I’ve had the last few days off work so have been down the workshop stripping the van down ready to get the rollover jig setup. As always everything seems to take twice as long as one would hope, with every other bolt rusted shut and needing a little persuasion to get them off (I gave up on the anti roll bar clips and ended up taking the grinder to them).
I now have the van stripped down to a shell (plus the front beam) and hope to get the jig on in the next week or two.
So I’ve not got much further over the last few weeks, however I have finished the welding on the rear bumper brackets. These were in pretty poor condition when I took them off the van, with a lot of pitting on the surface that sits behind the bumper.
The second one I worked on was particularly bad, needing around 6 sections let in. Repairing these has been more of a learning experience than an economical repair as reproduction ones are readily available (about £120 for the 2, so I’ve saved a bit of cash doing it myself I guess). Here’s the worse one partially welded up (I couldn’t grind the welds down for an invisible finish as some of the metal was already pretty thin):
And both with a lick of paint (I’m using Bilt Hamber’s Electrox for most of the chassis primer work, it’s 90% zinc. This will then be covered with Epoxy Mastic and then a wax. It’s a bit of a minefield when it comes to paints, I’m sticking with Bilt Hamber for this).
I also gave the new jacking points a coat of paint too (I’m not sure if I’ll need to replace all of them, but I bought all to cover the worst case scenario):
Next month should be an exciting month though as I’ll have access to the workshop share. We’re taking one more camping trip before I take her off-road and start the restoration proper.
I didn’t manage to get much done this weekend as we went over to Dorset Volksfest yesterday and today seemed to disappear.
I’ve made a start on patching up the rear bumper brackets though, starting with the one that’s in slightly better nick (although still pitted quite spectacularly).
Rot marked up:
and cut out. Small repair patch shaped up and bent in the vice.
And welded in and ground down.
It’s not the prettiest bracket I’ve seen but once it’s painted up it should do the job. I think I’m going to weld another bit in up to the edge of the drilled hole in the bracket (no idea what it’s for any thoughts?)
