Fitting outriggers and jacking points

I've finally started to see some progress with the endless task of repairing the cargo bay chassis. With a bit of cutting, measuring and banging with a huge mallet I was able to fit and weld the outriggers I'd made with the new jacking points I definately did not make. I thought I'd made some real progress with my welding until I started doing it against the laws of gravity. Guess I've still got a few things to learn!

A few tack welds hold the outriggers in place untill I can get my hands on a spot welder.This is the right side fitted. I levelled and positioned it with a spirit level clamped across the beams like the Professional I deep down am. (Yes in the picture the spirit level is actually invisible)

Although I still needed to spot or mig weld the forward support section to the bulk head so I can fit the front outriggers and centre cross member, I couldn't help trial fitting my new cargo floor before I got called in for tea. No I don't still live at mums but I did eat fish fingers and beans.

Vanfest 2009

Just thought I'd post a few shots from the show.

Re fitting cargo floor chassis rails Pt 2

Once both sills were fitted I cut the chassis rails out any way I could, trouble is I needed the tubes embedded within the rails. With a tiny 1mm cutting disc I delicately cut them free from the welded frame brackets.

I also removed the brackets from the centre of the I beams that securely hold the gear link tube in position. To do this I again unleashed the 1mm cutting disc very carefully and gingerly (see what I did there?) using plenty of light to see what I was doing cut away the weld, wobbling the I beam regularly to break the weld. Once each rail was slid off the tube I drilled the 8 spot welds off each side.

With the main chassis rails cleaned I placed all the cross members in their positions and using the datum marks and laser I marked out the centre and handbrake cable tube holes. When I hastily cut and folded all these parts originally I didn't order enough material to fold all three top hat sections, so the other two I picked up from the Autocraft engineering stall at Van Fest, the quality of these parts is spot on, and surprisingly fitted perfectly between my new fitted sills.

I had originally decided to manufacture many of my own parts and save money, this was decided before I knew what parts if any were available, or the quality of the ones that I could buy, and also because of my previous crap panels I'd bought before. This meant I created for myself a few problems- marking and cutting a 31mm tube hole without a pillar drill accurately in bent 2mm and 4mm sheet is not easy, requires patents and can be very time consuming, the only tool I thought was available for a pistol drill was a tapered drill bit. Backed up by wood I started drilling slowly, straight away skidding off my markings, then unable to control the awesome speed of the cutter I burnt out the drill and hardened the sheet steel, like an apprentice fitter I once was. All this trauma and it was still my first hole! I was having a bad day, it felt like I was wasting precious garage time on these parts that I'd made and I was getting really grumpy. I decided I would bit the bullet and order all the chassis parts I needed. The prices online came to over £200, again I changed my mind and decided that my local machine shop would save me, and do the drilling for me at £10 a hole (over £40 total). They sent me away with the advice to try an electricians' hole saw and come back if I had no success, or produced yet more warped glowing red sheet steel. With a good lunch and large bottle of Coke (other brands of pop are available) inside me and my new tool in hand I tried one more time. I was surprised how tough and accurate the hole saw cuts were but I do need to ask Santa for a pillar drill (if you're in New Zealand it's pronounced Sinta by the way). It's all about using the right tool for the job. Or buying one.

Refitting cargo floor transfer cassis rails

Having been away from the garage again for another few months, I finally managed to find the time to continue putting the van back together. With all the old cargo floor cross supports cut out of the way, I just needed to grind away the remaining metal from the front cross member I left spot welded to the lower part of the forward bulkhead. This took all day to carefully grind the spots off the thicker steel of the cross member without damaging or ripping the thinner front bulkhead lower skin. Getting a bit impatient I did chisel a couple off, making holes I'd need to tidy up later.

With all the chassis cross members and transverse chassis rails removed I then ground away all the welds on the heater, clutch and accelerator cable tubes where they had been attached to the cross rails, then cleared the rust from where the new rails are going to sit.

Starting with the I beams or "transfer chassis rails", I paired up the C shaped sections I'd bent earlier from 2mm sheet steel, I then folded the ends using a block and mallet to fit correctly between the sills, clamped together I then trial fitted them onto the chassis using the earlier markings, making sure the tops were flat, square and level for where the floor would sit.

With the chassis rails all lined up I then seam welded in a few places along the top and bottom. They are now ready to mark out and drill to fit the hand brake cable and gear shift tubes, before final assembly to the chassis.