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Meet Nellie...a 1969 Volkswagen Transporter Camper Van. She is going to be receiving a full and proper restoration.

We arranged the safe transportation of Nellie from her owners' home in Sackets Harbour, New York to our facility and also took care of the paper work at Canada and U.S Customs.

There will be a large amount of fabrication and new metal work to perform, there is excessive use of body filler in the typical common rust areas. There are some structural issues at the frame rails that we will also be addressing.

It appears that Nellie has been well cared for, and she looks to have some upgraded options. She even has the Factory Original Service Maintenance booklet with the correct ink stamps for her service records, beginning with the first original factory stamp in Germany ( A Very Rare Find).

We will be bringing her back to the original stock appearance on the exterior, and the client may want more of a custom interior, and she will be painted the factory correct "Montana Red" (L30H) paint finish.

Once she arrived at our shop, we put the battery on trickle charge, added fresh gas, and cleaned the carb. The next day, she started right up! (After sitting for about 4 years)...the engine smokes a bit, we will examine the engine later.

We began with the "Tear down" and removed all of the exterior trim, bumpers, front seats, rubber mats, and lights.

We sanded the several layers of red paint from the exterior to verify the amount of fabrication that will be required, and what aftermarket repair panels to order. The first large metal order was ordered, and has arrived.

The interior has been removed, the curtains, cabinets, fridge, sink, bed, and flooring to metal. This will allow us to assess the amount of fabrication that will be needed in the interior floor and wheel well areas.

We began cutting away old rusted out metal and removing large amounts of body filler. Whoever performed the previous repairs did not repair rusted out areas correctly...they welded replacement panels on top of the rotted ones. It appears the side panels warped due to being overheated. They used a hammer and dented in the panels above the new panels & used excessive amounts of body filler in an attempt to level out the sides of the van.

A substantial amount of fabrication was completed. The next step was block sanding and smoothing of all body panels. All of the correct factory "grooves and seams" were done.

Nellie received her custom two tone paint job. We painted her with Premium Single Stage paint. Our client requested VW Authentic Cloud White (VW Code L581) and Montana Red (VW Code L30H) paint finish.

We will be turning our attention to all of the doors, front grille, engine surround and filler panels. They will require more fabrication and smoothing.

Stay tuned as work to this nice camper continues ......

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