My MK5 Minibus Project

[RonTransitmk5]

Hi mate and welcome to the forum.
It looks like there is quite a bit of welding to be done there on the old girl, nothing unusual for a Mk5 though.
Cab you weld? Because if you can't then you will be able to by the time your van is done, there are members on here who purchased welders just to do their vans and did a good job.
Most of the repair panels that you need are cheap or can be made easily from flat plate.
I would be happy to inspect and offer advice when I am next over your side of the river, there are other forum members close by who will no doubt be able to assist.
TIM

Hi Tim
Never welded in me life, but joined mig-welding forum to find out how.
Love for ya to take a peek when you are over this way rm9 5ba.

Thanks Ron

[RonTransitmk5]

Gonna cut all the rot out & replace with panels or self made sheet metal for the floor & sills, but will plate the chassis as it's only 2-3 small pieces (for now)
On the look out for a clarke welder, auto dark helmet, gas, ect at the mo, it's very hard when you cannot drive anywhere yet.
Found a Clarke Pro 90, but may be a bit underpowered for this project unsure.
Spending the next few days totally stripping out all the plastic/trim/front flooring ect I can, will be getting it up on ramps either Fri/Sat so will then start cutting all the rot away.
Thanks everyone for your messages/comments

Ron

[robbie.cee]

any fridges/freezers dumped locally- beat the scrap men and get cutting! some guys even used pc cases!

if it does the job and is out of sight then who cares!


WEAR A MASK ARC EYE FOOKING SUCKS 36 hours in darkness for me in fooking agony

then my whole face peeled same as sun burn so guess what it must have done to my eyeballs!

[RonTransitmk5]

Dont let it get the better of you mate, thought I would post up my tread of my mk5 restoration, might give you some ideas viewtopic.php?f=27&t=67521

Many thanks for the link, given me a few more ideas of how to tackle mine

How thick was the steel you used?

[gavuk]

If you get arc eye ,normally a few hours after finishing welding ,eye drops like optrex help if its in the early hours (usually is ) place damp teabags on the eyes the tannin helps relieve the pain....
As for Sip welders,they do work and are readily available ,but they suffer from wire feed issue's....the power feed to the wire motor and the arc are not seperate and the wire feed suffers as a result ,so consistent results are difficult ,I would urge anyone intrested in welding to pop over to http://www.mig-welding.co.uk....plenty of pages with reviews of welders and mods to sip welders ,,,,,in short they will say on a budget clarke is a clear favourite ,i started with a sealey (red box) which was fine, the sealey yellow box(siegen) are not thought to be as good but that could just be a lack of positive reviews ....wolf ,aldi etc rockwell are not well thought of but check the website for pages of reviews etc ....Gav

[CH1]

Dont let it get the better of you mate, thought I would post up my tread of my mk5 restoration, might give you some ideas viewtopic.php?f=27&t=67521

Many thanks for the link, given me a few more ideas of how to tackle mine

How thick was the steel you used?

Think it was about 2mm thick

[Dawsie]

any fridges/freezers dumped locally- beat the scrap men and get cutting! some guys even used pc cases!

if it does the job and is out of sight then who cares!

I get filing cabinet separators . You use them to organise your files in one of them office places

They are soft enough to bend over your knee and when you hit it with hammer it goes where its put - painted as well .

once you get it welded at a corner the hammer and chisel and a helper with a large screwdriver or broom stick will get the edges to mate for welding . My fav welding trick is to use the jack and a bit of 4x2" to get the bits of metal touching .

The mot man always puts ' heavily coated in underseal ' as a bad point . I also use 'red stripe'(?) seam sealer' to cover my pidgeon shitty welds followed by underseal .

[Highlander250469]

I break a few cars and cut large flat rectangle panels out of the roofs, makes lovely welding metal and quite thick.

Take all the advice on arc eye very seriously, at the time you will feel nothing but when you wake up at 4am you won't be able to peel your eyelids apart

I only ever got arc eye once, you'll never do it twice!!

[RonTransitmk5]

Thanks for the tips on Arc eye will take that on board.

Stripped all the interior out & removed the tow-bar & bumper, decided to cut out some of the crap.
The kids think it's great that dad's cutting the van up lol
The wife isn't as impressed

[RonTransitmk5]

Do you think I should weld a plate over the chassis in the 3rd picture, as I don't feel confident in cutting it out in case the whole thing collapses on me

[gravelrash2004]

dont worry about chopping that bit out - mine was rotten to the bone there.

you can chop it out and then add a new piece of chassis section. - have a look at my projects

[Muttley]

Thats one seriously rotten van I would be careful with repairs to the main chassis, you need good steel of at least 1mm thickness and leave no rust as it will compromise the weld quality. Repairs to the floor must use at least 0.6mm steel and all welds must be continous around the entire panel. I am in Sutton Surrey and I can do you a good price on welding the Chassis and help you learn to weld the flooring if you like

[RonTransitmk5]

Thats one seriously rotten van I would be careful with repairs to the main chassis, you need good steel of at least 1mm thickness and leave no rust as it will compromise the weld quality. Repairs to the floor must use at least 0.6mm steel and all welds must be continous around the entire panel. I am in Sutton Surrey and I can do you a good price on welding the Chassis and help you learn to weld the flooring if you like

I have sent you a PM

[RonTransitmk5]

Message to the mod Andyg, can you please update the title to read My MK5 Minibus Project? as this ones a little outdated now, thanks

[Altransit]

Message to the mod Andyg, can you please update the title to read My MK5 Minibus Project? as this ones a little outdated now, thanks

Other mods are available

Title edited and thread moved to the progress section