FRONT PANEL
The front panel on Mischief was in a bad way so we ordered a new Brazilian one from Megabug for £50. Before I started cutting the old front off I measured the screen aperture from top to bottom and made a note of the measurement. Then I got out my favorite tool the angle grinder, I cut around the airbox, across the bottom of the screen about an inch away and ground down the lip on both sides, then removed all the lights etc ooops!!!!!,I then cut across the bottom of the panel along the bottom swage, be careful when doing this as hiding behind the panel is your water bottle and the drain from the airbox, I then pulled the old front off. We then went round and removed the remaining bits of the panel by drilling and grinding away the spot welds and using a sharp 1/2 inch wood chisel, I prefer using a wood chisel as I find it doesn't distort the panels as bad as a normal cold chisel, the only down side is they need sharpening a lot and don't last as long I used three 1/2 inch chisels altogether doing the work on this bus.
As the above pic's show we had a bit of rot along the inner panel.
So I made
up some repair panels and fitted them but left the edge that forms part of the
screen aperture bottom edge about 1/2 inch oversize for trimming back once the
new panel was fitted. The panel between the front and the raised swage line on
the front of the cab floor was in a bad way as this appears to be where all the
water collected as it leaked through the rotten panel. I tried every where to
find a replacement panel for this but could not find one so the old one was
repaired. The new panel was then offered up and found to be about 1/4 inch too short
top to bottom ooops!!!!! so I decided to work from the aperture for the screen
down. I clamped the panel in place so the screen opening was the right size and
then marked the screen pillars where they finished, once the panel was off again
I cut the outer skin of the pillars 1/2 inch below the marks and cut off the
outer skin, be careful when doing this as the there is an inner pillar up the
length of the screen and you don't want to cut into this. Then all the areas
which could not be got at when the new panel was in place were treated with
"Rustkure", hammerite primer and a couple coats of white smooth
hammerite. The back of the new panel was treated in the same way, as we
were doing the panel Jill noticed that she could see daylight between the panel
and the edges of the head lamp buckets GREAT big gaps perishing foreign panels
ggrrrrrrrr, so we went all round the joint on the inside with motor panel
adhesive (posh silicon sealant).
Once all the paint was dry I used a joggler tool to put a 1/2 inch step in the pillar sections of the panel so it would be easier to weld the pillar sections. I then punched and drilled holes for plug welding along the screen surround and along the bottom swage. The panel was then fitted using a large G clamp to stretch it across the width of the bus so the two edge flanges clipped into place, I then attacked the flanges with a hammer in a couple of places so they couldn't "ping" off. Then the pillar sections and the screen surround were welded after making sure the hole was the right size. Next we used 6 small "G" clamps to stretch the panel down onto the bottom flange and plug welded to it. Then the side flanges were dressed over using a panel beating hammer and dolly and plug welded in six places along the flange. All the welds were then dressed back with the angle grinder fitted with one of them posh sanding discs they sell for the purpose and finally the repair panels that were let into the inner panel were ground back to match the lower screen panel. VIOLA!!!!!!!!!!!! job done, Then we had to do Nic's bus :-(
ONE NICE NEW FRONT PANEL
