy in a barn years ago and it was a nice job apart from the odd daggy bit lol. If you're spraying it where it is I'd definitely take a compressor and lance to the roof and all surroundings and leave it a while to settle before you sheet it out with plastic just to make sure.
 How old is your compressor you're going to use? Does it spit oil? I know what farmers are like with constantly resurrecting old kit

Surprisingly ( for a farmer) I have a fairly decent compressor, big 300L twin compressor clarke unit, with filter / water trap etc, and also have a fully air fed mask for painting, so that side of it is fairly sorted / ok...

looking great there Darren!  are you keeping the car basic black?

Well I guess ill have to fill the gun with paint of some form, we shall see!

[Piggy]

Nice effort fella.

I'm pretty newbie to bodywork too, what was cause of air behind the filler!?

[Niall]

Ive always found you can get air in the filler when not mixed properly but I'm sure someone who knows the trade better than me will come along and correct that. Also when you put in too much hardener and it starts to go ever so slightly crumbly before its even mixed!

[Choppin]

Cheers Darren same here with mechanics, I have no idea how people can do the stuff you do with engines, completly baffles me, swings and roundabouts I suppose haha
There can be a couple of reasons for air bubbles, mostly it's poor quality or old filler and from what I remember you said it wasn't the newest of stuff, badly mixed like Naill said and poor application, gota squeeze that s**t in there!!

---

Also couple of lil tips, it's all about prep work, make sure that panel is as clean and scratch free and keep dust down as much as you can, water on the floor and get your lil extractor going, good luck with it all fella, rather intrigued in the colour haha

[daniel909]

This is going to have so much WINN
Have you decided on what colour your going

[darrenjlobb]

Bit of an update again,

Some more arch work was required to fit some slightly wider wheels in this time around, So obviously wanted to do this now, before it was in paint to avoid screwing over the paint in the future, so cracked out the roller and slowly worked the archs bit at a time:








Next thing was to get the car down closer to the floor so I could reach up and do the entire roof, so dropped it onto some wood blocks:






Then started to get the workshop ready by dividing the lower half in two to reduce the ammount of space to keep warm, try and reduce dust etc. Also at this point re located two temporary bodge radiators for the redneck heating system (running on used motor oil) down by the car to keep it warm overnight etc.

I have also bought a new spray mask, positive pressure air fed one, but given our compressor is in the room next door, decided to duct the inlets outside, to make sure it dosnt just sucks in the paint fumed and feed my face with the same air thats in the room anyway!



And I think at this point, it just needs the room damping down, the car wiping down, and then the first coat of primer!

A video to get to this point:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLgNhgW6IwY

Thanks for reading

[procta]

mint bit of engineering there with the heating system!
best of luck with the paint job!

[WiNgNuTz]

"Got it up to about 28 de-"*end video* Love the way you're editting these vids Darren!

So much love for this project, especially the whole "f*ck it, let's just see what happens" ethos. Such a legend.

Can't wait for the next vid!

[darrenjlobb]

I know sorry the editing really is fail worthy, infact watching it back im not even sure how that has happened, I actually edited these videos a few months ago (hence sunshine in the video!!) so not to sure what is going on there, rest assured though you havent missed anything interesting!

[bashbarnard]

Its true I thought id hit something on my tablet to stop the video on the end bit. Saying that I do love the fact your giving this a go. Making me kinda want to spray my own mini.

[Piggy]

Its almost frustrating knowing how far you've got with the project yet we cant see it yet! Got me hooked haha

[smithbomb]

nice this mate think I might have seen this on youtube chocking everyone with diesel lol... no smoke no poke

[procta]

I know sorry the editing really is fail worthy, infact watching it back im not even sure how that has happened, I actually edited these videos a few months ago (hence sunshine in the video!!) so not to sure what is going on there, rest assured though you havent missed anything interesting!

I bet you have got the car re painted and rebuilt now  In fact I recon it was all filmed last year   and you are just getting the time to post videos up now   

[darrenjlobb]

I know sorry the editing really is fail worthy, infact watching it back im not even sure how that has happened, I actually edited these videos a few months ago (hence sunshine in the video!!) so not to sure what is going on there, rest assured though you havent missed anything interesting!

I bet you have got the car re painted and rebuilt now  In fact I recon it was all filmed last year   and you are just getting the time to post videos up now   

Heh the car is painted, but certainly not rebuilt! Literally just got put back in the shed, and has not moved an inch since, has like 10mm of dust on it at the moment!

[daniel909]

Was gonna say silage at this time of year ahah

[306Dan]

Nice progress, any hint on the colour?

[Matt]

The suspense is killing me!!

[Dave]

This is like a season of top gear, all filmed and complete before the 1st video is ever released haha.

As always Darren massive respect for the efforts that you're going to, and also venturing into the unfamiliar world of body work. I'm sure your documented progress of this and ups/downs throughout the job will inspire people to attempt some similar jobs themselves (as what has happened with XUD/HDi tuning etc) - always the first to be ballsy enough to try new things.

Cannot wait until I'm back to see this in the flesh once again, its like the gem at the back of the shed, covered in dust, with harnessed thunder under the body, so modest and humble.

All I can say is dont make it too slaggy like your XUD keep up the good work always a pleasure to read/view on youtube, I only just noticed this thread and pretty sure this'll be upto 100k views like your last few threads.

Sounds like you've got things ironed out with how you're going to work this block, with fewer limitations learning from previous projects. Definitely wish I had the determination, skill, experience and dedication to a project like you do.