O/S engine skirt repaired and trial fitted.
Making a start on the O/S rear wheel arch. The tub is in amazing condition with only the very ends needing repair. Cavity wax seems to have kept it from rusting out. The outer arch needs a fair bit of fettling to get it to fit properly though, I’m having to rebend it where it joins the middle panel as the curves don’t align.
O/S rear corner trimmed and trial fitted, as it’s a genuine part it didn’t need too much fiddling to get it to fit but still took quite a lot of time:
Pretty happy with the engine lid gaps too:
Trial fit of the battery tray:
And finally making a start on repairing the O/S engine skirt (the whole reason I’ve had to trial fit the corner and battery tray):
Tonight saw the van come off the jig at the rear and onto axle stands. It still scares the life out of me moving the van on my own on and off the jig, as the legs settle as the weight is put onto them. All done now though to make access in and around the engine bay easier.
As per the bay restoration rules here’s the obligatory twat in the engine bay shot:
I chopped the rear outer valance off to take a look at the condition of the inner. Suffice to say we need a new one as ours has been badly patched in the past and is pretty rotten in places.
The outer had been replaced at some point in the past, but not very well. All of the welds along the top edge had failed due to lack of penetration, and it even still had the klokkerholm sticker on it.
I’ve put what I think is my final order of body panels in with Schofield’s which should arrive this week, I think I’ve broken the back on the welding now and am into the final long slog. My trello board doesn’t look half as full as it did at the beginning of the year and I’m relatively confident I’ll have the welding done this year!
Sliding door repair all welded in. Happy with the gaps and panel is relatively straight!
Sliding door outer tacked in place and trial fitted. Happy with the door gaps so just need to weld it up!
I’ve repaired the rear tub as much as I need before I fit the outer so gave it a coat of epoxy mastic. (the final fiddly bits will get welded in when the outer is on). I also gave the sliding door sections a coat as well as the cab floor.
I meant to do a video update last week when I finished the cab, here it is anyway.
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.
With the cab out of the way I’m onto the sliding door. For a RHD door it’s not in too bad shape but needs the usual repairs.
I started with some small repairs to the inside of the frame:
And then did the other side of that section:
The only other bit of the aperture that needed attention was towards the front in a few sections where the seam was bulging with rust:
And all done:
The bottom of the door isn’t in such good condition though and will need a bit more time (the above was all done today).
O/S closing panel welded in. It might only be a small panel but it marks the end of 3 months hard work. The cab welding is complete! Onto the sliding door and rear arches!
