Well after a glourious weekend I've only a couple of pics, however seeing as I spent friday afternoon and all Saturday working on the van I've little to show photo wise for it.

Finished of the welding of the rear access and dressed it off, will still need a little tarting up and a little filler to make it look nice but still I'm pleased with the out come and the hatch fits which is a bonus.



Looked at the remaining popouts, however all the windows were suffering from rot in the lower corners, not mutch to do but cut sections out and reweld some plate back in, no photos of the repairs for some reason?



Fitted all the popout hinges onto the windows, very please once they were all fitted.





Removed the rear door as the top gutter was rusting badly so will require a large section cut out, had to cut the bolts free so a little peeved, anyone got any suggestion on getting at the captive nut strip that holds the hatch on? I was simply going to run the angle grinder along and then lift them out, its a tight area so the dremel might have to do it?



All for now, some body work is being preped at the moment so I'll pop some photos of that up when I'm next back on the job.

Turned up Friday afternoon and found this



Starting to look like a van again.

Finished off the seat belt fixing in the B Pillar, another of those little jobs completed



Then started on the roof, finally decided to put a new one in so have to alter the hole a little.



A little metal bashing required



I have to make the hole smaller so the turned edge was cut flush



Clamping the new metal in.



A series of small welds and hey presto







It was so easy that for a moment I considered a Tin Top

A lot of marking out then started to cut out the required shape.



Cut made.



And the removed roof section



After lots of swearing and use of the brummy screwdriver, frame fitted.



A view to the front



and a view to the rear


Also looked at the captive nuts for the rear door,

Need to get them out of this section.





Managed to get the Dremel in and run a cut along the length, removed the strip and found it was only a strip with threaded holes in, will make a replacement at some point but should make fitting the door back in very easy.

Cut the rusted roof and gutter section out



Section repaired.



Thats it for this week.

only managed to get on it today but ts been a long day and quite productive.

Turned up this morning and found this waiting for me, some paint had been put on , I was told to help with prepping so that's fine, looks really nice





Decided that the roof frame could do with a little support, so using some box section made some.



After a couple of trial fits got the curve I wanted and started to weld them up



After some dressing here they are fitted







Then with the help of the oxyacetylene torch I started to bash the edges down, ended up lookin quite good.





Then decided to look at the drama that is the cargo doors, having issues with trying to get them fitting correctly, I think mostly caused by the "replacement" parts!

First off I took all the paint a filler off so I kne w what lines I was working to.

Nice shiny metal, and the shield shape holes again, is this a pattern someone might use for pulling dents?



Decided to remove some metal off the replacement parts, to try and understand why the door wasn't fitting, found extra metal than there should be!



However I can get them to sort of fit, the issues are the bottom sil, and the B Pillar which may need to come out, the pain of this is having to wait for replacement parts!



The question is do I go for KF and what I've found to be "not" quite correct fit

Also tried to fit the seat belts.

Hi there..... Great project!

Where is the engine hatch from may I ask?
I've been trying to hunt down a type 3 squareback with no luck....

Keep up the good work!

Dx

I actually got it from EBay, but I think the breakers were actually staffordshire way.

I'll try and find the details if that's any help.

Just to say a fair few owners get T25 ones and cut them down to fit.
Another option.

sorry deleted, as responding to poster not thread owner!

Yes its a T25 lid, from Peter at T25 East Midlands from his Ebay shop, give it a search there was a contact number on his add I'll see if I can find it.

Don't worry about those photos, they were the ones I used for inspiration

After a busy couple of weeks I thought I'd update you on the progress.

I've been having issues lining up the cargo doors and I think this is mainly down to the bent hinges and the damage thats been repaird sometime in its past however found myself removing the B Pillar again.

Brought an Autocraft lower B Pillar section to try to realign the bottom Hinge as the KF part was causing me a few issues, you'll notice the width drawn on of 35mm, however unclear in this photo the inside face of the Cab door lock is another 10mm to the right.



Don't suppose anyone can measure the distance on their van for me from the inside of the weather strip to the inside of the cab door just to check my sanity, also it might be nice to feed back to Autocraft if this is different on older buses?

You can see the difference in the widths in this photo.



Right hand Cargo door looking better, at least the lines are closer now.






The Cargo doors were stressing me out so I left them and had a look at the door locks, way back in the project I'd noticed that the locks had been changed for later types, so I've decided to put the lock back to the correct age, more so that it at least looks the part.



The older mounting now welded in.



The later mount out



This also means I've got to adjust the doors accordingly, you'll notice the weld marks where the later lock mouning has been welded in.



So slowly slowly and measure twice cut once, or I was in great danger of destroying two doors.



You can see where the mounting for the handle has been welded in



Cut the donor section out of the other door and laided it over the cut section, used the cutter then to line everything up, clamped it all in place, no going back now.





The later lock mount on the drivers door



The Donor section tacked in place to check.



I then crossed everything, mounted the door and tried the lock.



It fitted and locked

I then had a coffee and a sit down while I decided what to do about the mounting hole for the handles. the most logical I decided was to cut the whole donor section from the Donor doors and refit.

So I did.



Cut the Donor section out again measured twice, laid the cut setion over the hole and spent alot of time getting it right, I used the Handle to get the hole in the right place, after having to adjust the lock as it didn;t fit correctly, I can't be the only one having problems with replacement parts, or do people just not complain to the manufacture any more, the locks wouldn't mount in the door correctly?

Anyway eventually solved the problem.

took my time with the welding



A quick tidy up with a flap disc



And fitted the handle



Door opens closes and locks, happy bunny

On the point about the locks the two mounting holes don't line up with the holes on the lock, they are out by the thickness of the lock metal, clearly someones measured incorrectly



Door opening





Really pleased.



Now just to tidy up the cuts, need to get this sorted as the painter is chomping at the bit to get it prepped.

Nice work there mate. Fiddley stuff by the looks of it!

Nige