B-Post / top hat repair advice please

[bluenose]

Hi all,

I need some advice with repairing this area on my van as some of it's rusty and some of it's been repaired by previous owners so I have to reference of what welds to what and how it should look..

A picture of what i'm up against;

I want to put the new top hat in without disturbing the outerrigger as that is new :roll: where should the top hat go out to? I can't tell whether it goes all the way up to the sliding door guide and welds to that or whether it should only go as far as the inner cill and weld to that...

Also with the inner cill I need to know how far forward it should come, on my van it only reaches about level with the back of the top hat/outer rigger but I see on some peoples vans it seems to go further forward and protrude through the rear of the wheel arch like in this pic (which i've linked off somones resto thread) ;

I wonder if this is different between earlier and later models?

If anyone knows how it should go that would be tops or else i'm just going to weld everything to everything!

 

[james_stan]

Bluenose.

This is the standard refernce site for thsi kind or repair I think. Has soem pictures that should make sense
to you..

http://www.specialpatrolgroup.co.uk/spooky/sills/ns/ns.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Good luck

JS

 

[bluenose]

cheers mate good link,

bit of a concern then as my inner cill doesn't go over the jacking point like that, more work, awesome! :roll:

 

[bluenose]

I've just realised from the pics you send that the top hat ends weld to the inner sill whereas mine oddly go straight through....

Someone must have put one of these on over the rotten sill;

Looks like someone quick repair is going to turn into my ******* nightmare

 

[james_stan]

Yep I seen that repair sill before, from GSF I think..

.. I used one on my van offside

JS

 

[dubs and classics]

It sounds like you have worked it out but just to clarify, the inner sill does indeed go all the way to the front and the top hat stops where it meets the inner sill. The proper inner sills dont have the cut outs like the one in the picture, they are frequently used to patch over rotten sills

But then it sounds like you know that..

 

[bluenose]

It sounds like you have worked it out but just to clarify, the inner sill does indeed go all the way to the front and the top hat stops where it meets the inner sill. The proper inner sills dont have the cut outs like the one in the picture, they are frequently used to patch over rotten sills

But then it sounds like you know that..

the second I saw that panel available i knew what had happened. That's the prob when buying a bus i looked at the sills and thought they looked good and solid but turns out the lot will have to come off..

that repair panel looks nothing more than a bit of tin to cover what should be an MOT failure. I can't see it offering any structural integrity and i've no doubt it's just compounded the rot problems further :?

I'm hoping there'll be at least a few flakes of original sill left for me to use as a reference

 

[67panel]

and the correct inner sill is to deep by the thickness of the metal and the step down in the middle is to low by a good 1/4inch :roll: and if its the sliding door side the centre inner sill is even worse,not going to discribe that its giving me cold sweats thinking about it :shock: time taken to fit sills =X,time taken to make pattern parts fit=XXX
dave------- so much drinking time wasted fitting pattern parts

 

[bluenose]

and the correct inner sill is to deep by the thickness of the metal and the step down in the middle is to low by a good 1/4inch :roll: and if its the sliding door side the centre inner sill is even worse,not going to discribe that its giving me cold sweats thinking about it :shock: time taken to fit sills =X,time taken to make pattern parts fit=XXX
dave------- so much drinking time wasted fitting pattern parts

I'll have to see when i come to do it. I'm hoping there'll be something left of the original one so i have some reference of where it goes but i doubt i'll be so lucky.

I'm going to put the bus on my roller to do it i think, had enough of bending down.

to avoid wasted drinking time drink whilst working It makes welding look better not just women

 

[Mags]

I guess you have the answer now but have a look at my resto thread as it has pictures of what you are doing in various stages including doing all this work with the outrigger in place as I stupidly welded this on way too early, a lesson I learned from when doing the offside much better!

http://forum.earlybay.com/viewtopic.php?t=23320" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[bluenose]

I guess you have the answer now but have a look at my resto thread as it has pictures of what you are doing in various stages including doing all this work with the outrigger in place as I stupidly welded this on way too early, a lesson I learned from when doing the offside much better!

http://forum.earlybay.com/viewtopic.php?t=23320" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

nice work mate that helps a lot.

Anybody got any comments on where best to buy the sills??

I'm tempted to buy the inner sill from JK as they claim it original VW quality of the right guage steel and won't have any trouble with fit

 

[Mags]

I guess you have the answer now but have a look at my resto thread as it has pictures of what you are doing in various stages including doing all this work with the outrigger in place as I stupidly welded this on way too early, a lesson I learned from when doing the offside much better!

http://forum.earlybay.com/viewtopic.php?t=23320" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

nice work mate that helps a lot.

Anybody got any comments on where best to buy the sills??

I'm tempted to buy the inner sill from JK as they claim it original VW quality of the right guage steel and won't have any trouble with fit

JK, without doubt. I bought pattern ones from elsewhere and they were rubbish, the JK ones are excellent. I've posted before about the quality of some of JK stuff that they are now producing, its really good. This is for the inner and middle, the very small outer is still just a regular pattern one.

 

[bluenose]

I guess you have the answer now but have a look at my resto thread as it has pictures of what you are doing in various stages including doing all this work with the outrigger in place as I stupidly welded this on way too early, a lesson I learned from when doing the offside much better!

http://forum.earlybay.com/viewtopic.php?t=23320" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

nice work mate that helps a lot.

Anybody got any comments on where best to buy the sills??

I'm tempted to buy the inner sill from JK as they claim it original VW quality of the right guage steel and won't have any trouble with fit

JK, without doubt. I bought pattern ones from elsewhere and they were rubbish, the JK ones are excellent. I've posted before about the quality of some of JK stuff that they are now producing, its really good. This is for the inner and middle, the very small outer is still just a regular pattern one.

great, thanks!