6 replies to this topic

[pickupapickup]

Hello, so both of my arches are in a state of disrepair, I could have patched them up, however this has been done at so many points on both arches I didn't know the state of the metal underneath the patches so the decision was made to swap for complete new heritage arches. Just checking being an amateur n'all whether a plan I have is worth putting into practice or not.

A previous owner has attempted to repair the arches before and in stead of drilling the spot welds holding the arch in place, he has instead simply cut the arch from the load bay level up wards and welded in a replacement turret and arch side by snipping and folding the bottom of the replacement arch and welding it to the load bay, after drilling through the welds and removing the complete old arch there are now some holes and fairly weak metal left over from where the previous arch was welded up.
So I plan to remove around 20-30mm of the old holey weak metal parallel to the shape of the arch, (red lines in photos) and weld in new metal with the arch shape created via a card template of the new arch I have, then I will weld a lip onto this new metal and plug weld the arch to the lip as the factories would have done but with spot welds. Make sense? Good plan?

[panelbeaterpeter]

Makes sense to me! you may even be able to buy that area, try M-Machine or Somerford. Otherwise, if the arches are the same as mini saloon ones, you can get a boot side repair panel, which would be the same profile, and have the lip in it

[pickupapickup]

Makes sense to me! you may even be able to buy that area, try M-Machine or Somerford. Otherwise, if the arches are the same as mini saloon ones, you can get a boot side repair panel, which would be the same profile, and have the lip in it

Awesome Pete, glad it makes sense, sometimes you can convince yourself that it will work out, when in reality the idea is poor, thanks for the advice, you can buy a edge repair for the load floor, but at 33.00 per side I think I'll give it a go myself, plus it'll help me for further on in the project. Thanks!

[sonikk4]

I would defo go that way, making those repair panels will be straight forward and you will get a better fit as a lot of these after market panels are shall we say a little bit poo.

I try and make a lot of mine where possible especially some of those virtually impossible to get items.

[pickupapickup]

Wow, haven't posted on here for almost as long as I haven't touched the pickup, mixture of money & been totally overwhelmed by it all amongst other reasons if Im honest however, Iv'e already bought two replacement arches I have metal to weld onto the new bed floor & I have two rear panels, so the least I could do now is give it a go, in a real conundrum about it all really as Im finishing off an engineering apprenticeship that has around 2 1/2 years to go & my plan is to go travelling after that so im currently saving as much money as I can & living on a bit of a budget so expenses can't be speant on the pickup, however as said I bought the panels ages ago & I have plenty of consumables to try & weld the arches and rear panels to at least make it look respectable as it sit's there.

One thing I cannot seem to get right, is creating a template from around the outline of the arch to apply to metal to weld onto the boot floor, it sounds easy to do however the template needs to be taken from half way up the arch, so it is not a case of drawing around the bottom of the arch like drawing round your hand when you were a kid kind of thing I have a small plan but im not sure if it will work. I've bought some spray adhesive and the plan is to place a piece of string and tape it into position following a scribe line on the arch then spray adhesive onto the string hoping that when it dries I can peel it off the arch carefully & because of the adhesive it will hopefully retain the shape of the arch. Then transfer that shape to card to transfer to metal.

Reckon this could work or have any ideas please make them known, really appreciate it if you could, Ian.

[CLM]

How about fitting the arch in the wheel well using clamps and using the loadbay as the level for making your profile? should be able to use cardboard and slowly cut it to the profile.

Chris

[mk=john]

M-Machine can make panel assemblies and combinations of panels you would be amazed. I would give them a call to at least find out what is available first.