Date:         Sat, 04 May 1996 12:16:41 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Thom Fitzpatrick <thom@calweb.com>
Subject:      '54 RHD Deluxe Update

        Mid-Day Update:

        Just got the driver's side frame rail welded on!  I was going to
notch it in the back (notch back, get it?)  and cut a beautiful half moon
shaped piece out of it, using another torsion bar as a guide.   Fit
beuatifully, until I put it up against my bus, when I realised that while it
was going to fir perfectly, it was 1" - 1 1/2" too high!  I'd made the cut
directly in the middle of the section, when it should have been off-center,
towards the top!  D'oh!  So I got a chunk of metal from a friend down the
street (knock knock! "Yes?"  "Can I borrow a piece of .10 mild steel, about
3" long and 2"  Wide?" "Most certainly!")

        Anyway, I got the rest of the areas clean up so I could clamp
everything in place.  Once I got everything shuffled around, I looked it
over for about 15 minutes, then committed the whole thing.

        Now I have to fabricate a piece to mate the rear torsion bar to the
frame rail.  With the 2 sections butted together in the center, I get about
1" of overhang in the front, and it just butts up against the torsion tube
in the back.  The piece I have to fab will gusset the frame and torsion
tube.  At the same time, I'll fab the piece to section the piece that goes
up from the frame rail up to the torsion bar in the front.

        Outriggers are on order from Das Bulli Haus, and I'm going to get an
order for center sections (between the frame rails, front and rear) out
today.  I also have to fab a couple pieces to box the front and rear section
of the rails, and to gusset the butt weld where the two sections meet in the
middle.  And thats exactly how it was done at the factory!

Thom Fitzpatrick
thom@calweb.com - http://www.calweb.com/~thom
Keeper of the Barndoor Bus Web Page: http://www.calweb.com/~thom/barndoor.html