Both rear pieces of glass back in tonight with a huge hand from Max. These are quite simply horrible to fit.
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More cutting and polishing this week, cab doors this time.
Both cab doors rehung on the van, and all built up with new handles and mirrors (you can just see the new wheels on too, love how these look):
I’ve started cavity waxing the life out of everything to try and preserve my work. Bumpers and track covers:
Rear valance and rear chassis leg sections cavity waxed and bunged up:
The van has always had a small engine oil leak which I assumed was just part of the old van charm. However with the engine back in the leak was now more than I was comfortable with (I should’ve addressed this years ago really!). The leak was coming from the front of the engine so I highly suspected it was the front oil seal.
So it was back out with the engine:
My mate Wayne came down to give me a hand as taking the engine out solo is a bit of a job. I didn’t get any pictures of the oil seal, but it was a rubbish silicone seal which was leaking a large amount of oil. We replaced the seal, the o-ring and the clutch (the old one was soaked in oil, no idea how it was still working!):
While the engine was out I also changed the faulty alternator for a new one. Engine all back in:
The engine now runs without a whiff of an oil leak, and the alternator is successfully charging the battery! I’ve also swapped out the 009 dizzy since this picture for the SVDA.
I’ve re-taxed the van and declared it MOT exempt for now. It’ll be getting an MOT for peace of mind though.
A stack of Hankook RA18s ready to go on. I want to underbody wax the arches while the wheels are off first though.
One of the risks of doing all the paint myself is not quite getting it right the first time round. I sprayed the front panel far too dry when clear coating it, so when I came to cut and polish it I broke through to the base coat.
Flatted back and all masked up:
3 coats of clear later:
Much better:
I’ve already painted the sliding door two times already, but it still didn’t look right. I’d corrected some pinholes the second time, but not done a very good job of blending the repair into the paint, when flatted back you can see the section that sat a bit high:
So I flatted the whole panel and shot the base coat on, only to realise I’d not got all the clear off the panel causing it to bubble up horribly! 🙁 I went home at this point as I’d had enough of it, and felt pretty low.
Back down this morning and I made damn sure I had all of the clear off the panel:
And finally happy with the door. Third times a charm!
Finally got a video of the van running under her own steam too. So satisfying!
Painted a few small bits last weekend.
New master brake cylinder to replace the old one which had a split rubber cup:
Front belly pan and propex heater mount while I had the gun out:
With the cylinder fitted I bled all the brakes and adjusted the parking brake so we now have working brakes. Having the right tools for the job makes it all so much easier. I bought a one man vacuum bleed kit which came with this little fill bottle that has a little valve to top up the reservoir. No more carefully trying to avoid spilling it.
The rest of the week has been spent trying to get my engine to run properly, including cleaning and rebuilding the carb, refitting the old dizzy and ht leads and a lot of arsing about. I’ve now isolated this to an air leak in the flange between inlet manifold and cylinder head. New gaskets on their way to replace this and hopefully we’ll be running properly.
My Madmatz set arrived this week. Very happy with these, and should look lovely once in:
Fancying a change I’ve moved onto sorting some interior bits. First up transforming it into the International Space Station with some silent coat sound deadening, followed by Dodomat for insulation:
I’ve started carpet lining the living area. We’ve gone with anthacite grey, feels very cosy (ignore the rough edges, I’ve not trimmed it down yet!):
Fitted my slightly nicer fuel pump from heritage too:
I’m having a few issues getting the engine to idle properly. It will quite happily run with a small amount of throttle applied, but when released it fails to idle properly. I’m thinking it may be the idle jet in the carb not working as it should. The carb was one thing I didn’t look at when assembling the engine so I’ve stripped it down and will clean it all out to see if that helps.
Engine lid on tonight via sneaky use of a bit of paracord:
Number plate and door catch back on too, OMG! Just need to replace the plate screws with black ones at some point:
I fitted the cheapy fuel pump I bought a few years back to replace the old dead pump and lo and behold it only bloody started!
I’ve a better quality pump on the way so I’ll fit that, check it works, then refit the SVDA dizzy and set the timing etc and it shouldn’t be too far off a spin round the yard (brakes first though)!
Each step is a little closer to being on the road!
Wired up the reversing lights and fuel shutoff valve:
A few bits back from the powder coaters so built up the quarter lights with new seals and powder coated frames:
Powder coated Window wiper arms with new hella blades:
Painted a few bits. Repainted an engine lid hinge I wasn’t happy with (I’d painted it in the open position so when closed had a bit missing paint) and front wheel caps:
Insides of the bumpers and track covers painted (I don’t have enough racks to hang it all from to paint both insides and out):
Front grill and petrol flap:
Max came down over the last two days to help with sorting the brakes and to try and start the engine. The front brakes bled fine, however the rears wouldn’t even produce fluid. There were no leaks in the line so I disconnected the line from the master cylinder. When pumped no fluid was pushed through so it was off with the cylinder for investigation. I ended up stripping the cylinder and I think I’ve tracked down the culprit:
This is the seal between the front and rear pistons in the cylinder so I think the fluid is leaking from the rear piston to the front piston rather than flowing into the rear brake lines. I think I’ll take a look at getting a rebuild kit and repairing this.
We attempted to start up the engine tonight! The starter motor turned over fine which is a great sign, however the engine didn’t kick into life. After investigation it would appear the fuel pump has died (assume the diaphragm has dried out and cracked) so I’ll fit my spare pump I bought a while back to see if that helps. In addition the SVDA Dizzy I fitted wasn’t producing a spark so I’ve put the 009 back on for now. The SVDA dizzy has a pertronix unit fitted to it so I wonder if it’s duff?
More panels cut and polished:
And have started rubbing down the bumpers, track covers and grill:
It’s far too cold and damp to paint the bumpers and other bits, even with my little Infrared lamp, so I’ve been busying myself with a few other bits.
Gave the air filter a few coats of satin black, and reinstalled in the van:
Fuel lines installed with the addition of a fuel shutoff valve:
Cut and polished the engine lid:
And the same treatment for the rear hatch. Warmed the hatch window seal in a bucket of hot water (car thermometer said it was -1 today!) and fitted to the window:
New door seal, and rubber block fitted to the striker plate:
Hatch on:
And door slammed shut to let the seal bed in:
