Frankinzephyrs Ute Part 2
By Robert Fulton
Well it has been a long road to get to this part as
the dates on the photos I took started in late 2006, how time flies. The under
floor area is now basically back to all metal instead of being 60% holes , and
40% steel.
The sills have been modified and fitted to the steel
box section and reattached to the rear guards,
This was a real marathon because you can’t see where
you are welding inside the rear panels. The right hand rear was easier because
the lower section of the panel above the sill was rusty so I shaped a panel
using basic hand tools, a piece of pipe and old fashioned brute force until I
was happy with the shape and then bent a lip on its bottom and after
temporarily fitting the sill and in fill piece, I welded the two parts together
and then fitted them both as a unit. A bit of full fill was then applied and
sanded smooth and then the whole area had a liberal coating of body filler
applied which most of was then sanded off with a large homemade sanding board.
One small rusted out area left was also cut out, plated and Mig welded into
place.
I then moved onto the rear tail lights, both of these
were completely rusted away and the only thing that disguised the fact was the
bumpers which then fell off when I poked them. After cutting back the rusted
areas and panel beating the bashed in areas, I had virtually nothing under the
lights. Using the best bumper as a guide I formed some 2mm steel to the contour
of the bumper and trimmed it into the shape I wanted and then welded the pieces
to the rear sheet metal.
The next step was to shape some panel steel into the
curved lower sections under the bumper mounting points, this was done using the
front lawn, several different ballpein hammers, a piece of rubber conveyor belt
and a lot of brute force with a little bit of ignorance. By then cutting,
stretching, welding and shrinking the metal, I eventually ended up with a shape
I was happy with. I then had to make a mirror image for the other side; in due
course both sides took shape. This episode alone took months to achieve but I
am happy with the outcome.
After several months of virtually nothing happening,
my NZ mate Neil came over on holiday and wanted to get to work on the Zep, Neil
started by going over and tidying up the welded areas that I was not happy
with. We cut out more rust from the door pillars and panels and then plated
them, plus we filled in any surplus holes.
Then both doors and both front wings were fitted up to
check for gaps and alignment, the drivers door gap was too wide at the bottom
of door and measuring showed this door was narrower from the hip line to the
bottom of the door so a piece of flat steel was welded onto the bottom of door
and then cut to get the correct gap. Both doors now have a nice even gap all
around them.
The front lower panel hasn't been fitted at this stage
but the bonnet was sat in place just for looks.
We have removed the rusted out panel from behind the driver’s
seat and this now gives good access to the rusted out floor.
My son Michael just dropped of a part roll of 1.2 mm x
900mm x 11m panel steel so I now have enough steel to finish several projects.
This will be more than ample to resurrect the rear floor.
Nothing at this stage is in a finished state as this
is what I call the roughing out stage, when I am happy that every thing is as I
want it and all welding, cutting, and bashing is finished, I will go over one
panel at a time and prepare them to the painting stage.
Hopefully stage 3 won't take as long as stage 2.
Most people who saw the Ute originally thought I
should have been committed and the Ute crushed so I can't wait to get her back
on the road.