Winter project. Meet Niknak the T3 hightop.

Paint it black. Still a few bits to fill and sand once the filler arrives.

Looks a bit more solid now.

 

Gave the underside of the snorkel boxes and the repairs in the wheelarches a couple of coats of gravitex stonechip.

 

Got a few more bits cleaned up, filled, sanded, primed and painted temporarily in spray can black.
Little bit at the bottom of the B pillar and front arch.

Lower areas of the rear corners. Plus a section further up the corner seam. Meant the bumper could be reinstalled.





Forgot my small screwdriver so couldn't wire up the towbar electrics plus i still need to find some new mounting bolts and nuts as i had to cut them off when it was removed.

 

Got a message from my brother in law. Van won't start, turns over and over, won't fire and sounds like a bag of spanners. He's supposed to be away in it on Friday (today).
Someones stolen all the diesel out of the tank. Was 1/2 full last week but now not even registering on the gauge.

Couple of cans of fuel put in and its running again.
Asked him if its MOT'd. Nope it ran out March 10th.


He drove it to the MOT station and was greeted by this coolant leak when he got out of the van.


Nowt i've touched while working on it so i assume its either damage done by whoever stole the fuel or its just the 38 year old steel coolant pipes finally saying enough and giving up the ghost.
Holiday now a no go.

 

Front end next. Lower front panel isn't too bad, a few bits above the headlights and a section on the bottom of the drivers A post. Plus the bottom inner section of the drivers door needs rebuilding.

 

Finally got back to working on this.
Small bit of rot at the bottom of the A pillar.





Little bit of rot above the headlight.

 

Some lovely rot above the deforemation panel hidden by a layer of filler.

 

I had a pick at the filler along the bottom of the front panel. Safe to say its fooked. Its had a section in the middle replaced but its not even attached to the deformation panel anymore.


Looks like it was bright orange originally.

Sanded the filler on the front panel above the headlight and sprayed on some rattle can primer and black paint.


Did the same to the bottom of the A pillar too.

Repaired a couple of small spots on the closing panels at the ends of the deformation panel too.

Fusebox is a bit weird. 12 fuse one but with the first 2 taped over and number 10 missing the terminals.

 

My brother in law Nick just dropped Niknak off at ours. Driven here with no number plate, bumper, grills or a headlight.

 

After finally managing to get the MH started due to a troublesome immobiliser light, it was moved over a bit and the T3 squeezed in next to it.

Ever had one of those days when you wished you'd just stayed in bed?

Anyone got a spare Hella glass for a T3 headlight?

 

I think i've now managed to cut the rot back to solid steel on the front.

 

Replacement metal shaped and trimmed ready to weld in.




Just a bit to make to fill the hole above the passengers side chassis rail.

 

Got the little bit above the chassis rail welded in and some filler and paint. Not perfect but it'll do for now.

 

Got the rest of the lower front panel welded in and the welds ground down, then the heavens opened and rain stopped play.

 

Still needs a little more filler and some paint.


Found this broken expansion tank cap (and a completely empty tank).


Also look like its also missing the cap/bung from the bellhousing inspection hole.

 

Got filler sanded on the front end and some primer on.



Been trying to get the sliding door to fit and close properly and failed miserably.
Its had a late door fitted to an early van (everything changed in 1985) and they've bodged the catch and striker at the rear of the door to lock it but theres nothing at the front at all. Theres this adjustable plate with an indent in the B pillar that something on the door fits into to keep it in place but theres nothing on the door to match and nowhere to attach it to anyway.


Found this picture online showing the rubber buffer thats supposed to be attached to the sliding door to meet up with the recess in the B pillar. As its a later door theres no captive nut in the frame to attach it to so hopefully i can just put an M6 rivnut there to screw it into.


It seems like the door is flush with the body at the top and bottom but nearly 1/2" proud in the middle. Doesn't help the new seal is solid rubber at the corners.

The bracket the bottom roller attaches to is bent aswell.
Its just getting stupid as its had so many bodges i'm just chasing my tail trying to fix stuff.

Gave the primer a little sanding and sprayed some gloss black aerosol paint on.



I'm still trying to get the replacement headlight i was given to fit the mounting frame as the old and replacement are slightly different with the mounting tabs not quite lining up.
I think it'll be easier to adjust the position of the tabs for the screws on the steel mounting frame rather than trying to attach new tabs onto the headlight.

 

New blau dalek cap and battery installed. Biggest i could find that would fit the space. 72Ah, 720CCA and has a 4 year warranty.

 

Finally got the replacement Hella headlight fitted (after welding on 3 new brackets as the didn't match the screw holes) and refitted the grills.
The lower one was missing 4 of the 5 fixings and the top one was missing 2.

Had a go at adjusting the sliding door and its just as bad as it was, with a huge gap at the front you can stick your fingers through. The corners of the new seal are solid rubber so don't compress when the door is closed.

 

Does it shut ok with no seal fitted?

 

It didn't fit particularly well with the old shredded half missing seal. A bit better than it is now but not much.
Its a bit odd as with the swage line where the handle is lined up level the gap at the front and rear both taper as if the door is skewed in the frame. Front gap is wide at bottom and narrow at the top and the rear wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. I've adjusted it every which way and its still a PITA to get to shut.