Hendie's 1971 VW T2 Bay Window Devon Conversion conversion

[Brandy]

Out of the box thinking again. It worked beautifully!

 

Ian

[Pete in Lincs]

Here's a picture of Hendie (years ago) trying to get the roof to pop up...

https://64.media.tumblr.com/dc43d2067739264dbfb924d431b5f0d7/tumblr_pdpbk6LGJs1xzdmywo1_500.jpg

[TheBaron]

Looks like he's holding something in place whilst the glue dries in that photo.

Some things never change....

[hendie]

On 10/1/2022 at 1:11 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

Great update. Safe landings. See you later.

 

I've landed. It's later. Much later.

 

On 10/2/2022 at 3:56 AM, giemme said:

Safe travels, Alan.

 

That roof top is simply amazing!

 

Ciao 

 

thanks Giorgio. It will be amazing if I can get the whole thing to look right at the end of the day - there's still a concertina bellows affair to go in there yet.

 

On 10/3/2022 at 11:03 AM, Brandy said:

Out of the box thinking again. It worked beautifully!

 

Ian

 

thanks Ian.

 

On 10/22/2022 at 1:53 PM, Pete in Lincs said:

Here's a picture of Hendie (years ago) trying to get the roof to pop up...

https://64.media.tumblr.com/dc43d2067739264dbfb924d431b5f0d7/tumblr_pdpbk6LGJs1xzdmywo1_500.jpg

 

 

On 11/4/2022 at 6:08 PM, TheBaron said:

Looks like he's holding something in place whilst the glue dries in that photo.

Some things never change....

 

and it's always that one corner which  refuses to stick down.  

 

Despite the somewhat dubious efforts of HM Passport Office on that side of the oggin, and the sloth like expediency of the USCIS on this side of the oggin... 

 

There was a time when I was not sure if I was ever going to get back home (USA home that is).  Stuck in the UK with no passport and no Green Card and for a short time, no work, it was touch and go for a while. Luckily the hotel had a 24 hour bar to stop me from going insane.

 

Unluckily, the hotel had a 24 hour bar and I now have to work another 4.894 years until I can afford to retire.  I do however, have a shiny new passport. It took a while for it to materialize though.  I applied to renew my daughters passport 5 weeks after I ordered my renewal, and she received her passport 3 full weeks before mine turned up.  I still don't have a Green Card but those nice folks at the USCIS have just issued me with another letter stating that my Green card is now valid for two years after the expiration date - I only applied for it just over eighteen months ago.  Can't beat efficiency can you?

 

 

I've been back around a week now and finally plucked up the courage to climb into the darkest depths of the Hend chamber to see what awaited me.  I seem to remember something Orange.  

 

It was still there, and it still scared me, and I still wasn't sure what I was doing.  The whole bodywork thing was quite daunting so I completely avoided that by digging out the engine and playing with that for a while.  It was time to start adding some wires.

 

 

Talk about fiddly!   I spent several hours between sticking things on, procrastinating, and breaking things off.  Finally I bit the bullet and glued the engine tray into the chassis.

I added some small electrickery things prised from an old cellphone to act as electrical gubbinses on the rear bulkhead.  The oil filter was added on it's little stand and all the aluminum hoses attached.  It was a pleasant surprise to find that everything sort of fitted without too much wrangling.

 

 

I need a couple of batteries and that should be about as much as I'll do in the back end.

 

Still avoiding anything bodywork related I looked for other jobs.  I knew I had printed out some decals before I went orf sabbaticaling. I also knew I had put them in a safe place.  It only took about 20 minutes of searching to find them this time around.

I had printed a selection of floor coverings I had filched from the web and coated them before leaving so I guess the varnish will have cured by now.

Floorboards. A selection of.    I'm leaning towards either the top left version or the top right version.

 

 

... and went with the top left version.   I cut some plasticard to floor size and applied the decal to that, wrapping it around the edges and sealing everything with a good gloss coat.  I also made a floor card over the engine bay and sprayed that a mix of black green and black grey.  Both just dry fitted at the mo.

 

 

I also printed the air vent diffusers and fitted those.  It's all starting to take shape now and every now and then I get a tinge of nostalgia kicking in.

 

 

The door interior cards were ca'd in place and I still can't make up my mind whether I'm going to go with the kit hinges or have an attempt at making my own. Indecision.

 

 

Then back to the engine bay.   Overnight I had printed a couple of batteries which were then painted up and installed. The main vehicle battery is on the starboard RHS and the larger, leisure battery is on the left hand side. The kit came with a couple of "VARTA" decals so those got stuck on the batteries.

 

 

which was pretty much a waste of time cos you can only just see it if you glance in at the side

 

 

like so

 

 

The overall impression though is quite satisfying.  The fan belt is still to be fitted and the engine bay is far too clean so that will all have to be grubbied up later.

 

 

She's starting to look more and more like my old van now, but still a long way to go on this build.

 

 

Back to work tomorrow and already it feels like I've been back for months and not just a few days. 

Until next time folks.

 

[mark.au]

Glad you’re back in all the places you’re supposed to be.

[Terry1954]

Ah, good to see this back, a great update, and superb work in the engine bay!

 

Terry

 

[Brandy]

Glad you got back ok. I got around the green card issues by getting citizenship but that too has its down side.

Nice engine though.

 

Ian

[Pete in Lincs]

9 hours ago, hendie said:

and the larger, leisure battery

I've heard about this sort of thing. Best keep schtum, eh?

Welcome back. Nice engine bay. Letterbox. Told you so....

Oh yes, beware low bridges in a VW bus....

[giemme]

And he's back!

 

And with quite an update, too!

 

Engine bay looking suitably busy, and it's all coming together wonderfully!   

 

Ciao 

[TheBaron]

A smashing return to form Alan, flooring, batteries, in fact the whole shebang is looking superb already.

 

More passport action than a Jason Bourne movie too... 😁

[Fritag]

 

12 hours ago, mark.au said:

Glad you’re back in all the places you’re supposed to be.

 

Glad you’re back in all the pieces you’re supposed to be (although that’s an assumption given then 24 hr bar and access to all the curry houses you could wish for…)

 

13 hours ago, hendie said:

from an old cellphone

 

 You are so American…

 

Any which way, it’s straight back to top form, no practice matches or warm-up required.  Engine bay looks fab., even through the letter box.

 

All is well with BM; Alan is back posting updates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Spiny]

This is shaping up to be a very impressive build. But not half as impressive as the fact that it only took you 20 minutes to find something which had been stored "in a safe place"...

[hendie]

On 11/20/2022 at 5:12 PM, mark.au said:

Glad you’re back in all the places you’re supposed to be.

 

On 11/20/2022 at 5:57 PM, Terry1954 said:

Ah, good to see this back, a great update, and superb work in the engine bay!

 

Terry

 

 

thanks Ian, thanks Terry.

 

On 11/21/2022 at 1:37 AM, Brandy said:

Glad you got back ok. I got around the green card issues by getting citizenship but that too has its down side.

Nice engine though.

 

Ian

 

since the only additional benefit that citizenship appears to offer is the chance to vote, I think I'll pass on that Ian.

 

On 11/21/2022 at 1:45 AM, Pete in Lincs said:

I've heard about this sort of thing. Best keep schtum, eh?

Welcome back. Nice engine bay. Letterbox. Told you so....

Oh yes, beware low bridges in a VW bus....

 

no. No.  NO!   I'm not going down that path.   You and your cursed google-fu!

 

On 11/21/2022 at 1:55 AM, giemme said:

And he's back!

 

And with quite an update, too!

 

Engine bay looking suitably busy, and it's all coming together wonderfully!   

 

Ciao 

 

I think the engine bay is about wrapped up for the time being.  I still have the heat exchangers and the exhaust to add but that'll be waayyy down the road.

 

On 11/21/2022 at 3:47 AM, TheBaron said:

A smashing return to form Alan, flooring, batteries, in fact the whole shebang is looking superb already.

 

More passport action than a Jason Bourne movie too... 😁

 

 

On 11/21/2022 at 6:17 AM, Fritag said:

 

 

Glad you’re back in all the pieces you’re supposed to be (although that’s an assumption given then 24 hr bar and access to all the curry houses you could wish for…)

 

 

 You are so American…

 

Any which way, it’s straight back to top form, no practice matches or warm-up required.  Engine bay looks fab., even through the letter box.

 

All is well with BM; Alan is back posting updates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I have a few more pieces than I left with Steve.  All that beer.  I even ran the hotel out of Southern Comfort.  Not to mention all those curries and fish suppers, oh, and  Greggs steak bakes... no option really as the hotel food was awful.  I must start dieting again... wait, it's Thanksgiving tomorrow, then Crimbo is coming down the pipe.  January then. I'll start dieting in January. 

Maybe.

 

On 11/21/2022 at 3:45 PM, Spiny said:

This is shaping up to be a very impressive build. But not half as impressive as the fact that it only took you 20 minutes to find something which had been stored "in a safe place"...

 

I found another safe place.  This time the safe place was the bin.  Prior to my departure I had spent a hour or so whittling away a pair of sun visors and put them in a safe place to await my return.  I only remembered I'd actually made them by accident yesterday - after I had a little clear up.

 

Here we are. Away for seven or eight weeks.  I arrived back in time last week for a 4 day week, and this week was a 3 day week due to Thanksgiving.   I couldn't make the 3rd day - too much effort so I snuck in a days vacation to avoid dealing with all the hassle that real work entails.

Instead, I headed off into the deepest darkest basement land and worried some plastic. (After I'd had a few coffees)

Task 1:  Glue the floorpan to the chassis.

 

 

Simple, but not particularly satisfying.

Neither was sticking the undercarriage, oops drivetrain to the chassis.  I'm not especially enamoured of the underparts as they are extremely simplified, however, I have to remember that this is a snap together kit aimed at a younger generation. As much as I would like to add a bit of realism here, any modifications would essentially mean throwing the kit parts away, modifying the chassis plate and then having to scratch build everything from there forwards.  A job too far.  I'll expend my efforts on the interior and parts that can actually be seen.

 

 

Such as this here pop top. wiv an 'ole init.  Such a simple task but quite frightening.  Get that hole in the wrong place and there's a lot of rework to start.        I started off very cautiously and cut the opening much smaller than it needed to be so I could creep up on it later.  The pop top itself was glued to the kit roof section with E6000 - a blob on each corner and a light smear on the front and rear section where the pop top touched the kit roof.

 

 

While playing with that lot the kit roof fell off which was a timely reminder that I hadn't got around to gluing it onto the bodywork yet.  Guess wot the next task was?

 

 

while that lot was off at the back of the bench curing I took the opportunity to attach my home brewed grill to the front panel.  Scraps of styrene were employed to hold positions and fix the grill in place.

 

 

From the front end the effect is just what I was looking for.

 

 

For those veterans among you it will come as no surprise to learn that during all this manhandling I managed to break off the sill section below the sliding door.  This was after I had broken one side and glued it back, only to break the thing off completely about 2 hours later.  It's now in a safe place (no, not that one) and will be attached when the time is right and not before.

 

 

That orange plastic was really getting to me and it was about time something was done about it.  My eyes were hurting from the glare.

The boiler was stoked and the airbrush fired up in anticipation of some coloring in.  Lately I've become a fan of SMS primer and found it to be just as easy to use, but much more reliable than Alclad.  With some forethought I had purchased a couple of bottles before this build started, one being the standard grey, and the other being white. 

The SMS primer has excellent coverage though I swear I can still see bloody orange thorough the white primer.  Perhaps I should have used a preliminary coating of the grey primer before the white just to tone things down a bit.  

The front panel has turned out as I wanted with a nice thin gap between teeth grill and the surrounding bodywork.  A little touch up will be required as I can see a couple of saw marks evident and I'll need to lightly scribe a small groove on the left side of the grill but otherwise, it's all looking good for this stage in the build.

 

 

More coloring in and my eyesight is slowly returning.

 

 

After mulling over this for many weeks I took the bull by the horns and cut off the kit door hinges. I wasn't a great fan of the kit hinges but couldn't really think of a satisfactory alternative.   Now that the hinges are gone I have to option but to come up with an alternative mounting method. I'm sure it will be satisfactory 

 

 

A similar approach was employed on the rear hatch.  Hinges gone, I'm using small sections of brass tube ca'd to the hatch with 0.8mm rod to be used for the bracket (when I get around to forming it into the right shape).

 

 

Another job I was a bit scared of was modifying the bulged section aft of the sliding door.  Not immediately noticeable on the T2 is that these bulges are different on each side - on the non sliding door side it is a nice smooth bulge blending into the bodywork above and below the bulge. However on the sliding door side it is not really a bulge perse - it is a cover used to hide the track for the sliding door. The bulge sticks out further from the bodywork and the bottom edge is just a small 90 degree return.  Since I had swapped the sliding door from t'other side I thought I should have a go at making the track cover look more like a track cover.  

As it turned out the job went a lot better than I expected - I glued a small strip of 0.5mm styrene along the length of the bulged area, then scraped and sanded only the top edge to blend it back into the bodywork.  I know it's a crap photo so you'll just have to believe me when I say that it looks pretty decent.  When the sliding door is fitted in the open position (as I intend it to be ) only 3 or 4mm of that track will be visible.  Why do we bother?

 

 

Now we get to the stage where things start to become time consuming for little or no appreciable visual interest, yet those things still need to be done.

Take for instance the interior shot here.  There's lots of snap-together remnants showing up in the roof section which need dealing with.  It's not really a case of fill and sand here - the Devon Conversion had nice headling covering these sections and forming a nice transition into the pop top. 

 

 

For this I used 0.25mm sheet and omitted to take any photos of the process. In short, I scribed two lines 7mm apart and used these to form folds in the sheet. I really should have taken a photo.  Imagine if you can... a 1mm strip of styrene/Fold/7mm strip of styrene/Fold/then whatever was left on the strip I used.

The 1mm section was glued to a small ledge just above the window line, the 7mm section was bend upwards to meet the roof and glued where it met the roof, then the remaining styrene was bent vertically to meet the inside of the pop top.

There, does this make that any clearer?

 

 

Thought not.

 

ANyways, here's what it looks like frmo the inside now. (Also added the small roof cabinet which I'm going to have to remake as I've now relocated where the hinges will be fitted- see somewhere up above)

 

 

Up top I trimmed back the excess styrene and added a small rim of 0.1x 0.3 strip styrene.  As well as making it look a bit neater I'm sure that small lip will come in handy later when I get to the concertina section.

 

 

A bit of dry fitting for mojo lifting purposes

 

 

That's all for today folks.  Thanksgiving tomorrow.  The wife is still in Scotland and the daughter & her tribe will be heading off to the boyfriends for the Thanksgiving meal no doubt.  That leaves me, 3 cats and a small (stupid) dog to celebrate the occasion.  Damn, what I'd give to have a chip shop nearby.

 

 

 

 

 

[klubman01]

Great workmanship thus far.  Really enjoying the build, the details, and all the little touches.  It looks really good.

Trevor

 

[TheBaron]

Anothing cracking  body of work Alan -  reckon you made the right call on replacing the door hinges (selflessly said the bloke who's looking to nick your faultless solution to use on helicopter doors...)

16 hours ago, hendie said:

The SMS primer has excellent coverage though I swear I can still see bloody orange thorough the white primer. 

Could it be picking up the reflection of your tan after that holiday in Scotland?

[Pete in Lincs]

21 hours ago, hendie said:

.  January then. I'll start dieting in January. 

Maybe.

🤣

Good to see you back in the saddle (as it were) and making positive progress.

When you do find that 'safe place' please have a look for my 'saved' items. I certainly can't find them.

[hendie]

11 hours ago, klubman01 said:

Great workmanship thus far.  Really enjoying the build, the details, and all the little touches.  It looks really good.

Trevor

 

 

thanks Trevor

 

7 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Anothing cracking  body of work Alan -  reckon you made the right call on replacing the door hinges (selflessly said the bloke who's looking to nick your faultless solution to use on helicopter doors...)

 

as much as I'd like to take credit for that Tony, I filched the idea from @CrazyCrank's wonderful BMW build 

 

 

7 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Could it be picking up the reflection of your tan after that holiday in Scotland?

 

Don't be silly Tony.  I had my sunscreen on

 

 

The orange glow could well have been the reflection of these from my stints in the 24 hour bar though

 

 

2 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

🤣

Good to see you back in the saddle (as it were) and making positive progress.

When you do find that 'safe place' please have a look for my 'saved' items. I certainly can't find them.

 

Feel free to pop in and have a ratch around the basement anytime Pete.

 

Another tortuous day on the plastic fettling side made only worse by the fact that it was brass I was fettling and not plastic. This was another of these time consuming yet necessary jobs that needed done before I can progress with assembling the T2.

The pop up section of the pop top is held up by two spring loaded stays which are connected to a metal bracket at the center of the roof opening. While I don't intend my camper to be anything other than a static model, I knew when the time comes to attach that roof that there is going to be trouble.  I also know my fingers don't do finesse very well so I simply having a couple of plastic brackets wasn't going to cut it.

Weapon of choice here is 0.6mm brass sheet, scribed with important geometric stuff.

 

 

Step two was to start removing brass leaving behind just the required brackets.  The plan here, if it can be called a plan, is to make two brackets from this brass offcut

 

 

Once I was reasonably convinced that I could use these brackets it was time to drill a bunch of holes. Surprisingly I used only one drill bit to drill all 12 of these holes. I won't mention that about an hour later I broke about 5 drills while trying to drill just 8 holes in a single piece of styrene.

 

 

Holes successfully drilled it was time to remove more unwanted material on the bottom side, then separate the two brackets and swipe the file over them for a bit of a tidy up.

 

 

The bracket should end up around here somewhere.

 

 

The next task was to finish off the sliding door modification. I printed a small insert with the appropriate(ish) recess and set it into the :door" (which is actually the side panel I removed a while ago) and slopped on lashings of superglue.

I spent a few minutes positioning the insert in the cutout to try and get the surface of the insert just very slightly proud of the door to minimize the amount of filing, sanding, and buffing that will have to follow.

 

 

The time spent on getting that position was time well spent as it only took a few minutes to buff it all down

 

 

There's still a little bit of fettling to do - I spotted a small groove just at the top left of the recess when I examined this photo. It wasn't visible to my Mk1's but would no doubt have shown up under the final paint job. A little touch of ca should address that.

 

 

I also printed some door handles, so just for kicks... imagine the door is orange and the handle is all nicely chromed 

 

 

I'm still avoiding the job of reversing the dashboard to convert it into a RHD vehicle though I may not be able to avoid that job much longer.  

 

I bought a chicken for the Thanksgiving dinner since it's only me in the house today but some heid the baw completely forgot to buy potatoes.  Scrambled eggs on toast it is then.

 

 

 

 

 

[TheBaron]

5 minutes ago, hendie said:

I bought a chicken for the Thanksgiving dinner since it's only me in the house today but some heid the baw completely forgot to buy potatoes.  Scrambled eggs on toast it is then.

 

I'm no vet Alan but I don't think that chicken is going to be laying you any eggs at this stage...

[giemme]

"Workmanship " is the word here, no doubt. 

Those brass brackets are simply outstanding!

 

On top of that, we have 3D printed parts beautifully blended in the kit plastic and.... primer! My head is spinning!    

 

Ciao 

[Noel Smith]

Great build. What a refreshing change from racing, rally and supercars!

A good opportunity to market or share the 3D print files too for other T2 modellers.

[hendie]

On 11/24/2022 at 4:42 PM, TheBaron said:

 

I'm no vet Alan but I don't think that chicken is going to be laying you any eggs at this stage...

 

 

On 11/24/2022 at 5:27 PM, giemme said:

"Workmanship " is the word here, no doubt. 

Those brass brackets are simply outstanding!

 

On top of that, we have 3D printed parts beautifully blended in the kit plastic and.... primer! My head is spinning!    

 

Ciao 

 

thanks Giorgio.  

 

On 11/25/2022 at 3:49 AM, Noel Smith said:

Great build. What a refreshing change from racing, rally and supercars!

A good opportunity to market or share the 3D print files too for other T2 modellers.

 

There can't be many if any, folks out there daft enough to try and modify this kit and turn it into something semi accurate.

 

Not much of yer actual plastic worrying offenses were committed today.   At least not enough to bother taking photos of.  Most of my time today was spent on the digital modeling side of things to try and catch up on a lot of the interior stuff that up until yesterday I had conveniently forgotten about.

 

Items such as the air vent transition piece.  This fits onto the bulkhead behind the front seats and connects the airflow from the doors through the rear cabin.

 

 

Now whether some of these pieces actually print successfully or not remains to be seen. If they can be printed, can they even be handled without a) breaking them, b) losing them, or c) pinging them off into oblivion with the tweezers. 

From left to right, top to bottom:

Rear seat belt inertia reel, then seat belt sticky in latchy bit

Front seat belt inertia reel, then seat belt feed through bracket

Rear floor mounted heater vent, then seat belt catchy latchy bit that grabs the seat belt sticky in latchy bit

 

 

Also making a grand appearance on screen today was the pop top roof vent. This will be a 3 piece affair with the two flanged components sandwiching the roof or at leadt having a brave attempt at doing so. 

 

 

The 3rd component, the vent cover was a semi opaque (or semi translucent?) plastic. It was almost white but not quite and you could almost see through it but not quite. That presents a problem in that I'm not really sure how to reproduce that effect in model scale.

I did think of using the print as a vacuform buck and overheating some PETG which would discolor it towards that white I'd be looking for but I doubt I'd be able to capture the detail on that top cover.  More thought required.

I also printed out the interior panels today but made a booboo on the sliding doorp panel so I've made some modifications and will reprint that tomorrow, or maybe even overnight.

 

 

 

[Noel Smith]

Forgot to mention in my last post that back in the 80's I worked for a fabrication company that had one of these. I drove it many a time from the Bedfordshire factory up to the Caterpillar factory at Desford near Leicester with pallet or stillage loads of bits that could be forklifted on and off through the sliding door. That vehicle certainly worked for a living and was probably Knackered by the time it was disposed of. I did like driving it though!

[giemme]

Looking forward to how those tiny bits print out - they look impressive already!  

Ciao

[The Spadgent]

On 23/11/2022 at 21:06, hendie said:

then Crimbo is coming down the pipe.  January then. I'll start dieting in January. 

Maybe.

You and me both Alan, you and me both. 🫃

lovely to catch up on das buss. The work is fine and wonderful and I’m now seriously considering my Defender kit for my next build. Even though it will be OOB (probably) 🤪

hope you had a peaceful thanksgiving and are ready for the food onslaught that is Christmas. 🎄🫃🫃 (I hope you have some chicken left over for cold meat and chips) 😇

Looking forward to more T2 action. 
The engine looks great in place and the zapped resin idea is one that I can now enjoy myself having become the proud owner of my very own light saber. 
 

Johnny

 

 

[hendie]

On 11/27/2022 at 4:02 AM, Noel Smith said:

Forgot to mention in my last post that back in the 80's I worked for a fabrication company that had one of these. I drove it many a time from the Bedfordshire factory up to the Caterpillar factory at Desford near Leicester with pallet or stillage loads of bits that could be forklifted on and off through the sliding door. That vehicle certainly worked for a living and was probably Knackered by the time it was disposed of. I did like driving it though!

 

They were fun to drive once you got used to them. Luckily 1971 was the first year they fitted disc brakes so at least it could stop without giving you palpitations (much).  My wife preferred driving the T2 over her CRV for some reason.

 

On 11/28/2022 at 3:09 AM, giemme said:

Looking forward to how those tiny bits print out - they look impressive already!  

Ciao

 

Yes, Giorgio. It's often been commented on about how impressive my bits are.  Tiny? wait a minute...!

 

23 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

You and me both Alan, you and me both. 🫃

lovely to catch up on das buss. The work is fine and wonderful and I’m now seriously considering my Defender kit for my next build. Even though it will be OOB (probably) 🤪

hope you had a peaceful thanksgiving and are ready for the food onslaught that is Christmas. 🎄🫃🫃 (I hope you have some chicken left over for cold meat and chips) 😇

Looking forward to more T2 action. 
The engine looks great in place and the zapped resin idea is one that I can now enjoy myself having become the proud owner of my very own light saber. 
 

Johnny

 

 

 

Those lightsabers are definitely handy pieces of equipment Johnny.   Defender huh?   OOB?  Heavens!  you simply cannot even begin to contemplate an OOB build now we know what you are capable of.  That'd be sacrilege. 

 

I spent the morning at work catching up on making all the appointments I should have taken care of during my 2 month hiatus, then by the time I finished that I decided I couldn't be bothered staying at work so took the afternoon off to get some real work taken care of.

 

I spotted this job and immediately avoided it. THose gaps are going to need taken care of but there's little point in attacking them until the interior is ready to be concreted in place. No doubt it will be in and out a gazzillion times before it's ready to fix in place.

 

 

I did get the interior panels printed out with minimal shape tweaking to get them to nestle nicely inside. 

 

 

The amount of work involved to bring this anywhere near accurate is way more involved than I first anticipated. It may not be particularly complex but it is time consuming.  For example, the snap together kit doesn't provide for the interior ledge just below the window line so more plasticky bits are cut and fettled into place, then some supports for the interior panels are added to provide a bonding surface later.

 

 

I think I had mentioned in my last post that I had made an oopsie on the sliding door panel.   I got the features and dimensions correct, but what I had omitted to do was thin the panel out sufficiently to allow it to bend and conform to the curvature of the sliding door.

You can see a bit of a gap in this shot, and when I snuck a clamp onto the two parts the printed part stayed flat and the sliding door conformed to the shape of the printed part when I wanted it the other way around

 

 

Cue another print run with a few quick mods added. Original panel on the right and modified panel on the left and you can see that I have removed enough material to allow the printed part to bend while leaving a couple of strips in the middle of the panel to provide a bonding surface.

 

 

So when clamped the printed part now conforms to the shape of the kit part. 

 

 

Now to keep Giorgio happy we can take a look at my tiny bits    Leading up the race in the front line we have a tie between three seat belt components, then behind by a neck but coming up on the nearside are a couple of floor vents who in turn are being followed by a block of other seat belt stuff and some cabin vents

 

 

while out in left field we have some pop top roof vent shenanigans going on

 

 

I'm very happy with how the roof vent turned out. The part on the left (with the grill) is the interior of the pop top and t'other part below that is the pop top itself. 

 

 

then we have the skylight

 

 

which I think is going to help set things off when the time comes.

 

 

In other news I spent an inordinate amount of time staring at this screen trying to get my head around that air intake at the back end. It's a lot more complex than it lets on. 

 

 

After printing a number of different versions I settled on this particular version which I know isn't correct but it's as close as I can get without a) major modifications to the bodywork, and b) spending weeks modeling and printing different versions which still lead back to a),  and hopefully no-one but a complete T2 fanatic will ever be any the wider once it's all painted up.

I hope.

 

 

THis afternoon I fired up the airbrush and applied the final colors to the interior panels.  They just need a satin coat now to give that olde worlde vinyl appearance.

 

 

I have left myself with a bit of a task on the sliding door panel though - the outer edges of the panel and that top section need to be white, but that's a job for another day.

While the coloring in book was out I colored in some seat belt parts. The black/chrome part on the left of the snot ball is being reprinted as I forgot to add a slot for the seat belt to loop through but the other parts passed QC without too many issues.

 

 

as did the floor mounted heater vents. I still need to add the control lever but one thing at a time eh?. 

 

 

Almost lastly, but not quite... a quick check of the front to rear cabin heater conduit (thon thing at the end of the tweezers.  No, the sharp end...) shows that a bit of a tweak is required to allow for a better fit... being reprinted as I type.

 

 

Seat?  Did someone mention a seat?   Oh well spotted sir. Yes, there is a printed seat in the shot above. 

I wasn't too over the moon with the kit part - seen here in the foreground, as it was a bit bland.  I daresay there could well have been a seat of this design fitted at some point but it definitely did not represent the seats I had fitted in my old bus and were undoubtedly originals.  So I made my own.

 

 

That was the result of the first test print. A few very minor tweaks were made and they are now happily bathing in UV light as they grow from the resin bath.

 

They are going to look much better than the kit parts.  Looking at this I may shrink the seat in the X axis as viewed a little, maybe to 95% just to give me a little leeway in getting the vents and seatbelt fittings all in place at assembly time.

 

 

Printed parts and paint. What more could Giorgio want?  

 

Oops. It just gone 5 - time to finish work now