November update 2012
Well, i did it, i got married. It was a great day and i now have a wife. One extra cool thing was my dad made me a sword. He made my brother a dirk (long dagger) for his wedding a few years ago and i remember saying i wanted one too when i got married, but bigger (as brothers do). So my wish came true and he hand crafted me this.
Its a hand and a half sword. The blade was a piece of steel he found in a skip i think and the handle was a piece of red-wood i gave him a while ago. The pommel piece was from a hydraulic ram cut to size and the brass was from bits he had lying around. Ive mentioned before how old-skool my dad is and he cut it all by hand, with a hacksaw and file, then hand polished to mirror like reflection. I love it!. He even made a strap for me to be able to wear it on my back, i wore it the whole day.
Me and my beautiful wife , Jana Barlas.
I wasnt formerly told i was getting a sword so it was a great surprise to get it a week before the wedding. I did have a huge incline i would get a sword though. So i wanted to make something for my dad as thanks. I thought about a little kilt pin so i started to draw a few designs and got stuck on a mini claymore style one, like this.
I had a little piece of stainless steel left over from a stove handle i made so i shaped it into a blade.
Then i got a thick piece of brass and scribed the shape of the guard piece on it. drilled 6 holes for the decorative part and roughly cut it out.
Then the most labourious part, using some small jewelers files i added some shape and rounded the decorative ends off.
Then i made the handle, i had thought about using some copper pipe but i really wanted it to be about 6mm wide all i could find was 8mm which put it out of scale a little. I then had an idea of using a piece of 6mm round bad and cutting a spiral in it with a hacksaw. Then using the jewlers files again, i rounded the cut mark off to give it a kind of 'rope' look.
After that i drilled a hole through the guard piece, into the blade and into the handle and tapped it to m4 i think, then threaded a piece of brass so when it was all tightend together it wouldnt come back off easily. A little ball of brass was put drilled and tapped and held in a drill. I used a file and spund the drill to act like a ghetto lathe then glued the brass end cap on the handle. I bought a basic large nappy style pin and welded it on the back of the blade part. Little bit of a spit and polish and it was done.
The day before the wedding we got the kilts from the hire shop and my dad tried his kilt ont. Thats when i gave it to him. When i first gave him it he said thanks and then i told him i made it he couldnt belive it, He thought i had just bought it, awesome.
Anyways, back to the main reason im writing this blog thing, the van! I did get a few days of work done when i could over all the wedding jazz. Just before the big day I made the other dished panel for the rear of the van, using the one i had made already as a template and working in a mirror reflection kind of way. Mark it all out using a scribe then chalk around it so i know what lines to follow, the cutting disc was a good size for the dished area.
dished part first, lots of blows then tidying up the edge.
Cut and fold the lines and weld it up.
I then tacked them in place to get an idea of how the back end will fit together.
Not bad, getting there.
I was driving home from work one night with the work van and i drove past an newsagent that had chucked an old newspaper stand out in a skip. So i went back at night and took it out, perfect for keeping my garage a bit neater.
The next peice i started on was getting the rear valance sorted. I was waiting on some more 1.2mm sheet so i thought id make the smaller peice up in 2 sections then join them together. This is the peice i started on.
outside:
Inside:
2 rectangles cut to size.
I folded them up seperatly on my folder.
I drew in chalk on the old piece to help me identify the crease lines.
Using the hammer, vice and a few other things i got the lines to match.
Both ends done i tacked them to a straight edge and clamped them, then welded them together to make one longer panel.
Welded up
Using my new hole saw i cut the 3 larger ones then drilled out the rest for spot welding them to the other panels.
I clamped it into position on the van to get an idea of it all together
Neat.
On another note, i think ive gone off getting it dipped (this van has had lots of plan changes eh) . The main reason is cost, it would be minimum £1000 for it all to be done and thats not including trailering it somewehere down south, petrol, etc.... So, ive went back to the rust converter paint. I cleaned up the waist line metal on the inside and splodged a whole load of this stuff on it.
The next part for the rear valance was the top peice. I wanted to re-do this in 3mm plate as this will get a lot of foot traffic being the first thing you step on to get in the back of the van. The old peice was all bent and dented and i dont want that. I had to bide my time though as i wanted to make this in the work and seeing as they helped out a lot anyway with holidays for the wedding i didnt want to push my luck. In the mean time i made a little start on the front, just under the drivers side wheel arch to be precise. I forgot my camera this day (well, i thought i did, turns out i just never noticed it was there) so i used my tablet pc for these, photo quality isnt the best.
Outside doesnt look too bad
But from the inside its gone.
I made some chalk marks of where to cut.
Then quickly changed my mind as i realised i was cutting a double seam, so i moved it over a wee bit, oops.
*sigh*
Just cut that crap out and re-make it.
As i was cutting i was making a plan of where to start. I treat it like a puzzle "well, i cant start there as that needs to be done first, but if i do that then that will mess up the idea for that bit, mmmhmmm, well, il do that, then i can do that."
First bit to do was remake the area around the rear inside. There is an aperture for a little storage box, i think it was just a dormobile thing as its been cut out with a torch or something and not very neat, like the rear wheel arch area i already fixed. It should become a bit clearer as i work.
I had this to work from.
Little bit of measruing and guessing i had this panel to cut out.
Cut cut, snip snip.
Folded up and tacked in place.
Clear now?
I started on the next peice to put in there, that joins the floor pan area to this panel i made.
Folded up
To be continued.
I thought seeing as it was after the wedding that enough time had passed at work so i asked to stay behind one night so i could cut the rear valance top out of some scrap 3mm plate. A lot easier at work as we have a plasma cutter there. I never had my camera there so these are when i got it back to the garage. for the lip at the rear i used a peice of 25mm angle with one edge cut to 13mm and tacked on to the top. Heres the old and somewhat new peice.
Bit closer
I tacked it to a peice of square box to minimize distortion. I decided to Tig weld it along to make it a bit neater and less to grind.
Even when you try your best to stop heat distortion theres always some, you can see the slight curve in this peice.
I used a hammer to get it roughly back into shape, im going to be welding more to it so no point in getting it perfect right now. I then cut the ends to shape and test fitted it into place.
It was sitting a couple of mm high, upon further investigation i realised it was the dished panels i had made were sitting slightly squint.
I cut a line in to them then flatened the top out. (not photo'd)
I made the rubber seal channel out of another peice of 25mm x3mm angle, one edge cut to 14mm this time. I was going to cut slits into it to get the curve then weld them up but i found just bending it in the vice and some carefull taps were enough to get it to flow. I used the top panel as a guide for how much to bend.
Then i got a peice of 12mm square bar and bent that to follow suit, and used some 2mm packers and lots and lots of clamps. This is to minimze distortion again and to try and keep an even 14mm gap all the way round.
Prior to welding. I just used the mig for this peice to save time as its not going to be seen.
Tested in place again.
I closed the rear doors again and used a peice of chalk to mark where to cut for the actual valance peice.
Cut it off with the grinder.
after i cut it i thought a bit about preperation as once welded in it wont be easy to get at to paint, so i primered the underneath of the top panel and used that rust converter paint on the inside of the rear valance.
Which left me with nothing to do until it all dried so i decided to come home and write this post for today.
Hope to get more done soon, its been good getting back to it after all the time ive been away. especially when im working on a peice i want to see finished.
untill next time, cheers!
by 
damn even I'm getting excited and I don't even own it...lol. Looking good Kev.
