After cutting away the rust and rot it was easier to see what was needed to restore this particular area, lower C pillar was rotted away and although it will never be seen the structure was needed to fit other components to it so it had to be cut out and replaced, new panels were purchased and the job began, few fillet pieces cut and welded in and the structure started to take shape, when the basics were in place the rest kind of just slotted in around it. The arch was a bit more of a mess about, although you can buy a full arch it doesn’t come with the seams in place as per factory well at least not real seams anyway and although that may be a blessing when it comes to rust later down the line as seam rash is a big problem, i decided to try and make mine looking as per it left the factory with the correct seams etc.. that caused a few issues, number one is they don’t make a panel like that so i had to make my own out of a full panel and a rear quarter / arch off of a Doka style van, the end result even if it took ages and was way way more money than just a perfectly fine full arch was good and with a smudge of filler it looked factory correct. Cutting out the first of the rear swing arm mounts was very daunting, if the measurements were off the van could ride like a pig and tyre wear would be a massive issue not to mention it could potentially be drifting out of line a lot when driving, so after speaking to a couple of people and one restorer who actually does this for a living!!! the practiced method of lining them up through existing bolt holes in the inner area and brake line mounting points was used and as i checked the measurements i could get the mount within a tolerance of 1mm which i think will be absolutely fine, potentially if needed the swing arm / position can be adjusted when setting wheel alignment with the oval shaped bolt holes. time will tell on that part i suppose.
High Top Edith 