61 Van resto

[The Marcos Graveyard]

Do you use Hammerite or Chassis Black ?

[kerryminigringo]

Two coats of grey primer,2/3 coats of gloss enamel black and one coat of clear laquer but with the steering wheel,I reckon I must have put on about 10 light coats and rubbed down with 1500 before I polished it.It gives it a nice finish without being too plastic looking.

[kerryminigringo]

Finally got the van on the spit,I,m using two builders stands to support the pipe either end and the 10mm bolt on the bracket that is on the builders stand can be tightened onto the rotating pipe to lock the van in any position.

I,ve also started cleaning off the underseal prior to sand blasting and it,s coming off quiet easily.I,m using an old wood chisel and making good progress.I would say that a couple of evenings will have it all removed but working with the car on the spit makes it a whole lot easier.Loads of good clean metal with only surface rust is all I,ve come across so far around the heel board and load bed area.There are a couple of areas around the rear door step but I will fix them when I,m putting the quarter panel repair sections on.

[kerryminigringo]

Started saturday morning with a hired compressor,a borrowed sand blasting pot and a couple of bags of grit and this was how the van looked.

By the evening time I had finished 95% of what I wanted to blast and the van was looking like this

View of the side.It is only done in patches on the side to avoid warping the panel but I had turned down the pressure just to be sure.I,m really happy with the way the sides turned out as I thought it would be much harder to remove the rust from the pitted areas.

A quick lick of primer to stop the whole thing rusting again.




I did not touch the roof as this will be replaced so no need to clean that one.

[The Marcos Graveyard]

looks like it came up great, was there much pitting on the sides and did you have to fill much.

[Tomini]

great work keep it up.
whats your plan for the colour are you going to keep it original

[kerryminigringo]

I started repairing the floors of the van today.I cut out the front passenger corner footwell and using a Mini Machine panel I cut the repair panel to fit and welded in in with a flush joint before grinding off excess weld after.This is it before the repair was welded in.

The black spots to the right of the hole are where I welded pin holes in the floor pan and ground the welds flat after.A qiuck lick of primer and that is the passenger side of the floorpan finished.The drivers side is going to take considerably longer.Here is the finished article.

[92Coop]

no bad i spose

great progress and nice to see the before and after pics.

[joebe1]

looks absolutly fantastic, super work. what colour will u choose?

[kerryminigringo]

Going to keep it original Joe,not many flatroof vans left and I reckon it would be a shame to change it.It,s a nice blue not too dis-similar to Island Blue but because it,s nigh on impossible to get codes for Irish paint schemes I will be taking a piece of an old door skin into the paint factors and they will match it up.

[kerryminigringo]

I started work on the drivers side floor pan by cutting out the rot at the rear of the pan.This was caused by water getting into the car and rotting the floor from the inside.This is what I was left with after the rot was cut out.



I cut the replacement panel to fit and seam welded it in place.The front is just tacked in place as it will be welded when the cross member is replaced because the joint will be under the forward edge of the cross member.This is the finished floor.


I have also finished the steering column and this will go into storage ready for fitting at a later stage.This is what it started out looking like.



Using a homemade steering wheel puller/rear hub puller the steering wheel was removed without resorting to a hammer or a trip to casualty to remove the steering wheel from my jaw.



After a couple of coats of paint complete with a better condition horn push and a NOS indicator stalk courtesy of ebay after I was let down by another individual(you know who you are Billy ) the finished article looks like this.



I have finished repairs to pin holes in the inner wings and the front panel and now I have started to repair the rear passenger quarter panel and the load bed.I will post pictures of that when there is more progress as all i am doing now it cutting out rust.

[INNY1300]

Hello kerryminigringo,the van is coming on a treat,and the steering wheel and column look fantastic,it is slowly coming together,and that is when it get's really exciting,well done and best regard's jon

[DaveC]

Fair play to you, it's coming along well

[The Marcos Graveyard]

You're a great inspiration KMG, I must go out and look at my own projects some of these days.

[mad mini]

hi Aiden , Steven ward from Co.Wicklow iam sorry that i have not sent that picture of the rear subframe. it is diffently welded .I have been up to my eyes with the 59 austin 7 that i have so i wil send that photo at the weekend. P.S the van looks great are u spraying it urself???



Steven Ward.

[steeo]

Aiden, how are you getting on with the door re-skinning ???

Van looks sweet so far, ohh to have a garage or even somewhere to work out of the rain.

[kerryminigringo]

I have not done anything more to the door Steven except blast the bottom of it.I am trying to get the shell ready for spraying because the guys who are doing it are quite and will start it straight away instead of fitting it in between jobs.

[The Marcos Graveyard]

Every cloud........

[kerryminigringo]

Started work around the back so here is the progress so far.The load bed had corrosion behind the wheel arch on the passenger side.



And long the bottom of the outer skin.



So off that came to reveal that the section that supports the load bed in that corner had rust as well so off it came.Here is everything in that corner cut out.



Here is the piece I made up for the support section welded in place.

[kerryminigringo]

The other side was not as bad with only a few pin holes showing up in the load bed so I plug welded them and ground the weld flat.The other skin was not as good and here it is with the rust cut out.



I used a M-Machine repair section for the outer skin and made up a repair piece for the door step.Here is the finished result prior to the corner piece being welded in.



When all that was fixed up it was time to line up the 3 piece rear valance.Anyone got a spare vise-grip handy.





This is the passenger side welded up but not yet cleaned





I trial fitted the tank I bought from Steeo before welding the rear valance and once everything was OK I welded the valance in place.I have not welded the closing panel to the back of the valance yet as I want to apply a good coat of paint to the inside of the valance and seal up all the seams so that I will not have to do this again for a long time.

[DaveC]

Excellent work, you will be finished in no time at that rate

[92Coop]

i know where to go now if i even need the loan of a vice grips

great stuff aidan, your flying!!

[keith]

respect!

[woody]

I remember doing the rear valance and step and rear floor of my woody, its a lot of panels and welding, looking good.

[joebe1]

The bar has been raised!!!! time to pull FIP apart and see what we can do. its lookin absolutly fantastic.