darrenjlobb's Adaptronic Managed Compound Blown Derv Bus Build

[Dum-Dum]

Wish I had the time to crack on and do this to my rallye.

[darrenjlobb]

Sorry for anyone having issues loading the images, Have just re uploaded at smaller size, they were a little on the large side before!

[anto]

If your car is anything like mine and my da's then the usual rust areas where;

Near passenger rear seat belt upper mount
Top of the wheel arch tub passenger rear
Rear passenger back left of boot where it joins the floor

I went looking for some panels in the scrappies and every single one had the same issues so in the end I just made up repair panels myself.

[stevieg]

Looking good, seen the updates on the tube before but not actually read the thread

[darrenjlobb]

OK time for another update, spent some more time on her this weekend!

So have been underneath the old bus digging off all the old underseal etc to reveal problems etc, as with everything in life, there all getting older now, and I must admit its starting to show a bit. Found quite a few issues underneath the thing:









So set at it cutting out all the crap / cleaning it up and welding in plates etc:








Then went at it with the por15 on all bare metal / joints etc:








Then gave all the inner archs a good few coats of stoneguard:






And then the underside for good measure:




Not a perfect job by any means, had hoped to spent a bit more time / cut a bit more out really at the front as still a few areas where it was fairly pitted etc, but the thing is never going to get rebuild if I spend to much longer over it, so have cut out the worse for now, and got it sorted for its next phase of life anyway!

---

Next job was to have a good going over the old beam, the beam fitted to the car was a GTI6 beam I bolted on when I bought the car back in the day, not much care / attention was really payed at the time other than getting it on, lowering it, and sorting the brakes (at the time). So its about time it was sorted a bit better, and before the bearings fail / mess it up, I had greased them all when it was apart before, so took it apart in hope the bearings were still good enough to have protected the shafts / tube etc, which turned out to be the case, which I was pleased about!

So beam on the floor:



And the parts to go right through, bearings, seals, bolts, washers and dust seals. All genuine.



First step was to rip the beam apart / get the old bearings out :





And then give it all a bit of a clean up:



Followed by a quick paint up (Yes Peugeot Geeks its not the right OEM colour, tough luck!!):





Fitted new bearings to tube both sides:



And seals:



And all back together with solid mounts etc ready to fit to car, will grease and fit arms once on the car as not sure on height at the moment:






Gave fuel tank a clean up ready to re fit:




Dropped it all back on the car:





And there she awaits:

[Dum-Dum]

Good progress mate

[Ben]

Looking good, you've got a lot done in the last week or two

[Niall]

Looking awesome and progressing quickly!

[Matt]

Awesome progress as always!! Rear beam looks the tits!!

[darrenjlobb]

Thanks, hopefully the beam will be trouble free at least now, one less thing to mince with a few months down the line!

A video of what you have already seen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA75ZfY8xMg

[zx_volcane]

Good stuff

You make a beam rebuild and cleaning up the entire underside, patching, painting ..etc of the car look like a doddle, must be all the sped up video.

Will be a nice feeling to know the shell is in good shape before moving on to the motor

[darrenjlobb]

Good stuff

You make a beam rebuild and cleaning up the entire underside, patching, painting ..etc of the car look like a doddle, must be all the sped up video.

Will be a nice feeling to know the shell is in good shape before moving on to the motor

Hehe, well watching it in real time would have wasted most of your day! 

Truth of the matter is, there was some epic failing going on at one point with the POR paint, glove had failed without my noticing and it was running down my arm!! Never again!!! Practically had the wire brush out getting it off my skin!

But yeah, Its just one of those things Ive been wanting to get around to doing for years but never got to it, and pleased I have as it is needed, deffo clear to see that the 306's are starting to need some real love and attention now, end of the day there getting on a bit now, time to start looking after them I guess!!

And in other news, I moved the short block from one side of the workshop to the other, there is hope yet!

[Piggy]

wooohooo


good work fella

[PUGNUT_XS]

Great Progress.

How much did the bearing set cost you?  Just wondering if it is worth doing the barings of getting a recon axle when the trime comes.

[darrenjlobb]

Any signs of an engine yet?

Great Progress.

How much did the bearing set cost you?  Just wondering if it is worth doing the barings of getting a recon axle when the trime comes.

I gave £90.00 for them and the offset washers / seals / bolts and everything else complete... Time you take the hassle etc likely alot easier to buy one already done, even if it is full of chinease bearings etc..

If i was alot of people id recommend that tbh, but I like to do it all myself etc (farmer inside!)

[Stef205]

sorry i never got back to you darren ive been having some personal issues so my beam work has been on hold for a mo. Looks like your doing a decent job tho!

[PUGNUT_XS]

i agree, i quite like reconditioning things.  Loving this thred, i have also been following it on you tube.

[darrenjlobb]

sorry i never got back to you darren ive been having some personal issues so my beam work has been on hold for a mo. Looks like your doing a decent job tho!

Dont worry chap, I managed to get hold of all the bits I needed in genuine Peugeot for a good price this time around, so have carried on, that said I have the beam to do on the ZX 16v at some point, so will be after the same again + likely more as think tube / arms will be screwed on that one...

i agree, i quite like reconditioning things.  Loving this thred, i have also been following it on you tube.

Thanks for watching, Sounds like me really, other than its MOT the car dosnt get touched by anyone else really in general! Only way I can afford to do the things I want to do with it!



Talking of videos, here is another:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8GpPWd4LEo

[Stef205]

sorry i never got back to you darren ive been having some personal issues so my beam work has been on hold for a mo. Looks like your doing a decent job tho!

Dont worry chap, I managed to get hold of all the bits I needed in genuine Peugeot for a good price this time around, so have carried on, that said I have the beam to do on the ZX 16v at some point, so will be after the same again + likely more as think tube / arms will be screwed on that one...

your arms should be ok it will be the shafts which you should change regardless! as for the tube any 306 tube will work.

[darrenjlobb]

Sorry when i said arms I meant shafts, pretty sure it will be all slogged out on that one, but will come to that another day!

[Stef205]

just watched your video and your top shock bolts are round the wrong way should you need to remove them

[darrenjlobb]

just watched your video and your top shock bolts are round the wrong way should you need to remove them

Hehe, I KNEW someone who works on these regular would notice that!!  I bolted it to the car and noticed that with Chris! Was a facepalm moment haha

[Stef205]

Haha! if it was me aswell id turn the mounting support bolts around too incase you wanted to change the front mounts for any reason.

[darrenjlobb]

Heh I thought about it, but in honesty its 6 bolts to drop the beam from the car enough to do the job anyway, so havent bothered, but lesson learnt!

[darrenjlobb]

Well its been a wet weekend down here in Cornwall, so while everyones been using all of the boost at PugFest, I've done a bit more to the old bus.

Started out by getting the rest of the rear beam back together, so collected together the torsion bars / antiroll bar, all uprated units from what I was running before, so greased up the shafts and bearings and got rest to "slam her in"



Like so:



Started putting torsion bars in, had to adjust a couple times to get height correct on the new bars:



Not 100% on the height yet as the wheel situation is still a bit up in the air etc, but will do for now.

Greased everything up and got the anti roll bar refitted etc:






Fitted some new braided flexi's on the rear, wanted to upgrade anyway, and old rubber items were fairly perished / deteriorated:




Next up was to rebuild the rear calipers, so started out by stripping them down / picking all the seals out:





And put it all back together after cleaning / greasing up the sliders and also the cleaning up the pistons:



Re-Fitted to the car, made up some new brake lines as saw no sense re using the old many deteriorated ones just for the sake of it. Also fitted new pair of handbrake cables:





Sadly couldn't finish the job as realised I don't have new new discs here, so have left other part of calipers off / re painted and fitted pads ready for will have to wait for discs.


So decided to move up front next, nearside required a new wheel bearing as I had just replaced the offside when I took it off the road, but never got around to doing this side, so figured now was a good time. So stripped the first side back:




Pressed new bearing into the hub:




Then decided to fit the Baker BM adjustable Top mounts, had to grind out a bit of the strut tower for clearance for full adjustment, bit of a shame I didnt do this before I painted it, but still needs must etc:



Re-fitted GAZ coilover with rose jointed drop links, and have fitted the lower arm with Vibratechnics P-bushes and Powerflex Black front bushes, so will see how these fair in the long run. Re used the old wishbone and balljoint as both in good condition, just changed the bushes over.

Can just about see Pbush hiding away:



And strut top all back together:





Next problem is the clearance issue that I pretty much suspected would be the case, and is the case. I am unable to clear the Brembo's without 20mm spacers... There is room up front just about for 20mm spacers, but problem is I end up wider track up front than rear, which looks a little odd / silly, but not really able to space the back out anymore as its on its limits for clearance while still be able to "drive" the car hard as it is. So not sure really if I should just use GTI6 units (would rather not) or find different wheels, or who knows really, need to think on that one, any thoughts??


Few photos to semi show it, hard to image fully obviously as no weight up front to lower it:

[C2K]

Did you mean to duplicate the wheel bearing pic?

Fast work farmer.

[bashbarnard]

Looks epic as always. Turns out I MAY be down your way September time. Would be good to put a face to the name finally.

[darrenjlobb]

Did you mean to duplicate the wheel bearing pic?

Fast work farmer.

I didn't! Well spotted, have just inserted the correct photo! Thanks

Looks epic as always. Turns out I MAY be down your way September time. Would be good to put a face to the name finally.

Ah let me know if your in the area!

[Jamieh2013]

Be a shame to have to get rid of the steels as they really suit it, but if needs must...some epic work getting done on this now though in short amounts of time.
Be interesting to see what happens once you start on the engine :P 

[Piggy]

looking great fella.

you were still missed at Pugfest though