Suinnyboy: Might just take you up on that holiday. Oz is on our travel wish list, but not this year. Not till you've cleared up the fallen trees anyway!
Now some viewers might find the following pictures of grave injuries distressing............
Yes, the van has been "canopied" at some time. And yes, the hole was just made up with filler. And yes, it was leaking water in, which ran down to the top of the cab roof, eventually through the roof, then filled the peak with water then eventually through the peak. Now all nine stitches are required. The relatively good news is that only the nearside was leaking. The grey area is the damaged area of gelcoat plus an inch all round exposed by the grinder.
Polyester resin doesn't have good adhesion to old surfaces, so I ordered Epoxy and stitched biaxial fabric. When I opened the box I found that the fabric was carbon fibre.
The holes were ground back, aluminium plates fixed behind the holes, then the holes were filled with resin and fabric, and a layer added covering all the damage plus half an inch. I was a little disappointed that the edges were a bit thick, so needed a sanding and a skim of filler. The result is very strong and waterproof.
Then back to the problem of the driver's step.
When I initially fitted the new drivers step, the shut line at the bottom of the door was a disaster. Now I had rehung the door with the new skins on, I needed to tackle this.
I had kept the fluted front end of the panel because that was OK. The rear end of the new one was OK too. But there was no way they were going to meet in the middle, so I cut out the middle bit.
and fabricated a new section to fill the gap, and line everything up. here's the final trial fit (of about 32 I think)
Welded and a coat of primer..........
Always looks better with a coat of primer
And the shut line isn't perfect, but as good as I'm going to get..........
Oh, and I've got some shiny wheel trims to cover those tatty wheels.
Then a big flash and a bang came from the direction of my welder, and all the electrics tripped.
I really have nearly finished all the welding, how can this happen to me?
So I reset the trips, and carried on with a bit of grinding, then my grinder went up in a big flash. and tripped all the electrics again.
Thinking about it though, the grinder was on the floor behind the welder during the first flash. That explains everything. A new flex on the grinder, and everything was OK again. Till the next time. Phew!
Then I ran out of welding wire.
Now some viewers might find the following pictures of grave injuries distressing............
Yes, the van has been "canopied" at some time. And yes, the hole was just made up with filler. And yes, it was leaking water in, which ran down to the top of the cab roof, eventually through the roof, then filled the peak with water then eventually through the peak. Now all nine stitches are required. The relatively good news is that only the nearside was leaking. The grey area is the damaged area of gelcoat plus an inch all round exposed by the grinder.
Polyester resin doesn't have good adhesion to old surfaces, so I ordered Epoxy and stitched biaxial fabric. When I opened the box I found that the fabric was carbon fibre.
The holes were ground back, aluminium plates fixed behind the holes, then the holes were filled with resin and fabric, and a layer added covering all the damage plus half an inch. I was a little disappointed that the edges were a bit thick, so needed a sanding and a skim of filler. The result is very strong and waterproof.
Then back to the problem of the driver's step.
When I initially fitted the new drivers step, the shut line at the bottom of the door was a disaster. Now I had rehung the door with the new skins on, I needed to tackle this.
I had kept the fluted front end of the panel because that was OK. The rear end of the new one was OK too. But there was no way they were going to meet in the middle, so I cut out the middle bit.
and fabricated a new section to fill the gap, and line everything up. here's the final trial fit (of about 32 I think)
Welded and a coat of primer..........
Always looks better with a coat of primer
And the shut line isn't perfect, but as good as I'm going to get..........
Oh, and I've got some shiny wheel trims to cover those tatty wheels.
Then a big flash and a bang came from the direction of my welder, and all the electrics tripped.
I really have nearly finished all the welding, how can this happen to me?
So I reset the trips, and carried on with a bit of grinding, then my grinder went up in a big flash.
and tripped all the electrics again.Thinking about it though, the grinder was on the floor behind the welder during the first flash. That explains everything. A new flex on the grinder, and everything was OK again. Till the next time. Phew!
Then I ran out of welding wire.
Last edited:
