My yearly Christmas roundup of van progress.
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Starting to cut and polish the paint work.
This is the unpolished O/S corner straight out of the gun:
And the N/S which has been polished:
Got the rear light cluster back in too:
Starting to get the ol’ lawnmower engine ready to go back in the van. It’s just getting a tidy up and I’m reinstating some of the bits that were missing or wrong.
Thus far I’ve started to degrease the block, have fitted the cooling flaps to the fan housing (these were completely missing). and reattached the fan to the alternator and bolted into the fan housing.
Front windscreen in thanks to this little lamb. It kicked up a fair old fight but we got there!
Majority of the dash built up, and wiring reconnected.
Like I’d just bolt on grubby bits! A stack of bits back from the platers ready for another 40 years service.
The bits I sent off to the powder-coaters last week were ready to pick up yesterday. This included all of the engine tinware and a huge stack of bits for the cab. For the amount of stuff I sent to them it was great value for money and has saved lots of time:
I also have a box of bits at the platers to save me having to clean them up which are ready to collect tomorrow (striker plates etc). I’m now in a great position for building up the dash area, so here we go!
Powder-coated foot controls, plus a butty’s bits throttle linkage good to go:
Pedals bolted in:
I had a small meltdown over the throttle pedal not looking right. I finally realised what was wrong this evening. The new hinge I’d bought was substantially different to the original one I’d used when fitting the weld-nuts as it sat a lot lower to the floor (original on the pedal, new one in front):
With the original hinge fitted instead I’m happy with the position (I’ll leave this on for now, but will source a new one as this one is a little rusty):
Washer bottle back in with new hoses and powder-coated bracket:
Hanbrake lever back in:
After longer than I’d care to admit I got the lock housing back onto the steering column. The secret? Put the bush, washer and circlip in the lock housing, then slide it up the steering column rather than down (the top of the column is a larger diameter):
And finally started re-assembling the dash itself:
Powder-coat makes everything look brand new!
Last few cab bolt on bits into Neptune Blue tonight.
Steering box off the bench, and back onto the van:
Turning my attention to the cab and dashboard area as there’s a fair few bits that need painting before I can rebuild the cab. As seems quite common someone in the past has had a go of fitting a single DIN radio into the dash by persuading the aperture open with a club hammer:
I hammer and dollied the aperture back into it’s original shape as best I could:
And then carefully marked and cut the aperture properly to take my new Alpine stereo. It’s a nice tight fit:
Much better:
Cleaned up another batch of bolt on bits in the blast cabinet:
Everything epoxied and high build primed:
Every time I paint bits I have to push the van out into the yard. She’s definitely the cleanest thing there!
Driveshafts all built up tonight with fresh GKN Lobro CV joints and boots. What a messy job! Finally got some proper circlip pliers as I was getting nowhere fitting the circlips with a normal pair and a screwdriver.
