N/S B pillar – part 1

I’ve been making a start on the nearside B pillar this week. I’d already removed the outer section and trimmed the repair for that to fit, so started by removing the rotten sections of inner B pillar and surrounding bulk-head (the inner B pillar was in relatively good nick so I just need to make up some small repair sections for that).

The rot extended all the way up to the wheel tubs:

With it all cut out it might look quite bare, but most of the inner is intact:

I’ve welded in repairs to the inner at the bottom, and now just need to make a long thin repair to the edge that meets the bulkhead as well as a section for the door seal:

I’ve been trial fitting the outer B pillar and outer sill as I go, the fit is looking good:

I also made up a strengthening piece for the rear of the middle sill to join it the cargo floor. It’s probably not needed but the other side is attached to the floor along its length so seemed like a good idea:

I’ve also finished stripping down the front end ready to start work on that in a few weeks hopefully:

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Finished up the middle sill tonight. Warning, this video has extremely high levels of production value and features one profanity (the large bang mid way through was my rear arch repairs falling over).

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Middle sill welded together and mostly ground down. Just need to plug weld to the inner sill and it’s done (I never want to do a middle sill repair again!). 

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Started the front end strip down while I slowly weld the middle sill in. A few bolts missing but mostly there!

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Sliding Door Faffing

I spent most of tonight making sure I was happy with the sliding door fit before I commit to welding it in. I found an old picture of the door and it’s never been a perfect fit, and probably never will, but I can live with that (the gap at the front is slightly larger than the rear gap).

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I also ordered a C&C seal to test the fit with it in (it doesn’t particularly help that the bottom of the door still needs to be repaired but nevermind). This is how it currently looks.

Front edge:

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Rear edge:

Bottom edge (the outer sill sits a little further back than I’d like so the transition from door to sill isn’t very smooth; I may try bringing the top edge of the sill out a bit but I can live with this):

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Side profile:

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I bought this thing to use, not to stare at door gaps so I think the above will do for us.

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I’m beyond happy today. Max and I trial fitted the door to the middle sill today and it only bloody fits! I’ve been so worried about this bit so it’s great to see the door sitting reasonably well. Now just to weld the track in. 

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I got the N/S inner sill, and rear of the middle sill in epoxy mastic last night as I won’t be able to paint these areas once they’re welded in. While I had the spray equipment out I gave the front arches a coat of it too as again I won’t be able to paint these areas once the two halves are welded together. This stuff goes on really nicely!

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N/S Middle Sill – Part 3 – Not too far now!

The middle sill has by far been the biggest pain in the arse on the van thus far as so little of the original was left so I’ve had to make new sections and trial fit it to the van countless times (I’m still not sure if the door will fit correctly, I’ll only know once I’ve got it tacked in place – hoping my measurements I took before I removed it are ok!).

I made up some sections to extend what remained of the old sill:

And ground flat. I had to fillet weld some parts of the repair to the top section of the sill, the finger sander was perfect for getting this flat as any protruding welds will stop the roller from rolling.

And here it is trial fitted before I can weld it in (I’m going to paint the inside of the inner sill and the back of the middle sill before I do any of the welding). 

The distance between the top and bottom track, and the back of the track and the front of the threshold are as close to the original measurements I took before I took the sill out as I’m going to get. Once I get it tacked in place I’ll be able to trial fit the door and pray that it fits (anything is better than what I previously had as the front never quite matched up, and the rear of the track had collapsed meaning we could never open it fully).

Hopefully I’m not far off finishing the sill as I’m sick of the sight of it now.

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