Tuesday, October 6, 2009

It's ready to be checked

Got the third piece trimmed and lined up last weekend. Unstitched the middle section again too to adjust slightly. Found it really hard to get them all lined up perfectly straight as it appears some of the sections may not be entire straight or twisted or same width as the others. And there aren't a lot of straight panels on these vans (most are slightly curved) which makes it hard to get stringlines up to check straightness of the all pieces tacked together. The 4mm channels made life a whole lot easier as it did line the floor/chassis rails up properly at least. I've got the person certifying it coming round tomorrow to check what I have done and advise on where I need to straighten/adjust more or if OK as is. I believe the floor is OK and so want to weld that up and then try and fine tune the roof by using diagonal braces from floor to roof. It's only out by a mm or two but still! The floor is nice and square and the measurements along the length of the van are out by about 0.5mm which isn't bad I reckon. Overall length now that all the pieces are together is 6.7m without bumpers. So my estimate of just under 7m seems pretty spot on when you allow for another few hundred mm's for the front and rear bumpers.