With the left side cargo door sills now in place it was time to turn the van around so I could access to work on the other side. The inner and outer sill on the right side have seen repair panels before, the skin panel was a repair panel I cut off along time ago when the van was first taken off the road (over 10 years ago) and the patch work of galvanised sheet metal shelving and filler I'm ashamed to say was my first attempt of van restoration may moons ago. hopefully my quality of work has moved on.
The steel at the back of the inner front arch is a popular rot spot, despite my earlier efforts I cut away the many layers of panels holding this corner together. This is a lot easier with the wheel arch removed but again forming all these panels by hand eats away any precious garage time. I had to joggle the flat patch panel again(see previous blog entry) and to form the bottom of the B pillar correctly I needed to cut a hard wood bend block with the curve shaped from the other pillars. I then used a blow torch to soften the steel allowing me to shrink the sheet while forming the curve around the block. This really helped get the contour of the bottom of the B pillar correct.
As you can see the rear arch inner where the sill attaches needed a smaller patch than the mess at the front. The cross struts for the floor were left in place to ensure the inner sill was clamped in the correct position. The new sill that Id previously folded from a thicker gauge steel just needed the ends bent up to fit the length. With the front and rear arches repaired I aligned and leveled the sill; tacked; checked and welded it into place. I now have to decide If i should fit the outer skin before or after I've finished the cargo floor.
