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Brakes sorted

Painted a few small bits last weekend.

New master brake cylinder to replace the old one which had a split rubber cup:

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Front belly pan and propex heater mount while I had the gun out:

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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.

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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.

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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?

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Front Calipers and Spare Wheel Carrier

Both front brake calipers installed now and hard lines made up:

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My Hella spot lamps arrived too which look ace. I initially trial mounted them using the existing holes in the bumper:

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But as I’m mounting a spare wheel to the front I’ll need to move them. The spare wheel will foul them:

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So I’ll be mounting everything roughly like this. I love this look (apologies for the back-lit picture!)

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I’ve picked up some 25mm tubing to make the spare wheel mount so best get cracking.

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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:

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Front windscreen in thanks to this little lamb. It kicked up a fair old fight but we got there!

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Like I’d just bolt on grubby bits! A stack of bits back from the platers ready for another 40 years service.

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A few more bolt on bits painted

A few more bits painted and reattached to the van over the last few days.

Handbrake cable bar reassembled:

And back on the van (apologies for the awful picture).

Brake calipers all cleaned up. Unfortunately one of the pistons refused to budge under air pressure as it had completely seized so I’ve ordered a new one to replace it.  

The other one looked fine when I took it apart so I’ve replaced the seals and primed it.

Gave a few random bits a coat of anthracite to neaten them up before I bolt them back on. Starter motor:

CV joints:

Steering box drop arm. I’ve got a new dust cover for this, it’s not leaking from any of the seals so I’m able to put it straight back in as is.

And making a start on reassembling the drive shafts. What a messy job!

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Fuel tank and engine bay bolt ons epoxy

Picked up the fuel tank, firewall and engine bay panels fresh from the blasters today so straight on with a few coats of epoxy:

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I’ll finish these in Anthracite grey then I can get them in the van and out the way.

I’ve also fitted the brake pedal lever (no pics). I’d forgot the lever is a very tight fit, needing a club hammer to get it back in, so I’m going to have to repaint some of it! 

Should get the rest of the cab loom back in this week as I’ve just about finished cleaning it up. 

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The Rebuild begins

Some further rebuild work over the last week or so. 

These bits are off to the blasters this week for a clean-up, so should be back on the van soon:

Blasted, zinc primed, epoxied and top coated the engine hangers, rear bumper irons and gear shift rod:

And the same treatment for the driveshafts, clutch and brake pedal arms, gearbox mounts and shift cage, instrument panel bezels and steering box mount:

In between all this I’ve started to get the wiring back into the van. I repaired the main loom a while back and it’s been sitting in the garage for a while all labelled up ready to go back in.

I’ve run the main loom under the van. I didn’t weld in a new guide tube for this between the cross members, instead opting to run it through some convoluted tubing clipped to the chassis rails. Conveniently there were two perfectly sized holes in the rails to bolt it to:

And reconnected to the cleaned up fuse box:

I’m now sorting out the front loom, which on the whole is in good condition, but has a few dodgy repairs which I’m addressing before re-attaching.

With all of the above bits painted I can finish rebuilding the majority of the running gear over the next few weeks.

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