vw t2 1974 restoration

Looking good!


Not sure which parts you're asking about thickness - can't you measure a surviving part of the same?

 

No, the a pillars outer skin and middle skin were completely rotted away. I bought a sheet of 1.2mm and it looks a bit too thick so maybe 1 mm is right

 

It doesn't sound like much difference but 1.2mm is hard going compared to 1mm or 0.9mm. I suspect you are correct and 1.2mm is too thick.

 

does anybody have any measurements of the bottom of the a pillar (sliding door side) or photos. i cut the bottom of it off to extend it and will probably change the sill around it.

 

These are all original unrepaired.













I bet you meant B pillar.

 

yes sorry i meant to say b pillar. the a pillar just need work at the top and the bottom is un repaired and good. Sorry.

 

bottom of a pillar off. new section welded in. I need to get the outer skin and filler plate for the wheel arch side. Before I weld these parts on i will change the sills.

 

looking at replacing the cargo floor on the left side. mine is a right hand drive and most panels available are left had drive. are they easy to modify to fit a RHD?

 

Look at yours and imagine the mirror image - that's what you get.

 

that will not work

 

Repost of my link from a few pages back explains how to do the driver's side: https://thelatebay.com/index.php?threads/a-restoration-for-iris.53455/page-11#post-1150135

Passenger side is even easier. You just need to chop off enough of the floor to line up with the lip on the threshold. This is the floor I fitted to ours with the edge chopped off:

The edge of the floor ends up sitting on this lip on the threshold:


So it ends up looking like this:

 

Looks amazing

 

is it easy to get the inner and outer sills wrong when replaced on the sliding door side?

 

Use a good quality panel and you can’t go to far wrong.
Take some suitable datum points and it’ll be fairly obvious where the new panel goes.

 

what is a datum point? the sliding door should hopefully still be good. I have cut off the bottom of the b pillar and welded in a new section but not on the sill as I am replacing it and the dog leg.

 

What I found worked for me with B-posts was
Hang and adjust the cab door.
Clamp the arch in position to fit the door at the rear and whatever might be left of your B-post.
Adjust you B-post outer repair so the curve flows down the entire B-post. I don't know what they are like now but in the past they were reliably too curved at the bottom wherever I bought them so I would cut the bottom inch or so off and remake the tab at the bottom. If you slide it up and down your arch so the profiles match with both off the van you'll see how well they are going to fit together.

So it's a lot of mocking up but worth it. The short version is that everything must fit to well adjusted doors. Parts not directly adjacent to doors must fit to the parts that are so if they need doing first you must mock up as best you can.

 

do you think i should finish the sills first then weld the bottom of the b pilar to the sill. I cannot just do the arch first because I have to weld in the filler plate between the b pillar and bulk head.

 

Depends on your confidence but I think it's quite easy to get the inner sill in position and the other sills follow.
I would be repairing the bulkhead after the inner and middle sills - leave the outer sill until EVERYTHING else on that side is finished would be my way of doing it but again you have to be aware of where it has to fit so your b-post and rear arch bottoms are correct and all form a straight line. It's all a balance in the end but getting things like that straight line through B post, sills and rear arch and again the join between the rear arch and corner at the bottom, make all the difference at a glance when you're done. The difference between obviously or not restored even to those who don't clock exactly what's wrong.

So, if your sliding door supporting sill is in the right place and you keep that line at the bottom that helps to get everything aligned too. You do have to look ahead as far as you can to get all these different aspects to align with each other.

 

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ok, sound good i should have it done in a couple of weeks. I will mock ad trial fit the sliding door as i tack it just to be able to sleep at night before I finish it. Then i can do the bulk head and b pillar filler piece. Do you now of what paint I should be using when I paint the inside on panels and in between two panels. and in cavities to protect the bare metal?

 

Not easy to answer as there is no paint that will not burn away when you're welding. I admit I didn't bother to paint anything at all prior to welding.