Re WELDING Van

TWICKS

Dear MSE Forum,
I have work that needs to be done on my Citroen Relay 2.00 HDI van - Welding;- Nearside inner & outer sills + rear wheel arch, offside inner & outer sills.
What would be APPROX time (hours) to do these repairs? What is a reasonable price to pay (hourly rate/ total)? I am in london but prepared to travel to get a reasonable (both price & quality) job done. I dont know if recommendations can be made here or by P. M. Many thanks Andy (London N4)

forgotmyname

Depends on how bad the rust is and whether there is any clean metal to weld the new parts to.

I welded the floor on a Fiesta some years back, the guy said its a small hole barely big enough for a finger.
Wire brush on a drill and you could stick your head through the hole.

The foor was mostly rust.. You cannot weld to rust.

From what you mention start at £700 and go upwards.... Cheaper to buy a new van?

Lomast

I would agree around 700 would be my guess without seeing it

Jackmydad

forgotmyname wrote: »

Depends on how bad the rust is and whether there is any clean metal to weld the new parts to.

I welded the floor on a Fiesta some years back, the guy said its a small hole barely big enough for a finger.
Wire brush on a drill and you could stick your head through the hole.

The foor was mostly rust.. You cannot weld to rust.

From what you mention start at £700 and go upwards.... Cheaper to buy a new van?

That's the trouble. If you do the job properly, you start looking for solid metal to weld to, and end up with a very large hole.
Friend of mine who has his own garage and does MOTs says that once vehicles get to the point of needing more than minor repairs for small holes then it's time to say goodbye.
Unless you have the time, skills and inclination to DIY of course.
Don't know about the price. Sorry.

marlot

Unless the rest of the van is immaculate, I'd suggest that this amount of welding is the end of the road and its time to break the van for spares.

TWICKS

Thanks for your advice Forgot to mention interior has been converted to a campervan so is worth more than a basic van. When you get a quote for welding how is it worked out usually Expected time (hrs)/(days) Expected job ? and what would be reasonable hrly rate to expect to pay

droopsnoot

Being converted to a camper van would, IMO, increase the price of the work, simply because there is more interior to have to remove prior to actually starting the welding work compared to an unlined, untrimmed van. Or do vans have a lot of interior trim in the load area these days?

Garages are often reluctant to provide much of a quotation for repairing rust, for the reason above - it's very hard to tell how much needs to be stripped back before reaching solid metal.

forgotmyname

Add carpets and flammable items and the bill just got bigger. Does it have a gas stove or an additional battery? If so then its more work.

Buy a non rusty one and swap the camper bits over? Take a class in welding and buy yourself a welder?

Jackmydad

forgotmyname wrote: »

Add carpets and flammable items and the bill just got bigger. Does it have a gas stove or an additional battery? If so then its more work.

Buy a non rusty one and swap the camper bits over? Take a class in welding and buy yourself a welder?

No doubt about it, once you start down the welding route, unless the repairs really are done properly, then you're going to be at it forever.
By "proper" repairs I mean using proper repair panels / sections such as:
https://coastalmotorhomes.co.uk/body-exhaust/body-repair-panels/sills/peugeot-boxer-citroen-relay-fiat-ducato-outer-sill-repair-panel.html (no affiliation)
And having the skill to remove any rusty areas in the surrounding areas, and replace to a good standard, and not just bang a few patches over the rusty bits, leaving the rust to "fester" behind.
If you could buy a decent, clean, ordinary van and swap the camper bits over, it'd probably be a better, and in the long run cheaper, plan.

System

Inner and outer sills? That's not good and it won't be cheap. Usually its only replacing the outer sills and you weld those to the inners. As others have said you may find that it is going to be a major job requiring much of the interior to be stripped out because of the risk of fire as the inner sill will be welded to the floor and there is a lot of heat generated to the point the metal gets a bright orange and that can set fire to carpet, underlay, soundproofing or any other fittings attached to the floor.

Rear wheel arch alone you're looking at a few hundred quid once its been done and painted.

Jackmydad

Tarambor wrote: »

Inner and outer sills? That's not good and it won't be cheap. Usually its only replacing the outer sills and you weld those to the inners. As others have said you may find that it is going to be a major job requiring much of the interior to be stripped out because of the risk of fire as the inner sill will be welded to the floor and there is a lot of heat generated to the point the metal gets a bright orange and that can set fire to carpet, underlay, soundproofing or any other fittings attached to the floor.

Rear wheel arch alone you're looking at a few hundred quid once its been done and painted.

I can remember gas welding a patch into the floor of my Vauxhall Victor. Wearing goggles, you can't really see a normal flame. I thought, "That's smelling hot", whipped the goggles off, and I'd got quite a nice little underseal fire going. :eek: The hosepipe put it out luckily!
It's scared me again just typing about it!