Back to VanAgains New 65 Sportvan Deluxe

That repair panel sure looks good. Still going to be a buch of work & welding. What you going to do where it welds to the inside of body. The heat from it might mess up the (nice ) paint job on outside?

Here is a "before" photo of the floor around the filler neck, showing a chunk of bondo Don pried off the floor:



This shot shows all the bad floor metal cut away and a solid crossmember welded in to reinforce the old one. And there I am using the MIG welder (which is SO much nicer than gas welding, especially in these tight spaces!).



I need to take a photo showing the floor piece in place. Regarding how I attached it to the outer (painted) wall, I just put a bead of dum dum in between (that really sticky 3M product). From the factory they put a few spot welds along that flange and dum dum'd the rest. I can't do the welds because it would brun the paint, so it's just dum dum to keep the water out. Aside from the filler neck itself, there is a good amount of overlapping floor metal, welded a couple inches in from the painted wall, plus a line of dum dum.

This is a repair job but it's not the ultimate way to do it. If you look at the old thread, you'll see I've got the whole back end from StorageVan. When the time comes to repaint this van, that whole section could be swapped out. That would be the best way to eliminate all the rust and repairs back there. I'd like to do it but I've got my other van that needs my attention right now. The buyer of this van can have all my solid spare parts. Or, if I still have this van down the line, maybe I'll take it on. I'm really digging this MIG welding!

I agree the mig is the best thing I have bought. I had NO welding experience and have slowly been picking away at some rust repairs. It is by no way perfect but I am amazed at the progress I have made. And I have to admit I enjoy doing it!!!

Here's how the reinforcements to the back "frame" turned out. I trimmed my good metal to fit around the existing frame and leaf spring subframe and then welded it all together. The pictures don't do it justice. I think it turned out pretty well. Should be as strong or stronger than the old spot welds.

Here's the new floor piece for the driver's side welded in.

Wow...great job and it came out "Swell!"
B.W.

Great job on your repair.

The repair is real sano looking good job.

Here's how the right rear floor turned out. The rust holes were not that big on the right side but it was best to cut out a nice square opening to make sure the new piece got welded to the frame nicely.

Sunday I finished up the front floor. Here you see the typical rust along that seam. Don did a nice job of cutting it away, leaving a couple clean rectangular openings where I welded in the new metal. I've said it before, how helpful it is to have replacement metal that is already the exact right shape! Even still, I spend a lot of time trimming the metal to fit the new in with the old. And then, when welding with MIG, you gotta grind down to bare metal on all the mating edges. It's been fun but has taken a lot longer than I expected. (Though I should have known, since I'm such a perfectionist!)

No kidding on how long everything takes. I work in half of my two car garage. And I spend half my time getting all my tools out and putting them away.

You're rocking this rust repair! You got a lot done yesterday! Cheers!

All this welding has been fun but it is time for me to get back to working on my other Sportvan! I just posted this one for sale on Craigslist:

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/cto/938096734.html

Yup, thanks Don for making sure I get back to work on this van!!



I cut out another small area in front of the battery box area. I had only part of the metal for this spot and spent a lot of time piecing together other floor parts to fit. And as usual, prepping the metal took way longer than the actual welding will take! MIG is nice but it gets to be a pain grinding off all the paint for the welds. And I can't just grind the edges, I get carried away and grind the rust and paint off the entire pieces going in.

Yes, Governor, I am keeping busy. Mostly at Sony though! Well, I spent a lot of time on the blue van over the three day weekend. Finished welding up the big hole in the floor. You can see where it was welded but it is very solid. Now the only bit of floor left to fix is along the back edge of the doghouse.



I bought the peanut plugs for the new engine, as well as coolant, brake line for the fuel pump, and the big fuel hose for the gas tank filler. No work actually took place on that poor neglected van though...

Are you having fun, Guvna?!

Don, What kind of carb it that??? My two 65's & 66 have Carters, but not like that one???

A couple nice things about this Rochester carb:

• The fuel line inlet points forward, rather than to the right. This makes it easier to route the fuel line so it doesn't cross over the valve cover. I prefer it going around the front of the valve cover so you can take the cover off without removing the fuel line.
  
• The choke lever is also on the front of the carb so you can hook up the automatic choke linkage that comes up from the exhaust manifold.

And thanks for cleaning up these manifolds, Don! Did you paint that linkage silver too?! What a guy!!

Oh, Don advises against painting the exhaust manifold, and I've had bad luck with "high temp" spray paint in the past. But I've seen some really nice looking gray ones in photos of restored cars. I did a little searching online. Some guys swear by Eastwood paint, good up to 1200°. Others used POR-15 manifold paint (1400°) and got good results. Anyone out there tried these?

Will powder coating hold up under that kind of heat?

VANagain, I used POR-15 manifold pain on mine and it works great. Went on glossy and after running for an hour turn dull but kept it's color really good. POR wikk save your manifolds from rust as well.