Viking Restoration, Blood, Sweat, Tears, Tragik

1 step forwards, 2 steps back,

The OCD part of me has been niggling away this week, concerning the battery tray patch repair, I didnt like the patched up look from underneath, and also the battery backstop/bracket was missing, and already having the new panel, lead to this....









Its not welded in yet, as I've got a bit of fettling and tidying up to do, but I'm happier now :

 

Job well done, its worth all the OCD in the end.

 

nice

better to do it now than to have to put another patch in later.......or be thinking......I wish I'd put the whole panel in before painting! .......Its the sort of thing that would play on my mind!

keep up the good work

 

Cheers Diddy, Consulted your oracle of rust earlier, to see if you had a similar case of rot in the tops of the rear chassis legs, and you had, its identical to what I've just found in mine, but mines extends a bit further down to the tinwear foam seal lip, my nearside is holed aswell just not soo extensive.



So reluctantly I've purchased a complete new panel from heritage, which'll hopefully resemble the original, I've gone this route as panel is thin and bit crispy all over where its been previously worked before and rusted.

Feels like I'm not getting any further on as new issues are uncovered

 

Got a bit done this afternoon, but still going round in circles, and starting to get !@*#ed off with it again.

This arrived this morning,



But I've decided to return it already, as although its well made, its 2 panels spot welded together, not quite what I was after, and after paying £75 I thought it would be 1 piece as per the original, the top panel of it is only £20. I'm not going for an everything original look, but I want the engine bay to be symetrical!

Got annoyed trying to work around the engine, so pulled this out, again lots of swearing at rusty nuts and bolts ensued.



Leaving, what I thought didnt look too bad... lots of dried out/congealed oil to scrape off, and some crusty rust in the rear corners.







The more I prodded the worse it got, so removed the fuel tank bulkhead,



Then removed the fuel tank,



And got prodding and cutting, rust under the tank strengtheners, where they always go, and also rust on each side of the fuel tank platform where it joins the rear tubs...... lots of patching up to do








Painted by Christmas, is looking more unlikely by the day! :-[

 

I feel your pain mate, welding in the petrol tank area is a pain!!! .....but they always seem to get rust there...........and the chassis tops

but you've got the skill to do it, and it will be great once its done.......just a bit of a kick in the teeth finding more work

I've got loads of little bits holding me up on mine...and no money to buy the bits.....it gets quite frustrating at times!

 

Small update, but a huge amount of work to get these panels fabbed up and in.





Fuel tank platform, inner wheel tubs and upright strengtheners all patched and repaired, not the greatest of pics with a dodgy angle and off the phone, but its nice and straight and strong, not going to dress the welds for a change as its out of sight once the fuel tank cover is on.

A pain in the arse job, as the access is soo restricted, especially when trying to get a welding helmet in there, its another job out the way, and I'm pretty close to being able to let some dust settle on the welder

Just the engine bay corner tinwear/chassis top bits to do now.

 

Skilful neat work - that bits a PITA!

 

Hats off to you, you've done a cracking job.
Has to the most inaccessible part of the Bus to remove the dreaded rust

However be warned, when you get your spray gun in there it all starts again :arrggh:

 

doing some brilliant work there!, one lesson on banger racing, thumbs on the outside! done plenty myself and been around arena a fair few times!

where do you get your pattern parts from?

 

Did a bit tonight, got the tinwear side panels in the engine bay all welded, but couldnt get any pictures as it was cold enough to send my iphone into shutdown mode :