Steady Eddie 72 Body Restoration

Update from the weekend, we very tentitively cut more and more out of the front kickpanel, valance, bumper, a pillars, side steps, basically everything that was left. It started to dawn on me that the front end is going to be harder than the rest of the van combined!

Amanda not afraid to get stuck in these days!

Trying to avoid having to re-set the door hinges


Cleaned and hammerite on the chassis rails where accessible


Various repair sections coming together. We don't have many tools so the ridges were made by putting a punch in a vice and whacking it until it vaguely resembeled the shape we wanted, very technical stuff!



My neighbour very generously let me use his shotblasting cabinet to blast all the new sections before going in.

 

Took some reassuring advice from @womball and @JamesLey that making this kickpanel is supposedly doable and we left the inner valance in place while we gently tacked the repairs in place so everything holds its shape. Once it was tacked in, we got cutting again to find chassis rails full of rust and.. you guessed it, more filler!




Anyway, this is how it looks now with a coat of weld through primer, only tacked in place awaiting us test fitting and measuring up various other repairs.

 

Taken a few days off work this week to keep the progress going. Its been raining all day so the front valance will have to wait. Instead, while amanda re-painted the kitchen after the burst pipe a couple of weeks ago, I set about finishing up the driver's door. Because we had done so much welding on the bottom section I went a little crazy with the seam sealant.




Getting serious with the clamps to plug weld the edges in

More sealant behind the welded bead


Finally, the underside coming together as well, it took about 7 attempts to get it to fit right.






Really pleased with how it has turned out, just in time to fit it to the van and help allign the new door step too!

I just hope the rain will stop for the rest of the week!

 

Good on you for tackling the kick panel! Way worse than ours and looks like you've got a good match there.

 

yeah I'm hoping it will come together ok, It's looking better than I imagined which is always good! I just hope the front valance fits to it, and the front panel fits to that, then the window fits to that. It's at times like this when I wonder if I should have bought a tape measure?!?

 

Quick question. I’m in the process of trying to weld in the front valance to the chassis rails (full update coming soon) but I can’t get to one of the ‘flaps’ on one chassis rail because the steering box is in the way. I’m not planning to remove any of the steering or running gear if I can help it (that’s next year’s job). But does anyone have any experience of removing the steering box. Does it just unbolt easy enough or will I have to dismantle the whole steering system?

Thanks in advance!


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Also a second quick question. I’ve tried fitted the front panel and inner windscreen section to check allignments (I would have wanted to use the original front measurements but that was just filler so I didn’t trust it at all!).

Anyway, am I right in thinking the ends of the inner windscreen panel just get welded edge to edge on the a pillars sort of like this



Or do they somehow slot in to the lip on the pillar like this (I bodged a cut to make this work. If it’s wrong I’ll just weld it up again)



Finally. As i didn’t have any measurements before, does anyone know the size of the windscreen aperture? Does this look about right. It’s taken in the middle from the inside of the top lip?



Thanks again!





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Just the ball joint,four nuts and bolts on the steering coupler and four bolts holding the steering box to the chassis rail

 

I’ll get you some pics tmw as mines never been replaced

 

Ok that sounds easy enough. A bit of a faff but needs to be done. I’ll see if I can get it off tomorrow


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Little bit more done on the doors. Finally took the sliding windows out, it was a bit tricky but not impossible, I shouldn't have put it off so long!

Found the rust around the wing mirror mount was a little worse than expected, thankfully we still have the replacement skin handy so a repair should be easy enough.



Though I can save the rest of that for a rainy day.

Instead we test fitted the drivers door to test all the sizes, how can two hinges give you so much grief! after numerous attempts we got it this close, the top is flush but there is an overhang at the bottom. I'll keep trying but I guess a little overhang will stop much water sitting in the sills

 

anyway, back to the front end.

one chassis rail has been bodged too many times and well overdue a cut out.


not great but loads better than it was


Only about 2 of the original 'flaps' on the end of the rails were any good so we made up new ends for each

Then welded the inner valance back in. All the welds still need tidying up a little (ignore the blown through wire at the top I tidied that up later!)

After several suggestions and lots of scratching of heads, instead of removing the steering box to get at the last 'flap' on the chassis rail, instead we cut through the valance and made a big plug weld onto it, stirdy as a rock now. Thanks @zedders and @paradox for the help!


And started getting the A pillar back together again, needed to fabricate several sections as Schofield's repairs, great as they are, hadn't anticipated as much rot as we found!


Passenger A pillar coming out

Then got the kickpanel sections welded up properly

Looking better

Another test fit and it's still looking good, only a matter of time now...

 

Looking very good, that inner front kick panel looks like a lot of work.

 

You can say that again! It would be nice if they still made them and save a week of work!


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Give me a rear wheel arch any day, it seems like everything to do with the front end is troublesome and requires a lot of patience and precision (I have neither).

For fear of a small fortune to spend on a full front wheel arch and step, I instead bought a more simple front step repair. Had I known how much trouble it would be I may have reconsidered. Just about every bit of it needed ‘adjusting’ with a hammer and grinder. Not to mention constant re-fitting with and without the door in place!

Anyway, despite not actually fitting at all, it’s finally in! I’ll have to make up some small extra repair pieces but the main part is done!








On a more promising note, I’m enjoying having a welder to repair my tools, it won’t break again in a hurry!






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Finally managed to get the driver's step in and coated for the time being ready for some lead touch ups

and a small repair on the passenger side



Then got on to looking at the windscreen inner. I actually had to get my tape measure out for the first time to measure the windscreen apeture. Once that was right the tape went over the hedge and back to the precision I'm used to


Front end inner all welded!

Had a go with my Lidl sandblaster. It does a good job for the price. I wasn't planning on stripping the entire front end, just scratching a key for primer to set to. We had trouble with moisture getting into the gun and the fine glass media would get damp and bung up (no moisture trap on the cheap compressor). After some faffing and shouting at it, I worked out I could empty the gun, put my finger over the nozzle and pull the trigger, it would fire backwards and blast out the bunged up mess. Not what I wanted to be doing every 10 minutes but it gave my back a rest.


Gave it a rub down with panel wipe then...


Lidl didn't let me down again, the cheap paint gun made quick work for a couple of layers of epoxy mastic. After so long faffing on the front end and the unpleasant work with the shotblasting, this was such a relief. I now love spraying!
Obviously I'll be buying some proper kit when it comes to a paint top coat but can't complain with this cheap compressor and guns. next job, seam seal, more layers of paint/rust protection and maybe get Eddie's face back on!

 

Looking great mate! Love me some epoxy mastic.


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I think this is the happiest I've been working on the van in a long time, it's so satisfying spraying it on and it looks so good afterwards. Do I even bother with paint, I may just coat everything in epoxy .

Thanks for the recommendation

 

It’s a bit of an emotional roller coaster isn’t it! Some days I just think sod it, what’s the point. Then you finish a chunk like this and realise it’s been worth it.


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