T25 Resto - Grot removal and welding

[ned]

Right, after over a year of thinking about it I thought it was about time I started carving the grot off my van. This could be a BIG mistake as I have done little metal work before and nothing as ambitious as this.

The van could do with a lot of panels being replaced but I'm going to start with all I need to get it through an MOT. Unfortunately it's not a small patch but a whole rear arch.

1st pic you can see a bodge patch job covering a hole near the rear swing trailing arm mount. This'll be the MOT issue.



2nd pic shows the lower arch ripped off revealing all sorts of crud that I found when I started poking around where I wished I hadn't.



3rd pic shows it all a bit better once the wing is completely off.



That's all I've done so far, I'm hoping I stick with this or I'll miss another summer of fun in the van.

Wish me luck!

[ned]

Yesterday I drilled the spots for the inner arch to pull that out as there really isn't enough of it left for me to repair, I'll have to fabricate a new one from scratch which will be a challenge.
Half my time was spent removing the ton of sealant hiding the locations of these spots underneath. The spots holding the inner arch to the lip of the inner "wall" were easy enough to deal with cleanly but the ones holding it to the floor were sods to break and ended up drilling right through and breaking with a chisel trying not to distort the edge of the floor panel. I'll have to use plug welds when I put the new arch in.

Spots revealed, picture doesn't do the amount of sealant justice.


Top row of spots broke nice, bottom row were rubbish




I'll be looking at the cutting the rear corner next, more than I knew needs doing but no more than expected!

[jimpainter]

Looks nice and crusty. Plenty of work for you there.

[boatbuilder]

Thats a 1990 van? Wow...my 84 was about the same or slightly less rusty in that area.

[choplee]

Keep on smiling fella things will always get better at some point .. you could have a worse hobby ( that's what i tell the wife when she moans at me ... )

[bmouthboyo]

Any update to this?

[ned]

Project stalled a bit since last update but I am hoping to pick up where I left off soon, don't want to miss another summer in the van!
Will make sure I keep this up to date when I do.