My 1990 MK3 100L Campervan

[Gtitom]

Done a really neat job of that, looks good. Im going to have to do the same on my van very soon!

Ive also pm'd you about those engine mounts have you read it yet?

[bignorm]

mines is different to urs mate an its missing its plug another search is on for that

That's a great job for a paintbrush wot type of paint did u use, looks like a good finish I might just go down that road with mine
local sprayers looking a fortune an most of them cant get my high roof in anyway

[bignorm]

Sorry Bryan for chatting over ur post

[Bryan]

If you're thinking of brush painting - contact Coachfinish in Belfast and ask for single pack. It is very easy to brush on and seems to "flatten itself" so the brush strokes disappear.

I just checked and my old steering box is the same as Gaz's.

[bignorm]

cheers Bryan will give them a shout about that paint, strange that there different must be the type in that year, yours being a few years older

[Bryan]

The new crossmember arrived today from Gaz.... many thanks

I quickly offered it up to the van after work this evening but it doesn't quite fit. I'm guessing the reason for this is due to the previous accident damage where they only replaced half of the crossmember.

On the driver's side it meets up with the outer edge of the inner wing but is about an 15mm away from the inner edge...


On the passenger side it meets up with the inner edge of the inner wing but is about 15mm from away from the outer edge...


I can hopefully make it fit but I'm worried it won't be in the correct place now that I have nothing really that lines up with anything anymore

[AlanN]

I brought one of these panels last year, ready for some work later in the year, so Im really intersted on how you get on with it

[Bryan]

I got a good bit done today thanks to the weather

I started off the day by collecting this little pile of folded 3mm thick chassis repair panels made by a local engineering firm.



I then cut off the chassis cover on the driver's side and chopped the chassis back to just after the engine mount section because it was badly rotted. Then I welded on one of the folded repair panels and cut it to the same shape as the original.



Following that I had to make the actual spring hanger part from another one of the folded pieces. This was quite complicated though because the chassis of the mk3 sweeps downwards and it needs to have an upwards kink in it to meet up with the front crossmember. I had to make some accurate cuts and bend the piece and then weld in a triangle filler piece to take up the gap.




And then that's it welded on to the new chassis extension piece - you can see what I mean about the angles in this photo.



Before cutting off the spring hanger on this side I made up a "jig" to help me position it again when it came to welding it back in. This was a time consuming process to get it in exactly the right place again.







Hopefully if it's good weather tomorrow I'll get the other side done. It should be a bit easier now since I have measurements to work towards from the other side.

[Mr RVM]

Great progress there Bryan

[bignorm]

Doing a great job there Bryan, havnt been near mine losing the interest tbh leaving emails all over the place for panels etc with no replies

[Bryan]

I know the feeling... I only really get the weekends to work on mine and the welder decided to fuse the wire to the tip yesterday morning. I had to go on an emergency run to try and find new tips and a shroud to get back up and running again. Luckily my local motor factors had the right ones in stock! I was ready for throwing in the towel but kept at it and I'm glad I did.

[Bryan]

Thanks to the weather I got a good bit done again today.

I finished off the spring hanger on the passenger side in the same fashion as the driver's side. This was much easier because I had all the measurements to copy from the driver's side so it went together much faster. I also cut back the chassis to the engine mount again because it was quite crusty.

Once I had both spring hangers in position I dragged the IFS round from where I had it stored and bolted the front of it in. After removing the bump stops from the chassis I jacked it up to see what it looked like.



Again I had the engineering firm make me a set of folded pieces for this purpose. These slide nicely over the chassis ready to be welded all the way around.




I wasn't too sure if it was sitting correctly so I just tacked it in place on the driver's side and used a G clamp to hold it in place on the passenger side for now. So the front IFS axle is now hanging by itself under the van. It felt great to step back and look at this after so much hard work! The front crossmember still isn't welded in place though - I just keep using it for reference to make sure everything is still lining up at this stage.



The question I have, though, is does this look normal?



That's as tight as I could get it jacked up to the chassis at the front of the bracket. I had to notch a hole in the chassis for the captive nut to protrude through.

How do I tell if I've got this in the right position before I weld it up completely??

[AlanN]

I'll try and take a couple of photos in thd dark of mine

[AlanN]

[Bryan]

Cheers for that... still hard to tell.

I might have to notch the chassis a bit to get it up a bit tighter. I guess the only way to tell is to get the wheels on and drop it down onto them. I've a good bit of modification to do to the mk3 shocks to fit the mk5 hubs though.



I think the yellow line is where it needs to be so it will need notched up a good bit to get to that level.