1976 Panel Van Conversion - complete resto

Far too long since I updated !

The D-post needed fixing and missing rear valance(spelling?)



On to the right hand side.

Cutting out the D-Post


Made and fitted a D-post repair for once side after buying parts for the other side. Welded in the captive nut after some lining up with a bumper mounting bracket.



Fabricated the outer panel and trial fitted all before welding in and the valance.






I also had to use the bottle jacks to widen the gap the valance fitting, it took some persuasion but I got there.

 

I moved to the LHS rear corner with a Schofield part and trialed for fitting.



Made myself a storage bench ( I may have mentioned this earlier)



1. As the side panel with the wheel arch was in a sorry state I decided I could not fit the rear corner until I had the side panel done.
2. As this connected to the sliding door sill, which needed work, I decided this needed working on first.
3. As the jacking points, top hats, crossmembers and floor needed attention I decided the sill had to wait until this was done!

Off with the floor thanks to a few spotweld bits




I decided to take a break and work on the heater pipe ends..



Stripped down and holes patches all welded in, before a Vactan coat then Some old red oxide paint applied on both this and the Y section to keep it good until top coat.

 

Next I sandblasted the inner chassis frame and middle joints and the top hats which where good and allowed to stay; 2nd 3rd and 4th I think, do you count from the cab or the engine?

After the blast it got a coat of old school Galvafroid paint to keep it sweet until I returned.



The sandblasting did show up some bad rust



Cut out all the rust -

Also cut out the torsion beam cover ring to fix and treat any rust inside the chassis.

Cleaned the rust, treated with vactan and painted with Galvafroid.



Then made a patch from 2mm steel and fitted.



Also done a quick chassis side patch

 

Found this image of my sandblast tent - old sheets and some heavy polythene at the base to keep the nasty stuff in one place - I used Supa-fine J in the blaster I have no idea what this means but its great stuff!

 

Y heater section getting treated with vactan after rust removal. It was then painted in epoxy mastic.


Took the front beam out and was glad to find it in great shape, must have been changed at some point!





And took the steering box off to refurb with a kit.

 

Great pics and a lot of work!! good luck

 

BTW sorry for the size of some of the following pics I accidentally made then large doh!

Right with the rollover jig the chassis repairs had nowhere to hide!

So rather than bore you with posting all the repairs I will bore you with one repair in far too much detail than is sensibly required

1. Identify a hole (the easy part)

2. Clean it up best you can I was worried how deep the rust might be on the torsion beam, but wire brush found good steel. I will run some welds over this to increase the thickness before I treat and close it off with the angle panel.



3. Identify and cut out the rust


4. Create a template. I like to use cereal boxes as when pressed against the hole the shiny sides leave a good imprint of the hole to be filled.




5. Mark it with a pen and cut a copy



6. Cut out the copy and weld it in (prep all the edges to be welded, clean and treat inside the chassis before welding up.

 

A few random photos now

A tip for removing a front beam solo..control the drop!


My welding backplate for plug welds and refilling cut used to bending thick steel - copper pipe


My storage system for removed parts bolts and the like - takeaway boxes marked and stored away for who know how long!

 

Watching this thread with interest!

I'm the same, jump from job to job lol.

Keep it up and keep the pics coming!

 

Feels like a long time since I got at the VW, a holiday in Croatia and work has kept me away.

For the following you may need the contents of your old school pencil case!

I needed the finishing section for the torsion bar / rear beam repair. I know they are available from Ebay at £30 a go, so £120 for the full repair..as good as they are I need to try and reduce the costs so there is how I will fabricate my own.

So to get the shape right I took some measurements and used the website below. As it is going to be done in two haves I halved the angle, Funny it was 180!



Its a bit hard to see but the measurements are as follows,

Draw a line 260mm down the page mark it off
Mark off 185mm down he page

This gives you the inner and out radius, from the top of the centre line us a protractor(the semi circle thing, I think this is its name) to mark out 45 degrees from the top line or the centre line.

Draw a line from the top centre through the 45 mark down the page.

Using a compass or pencil on a string draw the arcs.

When cut out and bent over this gives you the right shape to finish off you torsion bar.. or at least it should. I will update tomorrow

 

Clever

I make a cardboard one by trial and error and draw round it.

 

That would be my usual plan of attack Zed.

I came up with this when I was away from the van and started planning my next bit of work.

 

I took a bit of a motivation hit this weekend after realising I had bought the wrong inner front panel for behind the deformation panel

But after a sunny walk in the garden I was ready for a dirty job.. real dirty job




Sandblasting.. Don't worry I did use PPE.

I was using this


It kept steaming up so I took out the screen and used goggles, earmuffs and dust masks.. still got covered in the fine dust.

This was my temporary blasting booth, old blankets hanging from a wooded frame with a blanket roof. Also had an back end to let dust escape and a work light shinning in from a distance. It worked really well






The following all got blasted ready for painting the backs prior to fitting.



I also blasted the front and rear tin ware and gave them a coat of Simoniz high temp paint.

 

A few updates.

Painted the inside of the repair panels with redoxide to hold back the rust.

Does anyone have an ideas how good this will be?


Started welding it on.

You can see where I had cut the old corner off to get a straight join, but when I released the new panels fit was crap around the light box and was missing the screw holes, it was into the scrap pile for the old corner then a cut and weld of the rest of the old box surround back on.
What did I learn..
It you can keep your old cutoffs.
Always get the new panel before you cut off the old section (basic but I cut this way at the start)
Sometimes the old panel has more to offer than you realize!


Tacking at first and then filling. I soon realized a mistake, I had started at the ends and finished here at the corner. with the heating, shrinking and shifting I ended up with a less than great fit! Do Not Finish on an internal corner




Unpicked a bit but not too much and got a hammer and dolly to try and fix the fit.



I got there in the end..but the corner needs quite a few angles to be measured up.

I had the wheel arch clamped on to get the fit right and was happy enough with this part and the edge at the engine bay.





I tried the lights in for fit.

 

Some nice work going on there.

 

Also made a start on the front. The a-posts need some work.



Looks pretty bad but lucky its isolated rust patches. All got cut out and the internals cleaned and treated with vactan. Will be wax oiled after welding to hold off any rust.


The repair panel I had to make was a bit of fun as it needed bending and twisting everyway! After some hammering I ended up with this..



It still needs final shapping here. Now welded in and tidied up.

 

The front inner panel has been fun and the lower A-post also need some work.





The a-post was missing at the bottom but from the step base I took a measurement of where I thought it should be and checked with the other side which has more A-post to measure.

Fitting the A-post outer.



Roughly welded in


I was unsure where the inner front panel should sit so I trialed the front panel in, placed according to the front vents for fit and adjusted the lower panel to fit.



My front inner panel was tough to fit at all but it matched the deformation panel and the a-post.



All test fitted.

 

Just found the photos of removing the inner front panel.





New panel sitting on the out chassis legs at each side.



Unfortunately initial size up did not meeting the inner legs.



As a result the kick panel does not even reach the new panel. Some work needed on the curve.