trouble in the pits

OK, good news that the lower front of the windscreen area is now sorted, but looking at the front window uprights, there was a lot of fairly heavy pitting in the metal on the passenger side upright…

Although the pitting is not a structural issue, and could be skim filled prior to final preparation and painting, there is a good chance that in the future the rust in these areas could slowly return and start bubbling under the paintwork!

Not wanting to take this chance, I would rather do it once, and do it right, so it was decided the best option was to get a good donor section and graft that in to replace the affected area.

So the process of cutting to size and cleaning a donor section started again. First by removing the affected area to cut it back to good solid OG metal…

…and then making sure the underneath areas are all cleaned up prior to priming…

Then trial fitting the section to make sure all is well before welding into place

Section by section, the van is getting put back to together again, but with all the notorious trouble spots having been dealt with properly, so that there is nothing to worry about later on and the classic camper van will be good for another 40 odd years!