Finished trial fitting the louvred window and it fits! I need to trim down one of the aperture corners slightly as it was a little too tight, to the point that I started damaging the seal, but apart from that it’s bob on. Onto shaping and priming the body next!!
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I’ve been putting this off for a while, but as I want to start prepping the body for paint soon I need to get it done. The window surround on the middle louvered window is pretty shot from water sitting behind the rubber (stupid panel van conversion). 3 of the 4 sides need a 1 inch or so strip letting in:
Chopped out the bottom rot and let in an oversized repair (having measured the aperture I’m fairly convinced it was too large compared to the window so I’ll be cutting it in afresh):
Clamped:
Tacked in:
And all done:
And made a start on the side and top pieces. It now looks like something out of Mad Max with a machine gun viewing window on the side:
In between welds I trial fitted the front headlamps on the front panel. The new panel needed a bit of tweaking to get the lights to fit as the bowl surround lip wasn’t quite bent correctly. A bit of persuasion with some mole grips saw them go in:
The rear window apertures have a few sections that need cutting out and replacing, but the rest will just get some Deox gel treatment to remove the rust.
Inner repairs made up and fitted to rear hatch, epoxied and then outer repair panel fitted. Just a few pinholes to weld up and one further repair to the aperture.
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.
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!
Keeping up the momentum on the welding and got the N/S outer rear arch welded in and pretty much all dressed. Managed to get a neater finish than I did on the sliding door. Into the engine bay next to sort the rear corner, battery tray and engine skirt.
