Hi Dave,
I don't use an oxy because the heat would distort the panel too much, a bit out of my league.
All I use is a hammer and dolly, small g clamp, some blocks of wood and the corner of my saw horse. Nothing fancy here, although a vice and English wheel would make things a lot easier.

I have been pretty slack on the car since abandoning the idea that it will be ready for wedding. But I cut out the heater sill to test my new piece I made and was a little disappointed, I realized I needed another bend in it but no matter what I did, I couldn't get the bend I need. So now I'm just going to order a panel SMCKA. But in the next pic you can see how rusty the sill is, that will need replacing. It extends further up but I haven't cut that out yet. I ha e also started smoothing out the engine bay but no pics of that.



Cheers

hey benny,
 
I just bought two of those panels you are talking about from smcka, one for each of the RS's i have. Hopefully ill get them in the next few days and see how they fit!
 
Dave

Right,
Well over due for an update but its been pretty chaotic, getting other cars running, wedding planning and working away. But an hour here, hour there and finally something worth an update, haha.

Mainly just work around the heater area. I bought a rust replacement section for the bottom heater bubble because there were just too many folds for my lack of experience. So I then cut out the rest of the rust affected area. Followed the sill out a little too, as there was evidence of rust in the join. I cleaned up and rust killed that part and then moved onto making a new lower sill section as mine was beyond patching. Not quite sure how I got there but pretty happy with the result. Still needs to be cleaned up but this is we're I'm up to.













Sorry about the heaps of pics. But I had a couple saved up.
Cheers.

Good work, looks like you're doing just fine with the hammer, bench and welder. Going through that in my garage at the moment, gives me some hope yet...
Keep them pics rolling... Drew...

good work mate, i love how your not afraid to tackle anything

Been a while since I've done any work on the car, it's been a hecktic last 5 months, wedding, honeymoon and work. Hasn't left any time for the Panny, But helping jake with his turbo set up certainly got me motivated again. So I spent the holidays and the last couple of weeks tidying the shed up again and organizing it, got some shelves up to help with the clutter, starting to look like a workable area again. Also bought a little something something for the Panny van. Just have to finish the heater section then I'll fit it up ;)

Hey guys, been pretty long again since updates, I have finally got stuck back into the panny van.
Finally finished off the heater plenum sill, didn't come up as good as I would of liked but workable and still a million times better then what it looked like. Also welded the slam panel on and just sat the apron in there just to make sure every thing is still straight after all the welding is done.... And also to remind me what the front of this car looked like again, haha. Also finished welding in the top front corner piece for engine bay which has been on the todo list since I cut the old crumpled bit away probably over a year ago now.
Here are some pics







Now the slam panel is done, I will take the diff and the fuel tank and finally chuck it on the rotisserie, then send it off the get some sand blasting.

Also been pondering about how far I go with the build. At the moment focus is just getting the body done and finish chucking the v6 in there with the standard auto and just having a nice reliable everyday cruise car, rather than going all out hiding wiring, turbo, 4 speed btr etc. Not sure if I'll even put the flares on yet. Too many other projects I wanna do. But that is also subject to change, as with many builds, the final outcome is so fluid.

Cheers for looking, hopefully I can update more regularly from now on.

Benny

Well got the Diff and fuel tank removed today, pretty much all the hoses on top of the tank were so brittle and broken, I now know why I couldn't put more than 20ltrs in without the smell of fuel every where.
Next up, mounting the shell to the rotisserie and get it sandblasted.



Cheers

Moving along, Finally on the rotisserie.

Looking great mate, you did a pretty good on the heater plenum, i`ve seen better (usually pro) but i`ve seen a lot more that are much worse. Keep going at these standards and your going to have one sweet van.
Cheers
Troppo