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Welding the van – fixing some rust holes on the wheel arches

November 20, 2015 by Mike 8 Comments

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The van needed some welding doing. It always did need welding doing but the holes were covered with fibreglass. But fibreglass doesn’t last very long.

I took the van to my friend Matt’s workshop – you know him from the blog and travels. He fixes up old cars and makes things like mini-moto snowmobiles, solar powered trikes and hydrogen fuel cells – in his kitchen. He’s recently taught himself to weld.

In this post I’ll go through what we (well, Matt) did to fix up the wheel arch rust holes on my van.

welding-van-feat

Here’s how it was done in 13 steps. The pictures and steps below will alternate between the left wheel arch and the right wheel arch – it was the same job on each side.

1. Cut out bad rust

The rust should be cut back until there is enough good metal to weld to. Any rust that has penetrated all the way through the metal should get cut out.

welding-van-wheel-arches-repairing-rust-holes15

2. Cut new sheet metal

welding-van-wheel-arches-repairing-rust-holes14

3. Set up the welder

This is a MIG (metal inert gas) welder – a high DC current sent through a consumable electrode that’s shielded with argon gas. The battery of the van has to be disconnected first. Matt adjusted ampage a few times until he got a good weld.

welding-van-wheel-arches-repairing-rust-holes13

4. Weld

Matt spot welded around the new metal sheet and then went round and welded in between

welding-van-wheel-arches-repairing-rust-holes12

5. Grind back the welds

Using a 80grit flap disk on the angle grinder matt took off the high areas of the welds and just smoothed it out. This thing can take a lot of metal off if you’re not careful, but can really neaten things up a lot and make the panels pretty much flush.

welding-van-wheel-arches-repairing-rust-holes11

6. Here’s the right step and wheel arch

It was sprayed with zinc straight away to prevent rusting

welding-van-wheel-arches-repairing-rust-holes10

6B. And here’s the Left step and wheel arch

welding-van-wheel-arches-repairing-rust-holes9

7. Fill for a good surface

This might not be essential but paint does seem to last longer on smooth surfaces and rust usually attacks the edges first where the paint often wears off and gets chipped. I did the right side with body filler and the left side with fibreglass filler – I want to see which one lasts the longest, if any.

welding-van-wheel-arches-repairing-rust-holes8

8. Prime and Paint

I used a zinc primer, sanding back lightly before applying a thick double slapping of black paint.

welding-van-wheel-arches-repairing-rust-holes7

9. Now finish the underside – inside the wheel arch

These new seems, where the new metal meets the old, need to be sealed and protected well otherwise water could easily get in and get trapped, quickly causing rust again.

welding-van-wheel-arches-repairing-rust-holes6

10. Grind back edges

I ground back the edges to prepare for primer and sealer, below.

welding-van-wheel-arches-repairing-rust-holes5

11. Zinc paint (primer)

welding-van-wheel-arches-repairing-rust-holes3

12. Seal with seam sealer

This is like a flexible sealant that can be painted over. I slapped a load on with a brush making sure I pushed it right into all the gaps.

welding-van-wheel-arches-repairing-rust-holes4

13. Paint and underseal

I painted with 3 coats of paint and top coat of undersealer in the high impact areas of the wheel arch.

welding-van-wheel-arches-repairing-rust-holes1

So that’s it. Is this how it’s meant to be done? who knows. As long as it’s watertight and it lasts then I’m happy. I’ll keep an eye on these areas over the next few weeks.

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Comments

  1. George Star says

    November 26, 2015 at 3:51 pm

    I’m sure you know but of course frame rust is a much bigger problem. If you have this much body rust you might have an unsafe amount of frame rust. You don’t want your van splitting in two as you’re going down the road.

    Reply
    • Mike @vandogtraveller.com says

      November 27, 2015 at 11:43 am

      Yeah the chassis is solid. I’ve recently just waxoyled the insides as well

      Reply
  2. Steve says

    November 26, 2015 at 4:56 pm

    That is some serious rot: All LDV’s are the same. Poor design.
    As George says below, check the frame minutely for similar areas…..much more serious.
    I know it’s just passed an MOT but the inspection of the frame will not have been particularly close, just the areas around the spring hangers & shocker mounts.

    Serious bit of kit your mate Matt has there. Ideal for sheet steel welding.

    Keep up the good work!

    Reply
    • Mike @vandogtraveller.com says

      November 27, 2015 at 11:49 am

      Yeah, it’s difficult because of how these panels are designed. Water gets trapped easily. Anyway, the chassis is in good condition and has a lot of life left in it. And yeah the MOT passing doesn’t mean much in terms of how solid the structure is. They don’t do anything more than a visual inspection only at certain points like the shock mounts and anchor points like you say

      Reply
  3. stevebowtie says

    November 28, 2015 at 10:31 pm

    Good job. Most elderly vehicles had rust traps built in to ensure obsolescence. The footwells and steps can go whilst the rest of the structure is fine. Nowadays the manufacturers don’t have to put rust traps in. The obsolescence is in the electronics.

    Reply
  4. Peter2ltr says

    December 7, 2015 at 1:27 pm

    Good job!! sad that loads of ldvs have been scrapped for similar rust!
    Keep up the good work!!!

    Reply
  5. Tom Millington says

    January 26, 2016 at 9:15 pm

    Woah man thats a lot of work! Good job 🙂

    Reply
  6. James Clifford says

    May 13, 2019 at 2:48 pm

    What was your verdict on the filler options? (body vs fibreglass?)

    Reply

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