1st Trip of the year

Quick weekend in the New Forest after spending a long time cleaning all of the dust out from the bodywork and respray.

Putting it all back

Finally!

The finished product;
It took about a month longer than I thought, but it looks like a different van now.
At the primer stage things with my spray gun didn't go too well so once this was flatted off a pro sprayer I know primed it up and finished with a guide coat for me;After flatting the guide coat;

The sprayer at work on the final colour (VW Reef Blue L57H). A colour from the year I was born.

Still more sanding

3 days of sanding and still going. At the same time I'm MIG welding in metal to fix any rusty spots. I've also welded up the old aerial hole as the new digital one is on the roof. I'm filling and blocking the whole body to try and get it nice and flat. I may be using a pro sprayer for the top coat as I'm getting married a week today and I'm running out of time, that and he'll do a much better job of it!
Monday I'll finish the back and hopefully block the whole body.
Tuesday etch prime and HS prime
Weds more blocking
Thurs, if I can, hand it over to the sprayer.

LED bulbs

I've replaced all the bulbs except for main beam with LED's.
The dash ones are especially good compared to the original, at night you could hardly see the dials.

One side ready for paint

One side of the van is stripped and ready for primer filler. The other side still to do, takes about 5 hours!!!
Found a hole around the windscreen which needs welding up.

Rust

I've cleaned of all the crap from under the van and wheel arches. It had been undersealed in the past which has kept most metalwork looking good. The only bad areas are a rear wheel arch and rear bottom corner panel which fell apart when I put the power washer on it. The wheel arch can be saved by cutting and welding on a new lip and I've managed to find a new replacement corner panel for £35.
I'm using Dinitrol products to convert the rust and reseal the underbody.
First a rust converter, then soft a sealing wax, then a slightly harder underbody sealer then finishing with stone chip protection in the arches.

After that I'm moving on to the rest of the bodywork. I'm stripping back anywhere rust has bubbled through and treating with the rust converter, also in the panel joins. At the same time I'm going to deal with some of the dents by sanding back to bare metal and filling then blocking. The whole body will be sanded to original paint or bare metal as the respray that is under mine was not keyed properly so chips off.
A good blocking over the whole van and a respray should have it looking pretty darn good and hopefully no rust!