my 1971 danburyfalia pop top project

[andewilson]

a bit more progress on the van. i have been buying a few bits on ebay.

polished alloy charge cooler
polished alloy focus st charge cooler water resevoir
webasto 12v water pump for auxillary cooler on audi turbo cars

just got to buy a decent sized mocal oil cooler to rig up as a rad for the charge cooler to run along the n/s sill

fitted the engine bar, and i have started to make the engine mounts to weld to it

i also got my hubs back from futbus. i have had the dropped spindles machined o accept audi caliper mounts and the rears have had some work too

i just need to buy some new rear callipers as the alloy audi ones that i bought wouldnt fit under 15 inch rims so i need to get some steel ones

 

[andewilson]

managed to get two hours around my workshop tonight and got all my hubs bolted in place to try a few rims on to see how it looks

the front brakes are very tight behind a 15 inch wheel but it seems to fit just. the rears that i tried on are 6 x 16 porsche cup 1's et 52 with a 25mm adapter. i would have thought that i would have had more room to the arch. i think i will need a narrower adapter if i am to get my cookies on the rear and i have given up on the et 30 spares as they need a flat face to bolt to so i can run any less than a 25mm adapter with them :evil:
am i right in thinking that a gas burner in 5 x 112 has an et of 5. if this is the case i should be able to squeeze an et30 onto a 25mm adapter and it should exactly the same as a gb

 

[andewilson]

went to stanford hall on sunday lookinf for bits for the bus. it appears that eb parts are getting a bit thin on the ground. the only rear bump i could find was 250 notes :shock: so after giving up on that on i bought this

it is a very late split rear bumper. i plan to cut the old mount off it and drill the holes in it to make it into an eb. not bad at all for £85 and to round it up to a nice 100 i got this too

i plan to build two full bumper sets up. one with overiders and one with deluxe trim co i can swap them around.


then yesterday due to the crap weather earlier on my wife sent me round the workshop to get some work done.

i have welded one more mount on the right hand side of the engine so i am hoping that between the four they should be capable of keeping the engine in the right place.

then finally after about two and a half years without any wheels on it either flipped on its side or on stands, it is now sat on the floor.

it should come down a bit more with full trim and windows so i am well happy with it.
also the rear is built up with og spring plates at the mo. when the underneath is finshed i will fit my adjustable plates to get it down a bit more.

 

[Camperdan]

Touch down!

Excellent work dude, looking great and bet it feels great to get it back on it's wheels!

 

[uber cool]

Andy, excellent work, been watching the thread for a while now, great to see it on its wheels. Keep up the good work.

 

[andewilson]

cheers guys. it was a fantastic feeling getting it back on the floor, i had to grab one of the lads who lives in one of my flats round there to come and share the moment with me i was so chuffed. i dont think he was as bothered by the whole occasion though.

uber, i was going to come across and have a look at your ride at stanford but you were busy measuring your brakes with a tenner at the time :? so i thought id leave you to it, it seemed technical

 

[Guest]

nice work. your engine looks huge, what sort of clearance have you got at the back?

 

[andewilson]

clearence at the back isint too bad even though it looks like the engine bar is sat on the floor in one pic :?

i will have to see how it all works when i get it to the shake down time. it may req a little rake. but thats not a bad thing as i like a van with rake

 

[blondiedread]

I have a set of Audi brakes to go on and I was just pondering machining the spindle when I saw your post.
Did you just skim flat the outer face of the spindle? and is the weld on yours a repair or to beef it up after the machining?
Also what did you use for the spacer between the caliper and the spndle?

Cheers,

Matt.

 

[andewilson]

hi matt. i didnt do the machine work due to the fact i own nothing more than an angle grinder
basically the work reuired is to machine a flat face on the upright (spot facing i think its called) as the calliper mounts mount on the other side, this give it a good flat face to mount to.
then the original holes are machined larger, and a pair of shouldered bushesare shrunk with nitrogen and pushed in. (the shoulder acts as the spacer to get the calliper in the right position. then the bushes are drilled out to centres that are 2mm wider on each one. this then allows the audi calliper carriers to be bolted on with high tensile bolts.
the machine work cost £190 i think which seems a lot for the work done but you're paying for developement, and the fact that its not production line stuff.
well chuffed with how it all looks and wouldnt hesitate in recommending futbus to anyone on here.
i originally planned on making the rear brackets and doing all the machine work myself by going to a local machine shop etc but at the end of the day this guy does it for a living so knows a little more than me about stopping buses.

 

[Nelly]

Looks good Andy 8)
But you aint gonna be able to run those tele dials without getting the calipers machined, :shock:
There aint any space for thermal expansion let alone getting a stone in there it'd muller the inside of the rim mate.

 

[andewilson]

cheers nelly, it looks much tighter for space in the pic. 288mm with 15's should be ok. i ran some 6 x 15 tele's on my golf for a bit while i waited to get my arches roled and didnt get any issues with the 288mm brakes that runs.
i got some ne tyres in the post today, 165 40 16 to go on the front cup1's so i will hopefully get them put on on the weekend and bolt them up

 

[andewilson]

on the weekend i took a trip to tamworth to see graham and gadgets place. great collectiion of buses there, i wish i had known about all these great busses when i bought my pile of crap.
after hunting for the past few months to get the correct cut for my van grahan sold me this

and wasted no time in strpping it back to bits to begin frenching it into my van

the po repairs were a bit suspect

it looked even worse when i cut the repairs out

i also managed to score another rear bumper (in the middle)for my van off the guys too so with any luck i should be able to get them knocked straight and blasted to try them on the van so i can start mocking up the exhaust

just got to cut of the rather dodgy tow bar someone had welded onto the irons

got to say a big thanks to the pair of them as i got the bits i needed at a fantastic price

sadly after chatting with dean for a while i now hate my roof, so watch this space. tintop, westy, sunroof, i am going to have to think this one over.

 

[gninnam]

Utmost respect on what you are doing and respect to the guys for supplying the new metal 8)

Hopefully, you can now start to see the wood for the trees.... :mrgreen:

So much left to do on mine - don't like it will be road worthy this year, but............

 

[mcvw]

Looking good Andy - your attention to detail awesome!

Q: Is there anybody that has more sets of Porka wheels than Andy :lol:

 

[uber cool]

cheers guys. it was a fantastic feeling getting it back on the floor, i had to grab one of the lads who lives in one of my flats round there to come and share the moment with me i was so chuffed. i dont think he was as bothered by the whole occasion though.

uber, i was going to come across and have a look at your ride at stanford but you were busy measuring your brakes with a tenner at the time :? so i thought id leave you to it, it seemed technical

You should have stopped for a chat. The £10 note measurement worked saved me several ££££ as I was about to buy csp set up. Late bay discs fitted fine.

 

[andewilson]

cheers guys. i assume you fitted those late bay brakes with the wide five adapters on uber, definately cheaper than any other dick brake conversions around. i am suprised more people arnt fitting them.

did a bit more on the bus yesterday but the welder ran out of gas just as i was stitching the outer skin back on :evil:

 

[andewilson]

cheers guys. i assume you fitted those late bay brakes with the wide five adapters on uber, definately cheaper than any other dick brake conversions around. i am suprised more people arnt fitting them.

did a bit more on the bus yesterday but the welder ran out of gas just as i was stitching the outer skin back on :evil:

hope to get some more gas soon. then i got a bit sidetracked and started swapping wheels around.
i had the tyres fitted this week, 165 40 16 for the front to get in nice and low

it should be v low when all the stuff goes back in it

 

[andewilson]

i got these in the post this week. off range rover p38's. should be enough to cool my engine . my van will be a hovercraft when they all kick in

i hop to get my bumpers and overiders on this week so i can start fitting my mondo where i need it

 

[andewilson]

having had no gas for over a month (couldnt source any moody gas anymore) i finally admitted defeat and set up a rental contract with energas. i am desperate to get back on it. i have the two rear repairs still to do and a pair of bulkheads that i have been cleaning up for the last week to go on both sides. also i got my audi a4 rear callpiers through the post this week and coupled to the seat ibiza brake servo i should be able to get the brakes done