Mitsubishi Delica Owners Club UK™

[chopper]

Welding chassis this weekend

I’m welding the chassis on my bus this weekend here are two images of the main area I’m going to try and fix you can see there is a hole to the front of the picture







What I want to know is when I grand back all the crap stone chip and rust and start to cut out the dead section to re-weld with 3mm steal plate were should there be hols for the water to get out is there any diagrams should this area to work off.

I’m wondering as well ass there seems to be quite a number of layers of steal on top of each other here do I need to try and weld back in a few plates to make the skin of the chassis the same and original or just weld in one patch per area.

And if you were to do this job how much of the wishbones and bracketing would you remove

Also the bump stop that is fixed to the wall of the chassis, the top one under the top wishbone seems to peeling of the frame has any one got a good pick of this in good nick so I can see how it should look when try to repair it.

Thanks
Chopper

[Google]

[gnomebase]

WRT to new drain holes and multi layer approach, see my previous post on your previous thread.

When I did it I had the engine and the engine subframe off, along with the inner engine bay strenthening plates, and the shock absorber and their mounts.

I was fortunate not to have to undo the tortion bar assemby as the rust was not near any component.

[Deker]

3mm steel is a bit OTT, you should replace metal thickness "Like for like"
And NO to double layers, it promotes rust  

You ask -
"And if you were to do this job how much of the wishbones and bracketing would you remove"
Answer = As much as needed for access.

HTH

Deker

[James22sniper]

Be intersesting to see the results on Monday! What sort of welder do you use? I bought a cheap n cheerful gas/no gas mig from screwfix some months ago and it has been great so far!

[buzr6mille]

Once you start cutting the metal away you will find the hole will get 2 or 3 times the size before you find any good metal to weld to
Don't try and just weld to rate time and effort.
Like I said before.best of luck if you think you can do it in one w/kend.
And I'd use 2mm steel, gasless mig don't give such a good looking finish but if used correctly gives a good weld and is best if you weld outside
_________________
2nd gear low and go go go!

It's A Shame That Stupidity Isn't Painful..

One dent at a time...

[chopper]

Thanks for all the advice guys and it all makes a lot of sense.

I’ve just been to have a chat with 17years experience Mitsi mech for a chat about what I’m trying, and gave me a few good tips to boot

One main one he mentioned is to try and get the engine lifted with out taking it out to far to get some access to the inside (engine side) of the chassis and hope that its not holed and a good grind back and treatment might get you away but if not that when the job gets crazy and like you guys said it and engine out job.

I’ve also been told that it’s very important that the back or inside of the patches I’m adding as well to stop rust in the inside and what he told me is only take out the bare minimum to get back to clear metal to weld to but say and plan that after you put in a patch that you try and spry the hell out of the back of it with lads of something like aniti rust treatment then aniti rust primer and then stone chip and wax oil after all that so that the internal welds don’t just start to rust from the inside and make thing worse.

He also told me he has seen many of the L400’s with the front of the chassis bent up of crumbling after off-roading when the chassis was a little rusty or just from over cooking a jump of some thing and he has upgraded a few before with straightening for a few that went over landing he has told me he has some plans for this some were and is going to get them to me but also ran me true the general idea of adding more strength to the front of the chassis and how to make other good points to use as additional fixing points for much larger longer bash plates to protect the likes of the at box and the way he described it sounded quite a easy build out of some tube or I section steal and good 5mm sheet steel but you would need to get them made up form some were with a press or be up for a lot of cutting a welding instead which is the way he did his first one  and then had a company make an other version for an other client a few years later but this was back in 1998

One other tip he told me was that its best to get a job done on the fuel pump if I’m lifting the engine as it needs to be moved any way so better to get at it while you can and I don’t think mines been done so its time.

So ill try and take as much photos as I can as we work on it tonight and over the rest of the weekend

Thanks
Chopper

[James22sniper]

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/chassis.htm
Always worth a look on this website.

[chopper]

I started work with two mate at about 8pm on Friday eve we worked till about 11:45 that eve and started work on Saturday morning at about 10:30 we were still there at 2am Saturday night.

First job was to unload all the gear
then we lifted the Delica up on blocks of timber with fork truck (don't try this at home folks)  
then started to strip the first wish bone when i hit our first big issue
the bolt on the drivers bottom bushing at the front had rusted it self 100% to the inside of the steal tube in the bush
after all but a ox touch (didn't have one) brought us to 11.

when we kicked of next day we decided to just cut the bolt (bus is in a friends warehouse and is about 50k form my home but needs to be gone for Monday and no body wants to work Sunday either) and if needs be we could rebuild and park it out of the way out side and wait for bolt or try and temp generic bolt if we could get one (were in a very remote rural area as well) striped the rest of the both sides wish bottom wish bones, hubs, drive shafts, mud flaps and shockers removed as well as torsion bar released, calipers strapped up on top of the top wish bones out of the way and and shocker brackets bolts taken out for a bit more room aroud the top wish bone bump stop.

then we started with the areas of damage were being cleaned back an rust being cut out and ground back the top wish bone on the drivers sides bump stop had popped its weld and needed to be removed

we then started to clean grind and treat the area with lots of anti rust treatment then several layers of anit rust primer which we sprayed around the areas of the inside of the chaises areas we had exposed building up 3 or 4 coats over a few hours

the wish bones were wire brushed and primed and thinly coated in stone chip (more later but budget means this is a repair mission)

we started to try to remove the bottom wish bone bushes (with out a blow touch) we got a drill and drilled out most of the rubber then bashed the shouldered end of the bush in on it self with a chisel and then from the access hole in the side of the bush housing on the wish bone with a pointy drift which helps crush the bush then hammered out with a large socket and lump then to refit a 16 ton bottle jack and a compression frame and some neat fitting sockets

the damage to the drivers side chassis was a lot worse than it looked from the out side and had to have a large section to be removed and two layers of metal as well we made the call to ad two layers of patch but painstakingly treated the areas with anti rust and primed twice over grinding and welding a few times (took ages good tip is to have a lot of grinding disks and don't be scared to grind most of the weld away a few times to get strength, I didn't car what it looked like but how pure and strong it was

then of course a good cover of primers and stone chip (again ill be building up a few layers over the next few weeks) it got about 3 primes and 4 stone chip coats in the main work area (ill be cleaning and spraying most of the area over time a little at a time)

then reassembly we had to use a m12 as a wish bone bolt as it was all we could get we replaced the track rod ends and track rod gaiters as well as the ball joints anti roll bar drop links were not unbolting so needed to be cut of so had to leave the front anti roll bar of as well till i get some new ones top ball joints well need doing but only as there bolts at the top were snapping bottom ball joints are also needing

here a few picks we took as we worked we lifted the van up on blocks about 2 foot in the air



then the























































[img][/img]

[Ronnie]

Outstanding!

Nice jack too  

[Ange]

Can't believe the rust on those pics...

At least now it will please the MOT man for a few more years...

Ang x
_________________

[John64]

Dear me, How Much Rust! Job well done there,

did you know there is a dead guy with a Camo Jacket on under your Deli  
_________________
John (LTM 158)
 L400 Crystal lite roof. Green/Grey. With Mods
Sometimes I'm Here ;-) Sometimes I'm Not
                  "CELER ET AUDAX"

[Deker]

Nice job, used to do a lot of that 30 years back   I know how you must feel after that work

[Keefe]

He's not dead, he's resting after having a long grind.
Beautiful plumage.

[chopper]

Yea the guys were pretty tired after that lot

I still have one more small patch needed on the Paso side but its all ready to go just need to weld it but we ran out of mig wire at about 1am on Saturday so ill try and get that done next weekend

The parts still needed are

Bottom ball joints
Front antiroll bar drop links
Wish bone concentric bolt x1

And then I’m going to have nice fully sorted front end then to the then to the back and then on to the fun mod’s like

I’m starting to think about some cool bars on the front like these http://www.thundersgarage.com/gif/camburgvan.jpg or this http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRAFYcyKOYhe9qlW18iLxZ-m9D8QBg2isHlaEwZk0O8a5ad4tXy&t=1 and on the back some thing like this http://farm1.static.flickr.com/32/35650238_c7c6e0712c.jpg so I need to start to do some designs  and may be a cool roll cage some thing like this http://www.musclecars.net/classifieds/muscle-car-images-large/1975-Volvo--for-sale_140523320967.jpg that will double as a roof rack for surf boards and the like

[chrisfoster1971]

Just come across this thread and crapping it as ours just failed its MOT today with both front and rear chassis corrosion.

Locations look very similar at the front... its a pity as I love my bus and it is worth loads to me but without an MOT its worthless.      

Nipping round to friendly welder tomorrow night who'll have a look and see what the damage is. But already dreading the outcome after seeing these pictures.
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100% BIO DIESEL ! Well not quite at the moment

My Delica Album

[buzr6mille]

[chrisfoster1971]

I do as LWB in Black over silver seem quite rare..

Time will tell
_________________
100% BIO DIESEL ! Well not quite at the moment

My Delica Album

[buzr6mille]

I had my rear chassis done where the bump stops went thru, it cost me £150 to get fixed.
_________________
2nd gear low and go go go!

It's A Shame That Stupidity Isn't Painful..

One dent at a time...