Procrastinating never got anyone anywhere

[adie89]

A momentous occasion the sliding door sill and channel is completely in!
Before, fully painted with the seams zinc primed. For better welding I cleaned off where the plug welds will go.

Work area prepped and triple checked that all areas for panel bond were cleaned and zinc primed, all welds were cleaned off to bare metal.

Using g clamps to position the inner and outer sill
Trial fitted with self tapping screws


Once I was 100% ready the panel bond went on the bottom lip and the top edge. It was the spot welded on the lip and plug welded along the top.



I used a lot of self tappers and clamps to ensure the sill would completely line up before I started welding in. Once the panel bond went on I had 45minutes, so prep and layout of equipment and clamps etc was vital otherwise i could end up trying to spot weld where the metal wasn’t prepped etc.
Now everything is in I will leave it for the panel bond to go off and then plug weld the self tapper holes.

[adie89]

I’ve begun repairing the rear panel above the wheel arch. It was blistered on the seam and from inside revealed the layers rusted apart as usual. I ve managed to snatch an hour here and there,
So I cut out a large enough panel to be able to get a grinder in to clean up other surfaces, I cut the top cut between two folds to help retain the panel form and minimise distortion as it goes back in.

I needed to repair the edge and didn’t fancy 250 ish quid for the panel. It follows a curve so a straight fold was out of the question. So after much head scratching I realised that the inside was flat and I was better to form the curve, as opposed to forming the curve and then trying to bend the flat edge.
I cut out a flat piece of sheet 1mm and lined it up to the van to scribe the curve. I then clamped the piece between two bits of angle with some welding clamps because I don’t have a vice.

I then used a piece of round bar with a slot cut in it like this

To crease and then bit by bit slowly fold up the edge, this means it stretches and shrinks where it needs to because your going so slowly

You can see the curve better here

I was really chuffed how it came out.

I then marked around my repair panel and cut out the old.
After cleaning the surfaces underneath and using a heavy zinc spray to protect it I then took back to bare metal just the spots for plug welding.
I then welded it in quite quickly in bursts using an air pistol to cool quickly and minimise heat travelling through the panel and distorting it. I made sure it was perfectly level to ensure when cut back it went flat. I worked slowly, cooling again every minute or so before using a DA with an 80disc to finish blending.

Not perfect but nothing a thin skim of filler won’t fix, but it’s fresh metal so will last much better than just grinding out the rust.
Then I moved onto repairing the panel that was going back in. I cut a strip of steel, marked the old panel, cut it out and then clamped it up. I recently bought a small piece of copper plate 3mm thick to use as a heat sink, so this got clamped up too to help stop blow through. I welded quickly again using fairly high amps and lots of coooling air between getting decent penetration. It’s not structural so perfect penetration isn’t critical. This pic shows it after I start dressing the weld, again cooling often.

Slow and steady and it’s ready to go back in with no distortion at all.

When I get chance I’ll use the copper plate and a piece of angle to clamp up the panel and keep it flat.

[937carrera]

You've been busy developing those skills I see

[RogerT]

I’m well impressed!

[adie89]

Apologies, just realised I’ve done quite a lot in little bursts of work between other commitments and completely failed to post anything.
So following on from the rear quarter seam repair it was time to finish the front floor, I’d done the rear while paint etc went off.
So a template was duly made

I made the ridges by clamping to a piece of bar stock and formed the relief with a hammer, stretched quite easily.

Trial fit, the better the fit now, the easier it’ll be to weld in.

The under side was then etch primed, cv primed and colour coated from a cheap rattle can of 2k paint before stitching in.

I’ve watching weld dot com and urchfab on YouTube and taken real confidence to crank the wire feed up and move faster with higher amps to get good penetration with minimal blow through. My copper plate is still seeing action fixing the odd hole.
So onto finishing the bottom of the rear quarter. Before:

A template was made and cut out in sheet steel, to mark out the curve I lightly used a centre punch to go through the template and Mark the curve.

Then using my trusty slotted bar, gradually bent up the curve.

Matched quite nicely.

Then I cut out the rot before stitching in. I wasn’t over fussed about a perfectly smooth joint as it will all be under chipguard, saying that it’s pretty smooth so that a thin skim of filler would sort it out nicely.

I seam welded and butt jointed everything where I could, the original panels were made to overlap for simplicity and speed of construction, not minimalising seams and rust traps.

Last job for today was to trial fit the rear arch again and mark out for spot welds and clean off the zinc primer on the inside to make priming easier later on. That’s going to get stitched in tomorrow, I guess my update speed will be the judge of my success tomorrow.
Time pressure is on to finish by April as I have to move house from Germany back to UK. However if I rush it now, I won’t have the facility to do it properly after the move, never before has “do it right, or do it twice” been more important.

[adie89]

The rear arch is in!
I took the time to weld up the old spot welds so I could plug weld from above for the most part. Cleaned off the primer on the inside before fitting. Zinc primed the seams before cleaning the spots wear the plug welds would go. The fit was checked again and then held in place with loads of self tapping screws.

Plug welds from inside, include the seam, which was tricky but not impossible. Just clean any contaminant off, get a good torch in there and do a dry run to make sure you can move the welding torch and see the weld puddle.

The proof is in the eating. Good penetration on all the plug welds, the few screw holes from underneath were then very carefully plug welded, using the welder on/off/on/off to the weld puddle didn’t get pulled down by gravity into the welder torch. Not fun though, and still using lots of air to keep the panel cool so it doesn’t warp.

I’ve got three more floor patches that have rust through around chassis members , a patch on the inside of the rear valance and then I’m good to prime, seal, chipguard and paint the underside.

[adie89]

So I started the next round with a repair of the floor around the suspension/chassis rail. The patch was cut out, template, cut out, zinc primed and cheap colour coat before welding in. Old bit on the left, new patch ready on the right of the rear wall/deck

Then onto closing in in front of the rear arch. Rather than get the whole shanny rear panel I got a replica from a German seller of the arch and a repair panel for the front of the arch.
Before with the arch fitted.

The repair panel got marked from the inside, before trimming to size and folding in the rear edge like the original.

Trial fit with self tappers and the little front edge piece made up from a card template and screwed on before welding.

The inside of the arch and the panel were then etch primed, epoxy primed, rattle can colour coat before welding in. I’d made a lip on the top edge to give an easier to weld joint but the fit wasn’t very flush. I’ll just have to be careful when I knock it back not to grind into the parent metal and thin the panel edge.

[adie89]

So before I could finish the rear I had to repair this strengthener:

I cut it out with my new oscillating cutter, don’t know how I lived without it for getting into corners. Folded up a new piece and primed and painted the inside. Then used the spot welder so I could use panel bond to seal the gap.

The last panel of the bottom of the rear quarter was zinc primed and then spot welded in with panel bond, again it seals straight away and the spot welder makes for a quick job.

That was last week in drinks and drabs. so while paint went off I decided to wire brush out rust spots around the door frame that turned into

So I decided to cut out the c pillar, I already had the whole thing, but to reduce the risk of spread, I reinforced the frame inside and cut out the lower piece Leaving the door frame and the upper piece leaving the reinforcement to reduce flex



The old c pillar showing all the spot welds

I used a speed square to mark out the striker plate before cutting it off
[

And with the original outerskin to check alignment

So I ground out the rust from the reinforcement and thickened it back out with the mig welder
Then the inside of the pillar was given a strip of weld through primer at the edge of the c pillar and then etch primer the rest

Ready for CV primer once it goes off

[RogerT]

Oh my goodness.

[adie89]

Today the CV primer went on inside the c pillar and then I remembered the Glasurit CV line is designed to lay colour on wet primer, so that was a day saved waiting for primer to go off.


While the paint went off I finished a little patch in the passenger footwell and seam welded the edge to eliminate the rust trap seam.


The front is now basically ready to begin the long process of paint and sealer

[mshaw1980]

Wow.

In deep there mate. Well done though

[adie89]

Wow.

In deep there mate. Well done though

It seems to be the typical MO, dig a little and the hole gets deep very quickly. The only positive, apart from it’ll be solid, is that as I keep doing it I get a lot quicker. A lot of that is to do with acceptance that I can do this to that standard, any better is unattainable... for now.

[adie89]

A little out of order but I haven’t posted in a while.
Front passenger side is now in etch primer inside and underneath.

The two c pillar sections paint has gone off and they are now spot welded on the edges and butt welded to each other.


From the rust it looked like the water had gotten in around the screw holes for the sliding door retaining latch, so this area received PU sealer before welding in.
Stricter plate welded back in, primed and painted.

Sunday was spent repairing the outer skin which seems a tricky shape but was just time consuming.
Paper template, weird shape on the side will fold down then the the contour will fold on the main piece to match

Folded

I have a new shrinker stretcher to form the curve. It was tacked in shape on the van before taking off to weld up


Then I cut a 15mm strip and tacked that on while on the van too before welding up off the van again.

Really pleased with it so far, it’ll get welded onto the larger piece next.
Top tip from Trev’s Blog on you tube, repair a rusted bolt hole by step drilling out and welding in a washer. This a bolt hole for the rock n roll bed.

[adie89]

So I haven’t posted in a while as I have been away for work and mainly working on the van at nighttime, and unfortunately not taking many pictures. Plus I kept falling asleep while typing and would wake up with random guff.
So I finished the repair panel around the sliding door last time. That was duly stitched in , but because I rushed and didn’t control the distortion properly so it buckled inwards about 3-4mm along the weld line. Because the weld line is harder it won’t bend easily when you bash it because I can’t planish it from the rear properly.


You can see better here where the three patches have gone in to the rear panel.
Of note, I forgot to put the little recess in under the door latch, so I bashed in a narrow one with a hammer, it’s under the catch and can’t be seen but it works. I also pre painted inside the panel where it sits over the c pillar, even if it burns off a little, it’s better than bare steel and I have a marine grade lanolin spray on the way. I also used PU sealer around the edge and the bolt holes to better control water ingress that had rotted it out before.
I ran out of etch primer so bought two rattle cans, the 2 component type where you pull the ring at the bottom and it mixes the two components then away you go before it goes off. It doesn’t go very far as is expensive it took two cans to do inside the arch and just about do the outside, after a day to go off it got a quick flat and key before the Epoxy Primer went on nice and thick, because it’s epoxy it is completely sealed and watertight.

Once that goes off, tomorrow I’ll PU seal it and chipguard the inside of the arch and the body below the swage line about 20cm from the bottom before colour.
I also had a floor patch to do. When I repaired the patch on the chassis rail I blew through, when I wire brushed the floor off it naturally led to a fair few patches that needed doing because of pin holing. The rest of the floor will get fully repaired next time she comes off the road. It’s been wire brush, fertan and Epoxy Primered for now.. I didn’t take any pics but you can see the extent of the repair here.

The chassis rail got hoovered out of compacted dust and mud, wire brush, fertan then cold zinc spray from the inside.
I’m also in the process of reinforcing the floor where the buddy seat has been installed, The floor had suffered quite a lot from flex and elongating holes so needs repairing before little ones car seat can go in it.

[adie89]

I’m on a deadline to move out so pics are a bit thin on the ground.
Now that the CV primer has gone off, I keyed everything with scotchbrite and wiped with degreaser. Then I masked either side of each seam and then sealed with PU sealer, I then used a tin of PU and a brush to do all the seams inside the arches. This doesn’t take long to go off so then a coat of Kent systems chipguard went on inside the arches and up to the swage line on the outside. It is all over paintable fairly quickly ie the same day so I promptly masked up and on went the the colour. It’s Glasurit 68 line which is their commercial stuff and a bit tougher and thicker in Capri blue.

This was then left well alone nice and warm for 12hrs to fully harden. I clearly missed a bit of cellulose dust and it caused fish eyes, by progressively going over the area as the paint hardened ie every ten minutes or so, I managed to get rid of most of the fish eyes only around the door frame.
De masked

A reminder of what has come out to get to this stage

The next urgent job was the fuel filler pipe, they’ve finally come back in stock so the best part of 100 went on this

It hasn’t broken through yet but the corrosion where the pipe joined was preventing a good seal and fuel was wicking out. While I was there I de rusted the incredibly expensive fuel filler neck and painted it fuel and oil proof paint and changed the seal in the filler cap as it was beginning to crack. Nice and simple tap the metal pin out and the red plastic reveals a spring and the catch.
Before I can paint the floor I need to finish the jump seat. A PO repurposed a dayseat to sit over a box behind the passenger seat which was fine as it was as per the factory installation, except they didn’t fit any reinforcement plates that the factory do... at all.
So a slight adjustment and some 3mm thick box was chopped up to create reinforcement under the floor
Inner pair with captive bolts or you need gogo gadget arms to reach

Outer pair next to the sill, the old holes were plug welded to the reinforcement along with at least two additional spots

I aligned these holes much more accurately than the previous attempt which relied on huge holes and washers. The spacers that will go through the insulation and floor were also all odd lengths and uneven so failed to secure the lower bracket securely, after recutting mocked up with 35mm box to represent the floor
[url=https://flic.kr/p/2fnhj43]
The last job tonight was to clean the waxoyl from the inner seams ready to paint, in hindsight I would have done this when the arch was off, it was a PITA. I also primed the floor spots where I had used Fertan to stop corrosion spots for repair next time, none are structural so I’m not concerned about leaving it for now. No pics of that, it was late and I’m pooped. I’ll seam seal the inner seams tomorrow and colour coat to seal.