Thanks all Did a little bit tonight as we've run out of lpg for the heating so the garage is as warm as the house! I chopped off the lower NS rear corner and battery tray panel and started to clean up for the new wheel tub. However, I think I've got some more chassis repairs to do first :-( I already planned on new outriggers like I did on the OS but the chassis this side is much worse.... Will upload more pics when I have time:
Looking good what you have don, bit like mine plenty of rust but everything can be repaired just takes time good luck will be worth it in the end.
A Little bit of progress since the last updates...: OSR Rear corner welded on. A pretty bad fit and needed quite a lot of adjustments. NSR corner and battery tray chopped off: Some repairs to the pillar required: My intention now was to weld in the new NSR inner wheel tub but the chassis needs work first: I chopped out the outriggers with the gas axe. You can see here that the bottom of the chassis rail has gone!!! Almost beyond repair here.... And a bit of rot in the inside too: Now i'm not usually one for patch repairs but in this area, adding some strength back in is key: Just realised that I don't have any photos of the repairs to the outside and bottom of the chassis rails, will add some later. This chassis bracket thing needed repair too: Not identical to the original but certainly stronger: Chassis repairs under the bracket: Lots more updates to follow in 10 mins
Repair complete: NSR pillar repairs complete: Wheel tub was then welded in and along with new battery tray and NSR corner: This side was a different make of repair panel, it seemed to be formed a little better than the other side and wasn't as wrinkled. It was also made of zintec sheet. However it still needed lots of work to fit correctly and I need to make the return so it meets the arch panel: The engine bay side panels were rotten but I didn't want to pay out another £150 for poor fitting panels so I repaired the existing ones. Also retained the VIN number. NS old showing previous "repair": NS repaired: OS old: TBC
OS Repaired: And finally the rear cross member welded in and the side panels ready to be welded in place: That's it for now. Hopefully I'll be spending most of the day on it tomorrow too
Not much of an update but I've taken delivery of epoxy primer and some new panels from coolair. The epoxy primer should be a good base coat for the engine bay and hold the rust at bay until the rest of the body is done! I must say, the autocraft outriggers look to be excellent quality as to be expected. I hope they start to expand their range. The cargo floor seems ok although I've not checked the profile against the original. The last cargo floor panel I bought was from jk and that was much smaller than this and more expensive too! I'm hopefully taking tomorrow off work so should be able to do some more work on the camper
Another quick update of work carried out over the last couple of days Air filter bracket cleaned up: And welded into place along with the engine side panels and outer valance: Other side: Firewall cleaned up: Fuel tank has seen better days. Although it would clean up, I found a couple of perforations on the underside so not sure whether to try and repair it or find another: The rear corner panels don't come with and lugs for the rear lights or any returns to give it any strength so I rescued these bits from the original panels and welded them back on: Nearside: Offside: And finally the offside rear arch panel has been welded in. I painted the inner wheel tub in epoxy mastic 121 and also the inside of the arch panel. I also put a large bead of tiger seal between them. Quite a bit of warping as to be expected but nothing that can't be sorted out later: This will be the last major work for a couple of weeks but I do intend to give all the recent repairs a good coating of epoxy primer now the welding is complete in these areas
Nice repair/fab work going on there, you've made a nice job of the fuel tank platform area as that's a pig to repair in situ! Looking forward to seeing this progress.
Thanks Tonight I managed to get an hour in the Garage so the engine bay and OS arch got a coat of epoxy primer. The plan being to seam seal next and the a further coat of primer. Will upload better pics but for now here's a phone pic. The firewall got a quick coat too: It makes a big difference seeing it all in one colour
Coming along great dude Is that epoxy primer self etching then or do you need to use an etch on bare steel still?
Cheers Yes, apparently you don't need to etch and it sticks like hell. On the sections that I've painted it's gone over bare steel, OG paint and 1k acid etch paint so I'll be testing it in a few days when it's gone off to see how well it's adhered The spec sheet certainly only states panel wipe to prepare the surface.
I know a few people who swear by the stuff nowadays but its costly However if you dont need etch aswell that brings the price down and i like the fact its not porus like normal primers Id be interested in how hard it is to sand aswell
Yeah the reason I went with the epoxy primer was because it's waterproof and although it's 2k, doesn't contain isocyanates so is easy to spray. It should hold the rust at bay until I'm done with the rest of the repairs! I think it's tougher to sand but I'm happy to have the base coat that's hard as I guess it will have a few coats of high build 2k on top... It cost me around £60 for 2. 5 litres of the paint and more than enough thinners and activator. That Included 5 litres of gunwash and delivery too Will keep you posted.
Seam sealer applied and ready for the next coat of primer..... but I'll carry on welding before painting anymore. Next job is the engine lid... I have this one I bought from ebay ages ago. At the time, I didn't realise the hinges are different so I have a little work to do: As you can see, the original one is rotten! Shocker....! More of that later as I just received a delivery from coolair. Mainly autocraft panels which look good. Just waiting for the middle sill to arrive: So the next job is to tackle the left hand side sill area......
A quick reminder of the state of the nearside. Almost identical to the offside. Bulkhead repairs needed and the PO has bodged a section of floor over the top of the old floor making things much worse! And with the bodged layer of floor removed you can see that there is a lot of work to do here :-( I think I'm going to chop the entire section out. I need to replace the ends of the top hats and I have the B Post repair panels so I'm planning on firing up the gas axe. This way I hope that I can salvage most of the OG step and upper sliding door track from the middle sill. I took a few measurements.... To be continued next week as I have a busy weekend doing family stuff....!
