Today I reinstated the guide tube for the gear coupling:
And fabbed up the first cone section for the rear torsion tube. I ended up having enough of the old cone section to get the right curve profile. Hammering it around a dolly gave me the right shape so it shouldn’t need too much more work before it’s done.
Little bit more from today. Repaired the two holes I put in the gear shift tube when I removed it (backed the holes with copper tubing to help protect the inner).
Gave it a lick of zinc primer:
Got some paint on the stove build. Just need to cure this now with it’s first burn.
I’v also started cleaning up the rear lip that the floor attaches to. It’s in good nick but has some rust which I’m treating.
With a project like this it’s often easy to forget how much you’ve done, when the list of bits to do is so vast. Today felt like a significant milestone was hit though as the last outrigger and brake cable guide tube went in, completing the majority of the frame on which the floor sits:
There isn’t much in the below picture I’ve not replaced, but the result is worth it (5 floor supports, 2 cross members, 6 outriggers/jacking points, 2 inner sills, 2 brake cable guide tubes, numerous chassis repairs).
Now I just need to finish up a few minor welding bits, get some more paint on it and get the floor in!
I got the penultimate outrigger/jacking point welded in today. Annoyingly I somehow have a nick in the wiring loom (It’s not damaged the wires inside though so I’ve just put some electrical tape around it).
I also welded the last edge of the repair piece I made to the chassis that sits behind the rear outrigger. I ended up seam welding it for strength.
I got the first coat of zinc primer on the O/S cargo floor pan today. I won’t be doing this again any time soon, it took an absolute age to strip all of the transit primer off the panel and prep it properly (hoping it’ll be worth it in the long run though).
Not looking forward to prepping the other pan, I’m tempted to leave it in transit primer and just put the epoxy mastic straight over it but I know it’ll bug me if I don’t do it properly.
The only genuine VW cargo floor panels available are designed to fit a LHD vehicle. As such a small in-fill piece is needed on the panel on the driver’s side to extend it up to the side wall for a RHD van (I ended up buying the panel from Schofield’s as it was easier).
I decided to plug weld the piece to the panel. I punched holes along the length of the piece, and gave both panels a few light coats of etch primer as once welded together no paint will get to these sections (the etch I’m using is weld-through, but I still clean up each plug weld hole prior to welding).
Clamped in place:
and plug welded:
I ended up hammering the piece down to match the dip in the floor panel; looks neat to me:
I’ve probably made more work for myself than I needed as I’ve decided to strip off all of the transit primer so I can put some zinc primer on. I made a start on this tonight, but removing all the paint on a panel this big will take a while (and it was 9:45 by the time I left so I’ll finish that up next time).
Odds and sods this week as I’m finishing up the bits needed before I can get the floor panels in.
Front belly pan out of the rust treatment bath and it looks pretty solid. There are a few pin holes in it that I need to weld shut at some point, but I’ve put some zinc primer on it for now.
Finished up the chassis repair that was holding me back from getting the final 2 outriggers in.
Epoxy mastic on the inside:
Welded shut:
And a coat of zinc primer on it.It looks miles better than what was there (note that it might look a bit short at the back, but its the other piece which is too large; you can see a nice patch straight over another rusty section. I’ll come back to do this). I’ve also epoxy mastic’d the chassis section where the outriggers will sit as I’ve done with the others. So I should be able to weld the outriggers in this week.
Made up a replacement tab for the clutch cable guide tube. The previous one had snapped off, and it was easier and better to make a new one (sorry about the blurriness!):
And finally I’ve got the RH floor pan trial fitted, and the in-fill piece to take it up to the side panel.
Next week’s job; drill a ton of holes in the floor panel ready for plug welding to the floor supports and sills, and weld the in-fill piece onto it. I made a start just before I left today.
I’ve pretty much finished this repair panel now, I’ll probably spend a bit longer on it to get the front to fit slightly better:
While the paint on the inside of the repair dries I decided to give the front pedal belly pan a bit of attention.
Before:
After an overnight soak in a bath of Deox-C (it didn’t quite fit in the plastic box I had, but this shows how good the stuff is!). This should be useable once I’ve finished cleaning it up, patched a few pinholes and given it a coat of paint.
Today saw the front O/S outrigger go in:
Both front outriggers are in now. Looking good!
Before the middle and rear O/S outriggers can go in I need to repair the chassis section that they attach to (someone has repaired this in the past but it needs fixing again).
Marked up and rot chopped out (you can see the rear of the repair I made earlier to the other side of this section – I’ll get some rust treatment and epoxy mastic in there while I’ve got good access):
And I’ve started fabbing a repair section for it. This largely consists of beating the crap out of a piece of steel with a large hammer and vice to get the bends in the right position:
I’ve got the basic shape and just need to cut it down to size now:
A little from this evening’s effort to fabricate a repair for this area.
Rot and previous rubbish welding chopped out:
Repair panel made up. What a pig to do! The combination of a curved section and slight bend to the panel made this quite tricky to get right. There is also a dip in the panel on one side as it approaches the torsion bar. For that bit I had to weld an extra piece to the panel (I could’ve made the panel bigger and just bent it, but I’d already cut it down to size).Should do the job.
Trial fitted to the chassis,
Heres the dipped section (sorry about the image quality). It’s not a perfect match for the original but should be a neat repair:
Got some paint on it tonight so should be able to mastic it tomorrow night and weld in Friday. Hoping to get the O/S outriggers in soon once these repairs are done.
