Underneath the arches - mk5 twin wheel hi-cube

[Noctule]

Hi all,

As the rear quarters of the camper are rapidly becoming fresh air, I thought is was time to tackle removing the plastic arches and rebuilding the rear quarters. As expected new ones are not available, and the only people who I've found who sell the rear quarter panels for the single wheeler mk3 lwb / hi-cube don't actually keep them in stock I haven't been able to look at those to see how different they are. So, reluctantly, it's do-what-I-can-with-sheet-steel time.

The story so far...

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The right hand rear are actually the worst, but as the left-hand plastic arch was in most need of repair as it was cracked I thought I'd tackle that first.

The plastic arch is held on with six nuts, all rusted, so out with the grinder. Fortunately there are extra thick washers under the nuts, so no worries about grinding through the body.

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Next, I had to work out just how the plastic arch is put together. It's two pieces, held together by a resin type glue and plastic studs through holes which are melted together. A soldering iron and careful prising got the two halves apart.

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Next, the ground off screws needed removing. They are held in with the resinous glue. Again careful prising removes them.

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I now need to find or make a replacement for these studs. If anyone knows of anything that can be bought then please let me know. Otherwise I think I'll try friction-welding an m6x20 stainless screw into a stainless repair washer. I'll drill holes in the repair washer to replicate those in the original. I'm assuming these give the glue more grip to prevent the screws coming loose when being tightened or undone. The whole lot will be put back together using TigerSeal and occasional plastic welding.

I'll let you all know how I get on.

[Noctule]

New quarter panel arrived today, one for a single wheeler. Comparing the two I would say they are near enough. Holding up the panel to match the curve of the arch it looks like all that needs to be done is to cut off where the arch is normally folded inwards.

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[grumpygramps-2007]

look forward to more pics. if pos could you tell me how thick the metal used for any outrigger work is. gramps

[grumpygramps-2007]

look forward to the pics of the rebuild.

[Noctule]

if pos could you tell me how thick the metal used for any outrigger work is

Last time I made outriggers I used 1mm steel. By made I mean I measured one up and made a template to make a whole outrigger rather than plating the ones that were on the van (mk5).

[Noctule]

I've been busy today before the rain set in...

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I decided to cut most of the panel out as it was largely rotten or would be soon enough. Following that I plated the inner sill and added some backing strips to weld the new panel to. Care had to be taken cutting the new panel to shape as it has to fit up to the plastic arch.

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Everything inside was then painted and the new panel tacked in place.

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The rain stayed off long enough to get the panel welded into place and the weld cleaned up.

480_new_panel_welded.jpg

Then the rain set in so into the garage to start making replacements for the screws mounted inside the plastic arches. I've bought a enough stainless screws, nuts and washers to make up 12 mounting screws. I've drilled out a large washer and welded it to a cap allen screw to make the mounting screw itself. I'm going to Tiger Seal these in place.

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[Richieintransit]

Nice work, how did you do the inner panel under the van

[stevo]

Looks good, makes me wanna learn to weld

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

[Noctule]

Nice work, how did you do the inner panel under the van

The inner panel was cut back where needed and patched with sheet steel. Having the outer panel off meant it could be welded inside as well as out. Where possible I didn't send to the inner panel that is is part of the chassis. The excessive length of the patch in the pic is to give somewhere to get a good earth for the welder and will be chopped off when that side is done.

480_inner_panel_patch.jpg

For those that don't know the back end of the hi-cube and long cube literally has a mk3 lwb rear bolted on. In the picture you'll see some of the screws that bolt the body to the chassis. Find a picture of the load area of a hi-cube van and you'll see holes in the wall pillars to get sockets in. There's one or two pics that show this in Breakdown Biker's posts here... http://fordtransit.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=43816&start=30

A reasonable mig welder is cheaper than you might think and will save you a fortune in garage costs, not to mention if you do it yourself you can do so much more than just patch when doing repairs. A garage might patch for you but won't descale and paint inside whilst they're doing it.

[Noctule]

Sorry for taking so long to carry on this thread, the camper was finished in a hurry for a tour around Europe!

To continue, the wheel arches are fully welded and tiger-sealed to prevent water getting in.

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With is done, time to tackle the plastic arches. First of all, all the cracks were repaired using a soldering iron. It was eye-opening just how many cracks I found. Then the new screws were Tiger-sealed in place except for the one which is over the new piece of panel.

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This is left out to mark at drill a new hole for it. With that done the final screw is glued in and left to cure.

[Noctule]

Last parts of the job, painting and glueing the plastic arches back together.

Painting would have been easy, Melanie is a painter by trade, but the weather made work difficult. All the way through the work we had to use halogen heaters to warm the panels before and after painting to make sure the paint stuck and was is some way cured before the damp evenings set in.

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Whilst this was being done, the plastic arch inners were checked to make sure they fit okay before the two halves were stuck back together.

480_checking_fit_of_new_screws.jpg

This is where the job went wrong. Well not so much wrong, as could have been done better given more time and thought.

With time against us i.e. a ferry to catch in a day or two, I Tiger-sealed the two halves of each plastic arch back together, put a few plastic welds in with the soldering iron, and taped then up to cure. What I really should've done was attach the inners to the camper, then glue them together whilst on the van to ensure a perfect fit. Once glued the arch is quite rigid and can only twist along its length to fit. As it was they don't quite fit and there are gaps here and there. I've come to the conclusion that these arches could do with being removed occasionally to clean behind them so when they're next off I'll try to take on apart again and set it on the van. I'm assuming Ford have a lovely jig to set new arches into to glue them up.

Anyway, job done for now, we got our holiday, and 3000 miles later we're home with no bother and amazingly no oil used! Chuffed!

Mat

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[KING OF ENGLAND]

Looks good to me mate
I can do anything to my mk 5 but I HATE body work because I don't know where to start