Easley – sliding door and inside rear repairs

A pair of quite unusual places to rust and a challenge to repair as no normal panels are made for these areas, here we discover some corrosion inside the door track and inside the rear quarter below the air intake. How did that happen and how can we stop that happening again in another 40 years.

Spotted this under the sliding door mechanism cover, getting the cover off is in itself a tricky affair – usually the retaining screw is rusted on or just plain not there. This is with the cover removed;

And the rust goes all the way to the right hand side too;

So we cut it out, fabricated a repair panel to fit, here is it ready to be welded in place;

And this is the finished repair in primer;

Next up – something wet was allowed to sit here for a very long time, this sort of corrosion is very unusual and especially on a vertical surface, so we cut out the panel and made a custom pressed panel repair section. Here we’re half way through cutting out the bad – behind this section of the rear quarter is the air intake or where the cooler air is drawn in to help cool the engine. The other side of this panel is open to the elements. Out with the bad;

Here is the main part of the repair panel in place, custom made and including some of the main pressings in the original sheetmetal – attention to detail;

And the finished repair – all hand made panels and shapings to match the original, when this Camper gets painted this area will almost be invisible. Best to get some wax treatment on the other side of this panel to stop further rustiness occurring;