Priming the body

Finished the welding on the passenger side.  Had a couple small pin holes at the bottom of the B pillar and C pillar.  Cleaned them up nice and then sandblasted to get rid of any and all residue or welding slag.

Started taping things up and got to thinking about the rearmost side windows.  In truth, I have been battling in my head on the proper way to deal with them (which is to remove them) versus wanting to keep as much crap out of the van as possible.  I solved this dilemma today.

What I decided to do is to carefully carve off the outer edge of the rubber moulding.  I left just enough to secure the window in place but allow for access deep into the window orifice.

The picture on the right shows the difference in access between where I had sandblasted yesterday right up to the edge of the rubber moulding, and the additional access provided by carving up the moulding.

As you can see, the window still stays in place just fine.  I sandblasted the window frame when I did the lower welded spots.

Looks good, and I am sure (and pleased) of the condition under the moulding.  Now the epoxy primer has been laid, across the whole passenger side up through the raingutter.

Does not look like much without all the add on parts and the doors, and it has taken me too long to get to this point, but we are progressing.

More body prep

Sanding, sanding, sanding.  Pulled the slider door gasket out (ordered a new one) and stripped as much as I could mechanically in the slider door jamb.  Rest will have to be done with sandblaster.

Also ordered new sliding window gaskets (without chrome insert) and a new windshield gasket.  Already have the rear side window gaskets, and the kits to rebuild the front doors.

Hoping to have the entire passenger side done by Friday - blasted, final touch up welding and primed.  Want to turn van around and get going on drivers side.  Not enough room to work on both sides in my garage. 

Still trying to figure how I want to tackle the roof.

Casa Magna cigar (Diadema) helps to relieve the stresses while I work.  Nice smoke.

Finished the nose

Today I was able to spend some time and finish the nose panels.

The asphalt shingles inserted in the front end are to protect the radiator from sandblasting media.

Finished up the welding.  ground it smooth as possible and sandblasted it clean.  Also cleaned up the new bumper panel, the air intake and prepped the bumper support itself for priming.

Now the nose is complete, with all its metal work.  It will require the high build primer next, and then any bodywork.

Quite a difference?

Also started on the slider door.  Got it removed, gutted and ready to put on a stand to strip it.  I was having such a difficult time with it hung.  Too many coats of paint, just easier off the van.

Will be better this way anyhow.  I will be painting all the doors off the van, so I can also paint the door jambs.  With the square off edges of the front door's design it will be easy to tape them cleanly, and the rear hatch and slider are easy as well, so why not paint them off the van?

Nose panel replacement

With the acquisition of the panel this week, and a day to actually work on the van, I went to town on the front end today.

As a reminder, this is what I have to work with:

Swiss cheese of a panel.  Both above and below the directional location is toast. 

So this is what I did to repair it.

I started by carving out the bad parts of the panel.

I ran a tape line to keep the cut straight.  Then I cut down alongside the seam leaving enough to be able to clean up the seam perfectly.  I used a drill to cut the spot welds and then sandblasted the surface so as to have a clean weld point.

This is what the panel removed looks like prior to sandblasting. 

I then put the cut out piece upon the donor panel and marked off my cut lines. I added approx 3/8 of an inch so I would have the material to flange the panel in order to have a place to weld and secure it to the body. 



With the flanges, I can weld in the panel and have a recessed portion for those welds.  This will keep it all secure and beneath any needed body filler, which will be minimal due to stitch welding and keeping panel as cool as possible.

Also did the panel behind the bumper.

First, started by sandblasting the mating surfaces again. 

The holes were punched by me.  The lower ones were allowed to be further apart as it is a known seal and will contain a better than factory type sealant.  The upper ones were done about an inch apart to keep it strong and eliminate any potential movement of the joint.

Still needing to finish the welds, and clean them up, but this picture shows the piece of the panel I also used to replace an iffy portion of the original.

All things considered, it was a successful afternoon.  Still need to finish up, and clean up the welds for bodywork, but warpage was minimal, the panels are strong and do not look like Swiss cheese.

Body preparations

The goal for today was to get the wheel arch and lower corner panel installed.  I broke out the sandblaster and cleaned up what would be the mating surfaces for the welds.

Cleaned them up, made sure there was not any caulking that would get in the way (or burn).

I found that once I had them fitted, that I was better off mounting the corner panel and then used that to locate the wheel arch.  There was no place for any clamps if I had not welded in the lower panel first.  Worked out quite well.

The upper portion of the panel was welded through the access afforded through the removal of the inner panel.  The drivers side will be more interesting as the cabinets will have to come out. 

So while the blaster was out, I cleaned up the seams on the nose of any sealer that I could get at.

Then prepped the panel, the A pillars and primed with the Metalok.

I miss having a paper/tape gun.  Peeling off pieces of paper, and then tape is easier from the machine.

The funny gold color is the Metalok.  I will use this to seal up the body while I do the rest of the panels.

For anyone who wondered how you make provision for spot welds, its done with a nifty tool that will punch holes in the panel.  The tool I have used in the past was an expensive version that my body man friend owns.

I bought this cheaper version on ebay for around $30.  Honestly, I do not expect it to last much past my needs for this van, but sure does make things easier.

So now that those items were completed, and the rain seemed to have held off, I started on the tail section again.  Cleaned up the seams, blasted the very bottom of the valence and brought out the Metalok.

Now that part is done, time to work again on the wheel arch, get that into primer.

Paint codes

So upon doing some research, there are a few possibilities for a location of the paint code sticker.  I did not really need mine, as I have a friend with a Dupont paint chip book going back past 1980, but it was a fun search nonetheless.

One location is under the dash, upon the cross brace that extends across the front of the van, on the drivers side.  Look around the fuse panel.  Mine was not there.

A far easier location, if you still have your original documentation, is in the owners manual.  The sticker is often placed within the cover for easy reference.  I do not have any such original documents.

Another location is within the auxiliary battery well behind the drivers seat (US Version).  This is where I found mine.  It is within said well, on the wall closest to the passenger seat.  It is a sliver-ish sticker, about 1 inch by 3 inches and looked like this:

The translation of my sticker is: Elfenbein = Ivory, or Bone color.  And the L567 is the actual code that you would provide the paint supplier to mix up your color. I called up a friend who is a Lt Colonel in the US Army and who spent many years in Germany to get the translation of Elfenbein.  Its good for the soul to speak with old friends.

Helpful?

Tyrell's school of hack body repair

Removed the layers of filler off the panel today.  Had four distinct layers of filler, with the last one being a version of tiger hair.  Neat part was the change in filler, or hardener that changed the colors by layer.  Not sure if it was intentional, but amusing nonetheless.

That last one was a real pain in the ass to strip off.  But when I did, I was left with a Swiss cheese looking panel like this:

Hello and welcome to the wonderful world of Morons, Psychopaths and Mental Defectives! 

   

We are making today's short bus / window licker trip to Tyrell's school of body panel repair. Here is some real old school hacking right there folks.  Drill a bunch of holes so you can put instruments in there to pull out the dent, but don't bother to weld up the holes when we have all the plastic filler you could ever need!

Have seen better work on some of the ghetto versions of Asian tuners buzzing around.

Need to cut out the offending metal work and weld in a new panel, or carve a piece from a scrapped Vanagon.

Some supplier of used parts in Indiana wanted $200 plus S&H for the piece, and said he could get it to me in three weeks.  I am still looking.

A little tail?

So I have been stripping the rear tail piece while I am waiting on a contractor neighbor to bring me the sandblaster.  He stopped me from buying one a few weeks back, and now he is taking forever.  I have the small one, but I need a big heavy duty one for all the jobs I have going.

So anyway, back to the tail piece - The panel that surrounds the taillights and is beneath the hatch.

This is the panel when I started stripping it.  As I have gotten closer to a clean panel, I have found more subsurface rust.

This is what it looks like today.

There are some rusty spots, particularly around the tail light mount clips, the screw holes that held the license plate bracket on, and the very bottom of the panel beneath the 'vents'.

Will require the sandblaster.

Someone gave me a box of these Bohemian cigars.  They are a bit too dry and I have had them in a very humid environment trying to rejuvenate, but they are still a bit dry.

Too bad too, they are milder than I generally prefer, but the size makes them perfect for a quick smoke in the garage.  Many times the smoke, the fumes from primer and the smell of the chemical stripper gets to be too much. Not enjoyable, and I end up putting the cigar down in favor of getting some work done.

Been training for the Tough Mudder anyway.  Should cut back on my cigar usage.