Bracket welding complete

So I’ve not got much further over the last few weeks, however I have finished the welding on the rear bumper brackets. These were in pretty poor condition when I took them off the van, with a lot of pitting on the surface that sits behind the bumper. 

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The second one I worked on was particularly bad, needing around 6 sections let in. Repairing these has been more of a learning experience than an economical repair as reproduction ones are readily available (about £120 for the 2, so I’ve saved a bit of cash doing it myself I guess). Here’s the worse one partially welded up (I couldn’t grind the welds down for an invisible finish as some of the metal was already pretty thin):

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And both with a lick of paint (I’m using Bilt Hamber’s Electrox for most of the chassis primer work, it’s 90% zinc. This will then be covered with Epoxy Mastic and then a wax. It’s a bit of a minefield when it comes to paints, I’m sticking with Bilt Hamber for this).

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I also gave the new jacking points a coat of paint too (I’m not sure if I’ll need to replace all of them, but I bought all to cover the worst case scenario):

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Next month should be an exciting month though as I’ll have access to the workshop share. We’re taking one more camping trip before I take her off-road and start the restoration proper.

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A little progress…

I didn’t manage to get much done this weekend as we went over to Dorset Volksfest yesterday and today seemed to disappear. 

I’ve made a start on patching up the rear bumper brackets though, starting with the one that’s in slightly better nick (although still pitted quite spectacularly).

Rot marked up:

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and cut out. Small repair patch shaped up and bent in the vice.

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And welded in and ground down.

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It’s not the prettiest bracket I’ve seen but once it’s painted up it should do the job. I think I’m going to weld another bit in up to the edge of the drilled hole in the bracket (no idea what it’s for any thoughts?)

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And so the restoration begins (sort of)

jamesley:

Over the last few months I’ve been acquiring tools, replacement panels and various other bits to begin some of the resto work on Iris. Having finally finished my workbenches last week I decided to take a look at the rear bumper on Iris as a gentle start. After 20 minutes or so of Max and I struggling to get the damn thing off due to rusty bolts Max insisted on a big teeth picture

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Max was keen to get stuck in so I gave her the angle grinder whilst I finished attaching my new welding torch to my machine. After 10 minutes or so she was struggling to get back to bare metal, it soon become apparent that the previous restorer was a master of sculpture; this is what we found under two huge chunks of fibreglass:

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Suffice to say we need a new bumper as this is a little beyond repair.

On the plus side the bumper irons look to be in reasonable condition so I should be able to clean these up and repaint. It also looks like I’ll have a workshop space available from next month! 

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Managed to put this on my personal blog again! opps.

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