Chris_Collins

Chris intends to tow a trailer (read custom tear drop Tilly camper yet to be designed and built) so a tow bar is required. There is not a lot to attach a tow bar to on the chassis of a Tilly so in repairing the rear box section of the floor (which welds between the ends of the chassis rails) I decided to reinforce that area. A piece of 3mm sheet was first folded to replace the rusted box section I had cut out. Another 3mm piece was folded to add inside. I will weld nuts inside this section to pick up and support the tow bar. There is two holes with crush tubes about half a metre from the chassis rail ends that can be utilised to fix the front end of the tow bar. This will be adequate support for the tow bar which I can fabricate once all this is in place. Attached Thumbnails

This is the side profile of the rear floor when I initially removed it. The box section was rusted out so I removed it to open this area up for sandblasting. Attached Thumbnails

Then the floor was ready to replace. There is one rotten piece that needs patching and the rear fold was too rusted and bent so I added a new piece. Attached Thumbnails

In modifying a Tilly from an original car chassis the B pillar is simply moved back about eight inches or so to accomodate a wider door. When initially examining these vehicles I thought a repair patch had been added to the sill section but all that was done was a filler piece was added in factory to make up for where the original B pillar was intended to be located. So I had to do the same. Attached Thumbnails

Original bump stop plates were added. Attached Thumbnails

The holes along the length of chassis rail were plug welded and then the ends of the sill panel were capped off. Attached Thumbnails

Time to put the rear chassis rails and floor back together. First pick up the body and put it on the work bench. Not many vehicles you can restore on a workbench! First was to cut a small piece of pipe to insert inside the chassis as a crush tube for the damper arm mount as this is in a different position of a car chassis. I folded a channel section and insert inside the chassis where they joined. Smoe holes were drilled so a few extra plug welds could be added. As the outside pice of chassis runs unbroken past this joint I think it will be plenty strong enough. Some other pieces of steel were clamped top and bottom to align the pieces. Attached Thumbnails

More News from the Neville Skunkworks... "Two completed rooves for sandblasting completed with timber supports. There is still a couple of side pieces of timber to make up once the cross supports are refitted in to the front section of the rooves. Attached Thumbnails

I'm sure Frank Brown (IIRC in The Garrison ww2 arty reenactment group) would be able to help, I think he floats around here and on MLU, he does some very tidy canvas work and best of all specialises in british stuff. Hope you get some relief from your back pain soon, and those parts that were damaged at your sandblaster were recoverable. Looking forward to seeing your projects as they develop! Cheers Chris Collins

Then the short gutters after being derusted were reattached and the welds ground up. Good to have this fiddly repair out of the way. Attached Thumbnails

Both pillars are now done and a trial fit found them slightly misaligned which I did expect. They bolted down neatly so I heated both to relieve any stress that would have lead to cracking. Attached Thumbnails

The first side took about four hours and I was pretty happy with it. Will need some filler to tidy it up but it trial fitted perfectly and has got solid metal. The other pillar will be almost the same repair. Attached Thumbnails

The patches were shaped by hand using whatever I had that worked. Attached Thumbnails

I should have added, that before each patch was welded in, I had to cut out the next pice or part cut it out as each new patch prevented grinder or tin snip access. Attached Thumbnails

Then next bit. Attached Thumbnails

Because the end plate position is integral to the two halves of the windscreen joining together properly I did not want to disturb that part on either side. So to effect the repair I cut a small section out, fabricated a repair piece and wleded that in. The next piece was removed and replaced and so on, working my way around the damaged area one small piece at a time. Attached Thumbnails

First I removed the short section of weather stripping so it could be separately derusted in the electrolysis bath. Attached Thumbnails

The original roof needs repairing on the windscreen pillars which have rotted almost completely away. Attached Thumbnails

The best tops and bottoms of the inner frames were cut out and will be rejoined and reskinned when I have them all either sandblasted or derusted in the electrolysis bath. This is what I ended up with. The second photo shows what I had to compare with. Attached Thumbnails

First I unpicked the good door skins from the rusty doors. A pinch bar worked the best. Attached Thumbnails

The other three are badly rusted in the bottoms but are otherwise straight. One has had a different winder installed. Attached Thumbnails

two more photos Attached Thumbnails

These are the other five doors I have to work with to find another pair. These two from the original rusty Tilly are very solid and only surface rusted. Unfortunately someone sat a large excavotor bucket on the roof and crushed the top half of each door. Attached Thumbnails

I thought the passenger door was as good as the dirvers dide but I noticed some rot in the bottom skin. On closer inspection you can see that the entire bottom haf of the door skin has been replaced at some stage and the join just below the rib was leadwiped. Attached Thumbnails