I’ve had to reschedule the shot blasting for Thursday as I’m still waiting for my new priming gun to arrive and didn’t want to leave the chassis in bare metal. So I spent today making a start on removing the nearside outer and inner sill, and front top-hat, outriggers and cross member. The outer sill came off first: to reveal a second outer sill underneath. Some lazy sod had just welded the new one straight over the rusty old one: With the outer sill off it’s clear the middle sill also needs some work: Stripping the paint above the spot welds for the inner and middle sill to drill them out also revealed a few holes: Outrigger and jacking point cut out to make access to the sill easier: And started chopping the inner sill out: Hopefully I’ll get the rest of the inner sill off tomorrow, and carry on with the front top hat section.
With the middle sill, assuming the rot only extends to under the panel that the lower track is on, can I just cut under the track panel and weld a new lower section of sill to it? As I understand it the new middle sill panels don't havethe curve to them that the originals do, but presumably this wouldn't matter below the lower track panel as the door roller doesn't run it that bit?
This is the thing to do if you can. Typically the worst part will be after the track, behind the rear arch where there has never been grease. if you look where you exposed holes in the floor, they are all on a flat bit? Easy to let in a repair panel.
Yes what I've seen of the rear part looks pretty rough to me (I had a bar of metal welded into the track a few years back as a temporary fix to stop the door from falling off the track). Is it even worth getting the repair panel (https://www.vwheritage.com/shop/bay...g-door-lhd/?crumbStartPage=2&crumbStartRow=31), or just making it up from sheet metal? The holes in the cargo floor should be an easyish repair I hope, as you say they're flat.
It has to be thick. 2mm. Sometimes the easiest way to get the steel is buy the part and cut it down. Maybe you can buy them without the track? or one from other side and turn it unside down? Make it too long. Then you can mock up the inner, cut the repaired middle a bit longer than that and should then find the outer overlaps, a little longer again.
Looks like you can buy without the track. I do have a middle for the other side too which I could try. I'm a little way off yet but like to get an idea of what I need to do. Will have plenty more questions!
Quick question on the join between the cargo floor and the bulkhead. Our van has had patches over the years and so on that section there were around 3 layers of metal. From what I can tell from @brothernumberone 's book and the bit that wasn't patched the end of the cargo floor has a lip on it that is spot welded to the panel under the bulge (the closing panel). So I'm thinking I'll weld in a cargo floor repair section with the lip on it, which will then get plug welded to the closing panel when I fit it. Does that sound right?
Another conundrum. I'm looking at the area around the b pillar nearside. Has anyone ever seen a repair from arch which includes the front of the B pillar? There is no seam between the pillar and arch and it seems like there is a lip in the door seal channel where the arch attaches. I found a line of weld at the top of the arch near the B pillar where it's been welded across. I'm replacing with a genuine arch so figure I should chop the arch close to the pillar and unpick the lip in the door seal channel. Thoughts?
Opinions please. At what point does one consider replacing the whole cargo floor? Underneath some patches on the O/S floor where the sill would attach: I found this delight: This patchwork quilt extends for most of the length of the sill area: The other sill area isn't much better: The middle sill on this side doesn't have much of the lip left where it's "welded" to the cargo floor so it's going to need quite some work (is it still the case that the middle sills aren't easily replaceable?). Most of the returns for the cargo floor to the surrounding metal work need some work, so my thinking was that even if I was to leave the floor in tact I'd still need a lot of material from a replacement floor panel, and seeing as I'd have one anyway wouldn't it make sense to fit the whole thing? What do you reckon? There wouldn't be much of the underside and cargo floor that I wouldn't be replacing if I went down this route.
It's quite a big job but it does give access to fix all around properly. This is another occaision where only the pukka VW parts will do. Use the repro floor panels and it'll look like it's spent 40 years shiftng heavy bags of gravel.
In for just over £300 for the genuine panels from vw heritage. What would you do Zed? I want to make a proper job of this so it might be time worth spending.
If you find you need to repair the floor right around the perimeter that's also a hell of a faff and not such good results. For BOAT they say Bring Out Another Thousand. BUS should have similar.
Yeah I don't think there'd be a huge amount around the perimeter I wouldn't end up having to do (the only bit that looks solid is the rear). Do it once do it well. I'll order them this week I reckon.
It does enable you to make a good job of sorting out and cleaning up the floor supports... Have you seen that assault course bit where they have to step really high through a large mesh net (or whatever it is)? Mind your shins.
