CF2 camper, full metal repair and respray with some other things too.

[Sundownernz]

Fibreglass flares, if bonded on properly, will work well and shouldn't cause rust problems. You need to rough up the steel, clean it then hit it with Deoxidine or similar (phosphoric acid coating) then etch prime it. Bond the flare to the steel body with a good mix of chopstrand mat and resin between and screw the flare to the body in a number of places. Once it's gone off, grind the tops off the screws then fill any gaps with glass and resin. Once done use filler to blend into the body and prime and paint as normal. You also want to coat the area under the guard with a bitumen type sealer to stop water and stone chips underneath. Did this with my old van and had no problems at all. Having said that i'm a fan of steel and my current van is all steel.

Hey Suterman. Vans goin to look great mate. You definately need either a reversing camera or reversing sensors. I have sensors on mine and wouldn't be without them or a camera. Especially with the van being so wide, you can't see modern cars behind it when parking using just the side mirrors as they're too narrow. And the 7" screen in the back is far too small. I had a 10" in mine and have just upgraded to a 19" LCD. Totally awesome.

Post us some pics as you progress.

Cheers,
Garry.  

[suterman]

cheers, I guess a parking sensor wouldn't be a bad idea.

The DVD screen and player I got for free of my mate with the paint shop, they're only cheapy ones, a bigger screen would be nice.

I will keep the thread updated.

[ben]

Come on Ben it's time to catch up with the times Grin, Epoxy resin and mico fibres mixed together  to form a adhesive filler to stick them on with, will last 20+ years with no moisture and sticks like shit to bare metal,

Fibreglass flares, if bonded on properly, will work well and shouldn't cause rust problems.

yeh well all the vans ive ever seen they mustnt have done it properly cause every single one has had rust underneath the fibreglass, same with fibreglass repairs, i havent seen one without rust around it.

ill have to have a chat to you bas about it:)

ben

[suterman]

how things are looking now, carpet out, anything loose removed, cabinet base behind drivers seat removed.



I re-did the cardboard templates, and also did a rough front valance to see how it will look.






Other things in the shop....

The world champ Legend racing (3/5 Scale rod style racer with a 1300cc bike engine (madness!)) series's new car (or so I'm told) in for a flames paint job.



Jag, had a full, bare metal rebuild, nearly done. (my mates shop is specialise in old Jags) Sorry for the shite pic.




Another pic with other jags.



Cutting the sheet metal for the arches tommorow night

[TheArchiTech]

hey man I reakon that going to come up sweet I do like the extra on the front bumper, keep us up to date

Cheers Phil

[Dano]

that's looking good suterman, i thought those Auto shifters were Aussie only , I'm mistaken, coooool

[ben]

after talking to bas nz i have been shown how to stick flares onto vans without rust forming. very handy to know

you wil  need

Epoxy resin R180 + Hardner

Cabosil F08400

both available at FGI 0395505669 - Springvale, melbourne

clean up body to stick flare onto, sand wax off back of flare to glue with

mix resin and hardner well, then mix in cabosil which is a fine powder and which has the maximum bonding power same as whats used in aroldite appartenly, mix till desired texture to form a glue,  apply your adhesive filler, screw in place or pop rivet.

once dry grind pop rivets down or screws, apply more adhesive filler up the body maybe 2 or 3 inches?

grind down once all cured, bog with body filler

apparently this way will last forever with no rust forming underneath where you have had to grind down to bare metal, and the glue will never seperate unless grinded off:)

sounds wiked im excited!!!! get excited!!! oh here is the bad parts..


prices quoted from FGI.

epoxy resin and hardner pak

1kg $32
5kg $96
24kg $336

Cabosil

1kg $36.30
10kg $165


by the sounds of things you dont need a whole lot of cabosil to the amount of resin so i think most economical for me would be 5kg resin, 1kg of Cabosil

cheers
ben

[suterman]

Funny you should mention that, my buddy at the shop was just fitting some new arches to an xj40 (circa 1990) he was gluing them on and was saying about thats how they were done at the factory, he was saying about how the resin bonds and there is no moisture allowed to the metal, therefore no rust.

(footnote) The XJ had been repaired previously in the same place but the repair arches had been fixed in place over the old rotton ones.

[suterman]

Progress!!!!!

After waiting outside the bodyshop since late November work began properly on the van tonight....

Pics....



















The rear arch is going to be turned up at the bottom in the end so there will be more of a gap than now.

Get the other side on tomorrow and then sort the valance.

[ben]

dude bi hope your gunna get some suspension travel out of the rear flares!!.. but looks awesome.. nice work>>