So a little slack with updates but I have done a bit of work over the last couple of weeks. A little untidy but I used the gas axe to chop out this section of floor complete with what's left of the inner, middle and outer sills and the rotten outriggers. I'm a little worried about getting the sliding door track back together but don't see another way to do it with the extensive rot and previous bodged repairs..... Big hole left in the van: I needed to salvage this section. It's the upper part of the sliding door track and also the edge of the floor. This section is around 2mm so after all the rotten sills are cut off, it actually cleaned up pretty well: And the under side of the same section: Coolair don't supply a middle sill with the lower section of the sliding door track attached. Stupidly I ordered a JK exclusive panel! It looks like it's been designed by my mates 9 year old boys using lego! The original middle sill is nicely curved and this has just 2 simple bends. If it wasn't for the lack of being able to buy something better it would be going back. I just wish I had a decent sheet metal bender so I could make my own. It will take some adapting to fit. I replaced the ends of the top hat sections and I sections. Then before I forgot how it all went back together, I chopped off the remains of the B pillar and the rot from the bulk head. The inner sill has been tacked on here along with the b pillar repair section. I'm really not impressed with the quality of this inner b pillar repair section as it's pretty thin. I then made up a repair panel to fill the hole!! I already had a repair panel but it wasn't big enough and rather than extra joins I made my own out of decent quality steel. Here it is welded in place. The outer B post isn't fitted here as I need to paint the inside the pillar first: And that's about it for now. Floor supports and inner sill also finished: Next I'll be attaching the middle sill to the salvaged upper track section and trying to get it lined back up!!!
Andy, I hate to break it to you but it looks like you welded the floor supports coming up at an angle to meet the top of the sills? If you have, check the bit you cut out if you still have it. The supports hit the middle sill about 6-7,mm down from the top. The middle of the floor is lower than the edge, so if you uses a floor half it will slope up and be approx 6-7mm too high at the edge. If fact whatever flooring you use will slope up to the edge and make fitting things like furniture and RR bed difficult.
Some nice repairs going in there, Partly agree with Zed as looks you've been able to weld the top of the floor supports to the top edge of the inner sill, but I think you might get away with just putting the floor on top and hammering the stepped edge flush too fit, as once you've got some insulation and ply down there's a good chance the deviance across the whole floor will be minimal.
Thanks both for the replies. I think it's an optical illusion The only one that is welded to the top of the inner sill is the rear most I/H section where the floor dips down. The other is a gap like this: Cheers
I managed to squeeze in a couple of hours on the camper over the busy bank holiday weekend. The middle sill took a lot of work to get right. I didn't take any pictures which was bad from me. It was fully welded to the under side of the salvaged step/upper track section and then welded back on the the camper. I joined it at both the B and C pillars and then welded the middle sill to the inner sill all along the bottom. Still a couple of inches to do but almost done. I'm using a floor repair section and not a complete floor panel. I did this on the otherside and it turned out ok. The only difference is that this side will be more visable with the step showing. I therefore desided that rather than trying to weld the corrugated repair panel to the step section and inner sill, I would first cut out a strip from 2mm sheet, about 70mm wide and try and rebuild it for a more OEM look. This was drilled and spot welded to the step section and then will be fully welded to the inner sill from underneath. I put a few bends in this to match the dip in the other panels. The corrugated repair section will then be fully butt welded to this 2mm strip. As you can see, I've done quite a bit of work to this panel by heating up parts of it and hammering flat as per the original floor. It's been drilled and is ready for welding on now. View towards the rear Next jobs are to weld the outriggers and jacking points and finish a small repair to the chassis. I'll do those before fixing the floor down. That's it for now
Crikey you rattle along, there is some cracking welding on here. Also I know it is too late for you, but I have just bought the inner sill and sliding door sill from Custom and Commercial. It is a much better unit than the Jk thing you worked with.
good work buddy coming along nicely. good read and made me laugh as your bus is having the same work as mine even the misses asked why i was looking though my resto pic. keep it up chap grate work
Cheers I've been following your resto thread too. I'm out in the Garage again tonight so hopefully will make a bit more progress!
Thanks. I ordered mine from "Paints4u.com". (You need to search on their webiste for both EPOXY PRIMER and EPOXYPRIMER). I know zed doesn't rate their own paints though but this stuff is made by lechler and seems ok to me. I think they can tint it for you too. I didn't know at the time and I don't think it was an option on the web. I'm happy with grey anyway... Hope that helps
I've spent a bit of time out in the garage recently but can't upload any pics from my slr camera because I've run out of bandwidth at home! The chassis repairs are all completed and the outriggers and Jacking points are all finished too. I'll post the pics here later so for now, here's the finished article: Next jobs are to finish the C post repair, fit the rear arch and then the outer sill. After that this lot is going to keep me busy for a little while The arches are genuine inners and outers and will hopefully fit nicely;
So finally managed to upload some photos! NSR Outrigger & Jacking point done: Repairs to inner NS chassis rail: NSF Outrigger and Jacking point done along with the front chassis cross member. You can also see i've replaced the tube that the loom runs through and also repaired the OS inner chassis rail in the same place: This is a panel the OSR wheel tub to the inner side panel that i've been meaning to do for ages: and welded in: NS C post repaired:
I then cut the NSR arch panel to size: Here you can really see the crap fit of the lower corner repair panels....! So I made up this return section to tie them together with a decent finish to the seam: Here it is welded in, along with the outer arch being fulled butt welded: And finally, I finished the B Post Repairs by welding on the outer. I also stitched on the NS outer sill. So that's it for now. Next job is to paint up all this recent work in epoxy primer so i'll be spending a hew hours cleaning up the cargo floor and the underside so I can get the entire rear lower half in primer. I'm away this weekend so no more progress for a bit.
A little more progress this weekend: Firstly gave the latest repairs a quick coat of epoxy primer to keep the rust at bay: I then turned the bus around so I could start working on the front. Chopped off the deformation panel: As you can see, the inner valance of pretty rough: As was the deformation panel itself: And just to recap, here's the NSF, I have new arches, wheel tubs and floor repair panels. The arch it barely attached!!: And the OSF in pretty much the same condition: More to follow........
...... I also dropped the beam so I could check it and the chassis properly: As you can see, it's pretty rotten and I'm guess it's beyond repair. I've not looked closely yet though: and then the inner valance chopped off: The A posts are going to take some rebuilding: The good news is, I think the front panel will be repairable. The top by the screen looks really good. With just a could of rough areas as seen above and around the lights: The chassis is actually in reasonable condition, with the exception of the last 14" of the outer as can be seen here. I'm going to chop the off and make up a new repair section. And here it is chopped off: That's it for now. I have the new panels ready to go on but have the chassis repairs to do first and also a repair to the bulkhead where the rear of the inner wheel tub meets the body...
