Drivers Side Repairs
January 1, 2010
As they say you never know how deep the rabbit hole goes until you start!
Tools needed : Angle Grinder, 150 Mig Welder, 10 thin cutting discs, a zip wheel, 4 sq ft of sheet metal, tin snips, Acid Etch #8 Primer, Seam Sealer Black Gloss Paint, grinding discs.
After the whole area from inner wing to door post was zip wheeled we could see the real damage and had clean metal to weld to.
The we cut into the metal around the holes using the cutting discs to create square and rectangle holes, this removed any weakened metal and made it easier to make replacement patches to fill the holes, we then used tin snips to cut the sheet metal to the required shapes before welding into place.
Unfortunatley it was discovered that the door post was rotten from the floor up to the windscreen so the door was removed to reduce stress on the post whilst it was repaired, the inner wing also needed quite a lot of repair as you can see in the pics.
When all areas were repaired the welds on show were ground back smooth with the grinding discs and everything was seam sealed and left overnight in the workshop to dry.
The next day we acid etched all bare metal and sprayed over with the black gloss for extra protection against rust.
The Fibreglass wing arrived and we were able to fit this although some modification was needed in the form of cutting chunks off as the replacement was not a 100% perfect, we lined it up and screwed on with a few self tapping screws, this is to ensure it is removeable when we stonechip the inner wing later on.
With fibreglass wings they are fine and cheaper than steel replacements but will need a lot of patience to fit correctly, you can get them to look identical to the originals but it will take time to get the right fit with small adjustments, do not get carried away as you can't put bits back on once you cut them off!
I got my wings from Smith and Deakin for £200 a pair as although Honeybourne Mouldings do them much cheaper they could not deliver as quickly due to them replacing their moulds when I wanted to order.
If you can afford to purchase new steel ones I would recommend this route,a good few sources for these is Ebay , www.oldcars.de and Baconsdozens site has a few links for Steel and Fibreglass replacements, you can also try the Transit forum for 2nd hand ones.
Next stop passenger side and bulkhead!!
Happy Restoring!
Tools needed : Angle Grinder, 150 Mig Welder, 10 thin cutting discs, a zip wheel, 4 sq ft of sheet metal, tin snips, Acid Etch #8 Primer, Seam Sealer Black Gloss Paint, grinding discs.
After the whole area from inner wing to door post was zip wheeled we could see the real damage and had clean metal to weld to.
The we cut into the metal around the holes using the cutting discs to create square and rectangle holes, this removed any weakened metal and made it easier to make replacement patches to fill the holes, we then used tin snips to cut the sheet metal to the required shapes before welding into place.
Unfortunatley it was discovered that the door post was rotten from the floor up to the windscreen so the door was removed to reduce stress on the post whilst it was repaired, the inner wing also needed quite a lot of repair as you can see in the pics.
When all areas were repaired the welds on show were ground back smooth with the grinding discs and everything was seam sealed and left overnight in the workshop to dry.
The next day we acid etched all bare metal and sprayed over with the black gloss for extra protection against rust.
The Fibreglass wing arrived and we were able to fit this although some modification was needed in the form of cutting chunks off as the replacement was not a 100% perfect, we lined it up and screwed on with a few self tapping screws, this is to ensure it is removeable when we stonechip the inner wing later on.
With fibreglass wings they are fine and cheaper than steel replacements but will need a lot of patience to fit correctly, you can get them to look identical to the originals but it will take time to get the right fit with small adjustments, do not get carried away as you can't put bits back on once you cut them off!
I got my wings from Smith and Deakin for £200 a pair as although Honeybourne Mouldings do them much cheaper they could not deliver as quickly due to them replacing their moulds when I wanted to order.
If you can afford to purchase new steel ones I would recommend this route,a good few sources for these is Ebay , www.oldcars.de and Baconsdozens site has a few links for Steel and Fibreglass replacements, you can also try the Transit forum for 2nd hand ones.
Next stop passenger side and bulkhead!!
Happy Restoring!
Posted by James Durrant.
