June update.
I've had quite a busy past few weeks. Had to skip a few weekends from the garage to move house. I only moved a few houses down to escape the benefit sponging neighbours and their kids that lived above me. So im a lot happier now and not so on edge anymore, phew!. The times ive managed to get to the garage have been busy. I was wanting to wait until i had sprayed the primer on the whole van for this update but i just checked and i have about 70 photos already so thought it would be wise to split this update for now.
I continued on the last few repairs to the body at the front. This is the little lip that runs under the door opening.
Then welded in.
I the tackled the last major piece of work. The rotten front corner and step. I had already done the drivers side but this one was a bit worse than that.
I started by cutting out the******to give me a good base to start rebuilding from.
As i was cutting the door post away on this side, i needed to put a brace in to stop it moving.
carry on chopping.
So, this is all what needs to be replicated.
I begun with the inner box section as everything else attaches to it. I measured all my sizes and put it on a nice piece of 1.2mm.
Then folded all the lips up.
Little bit of weld through primer and stuck it in place.
I made my little YouTube video for this section and just realised i never took any photos of me doing it. If you missed the video its here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNzCubyqqRU
I made the front section larger than i needed so i could cut it down to size once fixed in place.
Then i worked on the rear of the panel. I had to make the little panel to fill this gap.
Cardboard template came in handy for this.
I reused my jig from the previous side to get the curved channel.
The next weekend , Jana decided she would come down to keep me company. I gave her the old seats to strip down.
One of the better things about the wife coming along is the packed lunch she makes, yum! I usually end up just walking to the shop and getting a packet of pickled onion crisps and a red-bull but that day i had about 4 rolls, crisps and coffee, good woman
๐ .
Welded up the whole step panel.
Next up was the door post section. I cut all the rust away from the old post so i could re-use as much as i can.
cut out the new piece, ready to get folded.
The fold it and weld to the old post.
And tack it to the body. I had also tidied up the front section of the panel by this point.
Wee bit of primer.
Now to do the corner piece
Make a new one.
Get it stuck in.
I rolled the van over so i could tie in all the pieces underneath and weld them up.
Tack the pieces i removed for access earlier.
Outer corner being assessed.
Trying to use as much of the original as i can.
Then get it stuck in place.
Nearly done with the front corner.
As there was a bit of welding to do here i started to repair the front light bar hole. I wanted to minimise distortion so i let the welds cool and worked on this at the same time.
Exact same process as the other side.
Use the hole cutter to make a Nice hole for repair.
All welded.
And cleaned up.
With the major hurdle out the way it was just a few little pieces to replace.
Little bit under the grill opening.
Cut it out and shrink/stretch a piece of angle.
stick it on.
and clean it up
The corner of the grill opening was rotten too.
This is a good example of how something can look not bad on one side but far worse on the other.
"meh, not too bad"
"bugger"
I traced the rough shape of it on to a scrap bit of 1.2mm with a lot of excess to enable easier folding.
Then trimmed it and tacked it.
A little back piece completed the area.
And now, with out further ado. This is the last, yes thats right, the last rust section to repair on the body. Around the windscreen frame i found this. Actually, just realised something. The first area i tried was the windscreen surround so to finish on another part of the surround some how seems quite fitting.
So there we are. All major body work on the van body is done.
Its only been 3 years...... yeah i could have done more if i never had a full time job and life to get on with but i feel its an achievement. I really want to get on with spraying the epoxy primer on now, to me, that is when i will feel truly happy with it. So im going to go along today and make a start on the prep.
Oh, when i had finished the roof of the van i started to collect all the little piece of the body i cut off. So heres a little collage of about 80% of everything i had to repair , minus the roof sections.
Not long and i get to start on the mechanical side, yippee. Although, that means i need a new car. I have seen a car i really want and im considering buying, its a bit unusual so thats cool. I'll post pics if i buy it.