Steady Eddie 72 Body Restoration

Discussion in 'Restorations' started by SteadyEddie, Oct 10, 2017.

  1. Ey up fella it’s been a while
    How’s married life suiting you?
     
    SteadyEddie and JamesLey like this.
  2. He not aloud out to play anymore;):D
     
    SteadyEddie, volkswombat and Coco like this.
  3. Hi All,

    ain't that the truth ;)

    unfortunately I haven't done anything to Eddie since my last update. All the resto up to this point was aimed at getting ready for the wedding so now that deadline has passed, we're just enjoying a few relaxing evenings and weekends again! We'll get back into it soon enough but progress may be a little slower than it was.

    We also had a grand idea to ask for 'adventures' for our wedding gifts (thinking we'd have a van to travel to them in). Instead we now have a heap of vouchers for stuff which we'll need to use over the next year Doh!

    So we now have plenty of distractions from the van but I still want it on the road and running again. I'm thinking about focusing on mechanical parts over the winter, the sort of things I could do indoors and out of the cold!

    I'll be back :thumbsup:
     
    Valveandy and paradox like this.
  4. Oh, and although Eddie didn’t make it to the wedding, we did get Birdie the photo booth to join us instead!


    96185ecf-831e-479d-b258-2fd350b4a9c3.jpg


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
    mgbman, womball, shielsy and 2 others like this.
  5. the pink mobile lol
     
    SteadyEddie likes this.
  6. JamesLey

    JamesLey Sponsor

    Is it running yet?!


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  7. Surname of the happy couple perhaps?
     
    pkrboo likes this.
  8. Yep. My surname. Points for anyone who can pronounce it correctly!

    Sadly we haven’t done anything on it since my last post and probably won’t until the new year. We’ve been catching up with friends and family because we’d turned down loads of things over the last year and promised we’d see people after the wedding.

    Just got back from a weekend trip to my family home of Somerset and saw the Glastonbury carnival. Well worth the trip for anyone who doesn’t know about it.

    I’m busy every weekend now until Christmas after making too many promises,after that we’ll try and get back to fixing up Eddie!



    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
    Murtle and JamesLey like this.
  9. I was at the Glastonbury carnival too. Used to be a member of one of the clubs, and done carnival for about 20 years. Was fun but I don't miss the endless evenings out in the cold building it.
     
    SteadyEddie likes this.
  10. Awesome. I’ve often thought I’d love to see the inner workings of some of the carts but not sure I’d enjoy building them (and I’d miss the deadlines!)


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
    Murtle likes this.
  11. matty

    matty Supporter

    SteadyEddie and Murtle like this.
  12. JamesLey

    JamesLey Sponsor

    @SteadyEddie thought I'd drop in see how things are going on the van?
     
    paradox likes this.
  13. I’m back!!!

    Did you guys miss me? (I missed TLB!)

    I’ve been feeling bad for Eddie Every time I leave the house seeing him sat under the knackered old cover but I just haven’t had time to do any serious work on him. Our wedding gifts were adventures so we’ve spent virtually every weekend since September doing activities, seeing friends and family, reconstructing our bathroom etc. But now, some 9 months later we’re finally almost through the activities. So this was the first proper weekend to get started again!

    So the other week I bought a rollover jig (I cheated and bought the ready welded one) so I’ve spent a few evenings painting and assembling it ready to mount onto the van.

    [​IMG]


    The next job is to mount it, but that’s easier said than done.

    I thought I’d start at the back but read that it’s good to loosen the castle nut on the hubs before stripping everything. So a trip to machine mart and an extortionate amount of money later, I have a big socket! So big in fact it snapped my breaker bar!

    [​IMG]

    So off to machine mart again to get the biggest bar they had.

    [​IMG]

    And finally after a load of jumping on the end of it I was finally able to crack it free!


    At that point I had a cider and stupidly decided that maybe the front would be easier to dismantle. But The steering box has been putting up a huge fight. Firstly the ball joint refused to come loose. So another trip, this time to halfords for a splitter tool (where they also replaced my breaker bar for free!).
    [​IMG]

    Eventually it came off so I turned to the steering box, two sheered bolts and a lot of shouting later, all the bolts are off, but it’s not moving. an inordinate amount of fighting later (and with my neighbour’s help), we got the nut on the Pitman arm to come off. But it’s still stuck. I’m now starting to think I need a pitman arm puller tool just for this job

    [​IMG]

    Unless anyone has any better suggestions? I’ve read some people saying the steering box can come off with the arm still attached but the mounting plate on the chassis doesn’t look like it’ll let the arm fit through.

    So next plan. Let’s get the front beam off instead, I don’t want to be spinning the van on a jog with the beam still in.

    So manage to pull all the cables off, the gear selector and steering arm out, then took the wheels off.
    [​IMG]
    Not looking too rusty. Callipers came off ok and the bolts from the ball joints on the spindles (think that’s what they’re called) were ok. But the bottom ball joint refused to release on both sides.

    [​IMG]

    In the end I opted simply to remove the brake discs to reduce the weight and leave the hubs still attached.

    The next problem was accessing the bolts with the shock absorbers in the way. I got the bottom of the shocks unbolted but the nuts on the top rounded off and will need to be cut off. So my solution, cut the whole thing in half!

    [​IMG]

    So the moment of truth, all bolts out, standing back expecting a huge crash to the ground and... nothing. The beam is too tightly wedged to come off!!!

    So a load of smacking with the biggest hammer I can find, and eventually...

    [​IMG]

    We have touchdown!

    [​IMG]

    It’s not in bad condition at all, I think a good clean up and it could go back in ok.

    So no jig mounted yet, but at least I could get some satisfaction out of the weekend!

    I don’t know when I’m next going to get under the van again but now I have no excuses! I’ll be back soon!!!





    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2019
    MK-Bay and Cloppper like this.
  14. Welcome back fella I was only thinking about you last week
    I’m glad to see you back on it
    You should have given me a shout and I would have leant you the socket and a 240 volt impact driver.

    Your steering box won’t remove with the drop arm attached like later boxes so your going to need a hydraulic puller
    But make sure you wind the nut on when you do it as they pop off with some extreme force.
     
    SteadyEddie likes this.
  15. Ha ha no worries, I managed it in the end, and I’ll need the tools to put it all back together again. I’m jealous of your impact driver, the possibilities...

    Thanks for the heads up on keeping the nut on. Even the steering ball joints gave me a shock when they pop. I can see that arm being lethal when it goes!

    Thanks again for your help checking It over last year. It’s aways good having someone who knows what their looking at. My only reference points are rust ha ha




    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
    paradox likes this.
  16. JamesLey

    JamesLey Sponsor

    Glad to see you back mate! That beam’s looking ok. The rollover jig helps soo much.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
    SteadyEddie likes this.
  17. Nice to see you again, look forward to following the thread
     
    SteadyEddie likes this.
  18. Welcome back, I’m just getting back in Henry again after about 12 months down time cos of lack of workshop space.. funny enough I’ve just cracked the hub bolts off but luckily I nicked my mate old trusty - 45mm welded to a 4ft x 1 1/2 tube so that will take a rugby team bouncing on it to break.. good luck with getting started again I’ll race you to fitting the scatter cushions..


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
     
    SteadyEddie likes this.
  19. Thanks Adam,

    Sounds like you would have broken the nut before you broke the bar!

    It’s strangely daunting yet exciting to be starting back on it again. There is a lot of work to do but I keep telling myself that if I’ve managed to get this far there shouldn’t be much more I can’t do...

    The race is on!


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     

Share This Page