2/1/12
Happy new year everyone! , lets see how far I can get with the van this year.
I continued progress on the drivers side of the roof. After getting the first half of that section done it was time for the rear. My battery was going flat in my camera so theres not so much detail for this day.
I started by doing the rear corner then meeting in the middle.
I pretty much followed the same idea as the front corner, marked what i wanted to cut out and made a template.
Then cut it out, tap tap, tack in place, weld and dress up.
Corner sorted, time for the side. There was another larger section which held the Fiberglas pop-up roof in place that need replaced.
New piece in.
All the other smaller sections in and welded.
And cleaned up, this was when my battery did die so i couldn't get another shot of it from the rear.
That was that for that day. Before I left I checked over the other side of the roof and decided that the metal was still not bad and any little repairs i could do would be ok done on the van.
When i went back I figured out what i needed to do to re-attach the roof. I flipped it over upside down to inspect it.
I had intended to leave the ribs in place and clean around them but very quickly realised that to not do it would be foolish so they came out. (cross bracing was just to stop it warping.)
You can see the repairs from the other side with the joggled lip here. Quite a lot of surface rust from what im assuming would have been condensation. Luckily none of it had rusted through and the top was still smooth to the touch.
I took all the paint of the ribs first to refurbish them.
They were ok, just a few bits of weld to fix them from when i was removing them.
The smaller rear ones were also drilled out from the rivets and painted. I etch primed them, then a coat of normal primer and then i used some Citroen white from a job i done to paint inside the channels of the ribs, just to protect them. This is another thing i recommend, a white board. Its good to write lists, doodle pictures and communicate with the guy i share the garage with.
Larger ribs done. They had felt stapled onto them to stop drumming against the roof panel. I decided to just use heavy-duty sticky foam to do the same job.
Whilst i was doing the ribs and waiting on the paint dry i took all the paint of the underside of the roof. easier to do it on the table than the van. I etch-primed the areas that would be covered by the ribs.
With the piece on the front that had surface rust, i cleaned as much rust off as i could and gave it a coat of the special rust sealer primer then more etch.
Then I bolted the ribs to the body of the van. It was easier this way than to attach them to the roof first.
Then!, it was time for the next stage. The thing which i had been waiting on since taking the roof off. Now it was time to stick the roof back on. My dad came along with a nice welcoming flask of coffee and muscles. Alastair ( the guy i share the garage with) was also roped into helping with the lift. It went pretty smoothly, lifting it up and walking from the front to back and dropping it into position. I felt really quite excited to see it with a roof on again. Like im getting nearer and nearer. When big things like this get done it looks so different!.
less talk, more pictures.
I still need to tack the roof into position which means lifting and pushing to get the perimeter parallel to the guttering but its looking promising so far. The only thing thats annoying me is the passengers side rear corner which i think i may need to add metal onto but il see once i start tweaking and welding. I'm feeling quite happy and chuffed with myself, another big step made!.
He has his hat back on.
