Cheers for the moral support and compliments, makes it easier to get on with stuff.
Another good thing about my work is we sell a lot of door handles, letter boxes, gas fires etc... therefor we are left with lots of little boxes, big boxes and bubble wrap. Everything has been labelled and packed neatly away with there description on the boxes. Bigger stuff like glass and the roof has been hidden out of harms way. As i started stripping it all down it sort of hit me that in a way the whole thing is lots of little projects to make one big project. i.e, the front doors, They both need a lot of work on the frames and door skins, then the locks need stripped, window channel, window seals etc..
Next door to my work i have a friend who has a huge caustic tank. Unfortunatly its not big enough for the whole van but will easily take the doors, panels, etc.. So when im sandblasting the nooks and krannies i dont need to distort the panels with it, i can just put them in the caustic tank to strip the paint. The acid is a good idea to de-rust delicate stuff.
My plan is to weld braces diagonally and horizontally inside. So when i build the dodegacon and have it on its side, it wont start to sag and distort. Once that is done, and the dodegagon has been fitted i can roll it on its side then I will build a 'tent' made of thick clear sheeting, sealing all the edges and use a sandblaster to clean all the **** off underneath and on the chassis. Then i can roll it the right way up and sand blast the thicker parts inside, but il need to hand strip the bigger flat panels inside so as not to distort them. Once done and the rust has been removed i can spray a thin protector coat of primer all round to stop surface rust forming. After all that i can start figuring out how to fix the roof as i see that as the biggest obstacle to fix. The dodegagon will be made so it splits in half to give access to the roof. Id rather start hard and work towards the easy.
This is by no means a set in concrete plan so if anyone has a better suggestion then tell me. This is the first van and real restoration ive done.
My work also has a spare plasma cutter that isnt working right now (i think its the torch head). So i asked my boss that if i get it repaired could i keep it in the garage and hes agreed so that a bonus.
