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).
Odds and sods this week as I’m finishing up the bits needed before I can get the floor panels in.
Front belly pan out of the rust treatment bath and it looks pretty solid. There are a few pin holes in it that I need to weld shut at some point, but I’ve put some zinc primer on it for now.
Finished up the chassis repair that was holding me back from getting the final 2 outriggers in.
Epoxy mastic on the inside:
Welded shut:
And a coat of zinc primer on it.It looks miles better than what was there (note that it might look a bit short at the back, but its the other piece which is too large; you can see a nice patch straight over another rusty section. I’ll come back to do this). I’ve also epoxy mastic’d the chassis section where the outriggers will sit as I’ve done with the others. So I should be able to weld the outriggers in this week.
Made up a replacement tab for the clutch cable guide tube. The previous one had snapped off, and it was easier and better to make a new one (sorry about the blurriness!):
And finally I’ve got the RH floor pan trial fitted, and the in-fill piece to take it up to the side panel.
Next week’s job; drill a ton of holes in the floor panel ready for plug welding to the floor supports and sills, and weld the in-fill piece onto it. I made a start just before I left today.
I’ve pretty much finished this repair panel now, I’ll probably spend a bit longer on it to get the front to fit slightly better:
While the paint on the inside of the repair dries I decided to give the front pedal belly pan a bit of attention.
Before:
After an overnight soak in a bath of Deox-C (it didn’t quite fit in the plastic box I had, but this shows how good the stuff is!). This should be useable once I’ve finished cleaning it up, patched a few pinholes and given it a coat of paint.
Before the middle and rear O/S outriggers can go in I need to repair the chassis section that they attach to (someone has repaired this in the past but it needs fixing again).
Marked up and rot chopped out (you can see the rear of the repair I made earlier to the other side of this section – I’ll get some rust treatment and epoxy mastic in there while I’ve got good access):
And I’ve started fabbing a repair section for it. This largely consists of beating the crap out of a piece of steel with a large hammer and vice to get the bends in the right position:
I’ve got the basic shape and just need to cut it down to size now:
I managed to get this repair welded in tonight. Clamped in place:
And welded in place. The welds were a little splattery around the torsion bar and blew through in one or two places as the metal was getting quite thin, but it should do the job. I cleaned up the welds a little after this too. The weld around the torsion bar will get covered with the circular cover plate I need to fabricate. I’ll come back to that once I’ve repaired the other side and got the outriggers in.
A little from this evening’s effort to fabricate a repair for this area.
Rot and previous rubbish welding chopped out:
Repair panel made up. What a pig to do! The combination of a curved section and slight bend to the panel made this quite tricky to get right. There is also a dip in the panel on one side as it approaches the torsion bar. For that bit I had to weld an extra piece to the panel (I could’ve made the panel bigger and just bent it, but I’d already cut it down to size).Should do the job.
Trial fitted to the chassis,
Heres the dipped section (sorry about the image quality). It’s not a perfect match for the original but should be a neat repair:
Got some paint on it tonight so should be able to mastic it tomorrow night and weld in Friday. Hoping to get the O/S outriggers in soon once these repairs are done.
Drilled and prepped the jacking points and inner sill (used my new air punch for the holes; a great time saver!)
Lots of clamps to hold everything in place:
And weld away:
End result. All N/S jacking points plug welded to the top hats and chassis, seam welded to the cross members, and inner sill welded to top hats:
I’ve also bent and fitted a new N/S brake cable guide tube (the old one snapped in half when I removed the rear outrigger). The replacement is stainless steel so shouldn’t rust out. I got the guys at my local metal fabricators (Elite Fabrication & Welding) to flange the end of the tube when I picked it up so it looks just like the factory tube.
The loom is now fixed in place through the front cross member (a real pain getting the welding torch into position doing this one, but looks ok!):
And onto the rear cross member, all clamped into place (I may’ve got carried away buying clamps as I’ve got a decent collection now):
And welded in (feel pretty comfortable with plug welds now):
Before I can get the Near side inner sill in there are a few bits of surrounding metal that need some attention (access would be tricky with the inner sill in):
Rot cut out, and inner sill clamped into place to give a reference point to work out where to bend the repair panel:
Repair panel made up in the vice (and checked against the replacement floor):
And all welded in (I’lll repair the bit in front of it at a later point, I’ll be able to do that bit with the sill in). Ignore the beautifully rotten middle sill in the last picture!:
I’ve spent most of this week patching a few bits on the chassis rails which need doing before I can put in the rear cross member and O/S jacking points in.
Starting with this beaut around the rear torsion tube.
A bit of rust treatment (Hydrate 80) before I put the repair in:
And all repaired and painted up (I also put some Epoxy mastic on the inside to help hold back the rust). Looking a lot better (I’ll come back to do the curved bit once I’ve got a bit more metal back in):
I’ll need to do the other side of that chassis rail too before the rear jacking points can go in.
I also patched up this hole at the front which didn’t need too much work:
Next week’s plan is to get the rear cross member in and hopefully some of the jacking points. I’ve got the floor support drilled ready for the cross member to go in. Things are progressing nicely!
