75 replies to this topic

[l_jonez]

well today was the day of the BIG weld

tacked the floor in



then set about welding it in

i havent used CO2 for a while as i normaly use argonsheild but CO2 is all i have

my welds aint as neat with it but is acceptable because its being ground down



once the welding was done i started to grind back the welds and quickly got bored and came indoors for a few pints



Im using a "joggled" lap joint so the other side has also been welded but im not going to bother grind that down as it will be hiden by carpets

[l_jonez]

managed to make a small bit of progress
i tackled the inner wing which i had previously modified to fit

had to make a few small adjustments but it seemed to go in ok

tacked



welded and partly ground down



i was going to sort the patch on the toe board but i just could not be bothered today :

few weeks back i bought a repair panel for the doorstep to the rear arch



when it arrived i wasn't happy that it was one piece and didn't have the join at the rear of the door step so today i decided to butcher 50 quids worth of panel to create two separate panels

made a template off the van



Mr Kipling- exceedingly good templates

once they were cut i had to re-fabricate the corner



then tidied it up



then created a new side which had to have a recess to allow the rear quarter panel to sit flush



I'm relatively happy with the outcome, least the recess part wont be seen

old door step cut out



then spent hour after hour fitting new door step clamping it all in looking at where it needed to be trimmed, taking it out trimming abit refitting looking again taking out again etc etc

but now its ready and as long as all my measurements are correct its in the right place /

(possibly the best sight, new steel )





once i have painted the inside of the sills it can get welded in

[l_jonez]

small update, sorry no pics as the camera decided it didn't want to play today


managed to weld the door step in today, trying to hold the spot welder above my head to spot it to the outer sill was fun to say the least but its done now

its ready to be flipped over onto its other side now to weld in the second half of the floor pan in but i think I'm gonna have a few days off possibly a week
hopefully the other half will go quicker as i now know what I'm likely to come up against and how to solve it.

once the other half and door step are done I'll move on to the hard part which is the rear load bay floor which I'm not looking forward to

[l_jonez]

forgot i had a build diary on here. i've done abit since the last post. to bring it up to date this is pretty much wots been done

tipped it back on to its floor :



one half of the floor is finished along with door step



so it been tipped on to its side to do the other half now, but not before a quick pic.




with nothing to do i thought I'd count the amount of patches welded on to the remaining half of the floor. the total 14!! and that doesn't count the biggest bodge of all the over-sill >

i highlighted a few of them, theres more on the inner sill :





and this is the quality of the welding that had been carried out



i don't think I'll ever take any of my cars to the garage that did that


so first off was the over-sill

and underneath it


discovered that the van has had a new door step welded in at some point but it was welded over the old one :



then floor cut out



just got a small section to remove off the rear companion box then the the remaining floor can be prepared ready for the new pan.

Also let me introduce you all to the man who lives in my van



a previous owner had him on the dash and i haven't brought my self to remove him yet


the floor and new pan both cut and trimmed ready for welding.



got a few small repairs to make to the cross-member and rear companion box, then the floor can go in


managed to get the floor welded in




welded the new doorstep in on the drivers side

was the same as the proccess as the passanger side, cut up reapair panel and modify it to create the lip for the rear quarter panel, then POR 15 the inside of the sills and door step then spot weld in place with weldable primer on the seams.

was going to post the pics but theres not really much point as they are identical to the passanger side ones ( but flipped around) which are already posted.


new doorstep



i still need to flat the welds etc but I'm gonna leave it for now and do all the final flatting in one go at the end as i really want to get as much new steel in and painted before it gets any damper.


removed outer A panel to find that the inner one was a bit rusty





you cant really see it but both the upper and lower hinge brackets had rusted away to nothing and the hinges were bolted directly to the outer A panel :

then i removed the inner A panel to find..



i knew it was gonna be bad after doing the other side but dint expect that many holes

i decided i could not face doing the inner wing so i put my attention to the rear floor, this corner to be exact



so corner was cut out and repair panel welded in



turned out to be a right mare of a job, but its 90% done now, just got a few plug welds along the heel board to do

oh and weld a small strip into the lower edge where some how i managet to cut it to short


welded in some new steel to the heel board.

i took a load of pics of the template, the steel being shaped etc but the camera has decided it not to work and throws up a error screen when ever you turn it on

so was theres only a mobile phone pic of the finished item now



still got to flat the welds down and spot weld it to the rear floor but i gave it a good coat of primer for now as the garage is getting rather damp in this weather.

I'll spot the holes for the subframe tomorrow, then it can go back on temporary to help with moving it around


thats pretty much it

[David Hall GT]

looking good dude

[Nickh_16]

amazing work you're doing, saving another bodged mini from the scrapper

nice one!

[lewis]

you are very brave, and i like how happy you are as you tackle some serious rot

good luck to you sir!

[buddylove]

Wow, props for tackling so much rot.

[edi57]

Any more progress on this lately mate? I'm interested to see your Mk1/Van A-Panels going on.

Ed

[l_jonez]

Any more progress on this lately mate? I'm interested to see your Mk1/Van A-Panels going on.

Ed

sadly not due to lack of space and several projects on the go this one has been put on the back burner for the forseeable future

[Minid]

Sorry to hear that as its just what i need to see before i start on my old van.

Great work so far though.

[minidream94]

old thread revival.

anymore progress on this one mate, have a van on the go mysef and loving your project.

[l_jonez]

old thread revival.

anymore progress on this one mate, have a van on the go mysef and loving your project.

sadly no progress. how ever the plan is to start again in july when my other project is finished

[l_jonez]

Today saw the van pulled out of storage and dusted off, hopefully the welding can be finished over winter ready for the warmer weather in spring when it can be sprayed

[jagman.2003]

Looking forward to seeing more.