I’ve welded on two new tabs for securing the wiring loom to the chassis:
Given the floor another coat of zinc primer and a first coat of epoxy mastic. The mastic went on much better this time; I think last time I didn’t thin sufficiently and had the inlet pressure too low. Starting to look shiny:
I also cured the paint on the stove build. My mate now has this, and I think he liked it. I need one now!
Today I reinstated the guide tube for the gear coupling:
And fabbed up the first cone section for the rear torsion tube. I ended up having enough of the old cone section to get the right curve profile. Hammering it around a dolly gave me the right shape so it shouldn’t need too much more work before it’s done.
Little bit more from today. Repaired the two holes I put in the gear shift tube when I removed it (backed the holes with copper tubing to help protect the inner).
Gave it a lick of zinc primer:
Got some paint on the stove build. Just need to cure this now with it’s first burn.
I’v also started cleaning up the rear lip that the floor attaches to. It’s in good nick but has some rust which I’m treating.
With a project like this it’s often easy to forget how much you’ve done, when the list of bits to do is so vast. Today felt like a significant milestone was hit though as the last outrigger and brake cable guide tube went in, completing the majority of the frame on which the floor sits:
There isn’t much in the below picture I’ve not replaced, but the result is worth it (5 floor supports, 2 cross members, 6 outriggers/jacking points, 2 inner sills, 2 brake cable guide tubes, numerous chassis repairs).
Now I just need to finish up a few minor welding bits, get some more paint on it and get the floor in!
I got the penultimate outrigger/jacking point welded in today. Annoyingly I somehow have a nick in the wiring loom (It’s not damaged the wires inside though so I’ve just put some electrical tape around it).
I also welded the last edge of the repair piece I made to the chassis that sits behind the rear outrigger. I ended up seam welding it for strength.
I got the first coat of zinc primer on the O/S cargo floor pan today. I won’t be doing this again any time soon, it took an absolute age to strip all of the transit primer off the panel and prep it properly (hoping it’ll be worth it in the long run though).
Not looking forward to prepping the other pan, I’m tempted to leave it in transit primer and just put the epoxy mastic straight over it but I know it’ll bug me if I don’t do it properly.
The only genuine VW cargo floor panels available are designed to fit a LHD vehicle. As such a small in-fill piece is needed on the panel on the driver’s side to extend it up to the side wall for a RHD van (I ended up buying the panel from Schofield’s as it was easier).
I decided to plug weld the piece to the panel. I punched holes along the length of the piece, and gave both panels a few light coats of etch primer as once welded together no paint will get to these sections (the etch I’m using is weld-through, but I still clean up each plug weld hole prior to welding).
Clamped in place:
and plug welded:
I ended up hammering the piece down to match the dip in the floor panel; looks neat to me:
I’ve probably made more work for myself than I needed as I’ve decided to strip off all of the transit primer so I can put some zinc primer on. I made a start on this tonight, but removing all the paint on a panel this big will take a while (and it was 9:45 by the time I left so I’ll finish that up next time).
