cab floor

Page 23

Cab Floor.

	Right this is a bit of a step back, but i decided to include this page because this is a very very common rust point. I you have a camper you may find that this area has already been repaired, and there is a good reason why this is a problem, underneath the floor is a rust trap. The big hole i have cut out shows the chassis rail and at this particular point the rail braches off to for a "Y" on top of this "Y" is welded a thick steel reinforcement plate, above this but not joined is the cab floor. water from the road just sits on top of the reinforcement plate and slowly rusts itself away and at the same time the floor, I don't think VW managed to get any paint under there to protect the floor or the reinforcement plate.
	So what you have to ask yourself is:- if your camper has repaired in this area, What has been repaired?? My camper had been repaired but only the cab floor was patched, so this meant that as soon as the repair was completed it started rusting again! So here is the correct way to do the repair! Firstly you have to cut a very big hole in the cab floor, then remove the remains of the reinforcement plate, as you can see the plate is held on by 10 very strong welds. The remains of the plate are is to the left of the hole!
	Right once the chassis rail has been cleaned up with an angle grinder (its nice and thick so you can have a good attack at it!) then cut a nice thick plate of metal (2mm at least) and weld it back into place. I drilled holes first in the patch and did nice big spot weld with my mig. I also welded around the corners to stop them lifting if rust should start again.

At the same time i was doing the cab floor i also welded the corner in front of the wheel arch, this is also a common area but very easy to repair. the repair panel you get is very good and is big enough to cover most serious rust damage. The black floor section is part of the cab floor repair panel which covers nearly half the floor area.
Last job replace the cab floor section. I cut out a nice big section and had a good lap around most of the hole. where I could get to the join I welded it underneath as well. And a very important thing to remember before you weld the cab floor panel in place is to bung loads of paint on the reinforcement plate on top of the chassis rail.
Now all you have to do is the other side!!!!

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E-Mail me : fid@fid-tech-ltd.com