Club 80-90 Forums

Your not far off IF. I've now highlighted the bit in my earlier post where I said its (the crack) is just flaking paint. Thanks for the advice anyway.

well, you asked......they have gassed the outer "patch" not particularly neat welds but the real sin is as you point out the bodge patch over it all, pure bodgers,the strength as such lies in the the two panels having a folded lip and then spotted/joined,
the biggest concern would be the work done under and behind prior to covering and as it looks like they have only ,arginally opened the side to cut the rot from the pouter skins then i fail to see how they have repaired the inner sill and other structures that support the arm mount and jp.
see
https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.p ... 6&start=90" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
ok this is with a new inner sill but i remake the inners exactly the same as this if only doing the jp's and the main inners are ok as is often the case,
oh and how did they align the new mount , bet they say they took a measurement ! sorry but ive tried and failed and "i personally" believe the only way is to make up a steel jig specific to each van i do

mm

Good input MM. I'm going to take the units out as I bet they left the soggy fibreglass insulation in place and I'll have a proper look. I wish they'd just spoken to me before starting and especially before that mess across the panels

I can't see this being covered with a skim of fillet. I'll get them to grind the crap welds down a bit and trim that valance so its at least straight

when I bought my t25 the previous owner had put it into his local garage to have the steps welding plus some small patches,as a welder myself I had to redo them as the welding was crap and I prized the plates off with a screwdriver.i would personally get you vans welding checked over before using it.

Put it this way, I don't think I've seen worse repairs and that's the truth.

Em not great but ive seen a lot worse, to be fair it all depends what you asked the garage to do, was it repair to mot standard, the patches are whats known as "mot patch". For £150 to remove and fit a trailing arm weld new mount on, patch repair id say thats very cheap. So id guess the garage were following what they believed was needed to be done. Most garages unless it is combined with a paintshop would do exactly the same but at a higher cost. A body shop could cover that up easy. But id think they would prefer to fit a lower panel. But they wont be charging £150.
From the photo has the bolt hole been elongated ?
Im in no way saying this is a good repair either.!!!!!

But didn't you just ask for a quote? I'd be pretty annoyed if they went ahead and did that to my van even if it's a cheap repair

I've seen worse, but not by much, its not neat but a good amount of it could be ground back, and it looks like there is already a thickish skin of filler already on the panel there for you to smear and blend into, some parts of the welds look "cold" like their sitting on the metal than actually being fused to the metal patch, but that could just be the angle, as mick says though i'd be more worried about the supporting structure underneath depending on how bad it was.

I'd test it by jacking it up, that'll at least tell you if its been done wrong, if it holds the van "chances" are it might be ok, but if you hear any crunching or see any movement then i'd tell them to swivel for their payment and find someone who knows what they are doing

I'd cut that patch off and do it properly.

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Yes I only asked for a quote but the garage started anyway. I did see the van when they'd put the mount on but didn't know anything about that patch or any work to visible parts of the van until I went to pick it up. Yes its cheap but I suspect it's knocked value of my van so not that cheap really. I'm going to deal with it this morning.

E D I T. Got it jacked up and its solid. I'll get a couple of units out and have a look and if all is well I'll get it looking nicer.

Hope that you get it sorted ok, seems like quite an annoying episode

I'd also add that you probably aren't liable for the bill, given you only asked for a quote. Sure they'll be pissed off with you if you say that to them, but would you really go back to them anyway? And if you would go back to them because this was an aberration, then they should still suck up the cost and put it down to experience. That's how to keep customers loyal.

i'm no welder, could be described as 'amateur' at best, but I'd be disgusted if this was all I could come up with to patch the area

I would at least have put the patch behind the panel and let it into the front. It would at least then require only building up to the level of the original metal rather than making up the surrounding area to the level of the patch.

At least it's sound enough to support the weight of the van, might be worth removing the interior panel and shoving an endoscope down to the bottom to see the condition of the metalwork behind? (USB endoscopes are less than a tenner on ebay). It could also be poked through the inspection hole in the lower front edge of the wheel arch just above the arm mounting to assess the condition in there.

Have you tried undoing the retaining bolt on the trailing arm? Its going to take quite some force to remove it if it hasn't been done recently.

Dave.

Post a link up fella.I cant find one for that sort of price..

USB endoscopes are less than a tenner on ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from= ... at=0&_sop=

£3.40 is the cheapest that I could see on a quick look!