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Second corner on the rear hatch window surround pretty much repaired, and battery mounts added to N/S tray for the leasure battery.
Bugger. Lower edge is much worse than I thought. It needs the entire section replacing! I thought tailgates were still relatively cheap but looks like prices have gone up. Reckon I’ll get the JK repair and fix this one as it seems a shame to chuck it.
Onto the tailgate which needed some repair sections let in around the windscreen aperture and along the lower edge.
Both corners had rust holes, with the N/S corner having a crappy repair someone had previously made.
All rust cut out:
And started making up some repair sections:
This corner is pretty much done, I just need to fill a few pin holes and grind a few areas down a little more. Much tidier:
I’ve also welded in the O/S track cover mount (the N/S needs some repairs in that area before I can get the mount welded in):
The new engine lid I bought for the van is for the later pin style hinge, and as I wanted to keep the earlier proper hinge I needed to convert the mounts.
The first step is to cut off the pin hinge and weld shut the hole:
Then cut the slots for the hinge:
I was originally going to fit rivnuts but I wanted adjustable nuts, and rivnuts would sit slightly proud of the surface so I had a cunning plan.
Firstly drill holes for where the nuts will sit, but additionally drill a secondary small hole next to it:
Then in an attempt to replicate a cage nut, fabricate a u shaped bracket with a tab to weld to which fits the nut with a small amount of wiggle room (I welded blobs to the corners of the nut too):
Then using a pair of allen keys coax the nut and bracket into position behind the holes and hold in place with a cleco clip (unbelievably faffy and very nearly resulted in me throwing the engine lid across the workshop):
Followed by a confident plug weld through the hole to hold it all in place.
Repeat on the other 3 nuts and the job is done. The lid fits pretty much perfectly now:
And shuts with a satisfying thunk:
Engine lid hinge panel welded in. Just need to convert my new later style engine lid to fit
Outer valance and rear hinge panel
I’ve dressed all the welds on the outer valance now, much better than the klokker panel someone had previously fitted which wasn’t even welded along the top.
Chopped out the engine lid hinge panel as I had to remove the ends to get the new corner panels in, and autocraft do a good panel so it seemed silly not to. Not too bad underneath , just some surface rust.
A quick trial fit of the new panel to make sure the door gaps are still good. The new panel fits perfectly between the corner panels so all my measurements paid off!
And then rust treatment and epoxy mastic applied:
While the paint dried I got the air filter pedestal welded back in too.
Today saw the new rear outer valance going on the van.
New valance all prepped:
and inner valance prepped too (note the small tabs welded either end for the returns on the outer valance to fold around):
Lots of clamps:
And all welded in. An easy panel to fit for once! I just need to dress the welds and fold the returns around either end.
A fairly long, but productive day today saw the corner pretty much welded in. I just need to weld the battery tray to the corner and dress the welds. Really happy with the door gaps and alignment to the rear quarter panel. The only downside to painting the inside of the corner is that the other corner now looks filthy in comparison.
Possibly more effort than it’s worth, but got some pastel white top coat on to the inside of the rear corner as I’ll never have as good access to it as I do now. Should have it all welded up tomorrow.
