Well, the motor works! Sweeeeeet! Also finished welding up the fuel tank bay and the bit beneath the firewall. Really feeling like I'm getting there now!!!!!
Yay. Finally finished in the 'tank bay of doom'... Last patch! Grind up and slap on some primer!! Fabricated seat belt anchors, a bit more than is required but safety first... And re-cycle the torsion bar cover into a bump stop impact plate. Cool. Night night!
Busy night in the workshop last night - bonus night shift due to boy #2's footy training being rained off. Lots of sanding... near-side door and off-side of van now nearly flat... Seam sealed the patchwork quilt that is the tank bay... Amazingly, the tank still fits! To do list / questions to answer: - Lower front panel to repair - Front bumper step to repair - Drivers door, rear tailgate, roof and front panel to fill/sand/prime - Engine (top) access hatch to fit - Clean, sand and prime the inside of the load space - Paint F+R bumpers - Paint the whole exterior of the van!!! - Headlining to fit - ply or perforated vinyl?? - Refit rear suspension - down a spline or adjustable plates?? - Fit engine and 'box - Fit glass - Fit lights - Fit and rebuild all doors etc. + 1000 other things no doubt... ... getting there slowly...
Mostly fill-sand-repeat of late . Passenger door and off-side panels now flat. Moving on to the front panel next. A couple of small diversions... Repair to brake backing plate.. Some preliminary trial fits of the 50 x 20mm box section for the upper seat belt mounts in the rear, pretty happy with this approach as I can plug weld in place from the outside (behind the door track covers) as well as seam welding the ends. Solid! Should look like it's meant to be there too .
After a bit of a period where many diversions have got in the way, finally back on the van this week. Fettled the corrosion on the tailgate... Fabricated and fitted the brackets for the upper seatbelt mounting nuts (to fit the brackets I got from @davidoft ) Plug weld holes Welded in Lower mounting welded in and bracket fitted. Solid! More tomorrow ;-)
Today I've been mostly cutting a big hole then filling it back in again with an engine hatch. It took nearly all day! Measure, cut and drill out spot welds on the donor body cut. Repeat with extra, extra, extra measuring on the van (discovering along the way that a crossover has twice as many spot welds as the late bay donor, grrr!). Then lots of faffing with the surrounding top-hat sections (again learning that hatch vs. non-hatch ones are different, despite looking the same). I thought this would be a good idea as I'm fitting a type 4 motor, but a full days work, just so it's easier to change the spark plugs? I'm not so sure now!! Chop... Measure, chop... Weld... Gratuitous 'bottom' shot... Ta daa! Goodnight miss van...
There's something very inspiring about these mad men (/women/preop/postop/gender agnostic) threads....whilst underlining ones own lack of ambition, ability, opportunity.... Fair play, that's going to be one nice van at the end of all this!
Trust me on this, it's so much more than just spark plug access. You'll find that getting the engine in/out is easier too, because of the better access to the gearbox bolts. When I first took the Type 1 engine out of my bus, I'd never done anything more complicated to any car than an oil change. The top hatch made it a piece of cake.
So, more making holes to fill them in again today! I couldn't face removing the engine and fuel tank to replace a dodgy sender, so a hatch was required. I used some of the engine access hatch that I chopped out to make the frame around my cut. Then see how it looks. Cool. Just needs some rivnuts in the holes and some seam sealer In other news, a bit of a measure before chopping up the sound deadening panels... Then make good the bottom of the 'C' posts and slap on some rust preventive primer where the bulkhead has been repaired above the cargo floor
Hey everyone, there's some primer in the engine bay! Another coat tomorrow, then some neptune blue. Mmmmm.
No, that is the one I helped a mate do up in return for the use of his nice workshop. However, I have just purchased this.... It's a Healey Sprite mk IV, rescued from a scrapyard. Next in line for TLC after the bay is finally done!!
Another nice challenge for you, keep you out of trouble. My mgb and my Bay were scrapyard rescues. The mgb is still in mint condition as its dry garaged. The Bay is suffering a bit out in all weathers, but still good. Thanks for your pics as they do teach us a lot more than a manual ever could.
This is undoubtedly true, but fitting the bloody hatch [properly] was far more difficult and time consuming than changing the engine ever would be IMHO. I do LOVE it now it's in though!! I'm getting more pleasure than I should by standing on the floor, sticking out through the hole like I'm in some kind of submarine. The fuel sender access hatch was dead easy and will definitely save time should I need it. As it is 15 years since I drove my van, I can't remember if the gauge functioned or not...