Driver’s cab floor all welded in. Just need to dress the welds and reattach the step to it.
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Buttys bits seat runners fitted to allow me to mount my early style seats to the donor late tub. Welded in to replace the old ones which were held in with self tappers!
Driver’s cab floor repair prepped and ready to weld in.
I’ve made a huge amount of progress over the last few days. With all the fiddly bits out of the way, fitting the arch and tub seemed to go really quickly.
With the arch tacked to the A and B pillars I fitted the tub by clamping it to the lip that it folds over and pinning it to the wheel arch and bulkhead (note the scissor jack between the chassis rail and arch to push it out a little to line up with the door better):
Double check the gaps again, and then start welding it in. Staggering the welds to avoid it getting too hot:
And all welded in and dressed. Looks good again!
I’ve removed the later style seat runner and will be fitting a new Butty’s bits runner which will allow me to keep my early style seats.
I’ve made a start on the cab floor area my side too. The chassis rails are solid and the strengthening plate looks perfect (I had to make a new one for the passenger side as it was rusting away) so I’ve just cleaned it up and zinc primed it all.
I’ll epoxy mastic it in the week and then look to get the floor in shortly after. Then that’ll be the front end entirely done!
I’ve a healthy pile of scrap to take to the tip this week too
I’ve managed to pull the front of the arch forward enough now (plus a bit of hammering!) to get it into a position I’m happy with. I’ve tacked it to the A pillar and added a few more tacks to the B pillar. That should do the job!
And a trial fit of the donor tub, everything seems to be lining up nicely. I’ve got an early finish tomorrow so should be able to get all of this welded in and finally have some strength back in this area.
Finished up the last few bits on the bulkhead and got some paint on it all ready for the wheel arch and tub to go in. Nice to have all of this area finally closed up.
Finished off most of the B pillar and closing panel, bar a few pin holes. Some more tough love for Iris, cutting out the wheel tub in preparation for the donor tub to go in.
Grafted this piece in tonight. Nearly there with this section!
Next bit of the rusty puzzle cut out and the repair tacked in place (lots of fiddling around to get this repair to fit right).
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!
