Friday 18 May 2012

Rear Wheel Arch Tubs

Not ones to leave anything un-touched, we thought we'd take the lot of the back out, so it can be worked in properly:




Both inner rear wheel arches and the lower bulkhead section are now out of the van. These are all the originals and will not be replaced, but re-worked and repaired where necessary and then put back into place.







Cargo Door Side Sill

With the short side panel and 'C' post now firmly in place and the door alignments done, the cargo door side sill can now go on.

Nice and equal join between the sill and side panel:



The small 'blisters' you can see are drain holes and we are going to change these. This repair panel does not have the pressings as large as they should be. The originals were more 'pronounced' in the shape, and slightly larger, so as we're not happy with this panel, we'll cut out the indent, make new ones and weld them in.

Latch plate now in place for the side door lock bars.

Rear Firewall & Bulkhead

The rear firewall and bulkhead was badly dented, but not really rotten or rusty. We decided to remove the whole lot so we can work on it properly.



For now, we've left the wheel arches and the lower part of the bulkhead in place. You can see the water drain pipe that connects to the spare wheel tray sticking up in the middle


Here's the rear bulkhead and then the rear parcel shelf removed. Carl will make a mould of the ribbing to be able to knock these back into shape


Saturday 5 May 2012

Side Cargo Doors

Moving back down to the side of the van, we've been working on the side cargo doors.

Here the two cargo doors are bolted into place for a trial fit. We still need to loads of adjustments to get the door lines perfect, but not bad for a first fit


The rear door is a NOS one we managed to find whilst the other is the original that we've re-skinned and repaired

Carl has completely re-built this door and used plug-welds to give an original factory finish. He took measurements of the old door and took note of the spacing between the welds so the newly re-built door looks exactly like a factory one

Once painted, you will not be able to tell the difference between the NOS door and the re-built one.