Max and I finished prepping the inner valance ready to weld in tomorrow.
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I’ve just about finished repairing the surrounding metal work, ready for the inner valance to go in. This was the only chassis leg that needed any repairs. Now just to get some paint inside them and prep the inner valance
Another busy week on the van. I’ve finished up the welding on the kick panel lip that joins to the inner valance and punched the holes for welding it to the valance. It looks much better now. I just need to clean up the welds:
The old inner valance has been chopped out to reveal the ends of the 4 chassis legs:
And a trial fit of the new panel to see how it looks. Much nicer!:
I’ve a bit of work to do before I can weld the valance in though. The outer chassis legs need shortening slightly to fit the valance as the shape has changed slightly. I also need to repair the O/S chassis leg which has rusted out on the end and prep all the joining metal for welding.
Another repair to the front end (welds need dressing yet), and started shaping up the next piece (the rusty template in the background). This panel is starting to look a bit more solid now!
More fabrication and welding today. Replicated the pressing where the chassis rail sits too! All of these sections are oversized so I can trim down once they’re all done.
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!
I finished repairing the main section of the A pillar this weekend. I had to remove a bit more of the driver front arch, turns out it was mainly made of filler!
Driver’s side A pillar welded up:
All welds dressed, and coated with a lick of paint before I weld the front piece on next week.
Chopped out the bottom of the N/S A pillar tonight and welded in a new section. Chilly down the workshop tonight though!
I finished up the welding on the inner windscreen panel last week:
The dashboard mounts from the old panel were in good condition so I just welded them to the new panel and trial fitted the dashboard:
Off with the old deformation panel next so I can start repairing the A pillars and replace the inner valance and deformation panel itself. Looks pretty crusty:
I’ve started cutting out the rot on the O/S A pillar; I’ve treated myself to a pair of A pillar bottom repairs from Schofield’s to save some time making them. The washer bottle panel needs a fair bit replacing (I can’t find the part anywhere) so that’ll keep me busy too.
