1976 Panel Van Conversion - complete resto

Good luck with it, its not a bad project van, thats all fixable stuff there just take it a one bit at a time then move on, it will all come together. Theres nothing wrong with a good panel conversion, its your van just enjoy it, theres a couple of knobs about.

 

Fair play to you for taking on the project. I would love to have the time and space to 'restore' a van but if I did, I think I would just look at this one and not know where to start.
Good luck.

 

Another saved k+

 

That's better Tony

 

Lots of work ahead of you, but worth it all in the end

 

I know, but........

 

No real progress still poking and exploring, gathering some kit including (PPE, sand blaster, poly disks, practising with the mig)

Went down to Dublin to pick up an engine and gear box but... now picking this up hopefully tomorrow. Don't let the paint fool you its rough, but has a running engine, gearbox and plenty of parts/metal I can salvage and reuse.

Looking forward to the belly pan removal, not expecting great things.

 

welcome to the world of resto , IT WILL GET WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER , dont sand blast the flatt panel do the chassis , edges of panels etc , gutters or youl warp the Marmitee out of it , owen n w

 

Cheers Owen, after reading a few threads I picked up some poly discs, I will attack the panels with the discs and blast as remcomended

 

Good luck with it All I can say is just do one bit at a time If you find that you are struggling with it walk away and make a cup of tea and then go back to it
and it will work out

 

Not much progress got the engine out of the donor van for striping. Engine starts fine and ticks over but needs some extra throttle when pressing the clutch or will die, not a clue why any suggestions?

Removed the oil before the engine and found some fillings on the sump plate and a half washer! So the hunt for the other half and reasons for it and the filings begins hopefully its not to bad.

Then continued my search for rust on the shell (strip and then etch primer) pics to follow as to large to upload atm

 

check the thrust in the motor sounds like it might have a wee bit of additional play ... ??

Dont panic re the rust... there all like that... Now a quandry for you... the original van is a van conversion and your parts van is a proper bus... the resale on the bus would be greater and acording to another post on the forum there are some folk would prefer the bus over the van conversion .. ( my own resto is a van conversion) I would have a good look at both and decide which is actually the best to restore .. There is no problem with taking your time, standing back and looking ... a lot ... think twice cut once take loads and loads of pictures before you cut and refer to them often .... clamp stuff up before you tack it.. lightly tack it before you weld it.. and fit up the adjacent panels to double double check the one you just tacked is in the right place... and be prepared to cut the repair panels, add flanges to them, adjust there length and tweek them to fit ... especially the outer body repair panels ... Its a steep learning curve your about to embrk on, but tough it out and you will find yourself and what your capable of achieving... its worth more than money youll spend and any praise that will be bestowed upon you in the process... Oh and its adictive ...

now carry on

 

Cheers redoxide

I will be checking the doner van chassis when I get them swapped over the pit and make a decision then

I took out the engine


I check the play, its ridiculous! It has more play than lunchtime in the University of Board Games on a rainy day.

The angle iron below was useless when getting the flywheel off. I had to use some serious channel iron to take the strain!


I am guessing(can't get the engine to split? yet!) from what I have read that the main bearing is gone and slipping as the case has some wear behind the flywheel as well. When eventually split I am hoping any damage is salvageable (long shot) and it can be rebored for a wider dowel.





Being an optimist and hoping for the best I decided to carry on

So I started striping and cleaning what must be a contender for dirtiest engine in Ireland north or south! I am cleaning the parts bit by bit as the bus & engine are stored on my brothers farm and I only get to work on it at the weekends.

I had sneaked a head & piston housing up to the house in Belfast past the girlfriend and converted my man room/office, for mid week cleaning. I started on the outside and using GUNK Green (yes I am a tree hugger) it went from looking like this



to this;




Unfortunately what I should have done was started at the valve heads because when I cleaned off the carbon I found cracks :-(
First I cleared the crack between the two valves and checked the net and was reassured this was not a show stopper then I cleaned on and found the cracks to the spark plugs and grrr.

I assume this is a dead end for this head!



No doubt the more I look into this engine the worse it will get but its all experience!

 

Lots of people are driving around with cracked heads it is a common problem....

All I can say is just do one bit at a time

good advise ,put some metal in before taking it all out...

 

my moneys on that engine is scrap

 

Matty I wouldn't bet against you on this one!

 

At this point I would cut to the chase and split the case
Get yourself a cheapie vernier to measure the bearing saddles you could yet salvage something from it

 

So it got split but was a quick job so didn't really get to look any deeper than a glance.

As you can see it needs a good clean and the case looks worn at the crank wheel side not sure if it can be re-bored and washer used to fill the space between baring and case? I've seen it on youtube but not sure how sound a repair it is!





mm


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The flywheel side is the one to worry about - can't tell from the photo how worn it is.. If it has taken a beating then the thrust face can be cut - this can only be done a few times before you can't get bearing shells to fit

The marks on the bearing could've happened on install or removal, if not then the bearing has moved and the case will probably need line boring...

Time to take some measurements me thinks or send it to the machine shop

 

Cheers D5andy

I picked up a another engine.

It was straight out of a trike as it was running fine I am hoping it is in better condition. I will look to get the best case sorted or machined if need be. A vernier will be out this weekend.