First topic message reminder :

Latest addition to my pool of Aircooled VWs:

Matching Numbers All Around;
Current Missionary School Van;
November 1968 (Model year: 1969) Early RHD T2 Bay Window Walkthrough Microbus with Sliding Door on Left.
1600cc M-240 (Low Compression) 44BHP Matching Motor

Needs a ground up restoration but worth every penny its bought for.

Bought it for a Polish friend's Tour of Pakistan! The Polish friend named it as "Missionare" (German: means Messenger) for its life long service to humanity.



This is tell tale of Missionare's acquisition, 700KM journey back home and the restoration. Stay tuned as we embark on an exciting ride deep into the Early Bay world to explore what it is like to restore a half living auto-marvel from the past. 

DISCLAIMER: The thread would be creepy slow as I have two other projects running in parallel to this (a 65 Bug & a 79 Safari), so plz be patient but be assured that it would be another restoration cookbook, though this time on the subject of Early Bays.

Update on History of Missionare - July 16, 2013

*04 Documented Previous Owners
*1st Registration Date: March 04, 1969
*2nd Registration Date: January 01, 1975

1st Owner - Unknown as of yet (Owned from: March 04, 1969 To: December 31, 1974)
2nd Owner - Syed Rahat Ali Kirmani (Owned from: January 01, 1975 To: April 13, 2004)
3rd Owner - Syed Mohammad Zakaria (Owned from: April 13, 2004 To: April 13, 2010)
4th Owner - Amjad Yousaf (Owned from: April 13, 2010 To: June 16, 2013)
5th Owner - Yours Truly (Owned Since: June 16, 2013 To: Date)

Some more slow progress



The patchy bulkhead and the wheel tub

For reference; I will get to its details later tonight



10/1968 to 7/1969 Only;
VW Part #211.857.501B
From Chassis # 2x9 060789 till 2x9 300000

Had some more slow progress on stripping the lower 8/10 inches on Missionare and as anyone would've guessed, its all patchy and rotten. The idea behind this stripping was to see how bad the panels were and what panels would need replacement. There are thick layers of bondo on every panel that I have touched so far and thus the progress is quite slow since I have to use the automated grinder mounted wire brush to strip the panels/rotten areas.

The driver's side rear lower corner





The nightmare on the other side


With some time at hands, I wirebrushed the rear valance from the inner side and sealed it with red oxide until its time for the media blasting. Had to do it because it was caked with dirt and all with patches of no paint at all. The sealing would save it from catching tin worm for now.

Missionare was missing under the rear seat heater vents which connect to the Y section under the floor which then connects to heat exchangers with heater pipes. These are now sourced after quite a bit of looking. Though these are missing the black knobs but I think I have some Ivory knobs in spare in my stash which can be used for now until I source the black ones:)

Missionare is also missing the heater pipes and grommets. Grommets are already bought but the pipes need buying still. and I am still looking for a nice OG pair of pipes.



And here is where these go on:

reezvaan wrote:

And when I removed the old Jap shock absorbers, I stopped surprising about the saggy/imbalanced rear end. I am sure after looking at this pic you'll stop being surprised too



Yep, you guessed it right, these two rear shocks are aftermarket Jap shocks of unequal lengths and are totally dead with no life left in them. The second pic shows the NOS German Year Correct Shock mounted next to removed shock.

At this moment, missionare is at 3 new shocks, yes one at the driver's side front has been replaced too which was Monro Gas Shock and had still some miles left in it but I wanted to have all new shocks at all corners so off it went and the new cofap unit was put on. The passenger side shock was inaccessible at the moment in my porch so left it alone till morning. Will share pics of the front ones when both are done.

Now Missionare's rear end saggs no more and it has returned to stock height.

If I say that nothing on front suspension is in good shape on Missionare, I would be being totally honest. BJs are shot, so are all the Tie Rod Ends including the drag link. Center Pin is no exception either most of these bits are already bought except the drag link and non-adjustable track rod). Wheel Bearings were in an awful condition, especially the passenger side wheel had a very worn out bearing. So worn that when the brakes were applied, Missionare wobbled badly.

Right after I had bought Missionare, I had bought all new wheel bearings, be it front inners, outers or rear which were waiting to go on. Today I had some time after I was done sealing the rear valance so I thought I would work on the front hubs/brakes/suspension.

I started with wire brushing the passenger front hub as the driver side was already cleaned and sealed with red oxide a couple of days ago which I forgot to post about. Here is a pic;


While at the passenger hub, I realized I should be replacing the front wheel bearings and servicing the front brakes. So removed the front hubs and wasn't a bit surprised to see the totally worn inner & outer bearings.

Here are some pics;
The driver side brakes (not the incorrect spindle nut/washer with patchy retaining spring)


The Passenger side brakes


The dusty internals are due to missing dust plugs which were placed soon after taking off the hubs on both backing plates


The hubs still have some miles left on them, though not in a condition I would have wanted them to be.


Sorry dont have a better pic of the hubs at the moment but will take some when do the bearings.

After I was done removing the hubs, I moved to replacing the passenger side front shock which was missed last time when I changed the three of them. Initially, from driver side monro gas shock, I had guessed the both fronts were monros but they weren't. The passenger side was a totally shot Cofap. So now its ascertained that all four shocks on Missionare were different. Here is a pic showing all of them


Front Passenger side - Brazilian Cofap (totally shot) - replaced with Brazilian Cofap
Front Driver side - Monro Gas (still juicy) - replaced with Brazilian Cofap
Rear Passenger side - Unknown Jap (totally shot) - replaced with NOS
Rear Driver side - Unknown Jap (shot) - replaced with NOS

Here is a pic showing newly installed passenger side shock

At last I was able to find an Early Bay Steering Wheel in quite a reasonable condition, though with couple of chips but its decent enough.



I would need a little DIY but its the best available at the moment. Thanks to Chris and Sohail for making this possible.

reezvaan wrote:

Here are some pics;
The driver side brakes (not the incorrect spindle nut/washer with patchy retaining spring)


The Passenger side brakes

Yesterday night, I removed the bearings from both the hubs and cleaned them up to receive the new bearings, both inner & outer. Once I was done cleaning the hubs, I returned to brakes to clean them up and for the first time I noticed that the rubber boots/dust boots on all four front cylinders were missing.  

Even though I have 05 NOS VARGA front wheel brake cylinders in stash but it was a shame to consider putting on the dust covers from the NOS units on these wheel cylinders which looked perfectly functional otherwise. So I started to check around online if these rubber boots were available somewhere to be bought with the parts suppliers. To my surprise, none sell these anymore!

Its when I asked around on the forums and Brian came to rescue with the information as well as boots. Here is what he had to say;

BJ1 wrote:

They used to come with cylinder repair kits but those have all but disappeared from Europe. Probably still available in Brazil though. I have a few used boots in reasonable condition that you can have for the cost of postage

Brian

So he is all paid up and boots would be on their way soon Thanks Brian, you're the man!

Time to change front wheel bearings on Missionare.
Front Inners: LM67048/LM67060
Front Outers: LM11949/10
Bearing Seal Part # 211.405.641D

Rear Chassis Rail Ends were crusty and had minimal paint left on them. Since I had already sealed the inside of the rear valance with red-oxide didn't want it to catch rust again from the crusty rear ends so cleaned them up to bare metal and sealed them with red oxide too.

reezvaan wrote:

At last I was able to find an Early Bay Steering Wheel in quite a reasonable condition, though with couple of chips but its decent enough.



I would need a little DIY but its the best available at the moment. Thanks to Chris and Sohail for making this possible.

Was picked up last night and as expected has a few cracks at the center (the usual spots for an EB wheel). Will need restoring.





Easy job though, will do it once its time to mount it. And here is how its suppose to be done:

reezvaan wrote:

Missionare was missing under the rear seat heater vents which connect to the Y section under the floor which then connects to heat exchangers with heater pipes. These are now sourced after quite a bit of looking. Though these are missing the black knobs but I think I have some Ivory knobs in spare in my stash which can be used for now until I source the black ones:)

Missionare is also missing the heater pipes and grommets. Grommets are already bought but the pipes need buying still. and I am still looking for a nice OG pair of pipes.



And here is where these go on:

Went with a different pair which is complete in the end. Here it is:

Replaced all four (inner & outer) front wheel bearings on saturday night, serviced the front brakes and cleaned/painted (red oxide) the front hubs.

Also sourced these front (x9) and rear (x2) bearing seals for Missionare locally through Mouqeem Autos. Thanks to @shakes


Front Seals VW part # 211 405 641 D (ORION)
Rear Seals VW part # 211 501 317 (GOETZE)

The passenger side hub is in bad shape and would need replacement sometime soon. I am working on it and trying to bring a good used unit from abroad. Will update if there is some success.

The BRM Speedwells that I bought for Missionare came without the center caps. So had to sort them out. Found some flat ones and one taller one. Flat ones wont fit the rears so might be needing another taller one.


Found with the same seller was this Cab door handle for EB with some locking wafers to key the lock.


And this rear hatch VW script too.

Had a couple of hours available in the evening today so thought would tidy up the engine bay a little. started by de-greasing the rear engine tin. ended up straightening it, painting it in flat black and mounting it correctly.

While at it, also cleaned/de-rusted the rear valance outer side and sealed it with red oxide. now the engine bay looks just a touch cleaner.


better pics in the morning as it was already dark by the time I was done.

A pair of German Engine Mounts sourced from Mouqeem Autos RWP thanks to @shakes.


One of these is broke on Missionare and needed immediate replacement. So very timely find these.

Again, from Mouqeem Auto Store through @shakes

Well as we've seen the extent of rot and repair that has been done on the lower edge of Missionare's windscreen frame I am almost certain that the rot has gotten into the inner windscreen panel too. Therefore while looking for other cheap replacement panels, I was also looking for inner windscreen repair panel. Just that instead of a new panel I came across this rot free good used OG inner windscreen panel and that too for half the price of the new panel so picked it up.

reezvaan wrote:

reezvaan wrote:

Dealers were provided Body Repair Manuals by VW which illustrated where to cut and how much to cut in case a panel was needed to be changed. The same manuals illustrated how and where to weld a replacement panel on, with related measurements given thereof. All such manuals seem to have vanished, especially the ones related to Bay Window buses and those which are out there (and there aren't many as I know of only two) cost more than an arm and leg.

Since I am planning to do the welding on Missionare myself, I am hunting for one such manual for all these months since I had decided to do the welding myself. One such manual was fished out with David who seem to have a complete body repair manual. Here are some shots from the manual under discussion:

Thanks to Johnny of EB, sorted this! Johnny has compiled EB Body Work Manual CD covering every aspect of body work. The manual on the CD would be on its way tomorrow morning!

Here are some screen shots from the Manual that he has compiled on the CD:







Thanks Johnny, you've been a wonderful help. Now I can go ahead with the body work the correct way without much hassle right at my porch!

And this priceless documentation has arrived yesterday. Time to get all excited!


Its very detailed and covers each and every panel replacement on Early Bays. Will post some pics when I have more time.

Picked this fella a while ago, looks to be in great nick. Lets hope it makes it safely to Pakistan LOL

The container carrying Missionare parts gathered and bought over last few month have eventually arrived in Pakistan and the delivery of the parts is expected in the morning or by day after morrow at the latest. Stay tuned for some exciting updates and pictures.

Delivered this evening, this probably is the first wide5 BRM set that has been on any aircooledVW here in Pakistan.



Stock wide5 steelies or the BRMs?

Mother load of Missionare parts have arrived and lot more to yet to come. As I get time, I am unpacking the boxes and all the good stuff is being yielded. NOTHING matches the excitement of seeing all these long sought and awaited bits right in front of you that you bought all over.

Missionare's lowered K/L Beam has arrived. Originally from a 67 Splitty, the beam is in immaculate condition. Never welded, no rot not even surface rust and above all, a 7 inches travel adjusters fitted! Pakistan is going to get its 1st ever lowered bus soon. Exciting times ahead!

Missionare's share of POR15 rust prevention kit that includes, prep ready, marine clean, rust preventive coating and rust preventive paint with fuel tank sealant arrived too.


So now we have enough POR15 to do all four of my VW projects and that too in abundance!

195/65R15 is too tall for the rear arches. Leaves no margin for suspension travel. 185/60R15 should solve the problem.


Here is how Missionare looks with BRM wide5s all around: