A pillar bottoms complete & onto the next bit

I finished both of the A pillar bottoms this week. I had to make an additional section above the repair sections I bought as they weren’t quite tall enough. Both look much better now:

I’ve also made a start on repairing the panel which joins the inner valance to the cab floor. This panel as far as I can tell is NLA (or at least I couldn’t find it anywhere), so I’m repairing it a few sections as it has a curve to it and some pressings which will be interesting to re-create. I’ve started with the centre section which isn’t too complex:

I managed to recreate the pressings in this section by clamping a punch with the right circumference to one side the panel and some thick sections of steel to the other side, and then clamping it down in the vice:

It’s not perfect but should do the job just fine (you can just about see the pressings in this pic). Now to just repair the rest of this panel!

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A Pillar Repairs

I finished repairing the main section of the A pillar this weekend. I had to remove a bit more of the driver front arch, turns out it was mainly made of filler!

Driver’s side A pillar welded up:

All welds dressed, and coated with a lick of paint before I weld the front piece on next week.

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Chopped out the bottom of the N/S A pillar tonight and welded in a new section. Chilly down the workshop tonight though!

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Inner Windscreen panel – Finished

I finished up the welding on the inner windscreen panel last week:

The dashboard mounts from the old panel were in good condition so I just welded them to the new panel and trial fitted the dashboard:

Off with the old deformation panel next so I can start repairing the A pillars and replace the inner valance and deformation panel itself. Looks pretty crusty:

I’ve started cutting out the rot on the O/S A pillar; I’ve treated myself to a pair of A pillar bottom repairs from Schofield’s to save some time making them. The washer bottle panel needs a fair bit replacing (I can’t find the part anywhere) so that’ll keep me busy too.

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Managed to trial fit the outer skin tonight as I wasn’t convinced the inner was in the right position (it was!). Lots to finish before it goes on though.

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Inner windscreen tacked in today. Looking better already. I’ll finish welding it in tomorrow.

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Inner windscreen panel – Prep

This week seems to have rocketed past but I’ve made some good progress. Before I start taking apart the lower section of the front end (Deformation panel and inner valance) I wanted to get some strength back into the top section by replacing the inner windscreen panel.

With it chopped out the front end looks pretty bare:

I then set to work repairing the surrounding metalwork that the panel attaches to. The section on the O/S A pillar is fine (ignoring the rotten lip which I’ll repair when I get onto prepping for the front panel itself):

The N/S A pillar however needed some work. A small patch here:

And a larger section here which I ended up doing in three parts (I need to finish the middle section):

The airbox needed a few patches, but on the whole was in pretty good shape:

The panels from the old inner windscreen that the dashboard attach to were in good nick so I cleaned them up and gave them a coat of etch alongside the new inner windscreen panel:

Once I’ve finished closing up the final hole on the N/S A pillar I’ll be able to get the panel welded in next week, a quick trail fit suggests it shouldn’t be too tricky to fit:

I also welded the captive nuts to the deformation panel that the front bumper mounts to (the Brazilian bumpers mount differently so the panel needs modifying):

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Start of a new year and start of the next chunk of work on the bus. Front clip cut off so I can start repairing what lies beneath. I’ve got this week off to try and get a jog on.

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