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Sun Jan 29, 2023 12:41 pm

Made a good bit of progress today...

So it turns out my bit of copper wasn't going to arrive until late February, so I decided to go a buy some copper pipe locally in order to tacked this seal channel:

Starting with this copper pipe:

Hammered flat:

Bent over again:

Ta-daa! One weld repellent!

...which fits in here:

Welded:

Cleaned up:

Was worried about this bit, but I'm happy with that!

Sun Jan 29, 2023 1:01 pm

Soooo... here comes the scary bit, welding my first external panel... :shock:

Test fitted:

Tacked along the top, let's have a quick check of the gap:

Not bad, happy with that!

Bit of the fabricator's equivalent of a "thigh gap" -

But nothing that our old friend the flattened copper pipe can't fix:

(The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed this was taken later in the evening - I wish I'd figured out using the tape to stick it to the back of the panel earlier and then using a leather gloved hand to hold it there, instead of fumbling about with my welding gloves trying to get it into place...)

Gap bridged:

more tacks:

Completely stitched:

Disappearing light stops play for the day for today and I don't want to jinx it as I've yet to grind back the welds, but I'm happy to have reached this milestone!

Tue Jan 31, 2023 5:40 am

Did about half hour or so of grinding last night after work, as well as welding a few spots on the rear side where the welds didn't seem to have penetrated and I could see the seam, and then got out there this morning (amazing what you can actually get done in 15-20 minutes! to try to finish it off:

Not too bad, but you can see that the surface on my repair panel is lower than the original metal to the right:

I think this is because of how much I had to push the metal to get it level, so it was wanting to pull back. I should have probably kept pressure from the backside with my copper for longer as the tacks cooled. (Or looked harder for my intergrip panel clamps...)

Not the end of the word, I think a skim of filler should sort it out - trying to blend the weld much further into the panel is risking making the metal thin. It's not the best repair in the world, but it is best repair on my bus!

You can see here how the edge of this panel falls away as I described before, hopefully I can sort this out with a bit of hammer and dolly action.

A quick spray of zinc primer to protect it from the British spring time:

Tue Jan 31, 2023 5:44 am

In between waiting for welds to cool on the rear corner last night, I used my trusty flattened copper pipe to fill some holes in the splash panel:

Thu Feb 02, 2023 5:48 am

And now here's those filler welds ground back:

Here's the repair, no filler in this, and again, pretty happy with it!

Got out for a quick 5 minutes this morning to trim off the excess at the bottom of the corner repair:

(This picture made me realise I forgot to put in the bend that gives the panel the flattened bottom edge)

On a related note, I'm planning on cutting out this little notch detail that is present on the opposite (and I assume) original panel:

Can anyone confirm that this notch is present on both sides?

Fri Feb 03, 2023 8:32 am

Dogleg investigation - I was planning on trying to keep andvrepair the originals but now I'm not so sure:

A bit mangled:

Fri Feb 03, 2023 4:01 pm

the metal looks good, just needs to be flattened. Get a puller and stinger. You might be surprised how good that comes back. Should say.. how good is the dogleg inner, that usually decides it for me if I replace the dogleg? Now you can weld the edge and lip at the footwell is not a difficult repair.

Sat Feb 04, 2023 7:31 am

zimblewinder wrote: the metal looks good, just needs to be flattened. Get a puller and stinger. You might be surprised how good that comes back. Should say.. how good is the dogleg inner, that usually decides it for me if I replace the dogleg? Now you can weld the edge and lip at the footwell is not a difficult repair.

The inner is good both sides, just a few holes. I need to repair both A posts, so I'll need to drill all the spotwelds there and with a lower dogleg skin costing £25 i feel like it's going to be a lot easier to just hack out the old one and replace rather than try to get it out without damaging it...

Sat Feb 04, 2023 10:35 am

Spent a bit of time getting the splash panel back in.

I'm struggling a bit with getting a tight panel fit, especially with plug/rosette welds which means that sometimes the hole fills with weld without penetrating the piece if metal behind, and/or makes the edges of the holes burn away. And if course when they do becone welded together there's a small gap. These edges will all be hidden under seam sealer so it's not too bad, hopefully I'll get better at this as I get more practice

Sat Feb 04, 2023 6:34 pm

what size hole are you drilling in the front panel? Clean the back panel area really well so there are no impurities. Try drilling slightly larger and welding directly to centre of the back panel shown in your hole. It also helps guide/draw the arc if you can earth directly to the back panel rather than the panel with the hole or more remotely. As for the gap, of course clamp if you can. Long reach vice grips are the trick or clecos or self tapping screws etc.

Sun Feb 05, 2023 2:15 am

zimblewinder wrote: what size hole are you drilling in the front panel? Clean the back panel area really well so there are no impurities. Try drilling slightly larger and welding directly to centre of the back panel shown in your hole. It also helps guide/draw the arc if you can earth directly to the back panel rather than the panel with the hole or more remotely. As for the gap, of course clamp if you can. Long reach vice grips are the trick or clecos or self tapping screws etc.

Thanks for the tips! I'm using 6mm holes, and using clecos and clamps. Earthing the back panel sounds logical, I think I mainly need to spend more time fettling the panels to get a good fit - the edge of the battery tray was a difficult on as I didnt want to bash away too much for fear of distorting the rear corner

Sun Feb 05, 2023 9:45 am

zimblewinder wrote: Get a puller and stinger.

What's a stinger?

Sat Feb 11, 2023 10:59 am

Dug in today and made the decision not to try to save the outer dogleg skin:

Inner is very pitted, and has a couple of pinholes:

Mon Feb 20, 2023 5:21 am

So today I decided to investigate this weird split where the dogleg meets the B pillar/long panel:

Okay, so it turns out it's filler:

Hmm, seems like the panel gap was wider than ideal - looks like the edge of the long side panel gets less crisp/ is bent along by the dogleg and this is how the PO decided to fix it...

Heaps of filler, again:

And the folded edge here isn't as crisp as it should be:

Looks like the dogleg tucks into the edge of the long panel - is this stock?

Some holes along the top edge too...

Making me veer towards buuyng a complete outer skin...

Mon Feb 20, 2023 10:58 pm

Stinger = stud welder
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/191651908854

wow that dogleg has been totally bodged. Good thing its coming off.

Tue Feb 21, 2023 3:23 am

zimblewinder wrote: Stinger = stud welder
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/191651908854
Ah I see... More expensive than a pair of inner and outer doglegs, hah!

zimblewinder wrote: wow that dogleg has been totally bodged. Good thing its coming off.
Yep, my worry is where the gap has come from - I wonder if it got hit by a passing car while parked, mangling the front of the dogleg and pulling it all forward...

Tue Feb 21, 2023 4:02 am

Too bad about the doglegs but better if the long panel/pillar hasn't been affected though.

Tue Feb 21, 2023 11:25 am

Seems like the previous "restorer" fancied himself ad something of a sculptor :shock:

Tue Feb 28, 2023 6:09 am

Decided to scrap the inner dogleg too:

looks like it had had some previous bad repairs:

Primer held up nicely on the inside of the outer dogleg, though!

Next up I've got to separate the thin bit of inner dogleg left over from cutting it out from the seat mounting panel - lots of spot welds!

Sun Mar 05, 2023 4:00 am

Trying to figure out how to(or if I can) repair the inner valance without having to remove it...

I
ts nor roo bad, just a couple of rusted bits where it meets the chassis -
Does anyone have any thoughts/suggestions?