Cheers fella. Still not sure if I'll paint it myself or not. The space I have is big enough but it'd need a good clean out! I'll keep researching. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I got the first coat of zinc primer on the O/S cargo floor pan today. I won’t be doing this again any time soon, it took an absolute age to strip all of the transit primer off the panel and prep it properly (hoping it’ll be worth it in the long run though). Not looking forward to prepping the other pan, I’m tempted to leave it in transit primer and just put the epoxy mastic straight over it but I know it’ll bug me if I don’t do it properly.
I found the transit primer was murder to remove. I eventually invested in Blackfriars paint remover. Great stuff, but £35 for the wee tin.
Awful to remove (I was sweating bucket loads by the end of it!). I've got a bit of Nitromors kicking around which I might try to soften it up a bit. Not looking forward to the front panel if that's as tough.
In my (limited) experience Nitromors couldn't shift it nor could the cheap stuff from Screwfix. Blackfriars was easily the best.
Transit primer washes off easily with paint thinners. The coating on og parts like front arches and doors and cargo floors is some sort of electrically induced rock hard coating. Someone will be along to tell us exactly what it is. You'll have noticed it has a particular smell when sanded. I just key it. Under my cargo floor I just left it as delivered and there's no rust. I've seen front arches I fitted 5 years previously not showing any problems.
In that case I think I'll just key it up and go straight to the epoxy mastic then. Cheers. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I got the penultimate outrigger/jacking point welded in today. Annoyingly I somehow have a nick in the wiring loom (It’s not damaged the wires inside though so I’ve just put some electrical tape around it). I also welded the last edge of the repair piece I made to the chassis that sits behind the rear outrigger. I ended up seam welding it for strength.
A bit of a break from the van today (although I did start getting the last outrigger in). For a mate’s birthday I decided to make a little wood burning stove out of some old wheel rims I salvaged from the yard. A bit grotty: Max cleaned up the inside of them and put on a coat of high temp paint: Seam weld around the middle: Three legs and a plate welded on the bottom to cover up the hub hole: And then cut a door in the front, make up some quick pin style hinges and put a handle on it. Looks pretty good to me. Just needs a coat of paint now.
With a project like this it’s often easy to forget how much you’ve done, when the list of bits to do is so vast. Today felt like a significant milestone was hit though as the last outrigger and brake cable guide tube went in, completing the majority of the frame on which the floor sits: There isn’t much in the below picture I’ve not replaced, but the result is worth it (5 floor supports, 2 cross members, 6 outriggers/jacking points, 2 inner sills, 2 brake cable guide tubes, numerous chassis repairs). Now I just need to finish up a few minor welding bits, get some more paint on it and get the floor in!
Also would someone be so kind as to measure the distance from their rear outrigger to the end of the brake cable guide tubes? I measured mine before I took it out but wouldn't mind checking it against someone else's (I guess there is a bit of wiggle room as the conduit from the end of the guide tube to the brake backing plate is squashed into place - or it was on mine at least).
It wasn't there to start with (guess it was cut out years ago). Don't most people just zip tie it into place these days? I'd have to pull the loom out and push through a new conduit. Is it worth doing? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I got rid of my conduit and p clipped to the chassis and if you want to add to it later is easier and looks nice and neat
I suppose it's down to personal choice really I've removed my loom so I can clean it up and tidy previous additions and bodges I'm going to use plastic conduit to replace the old rotten steel one Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I reckon I'll leave the loom in place and go with P clips like @womball. The electrics are Ok on the van, maybe when I start looking at the front end I'll change my mind. We'll see. Any pics of your loom @womball?
Little bit more from today. Repaired the two holes I put in the gear shift tube when I removed it (backed the holes with copper tubing to help protect the inner). Gave it a lick of zinc primer: Got some paint on the stove build. Just need to cure this now with it’s first burn. I’v also started cleaning up the rear lip that the floor attaches to. It’s in good nick but has some rust which I’m treating.
Today I reinstated the guide tube for the gear coupling: And fabbed up the first cone section for the rear torsion tube. I ended up having enough of the old cone section to get the right curve profile. Hammering it around a dolly gave me the right shape so it shouldn’t need too much more work before it’s done.
I’ve welded on two new tabs for securing the wiring loom to the chassis: Given the floor another coat of zinc primer and a first coat of epoxy mastic. The mastic went on much better this time; I think last time I didn’t thin sufficiently and had the inlet pressure too low. Starting to look shiny: I also cured the paint on the stove build. My mate now has this, and I think he liked it. I need one now!
