Club 80-90 Forums

Removed cover from windscreen and cleaned down windscreen opening. Frame holed at two points at bottom and two at top.

Cut out rot at bottom and made a couple of repair pieces to fit in.


Will repair in two parts. Restore inner flange with small triangular piece and then weld in repair piece you can see in photo. The holes to the left will just be filled with weld and ground back.


This side will also be repaired with two pieces. One to restore inner flange and then angled piece to fill hole. The repair pieces I fit to inner flange will be bigger to start with for cutting down after grinding welds flush.

The repairs to the top should be easy as it has not rotted out to the curved section of frame. Both repair plates will be about 15mm x 40mm.

Ok as Jeff mentioned we eventually had the engine running smooth and ticking over/idling and took it out for a short run so far so good. I decided to tidy up and sort out some of the wiring in the engine bay as lots of connector blocks and male and female spades where being used to joint up and extend cables etc. After this part tidy up on the left hand rear of the van I had managed to make the van loose its spark! DOH!

So far checked the wiring between the halls sender and idle stabilisation unit where one cable seems to have a slight intermittent break when the cables are moved this needs to be re-checked.
Also need to check the earth from the engine to the stabilisation unit to make sure there is not a high resistance.
At the coil we have power with the ignition turned on but need to check the primary and secondary resistances to see if it’s within tolerance.

At present we have no ignition light so we swapped alternators from Jeff’s van and connected and turned on ignition we then had a light so I am hoping that by changing the regulator and brushes that problem should be sorted.

So to sum it up what I have done to the van should not have caused any problem whatsoever but somehow has left us sparkless? Will be swapping coils and stabilisation units also to rule out component failure.

Then watched Jeff make some nice new metal infill pieces for the windscreen area.

To be continued…..

Great progress chaps. Wish I lived closer, I'd love to get my hands dirty again i will pop over some time to have a look if that's OK. See you on Saturday anyway

It's now running again, after much head scratching all it boiled down to was very poor earths! Van now off for welding tomorrow.

Mark

Mark Foss wrote:It's now running again, after much head scratching all it boiled down to was very poor earths! Van now off for welding tomorrow.

Mark

Hence my suggestion of using a jump lead as an earth. Well, I nearly got it right Nice one Mark, just do it right first time in future Are we going back to look at the van after the Whitby meet? Or will it be in t'other place?

Hiya Keith.

I am not sure if it will be back or not, wont know till sometime midweek.

Mark Foss wrote:Hiya Keith.

I am not sure if it will be back or not, wont know till sometime midweek.

I'd love to get Monday off and stay over to do a bit of work on the van whilst you two slackers go to work, but I ain't got my deputy to fill in for me Never mind, maybe I can get across sometime. Would love to do a bit of work on the van for you both. Finley spoke to me today, he is really looking forward to the meet. He fancies a game of football so I said "Mark will play football with you". So, you are booked

Van collected by Dubwerks today for welding repairs.


Passenger arch fitted.

Original arch lip was solid. Repair panel a poor fit and swage line out of position. Welder cut flange of new panel and butt welded to original to allow swage line to meet.


Patch repairs to passenger footwell.

Further works commencing to include drivers side sill, floor to sill repair, repair panel to wing above sill and repair panel to front of rear drivers side arch.

Looking good Jeff

VW garage not 100 yards from home -

Further welding works carried out today.


Right lower windscreen repair. Passed on repair pieces to welder I had made earlier.


Left lower windscreen repair. Both require welds dressing back.


Upper windscreen frame ready for repair panels.


Looking at internal floor at top of sill. Repair piece let in.


Outer rear arch panel , sill and wing repair panel part welded. Will need to cut out part of this repair to fit fridge vent. Will do this after welding complete.


Rear wheelarch again. Misc repairs also required to inside of wheelarch.

Quite a bit of progress from when I last saw it Jeff. Mind you don't kneel on any nails

Welding complete and ready for collection.


Sill, lower wing and rear arch repair.


Front arch repair.

Decision now required. Do we touch up paint work and get back on road ASAP and run it to see if it is a keeper or get a full respray now?

Run it, then roller it

She's a keeper - definately

My opinion, for what it's worth, is that you should buy a couple of aerosols to tidy it up and run it for a while. If it's a good 'un, which I think it will be, then consider a respray or a roller job. Incidentally, I had a word with a painter (many years qualified at a dealership) and he said if you get acrylic paint and use a slow (I think he said slow) thinner you could roller a van with acrylic and flat and polish if necessary for a very tidy job. He did say though that it takes some practice to get it right. Just thought I'd mention it .
Looking a nice job on the welding