Cab door exposed

After much head scratching and asking around (The Haynes manual only makes sense now I know how to do the job) I have stripped all of the gubbin's (apart from the lock) out of the door and am ready to start cutting off the door skin.

Since deciding to do this it has become obvious why people buy imported doors

Door skin £29.50 (I got mine cheaper)

Window channel £32.95

Seal kit £56.95

Might see what I can salvage, the aluminium trim was so difficult to get off without bending but I should be able to reuse that (I hope).

Not time to work on bus again until Tuesday so TTFN

Battle of the Bulge - Victory

Well, I spent some time on Sunday and Tuesday cutting and grinding some more and welding in some metal to attempt and rebuild the bulge under the front deformation panel/bumper mounting panel.

I recreated the profile in three peices but with 20/20 hind site might have done it in four next time due to the multiple bends on the outside edge of the panel, the middle and inside bulge bit's were quite straight forward in comparison.

There is a bulgy bit on the outside bit but I can live with that :o)

I have ordered the last few panels that I know that I need to complete this project

Lower Front panel bottom to lights but comes with old bumper mounting panel attached

O/S rear of rear wheel arch repair

O/S Outer sill, drilled old on to butt weld and found the replacement inner is not long enough

N/S front of rear wheel arch repair

Wow, nearly half way there now :o)

Battle of the bulge part 1

Back in the garage last night with the aim of repairing the N/S deformation/bumper mounting panel which to remind you looked like this after trimming:

I had pre cut some repair patches and after a couple of hours of triming, welding and grinding it looks like this now:

With a small addition of some filler that will look as good as new, there might be some repairs that need doing to the lip but can not really tell until the panel is cut out and I have no money for a new one at the moment :o(

I welded in a plate to start fixing the plate at the bottom but the profile went a bit Pete Tong when it was bent in to meet the bottom lip of the 'Inner front panel'.

After the 9 O'clock watershed (The garage faces OAP sheltered accomodation) I decided to have a go with the new Black and Decker 'Bullet' drills to get the single screw out from the table mounting plate on the floor... 3 seconds to drill it out... so much for the 6 Titanium coated drills that I had tried to use before.

The first corner

After my grinding session I had spent some hours cutting out repair panels for the N/S front err... VW Leprocy and have a lovely mosaic of panels to rebuild it with (No Photo yet).

First things first though, as I am working on the O/S I should fix that corner first. I ground away the remains of the small closing panel between the door and the bumper mounting after making a template for the new cheap hand made replacement. After triming back any other corrosion I made a template for a new bottom of the A'post (door hinge pillar) and then fabricated myself a new one.

After a bit of trial fitting and many adjustments with the grinder I started to weld it in, true to form I struggled with the welding again with it just spitting all over the place but the end results of the welding, once ground back were good enough for this area.

I have let in another little repair patch to the bottom of the bumper mounting panel andground it all back, it is now ready for the shutting panel to go in but I will leave this until the front wheel arch goes on to make sure that the panel lines are okay.

Things seem to be steaming along at the moment and Mr. Savage might be required again very soon.

Up front and personal

After my exploratory incursion into the nightmare that could be the front panel there was only one thing for it... to show me the metal (if there was any). Fitting for the first time the twisted wire attachment that I had purchase a year ago, but hoped that I would never need, to my grinder I set about the front panel with gusto.

First I needed to remove the spot lights that looked as if they had seen better days, yep, true to form the backs had rusted out completely so they are nothing more than scrap either.

I set about the front panel and my heart sank as the billowing clouds of white dust never seemed to subside. literally from side to side and from the lip of the front panel/bumper mounting panel to the bottom of the front panel bulge was solid filler. The lip was mainly constructed of filler and disappeared slowlt but surely.

At the end of this I vowed to buy some better face masks which I did on Sunday from the overpriced, rip off Britain, lowest quality product possible "HomeBase"... along with some bullet drills (Black and Decker so might not be up to the job) to remove a screw that has blunted 6 of my titanium coated HSS drills and some HSS jigsaw blades for cutting out the all too numerous repair patches having got through 3 cheap blades this week alone.

When I had finished the grinding my heavy heart actually lightened, although the damage was extensive the Inner front panel was solid (£97 saved) and the bumper mounting panel was solid apart from localised corrosion at the sides where the little shutting panel in front of the cab door meets the side of it and so with a fair bit of fettling I reckon I can make all the required patches.

One gets to wonder how far the Isopons filler actually travelled to get onto this local bay, the filler (used to at least) be made in Wollaston by Scott Baders which is about 17 miles from my house... I bet the filler must have travelled at least 2-300 miles to get here though ;o)

A quick look at the front panel

After the trial fitting of the wheel arch I decided that I should look at what needs doing to the front (hopefully not a lot) as the little panel to the side of the deformation/bumper mounting panel was shot. I cut this back leaving enough to fabricate some replacements but got to wondering about the state of the seam that connects the bottom of the front panel to the top of the deformation panel.

I had a few minutes spare last night so took the grinder to it to see where the metal was. I don't know why I was surprised but the grinder met very little resistance and spewed a great white cloud of dust. St David of Isopon had been again. I ground along about a foot of the seam in the middle and it transpired that the front panel was no longer connected to the deformation panel and the lipped seam was mainly constructed from filler.

Oh well, there is at least another £150 worth of panels that need to be sourced

The drivers side peices come together

Well, on Sunday I got nearly a whole day in the old garage which gave me a chance to finish off the fitting of the new panels on the drivers side of the van after the fitting of the sills and outriggers.

I drilled the outer sill panel so it could be butt welded on but after drilling I did a test fit and found that the inner sill is not as long as the old one and does not reach down to the holes that I have drilled... Oops. Two options, new panel £8 or bend the panel up to a point that it can be welded... will decide when the other panels have been fitted.

Next up I trimmed and clamped the b'post repair panel into place and made sure the profile was okay, I followed this by cutting a shutting plate for the sill end to finish that area off ready for the wheel arch to go back in.

With that in place I set about getting the wheel arch in place so I have had to temporarily refit the door... that is fun on your own but not too hard with the aid of a friendly stool for support.

Well I have trimmed the B-post end a bit to fit around the repairs and it all goes together nicely and will close up to the door with a little force applied but the step has a 1 cm gap around the A'post bottom.

A little fettling and a new bottom!

After the welding that was done by Chris I need to fettle the new arch to fit, I had an hour on this and managed to get it so that the B'post side fits flush but the front near the step is like 7-10mm out in the curve of the arch so is going to need a bit of work... first I need to refit the cab door.

The door has seen better days and so I have set about bringing it back rather than buying a new one (Skint me !), there are no repair panels for the bottom of cab doors so it is fabrication all the way. I have cut out the biggest section where it is straight and fitted the new, profiled hand made section. Just a few more bits to do and then I will fit the new door skin.