A productive weekend saw the shell and pan part company.
Shell all braced for when I chop the heater channels out. The shell is currently resting on a temporary trestle until my steel arrives to make a dolly to move it around on.
The pan looks like a great starting point. The frame head is rock solid and the napoleons hat only needs a small repair patch.
I’ve made a start on chopping out the N/S floor pan.
The pans look to be the original ones but have had countless patches over the years and so are long overdue replacement.
This weekend’s job, unpicking the shell from the chassis. Historic patch repairs had welded the two together and so needed chopping out.
Two patches loosely tacked in on the toe board chopped out:
And patches on the other side of the panel:
Followed by chopping out a bunch of patches along both heater channels:
No wonder I couldn’t undo some of the chassis bolts!
And some delightful seam welds underneath:
The shell and chassis are now separate so I need to knock together a dolly to put the shell on next. The first batch of fresh metal arrived this week too!
I managed to get a full day down the workshop today starting to strip down the bug.
Bonnet and dash area stripped.
Most of the panels at the front look solid in the right places but it needs all of the usual places which rust out on these. The areas that are bad (spare wheel well) will be getting chopped out for the baja kit anyway.
Rear all stripped out, I just need to pull the loom through. Some numpty cut through the loom when they repaired the quarter panel so we’ll need a new loom.
The luggage panel is generally in good shape but has started to go on the O/S:
And has had some bad repairs along the bottom edge:
I’ll repair these rather than replace as the surrounding metal looks good, and this is a baja so doesn’t need to be perfect.
I’ve been busy finishing up the faffy D pillar and wheel tub repairs which need to be done before I can fit the outer panels to complete the rear end. It’s amazing how much time all these little bits add up to; I’ve spent 2 weeks or so doing this and still have a little bit to go.
First up some repairs to the top of the D pillar on the drivers side which had rusted out for some reason half way down:
The inside got a clean up and paint before making up a repair in the folder and welding it in. You can just about see some further sections I had to let in right at the top near the roof too:
With the top of the pillar sorted I turned to the bottom which I repaired with a set of schofield repair panels. Inners:
The outer section had rusted higher than the repair panel would cover so I fabricated some extension pieces:
And all welded in:
Next up I turned my attention to the rear wheel tub closing panels. I ended up buying a second outer arch for both sides to make the closing panels from. Even with a bought in panel these repairs take a fair amount of time to trim and fit properly.
Passenger rear closing panel:
Passenger front closing panel:
And while I was in that wheel tub I repaired a small hole in this section too:
Onto the drivers side which got a new rear section to replace the shocking repair someone else had done:
This side is in much better condition than the other with only this section along the lip needing repair.
I just need to weld in the closing panels on this tub and I can then start cleaning up all the metal to get some paint on the insides of the corners and wheel tub.
O/S arch fettled to perfection. I had to persuade it (hammer) to match the curve profile of the middle panel. I couldn’t work out for the life of me why the panel was bulging and popping when pressed near to the arch. I finally tracked it down to the lip not being bent enough, so when I was clamping it to the inner arch the panel bulged out. Quickly fixed with the trusty hammer again to bend the lip round further and no more popping.
Cut out the previous repair to the rear of the inner arch, which consisted of the original rusty piece sandwiched between two sheets of tacked on metal. I should get this repair welded in tomorrow and make a start on repairing the D pillars.
Onto the Rear inner arch and tub sections. The N/S isn’t that bad with most of the lower lip still intact which makes a welcome change.
I started by getting the rear part of the tub repaired, using a Schofield’s panel and a small infill piece as the rust had extended past the height of the panel:
The rear of the lip had rusted out, by the looks of it from water getting through the rear bung hole which was missing its bung. Rust cut out:
Outer arch trial fitted and then a snug fitting repair for the inner made from a second outer panel:
Repair welded in and welds dressed from this side. I just need to dress the other side and trim the lip down a little.
Max also treated the cubby beneath the driver’s seat with some Deox Gel (amazing stuff for removing rust) and I coated it in some Hydrate 80 to seal the metal:
Some good progress over the long weekend. The bottom of the sliding door has been in a bad state since the first year we had Iris when it fell off and the filler covering up the hole in the bottom right corner chipped off. There was an impressive amount of filler along the bottom edge but luckily it looks pretty solid:
I marked a straight line across the panel where the new outer will fit and chopped off the old outer. Surprisingly as nasty as it first looked the rust had only really extended up the first section of the inner frame
Meaning I could get away with only needing a small section of the repair panel. Firstly tacked in:
And then trial fitted to the van to check the gap. It fitted amazingly well first time for a change!
All welded up and dressed. The klokker inner panel is noticeably thinner though, hopefully drowning it in cavity wax when I’m done will help.
While I had the door on I trial fitted the outer too, its looking much better than what was there.
And the inner all finished with a coat of zinc primer.
I’ll come back to this once I’ve done the N/S inner rear wheel arch so I can epoxy both inner sections before I fit the outers.
Lots done this week. I’ve pretty much finished the cab area now. The arch step on the driver’s side has been reattached to the repaired floor:
And I’ve dressed all the welds and primed the driver’s cab floor repair. This is the first time I think I’ve seen the floor without it being riddled with rust and holes.
I also welded in the nuts needed for my new Buttys Bits throttle linkage and trial fitted it. It’s super smooth compared to the rusted mess that was there before.
I just need to weld in the closing panels that join the front arches to the deformation panel and everything in front of the B pillar is complete!
