Here we have some pictures from repairs done to my own VW T4 Transporter. She's almost 20 years old now so needs a little TLC every now and then but she's a good girl so like to keep her happy.

 

This was a hole in the sliding door step, obviously at this point I had already started to cut it out.

 

Of course once there's a hole there, the problem gets exponentially worse so it's important to tackle these things as soon as possible. Due to the ridged shapes that are incorporated to add stiffness, this panel isn't as easy to make as some but you can't buy it so there's only one option! A little time and patience along with quite a lot of hammering, a bit of bending and some tool making nets this result.

 

I reshaped this cold chisel to help with forming the ridges that provide structure to the panel.

Now is time for cutting out the old rotten bit,

 

Sanding back to bare metal to get a good weld,

 

Holding the newly formed piece in place so it can be tacked,

 

Welding it in so that it is continuous metal,

 

Cleaning the welds so that the new weld doesn't start to oxidise immediately,

Grinding back the welds and sanding them back flush with the original panel (almost anyway, I left a bit of extra thickness becasuse it's not seen after the cover is on)

 

The van is a bit of a work in progress so I will try and put up some more as it progresses.