Worlds longest resto?

[gninnam]

8) Nice work - engine looks mint!

 

[nobbly]

Lots of scratching around in the tank and engine bay of late, found the chassis number intact under lots of red lead and other paint!



A bit of chopping and general de-rustification...



Patched the corroded sections under the tank

 

[nobbly]

Allowed myself to crawl out from the black hole of Calcutta to make some things shiny!

Firewall...



Under tray...



Fuel tank...



Nice!

Also made a nice engine wiring loom (incorporating extra cables for oil temp/pressure senders) and tidied the vacuum hose. I'm planning on fitting multi-plugs so the engine can be disconnected in a heartbeat!

 

[gninnam]

Great work and repairs

 

[nobbly]

Shiny new air filters arrived in the post, great lets get them fitted...

Oh. No thread in one of the mounting holes on the RHS carb and one of the others has minimal thread left



Luckily I have some M6 wire thread inserts, so a wee bit of rectification required.

Strip the top from the carb, then drill and tap -



Fit insert -





Rebuild carb, plenty of thread-lock!



Yay shiny!!!!



I just need to finish fixing the HX's and sort out the crankcase breather, then it will be time for the exciting bench test!

 

[nobbly]

Exchangers and exhaust fitted, breathers for crankcase and fuel tank plumbed up.







I just need three mates to help me lift it off the bench, put the gearbox and starter on then fire her up! Now, who can I bribe with some beer?? :beerchug: arty0041: :beerchug:

 

[gas1man]

Be there like a shot but the beer would be finished by the time I got there............ :lol: :lol:
Somerset to Cumbria?????

J & P

 

[nobbly]

Be there like a shot but the beer would be finished by the time I got there............ :lol: :lol:
Somerset to Cumbria?????

J & P

Well, it's on the deck. We had a beer for you. Cheers!





There's two left if you're passing...

 

[nobbly]

Well, the motor works!

Sweeeeeet!



Also finished welding up the fuel tank bay and the bit beneath the firewall. Really feeling like I'm getting there now!!!!!

 

[gas1man]

Cumbria is on the list , so you never know...................one day.
Thanks for the invite.......never say never. :lol: :lol:
Engine looks real nice!!!!

J & P

 

[nobbly]

Yay. Finally finished in the 'tank bay of doom'...

Last patch!

Finally getting there under the back-end!

Grind up and slap on some primer!!



Fabricated seat belt anchors, a bit more than is required but safety first...





And re-cycle the torsion bar cover into a bump stop impact plate.



Cool. 8)

 

[nobbly]

Busy night in the workshop last night - bonus night shift due to boy #2's footy training being rained off.

Lots of sanding... near-side door and off-side of van now nearly flat...



Seam sealed the patchwork quilt that is the tank bay...





Amazingly, the tank still fits!



To do list / questions to answer:

- Lower front panel to repair
- Front bumper step to repair
- Drivers door, rear tailgate, roof and front panel to fill/sand/prime
- Engine (top) access hatch to fit
- Clean, sand and prime the inside of the load space
- Paint F+R bumpers
- Paint the whole exterior of the van!!!
- Headlining to fit - ply or perforated vinyl??
- Refit rear suspension - down a spline or adjustable plates??
- Fit engine and 'box
- Fit glass
- Fit lights
- Fit and rebuild all doors etc.
+ 1000 other things no doubt...

... getting there slowly...

 

[markevo30]

Really getting somewhere now If the rest of the van turns out as nice as the engine it should be a cracker (no pressure :lol: )

Lovely to see the kids getting involved. I wish my boy would show more interest but i can't seem to drag him away from youtube, xbox etc

Mark

 

[nobbly]

Really getting somewhere now If the rest of the van turns out as nice as the engine it should be a cracker (no pressure :lol: )

Lovely to see the kids getting involved. I wish my boy would show more interest but i can't seem to drag him away from youtube, xbox etc

Mark

Thanks Mark,

Yeah, the kids have been great - it' really getting them 'into' the van too. There have been frustrations... boy #1 recently 'mixed' some filler and smeared it all over the passenger door, but it only 1/2 cured and was to kind of dig back off
To his credit, he removed it all though

I'm an ex-mechanic, so engines are no problem. Unfortunately, I'm not an ex-painter, so the finish will be presentable, rather than perfect!! My ambition is to have a safe, solid, reliable(ish) van for us to enjoy... and soon.

I can't afford/wait to save up for a proper paint job at the moment.

 

[gninnam]

Great work and the engine bay/tank area is looking good 8)
My kids lost interest 10 years ago with the resto......

 

[nobbly]

Mostly fill-sand-repeat of late . Passenger door and off-side panels now flat. Moving on to the front panel next.

A couple of small diversions...

Repair to brake backing plate..



Some preliminary trial fits of the 50 x 20mm box section for the upper seat belt mounts in the rear, pretty happy with this approach as I can plug weld in place from the outside (behind the door track covers) as well as seam welding the ends. Solid! Should look like it's meant to be there too :msn4:

 

[nobbly]

After a bit of a period where many diversions have got in the way, finally back on the van this week.

Fettled the corrosion on the tailgate...



Fabricated and fitted the brackets for the upper seatbelt mounting nuts (to fit the brackets I got from @davidoft on TLB)



Plug weld holes



Welded in



Lower mounting welded in and bracket fitted. Solid!



More tomorrow ;-)

 

[nobbly]

Today I've been mostly cutting a big hole then filling it back in again with an engine hatch. It took nearly all day! Measure, cut and drill out spot welds on the donor body cut. Repeat with extra, extra, extra measuring on the van (discovering along the way that a crossover has twice as many spot welds as the late bay donor, grrr! :evil: ). Then lots of faffing with the surrounding top-hat sections (again learning that hatch vs. non-hatch ones are different, despite looking the same).

I thought this would be a good idea :idea: as I'm fitting a type 4 motor, but a full days work, just so it's easier to change the spark plugs? I'm not so sure now!!

Chop...



Measure, chop...



Weld...



Gratuitous 'bottom' shot...



Ta daa!



Goodnight miss van...

 

[Lee C]

Nice work on the inspection hatch!!! 8)

 

[kevinhall]

Inspection hatch looks great!