I think a project like mine has a number of different aspect to it.So please excuse me for jumping around some on the topic's.I have said the body work is the main focus and I will start on that once the LT is road worthy again.
The owner of this van before me just ruffed up the side and rear door windows and painted them.Not a very good move.I am getting rear no window rear doors and have a no window slider and want to weld fillers for the side windows to create a true high top cargo.
I got cut-out panels from a junk yard cargo.
I made a mistake in not paying attention when they where cut out.The one for the larger window may not work out because it was cut too close to the window frame.I just laid the panel on the side of the van to see what I needed to cut to find that out.No big deal really,they came from a friend's junk yard and I didn't pay a lot of them anyways.I could get another for that side easily.
At first I considered cutting out the window frame to a square to the body line by the window frame.I thought it would be easier to hide the welded panel in the body lines and not have to deal with duplicating the corner curves of the window in the panel.
I looked more closely that the inside of the van to find that if I cut on those body lines,it would leave the cut outs under the body frame work.That would mean I couldn't weld the panels on the inside without cutting those body work frame pcs and then re-welding them back on.I think that could be high risk move considering the top has been cut for the fiberglass high top.Here is the body work frame I am speaking about:
Inside of the rear window:
So I now think the best way to do these fillers is to over-size trace the windows to the size of the window openings on the side of the van for a tight weld seam and weld shims to the frames so the panels lay flat to the side of the van.I'll have to measure the thickness of the filler panels so I can do that.Weld the shims in very short sections so as not to distort the panels once tack welded to the shims because of the curve of the body sides.I am aware of not welding long beads because of warping the panels.It is more like tack welding and moving the welds around allowing each to cool.I hope to use magnetic copper panels to eliminate warpage and burn threw problems.It is more like 1" long tack welds watching the panel and moving those welds around until you have the whole panel tack welded in place with a continuous weld to grind down on the outside of the van.Then skin it with body fillers and sand.
I have joined two metal forming forums to bring me up to speed on the best way to do these fillers and I spend time on them regularly.I have been asked to attend a meet at the end of April and to bring the van there for them to teach me the best process to do one of the fillers there.I am considering going to that which is outside of Syr and it two hrs away from me.I am also considering buying a number of metal forming items because the amount of metal work needed on a number of projects I have to do.(english wheel from HF,metal brake,shrinker/stretcher,dollies and hammers.bender from Eastwood,etc)
In the end,I want it to look like it was a cargo built by GM or better.More to come on this as I have updates.
