Another day with NPJ472R

Saturday 16th March

Time to do a bit more work on Alder Valley 251 as it gets closer to being ready for its long awaited repaint. For a number of reasons it has taken longer than first thought, but preparation is vital.

The doors and windscreen have been removed. The doors have been replated at the bottom due a severe attack of the rust worm, the windscreen is awaiting the arrival of a new panel plus some other metalwork needs welding in.

Temporary windscreen

Temporary doors

Some corrosion

Lots of panels have been replaced including most of the rear end.

lots of different colours

A number of the new panels gave a clue as to where they had come from.

Hindhead

Basingstoke

No idea!

As its been a few months since my last working day there It was good to be back.

Todays work involved getting some of the front end ready.

First job, attach a new bracket to hold part of the bumper on. Easy, no problem. Then final sanding down of the some of the removed panels took the rest of the morning.

Refurbished bracket

Paul getting his nuts and bolts ready to attach the bracket

Nuts, bolts, washers and screws

 Lunch was Tesco's Finest Spaghetti Bolognaise.

 Then time to start reassembling the panels and bumper.

The first three panels went on fairly easily for change. For some reason, its often tricky getting the same 3 panels back on in the same place you took them off of.

Then time for the bumper to go back on. It didn't fit. This caused much head scratching. Eventually we realised that the new bracket didn't match the old one. The old one was accident damaged meaning that the holes on the right hand side didn't match the panels. This means more work for Paul to fit a new fibre glass centre panel (with registration plate) and repair the right hand corner panel so new holes can be drilled in both.

A frustrating end to the day but at least we knew how to solve the problem.

Before

After with the the 3 panels attached.

A summary of progress so far:
Rear end complete, sides repanelled as necessary, new emergency door fitted, lots of welding around wheel arches completed, lots of welding at base of pillars completed and new hangers fitted.

Still to do:

Windscreen and surrounding panels, front bumper to attach, fit doors, seat frames refurbishment. Anew pod bracket has ben fabricated and this needs to be bolted to the roof so the pod can be attached again.