Step one. Bought the van.
Hello Everybody, First post. I camp a lot in tents but after spending three days straight in a tent in the rain at Dolly Sods I swore I'd make a change. Here it is. Bought it Wednesday. Dro...
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Use hand tools to bend the parts for the inside of the wheel well
Weld the back plate into place. And before anyone else mentions it, Yeah I know I'm a crappy welder.
Tack the front plate into place.
You'll notice Mistake #1 in the upper right corner. I wasn't aggressive enough in cutting out the partially rusted metal. I found out when trying to weld to what was left and the weld just blow right through the old metal. I cut some more out and made a small patch to fix this.
Mistake #2. DON"T OVER GRIND YOUR WELDS! This is the first time I'm welding sheet metal like this and in wanting to smooth out the welds I ended up grinding into the metal. It made a section so thin that I burned right through it when trying to re-patch it. Probably a common newbie problem.
In the photo above you can see lots of little holes in the weld line. I went back and fixed each one of those. Also note that the back and front plates are welded together at the bottom.
continued
Use hand tools to bend the parts for the inside of the wheel well
Weld the back plate into place. And before anyone else mentions it, Yeah I know I'm a crappy welder.
Tack the front plate into place.
You'll notice Mistake #1 in the upper right corner. I wasn't aggressive enough in cutting out the partially rusted metal. I found out when trying to weld to what was left and the weld just blow right through the old metal. I cut some more out and made a small patch to fix this.
Mistake #2. DON"T OVER GRIND YOUR WELDS! This is the first time I'm welding sheet metal like this and in wanting to smooth out the welds I ended up grinding into the metal. It made a section so thin that I burned right through it when trying to re-patch it. Probably a common newbie problem.
In the photo above you can see lots of little holes in the weld line. I went back and fixed each one of those. Also note that the back and front plates are welded together at the bottom.
continued
