A little more trial fitting and fiddling around with the cargo doors to make sure I’m happy with the fit of the door skin. With the skin dry fitted I could then cut away the bottom of the inner frame which was in dire need of replacement. I’ll get the cargo door frames repaired and will revisit the door skins at a later stage, at this point I’m just making sure I’m happy with the cargo door aperture.
I couldn’t resist getting a picture of the bulkhead very loosely fitted to the split project over the weekend! We’re fortunate that panels like this are so readily available and the fit looks really good. I’ve also got the 2nd cargo door inner all ready to weld in so next weekend I can get both door inners fully welded in. My current plan is to get the bulkhead prepped and then get some epoxy on it and all the chassis/cargo floor repairs that I’ve done.
After a lot of trial fitting and adjustment I’ve now welded in both cargo door inner frame lower repairs. Prior to welding I got the short panel pinned into position to give me a good reference for the cargo doors and clamped the outer sill on so I know I’ll be happy enough with the door gaps.
Enjoying reading this thread - that's going to be a very nice splitty w hen done, top notch work well done !
I’m just about ready to weld in the first of the big panels on the split project and fill this big empty space (next weekend hopefully). I’ve made a few small repairs to the B pillars and have prepped the bulkhead ready for plug welding. After many trial fits I now have it fitting where it should be so this will be a nice panel to get out the way and add some strength back into the shell.
Sure as hell it's going to look like a brand new splitty when you are done James ...well done good work .
Well it’s not fully welded in yet but it is at least part of the van now rather than a big panel taking up lots of workshop space! The tip of my welding torch decided to snap off mid welding session and my attempts to gaffa tape it together didn’t work so the rest of the welding will have to wait for next weekend.
That’s the bulkhead all buttoned up over the weekend. This panel gets plug welded to the B pillars and the front top hat floor support.
What a crazily busy month it’s been thus far! Having only decided to move out of my Wimborne workshop last month as the rent has doubled this year, I’ve had a lot to sort through and either sell or chuck in the bin. The workshop is pretty much empty now, but the white elephant in the room has been Stevie, the splitscreen project. The only way I could keep this was to make room in our single space garage at home which has required quite a bit of work. The old up and over door was on its last legs with only one spring supporting it and the frame rotting out. I removed this and then built a pair of metal framed swing out doors from the metal salvaged from the shelves I had built for the workshop. It’s been very close to the wire getting this done in time, with the paint on the frame still drying from painting it the night before getting Stevie recovered from Wimborne Saturday. I only finished getting the cladding on the door at gone 7pm Saturday night but at least I know she’s now safe and dry. I didn’t sell my compressor in time so managed to just about squeeze it into the back of the split to hopefully sell later in the year. The plan for now is to carry on with the metalwork from our garage here, with a longer term plan of moving to somewhere a little more rural with enough room for a nice big workshop.
Well after nearly 3 months I’m finally back doing some metalwork on Stevie! The last month or so I’ve been sorting the garage to have enough room to work on the bus. My 3 phase air compressor has moved on to a new home and I’ve managed to take down the 3 shelving units I put up by moving everything I don’t need into the loft and continuing to sell bits. I spent a few hours yesterday re-establishing the cargo door gaps and am currently prepping the jacking points for welding in. It felt lovely to be working on this outside in the sun.
My neighbours horse box (pun intended). He's converting it to a catering truck for his son. I narrowly escaped doing some welding on it for him as a fair chunk of the chassis was rotten, I think he ended up getting a mobile welder in for a few days to work on it.
