b-post finished

Welded in the bottom of the b-post repair this evening and ground down the excess weld. It went in quite well. I also cut out a new piece of floor to cover the end hole. It took me two attempts as I mis-calculated the folds at the bottom of the b-post... Anyway, it is ready for welding in after drilling a handfull of holes to fix it to the inner sill and figuring out what shape the bottom part should be that the door plate sits on. Next couple of jobs are to fix two floor patches which need replaced on this side before moving forward to the dog leg.

Something a little different

Tonight I started shaping up the remainder of the b-post which needs to be dropped in before finishing off the floor. The shape isn't as bad as I first thought so it shouldn't take too long to get welded in and tided up. As I needed to fix up some seat belt mounts I took the opportunity of the open b-post to feed through a plate and welded nut to secure the top mount of the seat belt. I did this job a few years back with my old 1960 split microbus. It was a bit easier this time though as I had a hole already to work with! The first thing is to feed a wire down from the top to the bottom. I used a bit of piano wire I had lying around. The next thing was to cut a plate and drill a hole through it to take the nut. I used a bit of 4mm that was lying around and a proper seatbelt nut and bolt as they are toughened. I then threaded the piano wire through the wee hole I had made at the top and pulled it up the inside of the b-post. It went all the way up easily enough. I caught the nut through the hole already made at the top of the pillar and drilled another wee pilot hole to take a self tapping screw. This drew the plate flush inside the pillar and allowed me to take the bolt out without the plate falling down the inside of the post. That's another piece of the jigsaw finished. I will need to do the other side as well which might involve cutting a hole in the pillar as I might not need to repair it like I have this side....having said that, I wouldn't count against it!

Nearside Inner Sill Finished!

Inner sill welded in. That's all the sills on the nearside now done! Progress. This one was a little tricky. As you can see there is a join in it to allow me to get it in place. It has ended up going in quite nice but took quite a bit of time to get lined up and welded in. I have started spot welding from the inside for the outer and inner sill joins. You can also see the bit of floor that is needing replaced above the inner sill at the rear. I'll cut it out and drop a new piece in. All that is left of this section is to fabricate a new piece of B-post which will take a bit of time as it is an odd shape. Then a floor patch and that's it. Much better than the way it rolled into my garage. I'm fortunate in that the top hat sections are largely o.k. and the cross members are intact as well. It is quite strange the places where the rust has got at the body. Anyway, I plan to finish this wee bit, do the two floor repairs on this side, tidy up some pin holes in the inner wheel arch I noticed this evening and then move on to the nearside dog leg... That one is going to take a long time to get right but the advantage is that once it is done I can whiz round to the offside as the nose is pretty good. I just need that small folded piece of metal for the lip that takes the fron panel onto the crumple zone.

cab door outer sill in place

Tonight I riveted in the crew cab loading door outer sill in place. It took a while to get it lined with each end of the panel perpendicular to its neighbour. I used the rachet to pull the door frame together. It is much better than the previous effort. I am very pleased with the result. I've welded up the last long seam of the inner wheel arch which went on to the jacking point. There is a bit of finishing off required around the inner wheel arch but the majority of work has been done. I feel like I am turning the corner on this bit now. I still need to weld the ends in. They have rivets at the moment which were used to pull the two ends together but I want to get a couple of welds on as well for peace of mind. Then I'll get some seam sealant on from the inside. The inner sill shouldn't be too difficult to get in place. I already have it cut. This will go in next and then the floor will be finished. There is also a patch on the floor needing done before I move forward to the wheel arch.