A restoration for Iris

Discussion in 'Restorations' started by JamesLey, Jul 6, 2015.

  1. No mines flat aswell
    It annoys me as it pulls the steel of the van out of shape.
    I’ve been told there are curved framed windows but I’ve never seen one.
     
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  2. JamesLey

    JamesLey Sponsor

    Thankfully there isn’t too much metal left with the aperture cut out so it’s not too obvious. Hoping to make a start in the van bodywork over the bank holiday, just a few sections to let in round another aperture and a small hole in the sliding door seal channel at the top.


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  3. JamesLey

    JamesLey Sponsor

    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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  4. Mines flat too, keep looking for a curved one


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  5. JamesLey

    JamesLey Sponsor

    A super productive few days on the rear of the van over the weekend. The only bit that really needs filler is the weld for the new N/S corner repair (the other side got a complete corner):
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    O/S corner and rear bare metalled (I dragged the van into the yard to enjoy the sun, but I quickly got too warm). The corner had a slight dent on the bulge line which got fillered too:
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    N/S corner filler work complete. I’m definitely improving at the filler stage, this only took a few skims to get right (Wayne’s van in the background getting in on the action):
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    Dragged back into the workshop and all masked up:
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    And 2 coats of epoxy primer :)
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    Nice and smooth where the weld is:
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  6. JamesLey

    JamesLey Sponsor

    I’ll need to revisit these areas though. The welds for the battery tray are showing as high spots (not sure how I missed these!). I think I’ll just need to grind them down and apply a skim of filler:
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  7. Lazy Andy

    Lazy Andy Supporter

    Awesome to see some paint on the bodywork!
     
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  8. JamesLey

    JamesLey Sponsor

    Somehow I’ve spent an entire week so far sorting out the front in preparation for getting it into epoxy this week, as there were quite a few little things that needed addressing.

    First up I needed a bit more confidence that the windscreen was going to fit correctly as my previous attempts had never been quite good enough. After more attempts than you’d care to imagine I finally got the seal sitting nicely in the aperture, the key being to only just getting the seal over the lip all the way round, rather than focusing on trying to get the whole thing over in one place and finding it didn’t fit somewhere else:
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    I then shaped up the corners on the aperture to blend the new front panel into the a pillars:
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    With the window done it was on to trying to improve the cab door gaps as I didn’t get these as good as I wanted when I repaired this area last year.

    The N/S door gap to the front panel was noticeably inconsistent towards the bottom:
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    So I welded in a piece of steel rod:
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    Ground it flush and then cut it to give a much better door gap:
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    Over to the O/S door, and unfortunately the lower mount on the van that the door hinge attaches to had stripped its thread. I did debate fitting a rivnut (too big so wouldn’t allow adjustment), cutting a larger M10 thread (would mean I’d have to enlarge the hole on the door hinge), but ended up deciding to repair it the right way and fit a new plate in the mount.

    There is only a single spot weld holding the top in place, so I drilled this out, bent the top of the mount out of the way, and slipped the plate out:
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    Made a new plate and cut in 2 m8 threads to match the original:
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    Slipped the new plate in:
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    And plug welded the mount shut again. Much better:
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  9. JamesLey

    JamesLey Sponsor

    Both doors currently require shims to get them to fit properly which are a faff to fit so I decided to go full on “Door Whisperer” and bend the mounts with my new Hinge Adjustment Tool:

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    And now we have relatively decent door gaps which don’t need shimming:
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    I’ve started stripping the transit primer off, and hopefully the only bits that will need further filler are the edges towards the door:
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  10. Jules65

    Jules65 Supporter

    Nice work on the door fitment fella.
     
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  11. I like the HingeMaster II. I had hours of ‘fun’ test fitting my doors to check the allignment of the step and was getting close to the point of hitting everything with ever increasing hammers. Your technique seems somewhat more refined!


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  12. JamesLey

    JamesLey Sponsor

    They’re a real pain in the backside to do! The pics don’t show the amount of faff involved as you’ll be all to familiar with.


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  13. I did get to the point where they wouldn’t align with the latch and started wondering if I could weld up the doors and just climb through the windows every day. It was getting to the point where that would seem easier than trying to get the doors right! God forbid when I get to your stage and need to worry about the gaps! You need some serious patience to get it as nice as you have


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  14. arryhancock

    arryhancock Supporter

    Hey james, was there any reason why you only used the raptor on the wheel archs and not the whole underside?.
    Looking to get the underside of my bus blasted during the next school holiday as iv got a week off and was going to spray the whole underside in tinted raptor.
    john
     
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  15. JamesLey

    JamesLey Sponsor

    No real reason no. The whole underside was done in epoxy mastic which is in theory tough enough for all chassis sections but I thought the extra protection of raptor on the high impact areas would be good.
    Having done it once I’d definitely do the whole chassis in it next time; the baja bug will get it all over ;)


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  16. JamesLey

    JamesLey Sponsor

    Front end bare metalled and epoxied. Cab doors up next!
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  17. Fabulous work James, I am so glad you are ahead of me as I am learning so much. Currently caravanning in the New Forest and seen a couple of Safari Campers which remind me I need to get back to Lottie's revival soon. I liked your dodge with the cab door front gap I expect I will need to do something similar.
     
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  18. JamesLey

    JamesLey Sponsor

    Cheers Martin. Came out ok in the end, just a bit of a faff. Should have the cab doors epoxied tomorrow I hope. There are a few low spots on them even though they’re new skins which is annoying but never mind.


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  19. JamesLey

    JamesLey Sponsor

    Cab doors shaped and epoxied.
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  20. Lazy Andy

    Lazy Andy Supporter

    I saw the blog posts... come on James, bring everyone up to date!
     
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