Breaking tools on a rusty front end.

Looked at the nearside A pillar. I can see where somebody hacked at it between the pillar and the step and gave up but there is more metal there than offside.



I took out some more metal so I could see back into the pillar.

If I am careful the step survives..

New angle grinder cutting discs seem more robust.

 

It's... awkward... when someone has done things in the wrong order or simply not done it because you won't be able to see it. I agree you should be able to fix it without damaging the step, I know you like a challenge. I replaced almost everything (all metal except the arch) surrounding a B post outer without even damaging it's paint on the early but it took a while to cut everything clear without damaging it.

 

There is however evidence of a rusty sandwich going on at the front end of the step in front of the door where the step meets something sort of bulging and brownish, rather than a clean wall of metal.
Or maybe thats just some composite rust/filler/steel stack that if I grind it off I will find the original A pillar.

Life may be too short, and another £500 worth of complete arches may be worth doing - there are bubbles round the outer skin both sides..

I will do the front panel region first then assess the steps - I can see lots of fiddly welding on the driver side where thin metal has to meet thin metal.

 

The main good/bad this side is that quite a lot of the metal I am now hacking off is repairs I did as 'temporary' last March when I did a load of work to patch up "until I do it properly".

You can also see where I got the welder settings wrong while poking around in a small hole in the deformation panel. Not high enough. Finally got it right just to the left of the vertical cut.

And also places where patches welded on the other side just rusted off.

 

This afternoon, knocked off work a bit early and cut back and peeled back around the nearside A pillar. There seems to be a fairly straightforward cut line I can make that will remove all the frills at the bottom, which is below the floor level, but above the step Good.
Removed the horn .
Decided how to approach cutting back the nearside outer chassis rail - it has been neatly repaired along the bottom edge all the way back to the join to the inner chassis rail. I will cut and investigate .

I will have to use the full height of the A pillar closing panel repair piece though as the metal is very thin on the forward edge where condensation swills around behind the kick panel.
I am thinking perhaps that putting in drains at the ends of that region where the metal ends up with a hole in it might help.

This weekend I may well use my polytarp tent and chop out the lower front panel so I can get to the behind kick panel area more easily and find out how much metal I need to repair.

 

Good luck on that job, I’m doing the same to mine, there are so many junction point to meet up in that corner of the van, my cab floor on the drivers side looked a bit holey so back onto AS for more parts, I feel like I got shares in the place.

 

I came across these just now, might be some help, everything in the photos is original.

 

Following with interest Mike, no mean task especially outside this time of year !

 

Thanks, those are useful in working out what the frills used to belong to. The drainage holes on mine are long gone - at least 2 thicknesses of metal cover the space where they went. I wondered how the A pillar could rot out like that, now I see it may also be sprayed up through the drain holes .

 

I went into the nearside A pillar and it turned out to be almost as bad as the offside, but I seem to have saved the step.

Sliced the front panel as the headlamp bowls dribble rain inside.. fitted some screws to hold it in if I have to leave it for a while..


I also manged to get the remainder of the inner panel out. I had big ideas about saving the panel above that, where the loom goes through , air box drain, speedo cable and horn wire. But its tinsel.
So I sliced through it and increased pile of scrap.

Welded in inner section of A pillar repair and then the closing panel - had to add a patch as the closing panel did not reach high enough.

Chopped out nasty section of nearside outer chassis rail. I dont have to take it all the way back as a previous repairer had chopped out the rot and replaced it with a new section. Just the bit that bubbled away behind the front panel.

 

I think you can buy that inner wash bottle panel new now which might be easier than patching.


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Today I finished off both the A pillar repairs, then offered up the inner panel. As I tried the A pillar repair final pieces, I realised they lock the front panel into place.
As both of the steps were repaired, they dont quite point in the right direction, which caused issues with the nearside A pillar as the step was too far out from the body at the front.
(why the muppets had to hammer at my brand new door , 10 years ago, they put the step inside the A pillar in effect ).

The new panel was not a precise fit , but good enough, and after doing a couple of tack welds and measuring to the bottom of the air box to match my previous measurements, I started welding it on. Some hammering of bits and pieces to improve their alignment and I was off.

This resulted in setting fire to the polytarp I was lying on , along with a few weld spatters down the sleeve, or bouncing off the back of my head.


I know the panel is level but about 1-2mm lower than before, which does not matter as I am going to be cutting my bottom half front panel to fit anyway - going for a cut line below the air box as that is still fairly intact.

I decided to go with the patching approach on the wash bottle panel, as there is still a section at the top which is good, so I dont need to go near the original spot welds on the floor. So I am cutting pieces of 1mm metal, and relying on the stiffening effect of having many lines of weld on the replacement metal. I find this quite relaxing after trying to do monster welds on the steering box chassis rail, making it look good enough for the MOT.

It also prepares me for when I have to weld the new bottom half of the front panel onto the top half.

I could tell I was doing something to the bus as the spare wheel got wedged under the front beam by the weight of the new metal. So I had to lift up the front of the bus to slide it out.

I will have to start tomorrow (taking a day off work) taking the switch out of the handle of the welder torch and trying to shave some plastic off it so it doesnt stick on, leaving wire shooting out.. Its probably some dirt. So far the dodgy switch is the only fault on the cheap inverter welder- it has stood up to running at "110 amps" for well over a minute at a time.

Still to do - washer bottle panel repair.

Drivers side floor needs patching up in front of and beside the accelerator pedal, the rot stopped the muppets from properly welding the step structure to the floor - instead they coated it in seam sealer . (they did ask me if I wanted more done to the front of the bus in 2011, but I said no, I wanted the bus back)


Nearside and offside outer chassis rail ends to weld in.

Clean up welds, remove loose underseal where you cant get at it over the chassis rails, make good rust, prime, seam seal, paint, underseal, flood with hot Waxoyl.


At least I can see progress towards actually finishing the

 

Good progress Mike, light at the end of the tunnel

 

Opened the day with cleaning up the push button on the welder torch, removing grime and some moulding flash - looks like its glass loaded nylon.



Today was taken up with welding a line of patches on the washer bottle panel. As I expected, it was quite therapeutic.




Thin steel, 1mm was easy to cut with a pair of aviation snips, and apart from having to repeatedly replace the bolt in the hinge of the snips (I broke the toughened one being violent once, the mild steel bolts last until I lean on the handle)

A welder setting of 40 for joining 1mm steel in a butt weld, 65 for welding the 1mm to the inner panel, and 55 for welding the 1mm steel to the remainder of the washer bottle panel. Used a bit of cloth soaked in water to absorb the heat when I welded under the wiring loom, also did that with a lot of single welds with long pauses between them.

And then I had to draughtproof the front of the bus for the next few days of home office use. (no its not done.. )

 

1 mm a wee bit thin for that? I had a stack of old industrial shelving I'd have used @ 1.2mm, it makes all the difference...looking good though Mike.

 

I reckon the many lines of weld on it stiffen it enough.. I will check the original panel thickness where it is clean metal, but most of it was basically zero in a lot of places. .

 

This made me chuckle!

 

I checked a piece of the washer bottle panel, in a place where I could scrape the paint off both sides back to bare metal. It was 0.9mm thick with stiffening . #My nominal 1mm replacement sheet is actually 0.85mm thick ..

 

Took the afternoon off work, seam sealed then painted the new welds. Then I started cutting out the metal to repair the driver's side step.
Time to play with the spot weld attachment for the welder..




Put some primer on the chassis sections before working on cutting them to fit and welding them in tomorrow.

Also have to clean up the metal on the ends of the old sections so I can weld to it, make sure the Waxoyl isnt sitting hiding in there ready to come out burning when I start welding...

 

Managed to cut down and weld the ends of the new nearside and offside outer chassis rails into the bus. Painful with molten metal going down my sleeve or through my sleeve. Waxoyl and underseal kept melting and running across to catch fire, even when I cleared it off the old rails.

Put primer on the new chassis rails.

Trimmed about 5mm off the top edge of the new deformation panel so the bottom edges even line up enough to weld at all. Put another coat of paint inside the panel.

Bought a 27W LED bulb in B&Q to replace the 500W halogen bulb in the work light - I didnt like the way it tried to set fire to my hair, only the safety guard protected me. Also the halogen bulb was showing signs of the filament about to touch the envelope of the bulb.

Tomorrow - drivers side floor and step repair.