Last night was phase one to try and get the driver’s side front chassis leg remade. Rolled over the camper and started working on it After a lot of head scratching I cut out the first segment (doing it bit by bit so I keep the shape) and made a new section out of 2mm steel – Once welded it was a good looking repair, so on to the next bits – I cut out the main spar, as I have a repair section from vw heritage and placed it into the Y section – but where is welds onto the front – there was a few holes in the rear of the bumper scuttle (I don’t know what it’s called) – overall this section not bad (2 holes) and so I need to make up more section and weld into place before putting in the chassis section. Also the gearbox chap has opened it up and all is ok but needs new seals and a small plastic ball!!! That is at the end of the gear shift. Now I called all the normal people but they did not have a clue and eventually I was given a name of a company to try as no one had any of the parts. Top tip – anything about gearboxes you must try “The Engine Shop” tel 01322 350022 – now you may already know this – but I didn’t. – Great chap and understood what I wanted straight away – also I believe he does engines as well. OK- bits for gear box £53.46 from the engine shop all seals and gaskets and that plastic ball- my gearbox man £160.00 Just had a call from my engine man – that is costing £1400 – but it has new forged pistons, barrels heads – reground crank – new bearings – oil pump – recon tin ware – new exhaust (not heat exchangers as these were ok) - recon carb – and test run – I think that’s it.- kept it standard 1600 –
This Saturday I started at 9.00 and finished at 3.00 managed to get loads done. The first thing was to make up some sections where the front chassis rail attaches to the inner front panel – there were two section that were rotten , so cut back to good – made new sections out of 1.2mm steel (it looked that gauge) not too bad a repair – so with that done I could concentrate of the chassis leg that was rotten – a new section was got from vw heritage – but I had to make up new sections of 2mm steel to feather it in to the Y section, a bit fiddly but got a good result. Sunday did a bit of grinding and then cut out the old sill from the driver’s side. No middle sill !! – They did not put it in, or they forgot – who knows? In fact there are a few differences between the late bays and the early ones with the chassis I can tell – the rear out riggers on my camper were just a L shaped pressed section – but the ones I got to replace were bigger sections like the normal out riggers – the other thing I have noticed was the I beams are all the same on mine but the early ones have a more complicated “I” beam to the first rail. Then this issue with no middle sill – Anyhow cut them out with the plasma and then air chiselled out the remaining spot welds – offered up the inner and it was a good fit, spot welded and plug welded it in – then I did a dry run with the middle and outer sill – but the outer sill I have is to small – so I will have to get a bigger sill with part of the side panel on it – so I need to order that today. Looking at the B pillars they only look rotten at the bottom – so I will make up some of these sections.
Got to my garage and due to the wind I found a large branch has fallen off and gone through the roof of the garage – more work for me to sort out. Finished off welding the middle sill (driver’s side) but could not finish off because I’m waiting for the bigger other sill to arrive so I can fabricate the B and C posts and see how big to make them. So on with the cutting out of the sliding door sills. A bit of head scratching – looking at the new middle sill with the thing that I think may be a track (does it weld under the old bottom track?) – I was unsure of how much to cut out –But In the end– I have assumed that the middle sill does incorporate the bottom of the sliding door track – so I’ve cut the bottom bit off the old track leaving the upper one in place, and after measuring the old gap of 25mm I will weld at the same distance– Let’s see if I’ve @.....ed up. Going to have a look on the blogs to see what everyone else has done.
your right, the sliding door middle sill isnt the same as the original, it doesnt have the upper guide. a lot of people do what you have done an leave that intact on the bus and graft the repair panel to that (making sure your measurements are spot on) I removed the whole of my middle sill in the end (very carefully) and repaired and re welded it on, either way is good I found the welding addictive too ;D .......just lost a bit of motivation for the filling and sanding .......cant believe your getting tea made for you ;D .....lucky ;D ;D
fantastic work you are doing there mate, this will be another resto that i will be watching, learning how its done right
Got out all the left overs of inner sill by way of grinding and air chisel,– and when I did a dry run to fit the inner sill it was a good fit – so out again, grind off the areas I was to weld and in it went – I must say that the spot welder I got of eBay has been great (Clarke CSW 13T ) – the speed at doing the spots along the bottom and the tidiness of it has been great. I had to get a special blue3 pin plug and a 35 amp breaker in by the electrician – but I also needed it for the plasma cutter – any how it will spot weld up to 2mm + 2mm and has a push button selector – so easy set up. After the inner – I had to take the paint off the middle sill otherwise when I get the camper dipped – the rust proofing won’t stick to the black paint it comes with – so cleaned off it was and then I slid it behind the old track – while I was getting it in place the track section fell off!!! - but actually that is a good thing, as I can now set it at 25mm gap – welded and spot welded the middle sill in place – but my welds were a bit crap last night – got penetration but a bit unsightly – so more grinding to make them look presentable. All in and fitting Great The back section inner sill - got a bit of making good the floors - Got penetration but a bit unsightly The inner sill shown from the front of the van - slid up behind the old track before welding in place Middle sill - spot welded in place
Picked up the engine – looks good Its the Original one out of the van and has a “AS” reference. So its had- Reground crank, mains, camshaft bearings, oil pump, forged pistons, cylinders and heads. Recon carb – new distributor( he tells me it’s a good one) (electronic ignition) new exhaust (my old heat exchangers) and a mixture of old and new tin ware cleaned up – and bench tested- plus leads and plugs - oil (can’t think of anything else) £1400.00 all in
Sliding Door Outer Sill After finishing welding the inner sill and grinding off - I got the bottom roller from off the sliding door and put it in – and checked that it was fine – and it was! – set the gap at 23mm in the end. Then the fun started – offered up the new outer sill and it was miles off fitting – it looked to be far too big in height, there was a 15mm overlap on the bottom of the sill were it has to be welded on to the middle/ inner sill. After 2 hours of bending the existing lines to make a more acute angles – I got it to fit –but before I welded it in place I got out the new “b” pillar outer skins and they lined up well with the same radius as the re bent sill-but I do have an element of doubt cos I did have to do a lot to it to get it to fit. I just hope the sliding door fits – there was no used in mounting the door as it has no bottom to it !!! I could not have made the sliding door gap smaller so this was the only option. 10.30 came –Radio 2 went on to Classical, so it was pack up time – a bit *******ed off
On Thursday I ventured into the garage to make and finish off the B post strengthener and the inner section on the sliding door side. After cutting out all the old patches in the wheel arch I eventually got the repair section (pre made) lined up and joggled in (helping form the side to the B pillar outer skin) - but because it was quite fiddly I cut it in half as I will weld them up once I have made up the main B inner pillar out of box section. No more work now until Monday night.
Really enjoying this resto. Great work going on there, your chassis repairs look spot on. Just wish I had enough room to use one of those rollover jigs. Would have saved me a lot of neck aches and visits to the hospital to get rust & hard underseal out of my eyes! (yes I was wearing goggles)! Looking forward to seeing how the body turns out after you recieve it back from the dippers with the protective primer. Keep up the good work
