Been mounting the engine today. Popped to the local scrap metal merchants for.....metal. An old b&q trolley and some 40x40 5mm wall box, all for the sum of £10 Started with this Finished up with this Had to drill some new mounting holes. Sleeved them with a bit of b&q trolley Finished apart from a lick of paint. Welded some now captive nuts to the bar and it fitted a treat first time. I've sat the engine as high as possible. I reckon after shortening the sump it'll hang as low as the engine support bar giving it good ground clearance and the bar will act as protection for the sump. The notches on the right hand side are to clear the o/s head.
Had a bash at a home made sump today. Popped back to the scrappy and salvaged a sq metre of 2mm plate. Removed the bottom two inches from the original sump so it sits slightly higher than the engine support bar. Pics... Added some baffled side/rear sections to make up for the lost capacity
Had a play with the kids take radio flyer today. The original front axle had collapsed so did this... Nicked the wheels off my sack truck for the rears Just need to make a back rest for the nipper now
I've been looking into cooling options and DUE to the fact we're going to be fairly low, I'm going with twin rads fitted in the engine bay as opposed to one underneath. I've bought two vw scirocco rad's and a pair of 12" cooling fans. I think the secret to this option is sealing around the rad's so all airflow has to pass through them rather than around...pics should explain... Any project Binky fans make note of the C.A.D... And in aluminium... Then a mirror image for the offside... Also about done with the exhaust. It's all home made with stainless tube off ebay/local tat yard with flanges from rjes who are only a mile down the road. I've managed to keep it tucked up close to the block and gearbox.
Ok, progress since last post has been steady. Home made exhaust is finished. Sump and oil pickup fitted and tested for leaks, back box sorted, all rads, fans and shrouds fitted, rad pipes made and trial fitted and header tank bracket made. I couldn't find a pinout for the ecu, so have asked RJES to make one, disappointing as I wanted to do it myself, but at least I now know it'll be a top quality job...Pics...
Focus has turned to interior whilst we've been waiting on the body loom. Made a start on the front bench seat, built up and mounted the R&R bed, which was shocking quality (more on that in a bit) and added 3 point rear seatbelts. Pics Started with a microbus rear seat Bit of a chop, around 100mm removed from the centre Same for the base. On our last camper, we kept the sprung bottom section. It was dead comfy, but a little bouncy and a tad too high, so this will be topped with ply and then just have a foam covered base We did a lot of research when buying the bed, and it was a toss up between an Aircooled Accesories bed or a rusty Lee, we went for the former and it was a big mistake. Unfortunately we bought it over 6 months ago so we were stuck with it! I don't know whether the fab shop were having a bad day, but the quality and design are shocking...parts misaligned, Marmitee welds, parts missing and if built to the instructions, a loose centre section. I ended up welding the centre sections to make the bed solid and had to Add mounting points to reduce flexing. Please, if you want a quality r&r bed, go elsewhere... Too add to the list of issues, the powder coating was done in the dark, so I had no problem welding as it needed repainting when it came out of the box
Seatbelts. We've 3 kids so 3, 3 point rear belts are needed. The two outer ones are done, and I'm waiting on parts for the centre one...
Loads done since my last post. Now have a running driving bus, 3 rear 3-point seatbelts and windows. 7 weeks til this thing needs to get us th the South of my France and then Barcelona I'll let the pictures do the talking....