A restoration for Iris

Yes sorry the above may have been a bit confused. As the floor around there has quite a few patches on it it's difficult to see where the floor ends and the step starts. I've left the floor in tact there as such. Do you have a picture of a decent floor around this area at all? Does the floor overlap that step?

 

You were right, I was wrong, the inner sill attaches to the floor, the middle one to the threshold bit.

 

you can see in this pic where I drilled out the spot welds, inner row is the inner sill (welded to the floor) outer row is the middle sill welded to the thresh hold

 

Think you were still right as I was talking about the middle sill anyway. From your pic it looks as though the step has a lip on which the floor edge sits and is then presumably spot welded to? Does that sound right?

 

Yes.

 

Perfect. Thanks guys. Think I know what I need to do now. Edge between floor and step should be clearer once I get the nasty repair patches off! For now I'll leave that area alone and focus on getting some metal back in to the other areas. Watch this space!

 

Looking at my resto there's a good few pics of wot your after on 74 daisy page 8 and up

 

Got it, thanks. Think I was getting confused by the extra spot welds you can see in this picture (the line of welds with the white paint still on). These are actually where the floor meets the threshold, and not (as I originally thought) the middle sill spot welds.

In this pic you can see the top lip of the middle sill which holds the door roller in, which is clearly welded to the threshold and not the floor.

All clear now!tuesday_wildchild

 

I’ve found some more delightful bodges on the van this week.

Offside panel has quite an impressive amount of filler on it:


Offside wheel arch had this patch on it (not even fully welded on, just some tacks in three places):


and underneath:

 

I finally got the shot blaster in yesterday to clean up the underside for me. I was down there for a mammoth 12hrs as I needed to completely empty the unit for the guy, move everything back in after (inc. Engine, Front Beam, Roof, all doors, tools etc) and give it a coat of paint.

All out:


Shot blaster in:


I knew it would be messy work but the entire workshop was covered in about an inch of sand afterwards (it looked like a beach!). It took me nearly 2hrs to completely clean the workshop (it only took the guy about 1hr to blast the entire underside!).

And the finished result, I’m dead impressed with it:




Then it was back in with the spraying gear:


and all done with a fine coat of zinc primer:



Now just to get some fresh metal back in:

 

That looks like it was a great idea, how much did the blasting chappie charge you?

 

Less than he quoted on the phone. £200 including the 5 or so bags of blast media. Think it was less as he used the massive machine (he bought a smaller unit with him too but it would've taken twice as long). He does powdercoat too so might get him to do wheels at some point.

 

That's a bargain when you compare to the PITA of doing similar by hand.

 

My thoughts exactly!

 

I’m finely at the stage of putting some of the new metal into the van.

With the old inner sill cut out:


The new one gets clamped into place to provide a fixed point as I replace the cross supports (all are going bar one which I’m saving):


Trial fit of the front outrigger which didn’t need too much fiddling to get in the right position (I think?):




Fifth floor support cut out (far right where the space is):


And new one clamped and tack welded to the chassis:



Middle Outrigger trial fitted to the new floor support (fit seems good):



It feels good to be finally putting some metal back into the van after months of cutting it to bits.

 

Now to just carry on with replacing the rest of the floor supports. This is why I’m replacing most of them; the I beams were bulging with rust:

 

The original rear floor support has an enlarged hole for the gear linkage. The replacement I've bought has a hole the same size as all the others, is this Ok, or is it going to cause problems?

 

Any thoughts on the rear floor support? I don't know enough about the gear linkage. Does it only shift back and forth or is there some side to side movement too?

 

I'm still plodding on with the floor bits but I've yet to upload the pics. I've also managed to get a shard of metal on my eye despite wearing googles! I must've rubbed my eye after. Of the Bournemouth eye unit tomorrow to get it out. So annoyed at myself!