Call me Dr. Frankenstein

[bbjordan]

The '96 Cube van that I just bought failed the out of province inspection. I kinda figured it would, but I wanted to find out what the mechanics would spot. Well, they failed it on a few things:

1) rusted out front bumper brackets.
2) two non-working marker lights
3) back tires too old/cracked sidewalls
4) rusted out rocker panel

I was a little choked about the tires, since they still had 2/32 tread left and they were only 6 years old. Oh well, I got a set of new Michelins for a good deal.

The rocker panel was another matter. I am not a body man, so I took the van to some body shops for estimates. No one wants to do rust repairs. They won't warranty it. I did find one place and they estimated $1276.38. Well, Princess Auto just happened to have the Lincoln EasyMig 180 welder on sale for $679. so I figured it was time I learned how to weld.

I had to get a bottle of Argon gas in order to weld the 24 gauge sheet metal that I used. I tried with the flux core wire, but I just wound up making mess of burn holes.

Its taken me about 4 days to do:

Day 1 cutting out the rusty rocker panel.
Day 2 Fabbing up the piece and welding it onto the van.
Day 3 Drivers side floor.
Day 4 center and passengers side floor.

Its a really dirty job grinding the rust out. I wore my half mask respirator and the filters are now caked with rust dust. I can see why they want $1276.38 to do the rocker panel. I used a whole 2' x 4' sheet or 24 gauge. The last few pieces were used to patch up the center of the floor.

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Its not letting me upload all the pics, but you can see them here:

http://www.blackwire.com/~bjordan/Diesel/Van_welding/

This is my first welding job so I wasn't thinking of taking pictures until after I replaced the rocker panel. That is also why it looks like Dr. Frankenstein's work. But hey, I'm happy with it, and I would say the welder has paid for itself already.

 

[Brad S.]

Explain the "out of province" law.
Does that mean you cant travel out of province till it passes, or cant go out of the country???
Thats the best way to learn things like welding, working on your own stuff that is.

 

[bbjordan]

When a vehicle is brought into Alberta from another province, in order to get it registered (plates) it must pass an Out of Province Inspection. Almost like a commercial vehicle inspection, but not quite as stringent. In Canada, Provinces are like States in the USA.

In this case, the van came from Ontario. In Ontario if there is any rust perforation the vehicle is taken off the road. Ontario has high humidity and uses salt on the roads which makes for rusty vehicles.

You would think that after making vehicles for over a hundred years, auto makers would have figured out how to make vehicles that don't rust.

 

[CaptTom]

Ya know.... for the first time welding, I think you did great!

Sucky that body rust fails a vehicle. I can see, brakes, lights, bumpers.... but rocker panels and such?

Really??..... Reeeeeaaally?

Government is out of control, even if it is Canucksville... government everywhere has just gone stupid.

 

[Dieselcrawler]

Any holes into a passenger compartment or sharp edges will fail here.

 

[92F350CC]

Ah....I'm glad my truck is pretty much rust free.

 

[89dieselbko]

when im laid off in the winter ( i work heavy equipment for a local operators union, and normally get 4-5 months off every winter to collect unemployment as you cant exactly dig dirt in the dead of winter ) i do rust repair at my house for side cash. I dont offer a guarantee, as i do *cutrate* work, but you would be surprised the amount of business i get. Mainly because no one wants to do it.

here in PA you cant have rot holes either, or sharp edges, among other things. If you were closer, i could have done that rocker for 50 bucks, + parts/material. But we have yearly inspection, not out of providence or anything like that. Welds look pretty good! on floor boards i usually use pop-rivets + seam sealer under vehicle, kitty hair (long strand fiberglass) for the inside to seal the edge.

Keep up with the welding, its the kind of thing that once you learn, you will be glad you did!