I made a post about a month ago about i got my Thames ( http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/24150005.cfm ). Since then ive made a start stripping it out and assessing all the******i have to do to get it back to life.
I figured out how the 'dining table' was set up
and how the seats fold out into 'beds'
This is the first weekend we went to the garage and the magic started.
My girlfriend has taken an unusual interest in helping me to restore the van. I think its great as if i was in the garage myself it could get a bit boring but its a good laugh having her around and helping me out. Its ok right now at the stripping down stage but i think she may get bored when I'm welding and cutting **** up. I was thinking i could buy her a sewing machine and she could re-upholster the seats and curtains etc..
Yeah, check out those comfy ugly slacks I'm rocking.
I got Jana started on removing the light lenses and units etc.. she even managed to get the rear bumpers off herself. I don't mean to sound patronizing but when someone calls a ratchet the "clicky-thing" its quite a big step for her.
I even bought her a special tool kit for the job, shes since bought herself a proper tool bag and pliers set.
First door removed. It was a ***** as the hinge bolts were rusted solid, lucky for me there is a huge tool store opposite the garage (machine mart) so i managed to get an impact screwdriver.
All the seats and interior came out easy, the gas cooker was a bit of a joke really, The cage that held the gas bottle underneath the floor was about 8 inches from the ground and about an inch from the propshaft, then the gas pipe went to the cooker where someone had used a T-piece for some reason, with one pipe going to the hob and the other pipe was bent round a few times to stop gas leaking.... i don't know why the never just used a single pipe. There was a lot of cork insulation which i think had been stuck on with tar. Oh what fun i had with a scraper. Jana 'helped', but well, she got bored of it a lot quicker than i did.
Handsome eh,
Then i got stuck into the wiring loom, there was a lot of house-hold wire in one colour for switches and lights all over the place. I know I'm going to be re-doing the interior lighting differently so those got binned and i kept the standard loom. Note the intensity of my concentration.
The next weekend we started on taking the pop-up roof off. The fabric of the roof its self isn't too bad. There is a rip in it but its along the seam so once stitched up it will be ok. It was held down with aluminium strips and brackets.
WEST SIDE Y'ALL
peek-a-boo
Starting to get quite bare now, in total we found 3 dead birds in the van, 2 of which were skeletons and the other was quite fresh looking underneath the radiator intake, perhaps from the drive home on the trailer, oops.
We got the other door off and then i set about the lower panels, there pretty easy to come off as there all bolt on panels, something Ford promoted as a key selling point apparently.
The right lower panel its self was not bad, just a bit of surface rust and a few dings. Even behind the panel it was not bad. You can see the battery tray is pretty much gone but thats not really a problem at all, its just a welded up box. Although a lot of rust came flaking off as you can see.
The back of the wheel well is the worst, good thing is a lot of the panels to replace are just flat sheet with bends in it.
The other side was a bit harder to take off as it had spot welds along the side door opening but it came off none the less.
During all this a few bolts were completely seized and i had to grind them off, sending sparks flying. I finally thought id be a lot safer doing all this **** with the petrol tank out. Only problem was the bolts underneath had seized and the only access was to rip the floor out and take them off from the top.
So out the floor it went. The guy that rents the other side of the garage popped down and gave me a hand. The floor was inch thick plywood and all the coachscrews holding it down were, as you could guess, seized. We came up with a plan of him using a big lever and me drilling lots of holes around the coachscrews. You can see the petrol tank is quite small for something to go travelling with, may need to find something bigger. Once i disconnected the tank i poured the petrol away and it was pure orange, like irn-bru. Must have been laying in the tank for years.
The weekend after my brother came along instead of Jana as i wanted to get the engine/gearbox and the rest of the glass out. We even managed to get the rest of the doors off.
Glass out
Checking out how to remove the engine. We disconnected the gearbox first and tied rope around the engine to lift it straight up.
My garage buddys engine crane came in handy.
CHEEESE!!
A full 53bhp or so of pure antique metal
This is the hole that has been left from taking the motor out, The plan is to replace it with a 3 litre Cologne/Essex V6, i know it fits as ive seen the set up before in a Thames van. I'm going to go for an automatic box too as i just want it as a cruiser and i hope to keep the column change and rig it up to the autobox.
Thats as far as ive gotten with the van. I'm pretty much at the stage where i need to take the suspension, steering and rear axle off but before i do that i need to make up a way of supporting the van off the ground. I was looking at building a rotisserie but i came up with a slightly different idea. I'm going to build 2 huge dodecagons that split into 2 pieces. That way i can roll it on its side and sandblast/repair underneath then roll it back, unbolt the top half of the dodecagons and work on the roof etc..
Only thing is its going to cost about ยฃ180 in material so i need to do a few homers to make up the money for that. I also just put down a deposit to rent a new house with Jana so money is quite tight. Next update will probably be in a few more weeks.
I figured out how the 'dining table' was set up
and how the seats fold out into 'beds'
This is the first weekend we went to the garage and the magic started.
My girlfriend has taken an unusual interest in helping me to restore the van. I think its great as if i was in the garage myself it could get a bit boring but its a good laugh having her around and helping me out. Its ok right now at the stripping down stage but i think she may get bored when I'm welding and cutting **** up. I was thinking i could buy her a sewing machine and she could re-upholster the seats and curtains etc..
Yeah, check out those comfy ugly slacks I'm rocking.
I got Jana started on removing the light lenses and units etc.. she even managed to get the rear bumpers off herself. I don't mean to sound patronizing but when someone calls a ratchet the "clicky-thing" its quite a big step for her.
I even bought her a special tool kit for the job, shes since bought herself a proper tool bag and pliers set.
First door removed. It was a ***** as the hinge bolts were rusted solid, lucky for me there is a huge tool store opposite the garage (machine mart) so i managed to get an impact screwdriver.
All the seats and interior came out easy, the gas cooker was a bit of a joke really, The cage that held the gas bottle underneath the floor was about 8 inches from the ground and about an inch from the propshaft, then the gas pipe went to the cooker where someone had used a T-piece for some reason, with one pipe going to the hob and the other pipe was bent round a few times to stop gas leaking.... i don't know why the never just used a single pipe. There was a lot of cork insulation which i think had been stuck on with tar. Oh what fun i had with a scraper. Jana 'helped', but well, she got bored of it a lot quicker than i did.
Handsome eh,
Then i got stuck into the wiring loom, there was a lot of house-hold wire in one colour for switches and lights all over the place. I know I'm going to be re-doing the interior lighting differently so those got binned and i kept the standard loom. Note the intensity of my concentration.
The next weekend we started on taking the pop-up roof off. The fabric of the roof its self isn't too bad. There is a rip in it but its along the seam so once stitched up it will be ok. It was held down with aluminium strips and brackets.
WEST SIDE Y'ALL
peek-a-boo
Starting to get quite bare now, in total we found 3 dead birds in the van, 2 of which were skeletons and the other was quite fresh looking underneath the radiator intake, perhaps from the drive home on the trailer, oops.
We got the other door off and then i set about the lower panels, there pretty easy to come off as there all bolt on panels, something Ford promoted as a key selling point apparently.
The right lower panel its self was not bad, just a bit of surface rust and a few dings. Even behind the panel it was not bad. You can see the battery tray is pretty much gone but thats not really a problem at all, its just a welded up box. Although a lot of rust came flaking off as you can see.
The back of the wheel well is the worst, good thing is a lot of the panels to replace are just flat sheet with bends in it.
The other side was a bit harder to take off as it had spot welds along the side door opening but it came off none the less.
During all this a few bolts were completely seized and i had to grind them off, sending sparks flying. I finally thought id be a lot safer doing all this **** with the petrol tank out. Only problem was the bolts underneath had seized and the only access was to rip the floor out and take them off from the top.
So out the floor it went. The guy that rents the other side of the garage popped down and gave me a hand. The floor was inch thick plywood and all the coachscrews holding it down were, as you could guess, seized. We came up with a plan of him using a big lever and me drilling lots of holes around the coachscrews. You can see the petrol tank is quite small for something to go travelling with, may need to find something bigger. Once i disconnected the tank i poured the petrol away and it was pure orange, like irn-bru. Must have been laying in the tank for years.
The weekend after my brother came along instead of Jana as i wanted to get the engine/gearbox and the rest of the glass out. We even managed to get the rest of the doors off.
Glass out
Checking out how to remove the engine. We disconnected the gearbox first and tied rope around the engine to lift it straight up.
My garage buddys engine crane came in handy.
CHEEESE!!
A full 53bhp or so of pure antique metal
This is the hole that has been left from taking the motor out, The plan is to replace it with a 3 litre Cologne/Essex V6, i know it fits as ive seen the set up before in a Thames van. I'm going to go for an automatic box too as i just want it as a cruiser and i hope to keep the column change and rig it up to the autobox.
Thats as far as ive gotten with the van. I'm pretty much at the stage where i need to take the suspension, steering and rear axle off but before i do that i need to make up a way of supporting the van off the ground. I was looking at building a rotisserie but i came up with a slightly different idea. I'm going to build 2 huge dodecagons that split into 2 pieces. That way i can roll it on its side and sandblast/repair underneath then roll it back, unbolt the top half of the dodecagons and work on the roof etc..
Only thing is its going to cost about ยฃ180 in material so i need to do a few homers to make up the money for that. I also just put down a deposit to rent a new house with Jana so money is quite tight. Next update will probably be in a few more weeks.
October 2011
This month has been not bad. I have been busy with other things other than the van but i have managed to get a bit more done on the van. I waited 17 days for the gutters to be made, i was told 4 days but that never happened. Which is why i hate having to out-source work. If its not in my control i get annoyed, but anyway, i did get them back and to be honest, they look great.
The one i made is the one in front and the engineering shop one is at the back. You can see that having the proper machinery beats the hand folded one.
Before i started with the guttering I thought I should finish the patching of the drivers side waist-line. No point working on two areas at once.
I kept working my way along in 280mm sections. As the van tapers to the rear the curve becomes more defined. That calls for some serious shrinking and stretching. I have practiced it manually like I've said in the thread already but it is tricky. So, i bought myself another new toy with the money from the Consul.
Its a Metz shrinker/stretcher. I got it from EBay, there is a guy who sells them new through his site for ยฃ250 but also puts them on eBay at ยฃ10 starting bids. I bid and won it for ยฃ117 plus P+P. I think he puts them on his site at that price so that when you do see them on eBay you think your getting a huge bargain and more likely to bid. I wasn't too sure about how good it would be but im very impressed. I never used one before but i find it quite easy to get the hang of, you just put the metal in and pull the lever down and it does the work for you. When stretching, the teeth on the jaws grip the metal and pull it apart, thus creating a curve on the angled lip. When shrinking it grips the metal and 'nips' it together. The only hard part now is to work out where on the metal you need to stretch/shrink. I forgot to take a pic of my practice piece.
It did get some use at the end of this repair section.
This was the tricky one that really tested the shrinker/stretcher for me.
The rear corner, I done the usual and marked out a 15mm strip to cut out. Again, i forgot to take pics (aaaarrgh) I cut the repair patch out, folded the lip over then joggled the edge. I made a template out on paper by tracing around the top edge of the area on the van i cut out then used the shrinker/stretcher to get the panel to that shape. It wasn't too difficult, i did over shrink a bit but i just swapped the jaws over and re-stretched the area.
You can see the repair section matches up quite well, i was happy with it anyway. I tig'd it all the way round.
Little bit of a clean up and thats the waist-line on this side finished. I don't think i will need to do the same to the passengers side. It seems that when it was laid up in the field, the van leaned more on the drivers side and the rain collected on that side as the passenger side wont need completely replacing.
With that done i decided to make a start on the guttering, at last!
I started on the front. There is a guy (forum name sidspop) who has restored a pick up cab version of the Thames and he had to replace the guttering also, I liked how he managed to get the guttering to curve so I decided to try the same. First thing i needed to do was make a template of the curve of the front. I had some off-cuts of Perspex so i was able to hold that in the windscreen aperture and using a marker pen, scribe the curve. I then cut it out to leave me with a nice fitting template.
Then i traced that onto a bit of strong wood used for flooring.
I put a slit into the strip of guttering every 50mm, just enough to be able to bend it. Then i put a screw into each section to hold it in place on the wood so it wouldn't distort when welding back up. I used the Tig again so it would be a nice clean weld and not so much to grind away. When welding i was starting to get a bit of contamination when welding the flats. Im assuming it was the fumes and smoke from the wood burning away. I decided just to do the vertical parts whilst screw down and Il come up with another way of doing the rest of the flat parts. I wanted to put the gutter in place on the van so i brought out yet another new toy i got.
Clecos! , There used more in the aero industry to hold down sheet metal on the fuselage/wings etc.. but there really handy for the auto restorer too. There basically re-usable rivets. You drill a 3.5mm hole through both pieces you want to join, use the pliers to push the prongs down, put it through and release. They grip with 18lbs of pressure and hold the panel your working on in place.
Looks not too bad, the gutter does need more work done to it before i attach it to the body but this gave me an idea of how it would look.
Im going back to the garage tomorrow plus i have Thursday and Friday of this week which should make for a more filling update next time. Although i am moving house this week so we'll see how much i can (or allowed ๐ ) Get to the garage.
More feet!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This part isn't to do with the van but i thought id mention it here all the same. My dad got his VW engined trike started for the first time just recently and i put a video of it up on YouTube. You can see it here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OIiwtk7e8Q . The engine hadn't ran in over 20 years!
If anyone is wondering where i get the ambition to do something like this then I'd have to say its my dad. His latest project is a VW trike. Its a project thats been going on for a few years now, almost ten years to be precise. It has been built under completely different circumstances to me. Its only recently really that he moved from working on it outside to inside a shed he built.
My dad said he had ideas for a VW trike from years ago, back in the 80's i think but he never had the money or time to do it. It wasn't until my brother, Ross, started a job for a motorbike dealership as a mechanic and managed to snaffle a few bits for my dad to make a start on. I say a few bits, what he got was 3 Harley frames, a fat boy petrol tank, a twin seat, Front forks, and other misc. parts so that got the ball rolling.
It was a while ago so i don't remember how my dad ended up with the rear half of a beetle chassis and engine. His vision of a VW trike is a low slung affair with long forks and a good rake. My dad is very old-skool, everything you see has been cut by hand, i don't mean using a grinder but literally a hacksaw and lots of filling.
This is the earliest photo i have on my trike of the build. At this point he had welded the frame to the beetle engine/gearbox mount and he even made the wheelie bar at this point.
The last pic you can see a nice bit of engineering detail. The hand brake for example, You see infront of the hand brake lever there are two pulleys, well, you pull the hand brake lever, a cable runs underneath those two pulleys where there is a lever which pulls the pulleys forward which puts the hand brake on. The panel just behind those pulleys is form a washing machine which just so happened to look good on the trike. Those foot pedal levers are another hand cut and bent item.
The next photos were from about 2-3 years ago, He had the engine painted and detailed by this point.
My old bike project in the background
Bonus picture of my crotch! ๐
These pics were taking last year i think. My dad put the tank and seat on to see how it would look.
These pics were taking a few weeks ago when he got the engine running.
Its not far from being on the road now. I cant wait to see it driving down the road and maybe getting a few shots aswell. I love this trike, to me its all in the detail, its like engineering art. My dad has an image in his head of how it will look and thats exactly how it will look. There has been a lot of parts that have been a complete ball-ache for my dad that no one, not one person will ever see or appreciate the full extent of effort thats been put into this. The indicators for example, The original Harley switches were designed to be on-off , that is, you have to keep your finger on the switch to keep the indicator on. Not very good when you have to use your hand to change gear at the same time. So instead of scrapping the Harley switches, my dad got switches designed for table lamps and made his own copper switch mounts inside the casing so it would work as he needed it to. Even the main ignition switch has been totally stripped inside and had new internals made by my dad. This trike is a real one off, its art.
The trike isn't the first thing my dad has done. I have some pictures of him and my mum back in the day, i think late 60's early 70's.
This was his first project car i believe, a proper rear oval window beetle, way back when they were just seen as a cheap old car. Thats my mum standing beside it. The idea for the beetle was a street buggy and my mum chose the colour.
Check out the flares! Great photo of my dad.
The engine guard was made from old gas pipe i believe.
After that, The next big thing was a custom morris minor. Started in the late 70's, to me this is the car that epitomes my dad. I have such a strong link with this car and my childhood that i wish i knew where it was today.
This is what he started with, he bought it off his brother for ยฃ5 i think.
As usual, a lot of the work was done outside at the back of his old home in cramond. The wheels have been reversed and banded. I can remember what the rear axle was from, the front was a Wolsley i think.
The engine is a V4 from a Ford Corsair, i remember it sounded beautiful, really loud.
After a while he managed to move it into his work.
The rear bumper was from a Renault 5 and the huge spoiler was a truck roof spoiler. The wheel arches were from a ford Mexico.
It was painted Miami blue and silver.
This was it finished and my dad took some shots of it next to a standard morris to compare.
It even won a few car shows.
At the same time he managed to build a trailer to go with it.
And a buggy to keep my brothers entertained.
Unfortunately a few years after it was complete, someone braked hard infront of my dad during a bit of road rage and the car was heavily damaged. I think my dad was going through a bad time and couldn't afford the garage rent so it had to go. It was sold to a guy near gilmerton i think and i only ever saw it once again driving past me. I would do anything to know where it is now.
After a while my dad decided to build a motorbike for me. I remember being young, about 8 or 9 and feeling so excited seeing this motorbike being built.
The engine was from a Yamaha passel, the forks were from an old monkey bike and the rest my dad made himself.
My dad has some amazing creations.
I had so much fun with this bike. It taught me a lot for my future of riding bikes on the road and it was the best way to spend a Saturday. When i think back to my childhood i always think of going out on the bike as being the happiest time of my life. No job worries, no money trouble or stress, just get on the bike and have fun.
Theres tons of other stuff hes made but these are some of his best. He self-taught himself everything and i respect that so much. I have followed his lead and taught myself a lot too. seeing the amazing stuff my dad can do gives me the confidence that i can do the same. If somethings broke, Il try to fix it. If something needs made, Il make it. When i was younger i guess i was always trying to emulate my dad. Its what got me into working with metal, fixing cars and having a keen interest in anything mechanical or engineering.
My dad is pretty much the reason i can do what i can. I like my dads attitude of "I could make that" rather than "i could buy that". I try to follow that also, i don't want to pay someone to do something that im pretty sure i can do.
This month has been not bad. I have been busy with other things other than the van but i have managed to get a bit more done on the van. I waited 17 days for the gutters to be made, i was told 4 days but that never happened. Which is why i hate having to out-source work. If its not in my control i get annoyed, but anyway, i did get them back and to be honest, they look great.
The one i made is the one in front and the engineering shop one is at the back. You can see that having the proper machinery beats the hand folded one.
Before i started with the guttering I thought I should finish the patching of the drivers side waist-line. No point working on two areas at once.
I kept working my way along in 280mm sections. As the van tapers to the rear the curve becomes more defined. That calls for some serious shrinking and stretching. I have practiced it manually like I've said in the thread already but it is tricky. So, i bought myself another new toy with the money from the Consul.
Its a Metz shrinker/stretcher. I got it from EBay, there is a guy who sells them new through his site for ยฃ250 but also puts them on eBay at ยฃ10 starting bids. I bid and won it for ยฃ117 plus P+P. I think he puts them on his site at that price so that when you do see them on eBay you think your getting a huge bargain and more likely to bid. I wasn't too sure about how good it would be but im very impressed. I never used one before but i find it quite easy to get the hang of, you just put the metal in and pull the lever down and it does the work for you. When stretching, the teeth on the jaws grip the metal and pull it apart, thus creating a curve on the angled lip. When shrinking it grips the metal and 'nips' it together. The only hard part now is to work out where on the metal you need to stretch/shrink. I forgot to take a pic of my practice piece.
It did get some use at the end of this repair section.
This was the tricky one that really tested the shrinker/stretcher for me.
The rear corner, I done the usual and marked out a 15mm strip to cut out. Again, i forgot to take pics (aaaarrgh) I cut the repair patch out, folded the lip over then joggled the edge. I made a template out on paper by tracing around the top edge of the area on the van i cut out then used the shrinker/stretcher to get the panel to that shape. It wasn't too difficult, i did over shrink a bit but i just swapped the jaws over and re-stretched the area.
You can see the repair section matches up quite well, i was happy with it anyway. I tig'd it all the way round.
Little bit of a clean up and thats the waist-line on this side finished. I don't think i will need to do the same to the passengers side. It seems that when it was laid up in the field, the van leaned more on the drivers side and the rain collected on that side as the passenger side wont need completely replacing.
With that done i decided to make a start on the guttering, at last!
I started on the front. There is a guy (forum name sidspop) who has restored a pick up cab version of the Thames and he had to replace the guttering also, I liked how he managed to get the guttering to curve so I decided to try the same. First thing i needed to do was make a template of the curve of the front. I had some off-cuts of Perspex so i was able to hold that in the windscreen aperture and using a marker pen, scribe the curve. I then cut it out to leave me with a nice fitting template.
Then i traced that onto a bit of strong wood used for flooring.
I put a slit into the strip of guttering every 50mm, just enough to be able to bend it. Then i put a screw into each section to hold it in place on the wood so it wouldn't distort when welding back up. I used the Tig again so it would be a nice clean weld and not so much to grind away. When welding i was starting to get a bit of contamination when welding the flats. Im assuming it was the fumes and smoke from the wood burning away. I decided just to do the vertical parts whilst screw down and Il come up with another way of doing the rest of the flat parts. I wanted to put the gutter in place on the van so i brought out yet another new toy i got.
Clecos! , There used more in the aero industry to hold down sheet metal on the fuselage/wings etc.. but there really handy for the auto restorer too. There basically re-usable rivets. You drill a 3.5mm hole through both pieces you want to join, use the pliers to push the prongs down, put it through and release. They grip with 18lbs of pressure and hold the panel your working on in place.
Looks not too bad, the gutter does need more work done to it before i attach it to the body but this gave me an idea of how it would look.
Im going back to the garage tomorrow plus i have Thursday and Friday of this week which should make for a more filling update next time. Although i am moving house this week so we'll see how much i can (or allowed ๐ ) Get to the garage.
More feet!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This part isn't to do with the van but i thought id mention it here all the same. My dad got his VW engined trike started for the first time just recently and i put a video of it up on YouTube. You can see it here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OIiwtk7e8Q . The engine hadn't ran in over 20 years!
If anyone is wondering where i get the ambition to do something like this then I'd have to say its my dad. His latest project is a VW trike. Its a project thats been going on for a few years now, almost ten years to be precise. It has been built under completely different circumstances to me. Its only recently really that he moved from working on it outside to inside a shed he built.
My dad said he had ideas for a VW trike from years ago, back in the 80's i think but he never had the money or time to do it. It wasn't until my brother, Ross, started a job for a motorbike dealership as a mechanic and managed to snaffle a few bits for my dad to make a start on. I say a few bits, what he got was 3 Harley frames, a fat boy petrol tank, a twin seat, Front forks, and other misc. parts so that got the ball rolling.
It was a while ago so i don't remember how my dad ended up with the rear half of a beetle chassis and engine. His vision of a VW trike is a low slung affair with long forks and a good rake. My dad is very old-skool, everything you see has been cut by hand, i don't mean using a grinder but literally a hacksaw and lots of filling.
This is the earliest photo i have on my trike of the build. At this point he had welded the frame to the beetle engine/gearbox mount and he even made the wheelie bar at this point.
The last pic you can see a nice bit of engineering detail. The hand brake for example, You see infront of the hand brake lever there are two pulleys, well, you pull the hand brake lever, a cable runs underneath those two pulleys where there is a lever which pulls the pulleys forward which puts the hand brake on. The panel just behind those pulleys is form a washing machine which just so happened to look good on the trike. Those foot pedal levers are another hand cut and bent item.
The next photos were from about 2-3 years ago, He had the engine painted and detailed by this point.
My old bike project in the background
Bonus picture of my crotch! ๐
These pics were taking last year i think. My dad put the tank and seat on to see how it would look.
These pics were taking a few weeks ago when he got the engine running.
Its not far from being on the road now. I cant wait to see it driving down the road and maybe getting a few shots aswell. I love this trike, to me its all in the detail, its like engineering art. My dad has an image in his head of how it will look and thats exactly how it will look. There has been a lot of parts that have been a complete ball-ache for my dad that no one, not one person will ever see or appreciate the full extent of effort thats been put into this. The indicators for example, The original Harley switches were designed to be on-off , that is, you have to keep your finger on the switch to keep the indicator on. Not very good when you have to use your hand to change gear at the same time. So instead of scrapping the Harley switches, my dad got switches designed for table lamps and made his own copper switch mounts inside the casing so it would work as he needed it to. Even the main ignition switch has been totally stripped inside and had new internals made by my dad. This trike is a real one off, its art.
The trike isn't the first thing my dad has done. I have some pictures of him and my mum back in the day, i think late 60's early 70's.
This was his first project car i believe, a proper rear oval window beetle, way back when they were just seen as a cheap old car. Thats my mum standing beside it. The idea for the beetle was a street buggy and my mum chose the colour.
Check out the flares! Great photo of my dad.
The engine guard was made from old gas pipe i believe.
After that, The next big thing was a custom morris minor. Started in the late 70's, to me this is the car that epitomes my dad. I have such a strong link with this car and my childhood that i wish i knew where it was today.
This is what he started with, he bought it off his brother for ยฃ5 i think.
As usual, a lot of the work was done outside at the back of his old home in cramond. The wheels have been reversed and banded. I can remember what the rear axle was from, the front was a Wolsley i think.
The engine is a V4 from a Ford Corsair, i remember it sounded beautiful, really loud.
After a while he managed to move it into his work.
The rear bumper was from a Renault 5 and the huge spoiler was a truck roof spoiler. The wheel arches were from a ford Mexico.
It was painted Miami blue and silver.
This was it finished and my dad took some shots of it next to a standard morris to compare.
It even won a few car shows.
At the same time he managed to build a trailer to go with it.
And a buggy to keep my brothers entertained.
Unfortunately a few years after it was complete, someone braked hard infront of my dad during a bit of road rage and the car was heavily damaged. I think my dad was going through a bad time and couldn't afford the garage rent so it had to go. It was sold to a guy near gilmerton i think and i only ever saw it once again driving past me. I would do anything to know where it is now.
After a while my dad decided to build a motorbike for me. I remember being young, about 8 or 9 and feeling so excited seeing this motorbike being built.
The engine was from a Yamaha passel, the forks were from an old monkey bike and the rest my dad made himself.
My dad has some amazing creations.
I had so much fun with this bike. It taught me a lot for my future of riding bikes on the road and it was the best way to spend a Saturday. When i think back to my childhood i always think of going out on the bike as being the happiest time of my life. No job worries, no money trouble or stress, just get on the bike and have fun.
Theres tons of other stuff hes made but these are some of his best. He self-taught himself everything and i respect that so much. I have followed his lead and taught myself a lot too. seeing the amazing stuff my dad can do gives me the confidence that i can do the same. If somethings broke, Il try to fix it. If something needs made, Il make it. When i was younger i guess i was always trying to emulate my dad. Its what got me into working with metal, fixing cars and having a keen interest in anything mechanical or engineering.
My dad is pretty much the reason i can do what i can. I like my dads attitude of "I could make that" rather than "i could buy that". I try to follow that also, i don't want to pay someone to do something that im pretty sure i can do.
Hotsparks - Thanks for the advice. The reason i dont have a guard on the grinder is i took it off one day and lost the bolt that clamps it tight, oops. Im not saying it will never kick on me but ive never used the handle since i started working with metal, i know how it feels when it kicks so i always position my hands to counter act it (il probably chop my finger off next time i use it now that ive wrote that). The welds are lumpy due to the crappy Mig i have, something is not right with the wire speed control, its like it works in reverse. The higher the amps go the slower the motor goes, the lower the amps the faster the wire. I mean there is a wire control speed knob but its supposed to be in sync with the amperage.
September 2011
The Consul finally got picked up. I managed to get ยฃ1800 which is pretty good, ยฃ800 profit. I feel quite sad to let it go. I said to my dad that the only way I could compare it was like having a girlfriend that you love, but things haven't been working out for a while and you know the best thing is to let them go. The guy who bought it seems decent enough, him and his son are going to restore it together he says so hopefully it will be back as good as new and another it gets another generation interested in old cars. I would love to buy it back in the future but we'll have to see eh.
Back to the van, using the profits from the Consul I bought myself a new toy.
Its a 160amp Tig welder. The brand is R-tech which seem to have not too bad reviews. Its a British company that sources the parts from Germany and Asia. They use there own schematics and everything is covered by a 2 year guarantee. Im really happy with it. Its been about 3 years since I last used a tig, and that was for welding 50mm tubing at 3mm thick. Its a bit trickier on 1.2mm sheet. The reason I got it is to save time and get a better weld. It does take longer welding than the mig but a hell of a lot quicker and neater to grind/sand the welds up afterwards.
I have been trying to recreate the guttering myself, I cut 10 metres worth of 50x1.2 strips using the guillotine at my old work. The idea was to also use there sheet metal folder. The only problem was when I got there I remembered just how******there folder was. Im sure in its day it was great but after about 60 years of use it wouldn't give me the crisp fold I wanted. I was able to fold the safety edge though, as that was going to be pressed against its self anyway . I bent a 5mm lip as far as it would go, about 120 degrees then seeing as I never had a press I thought I could hammer the lip flat. It didn't quite work out as I hoped. As I hammered the lip there was bits that I squashed and nipped more than others so I never got a good straight line, doh!, oh and eh, I done that to all 10 metres, bigger doh!. I managed to straighten the edge out a bit by sanding and filing it. Seeing as the max length my folder would hold is 600mm I cut the strips to 500mm.
You can see the hammer marks but as this was going to be the inside it never really mattered, the outside was still smooth.
I tried it out on my folder but I just wasn't happy with it. To fold a bit of 1.2mm 500mm long doesn't sound like much but you would surprised by the amount of force it takes. As it was bending the blade was lifting ever so slightly in the centre at the weakest point so I would get a nice crisp fold on the sides but the centre was more rounded and because of that the bowed slightly too. I tried it out on two of them and welded them together to see how it would look.
Crap is how they looked. At this stage I could have spent time trying to straighten and mess about but I decided to cut my losses and got hold of a fabrication shop (pentland precsision engineering) and they said they could 10 metres for ยฃ150.... Or if I supply the metal cut into strips they would fold it for ยฃ85, much better. For a 2200mm x 1250mm sheet of 1.2mm its ยฃ48 so I bought another sheet and cut 8 strips at 50mm by 1250mm for them to fold, saving ยฃ17 and leaving me with a sheet 1250mm x 1800mm, What would you choose?. There's a tip for anyone looking to get some metal work done, provide the metal yourself and save a fortune.
Whilst im waiting on the guttering to be done I decided to clean the light surface rust and spray a weld through Zinc primer on the upper body.
Once I had done that I made a start on the drivers side , where the window panel meets the lower half of the van. I wanted to try and stay focused on one bit of the van at a time but as I have nothing else to do regarding the roof until the guttering is made up I decided to make an exception. I mentioned this part before as one of those bits I never realised was bad until I stripped the van.
(quoted from earlier in my thread)
This side is also the worst around the swage line for rust, here's a close up from the outside.
And the same area inside
It doesn't look too bad outside but the inside is all completely rotten. Here's a crappy mspaint cross section to show you how they look.
(end quote)
Looking back at it again you can see it doesn't look too bad form the underneath or outside.
Unfortunately its another story inside
.
It seems that water has been lying in that channel inside and then eventually rusting its way through the spotwelds.
Lets get this started.
I decided to replace the whole length of the van in 280mm sections. The body bows out slightly in the middle so using shorter sections can account for that. I made up a repair section, the bottom lip will be 12mm and the upper 15mm with a joggled edge taking the lip that you see down to 10mm. So I cut a strip at 27mm x 280mm.
My folder managed to get an even fold on the shorter piece.
Then used the joggler.
A little bit of tweaking and tapping I got a nice repair section waiting to be fitted.
I forgot to mention that once I had cut the rusty section out I drilled 4 holes for spot welding the lower lip and I also painted the rust converter/primer inside. I also sprayed more weld through primer on the repair section.
I used the mig to tack it into place for convenience.
I still need a lot more practise with the tig but you can see here that it leaves a lot less weld to dress up.
Couple of minutes with the grinder and job done, well, 1/8 of it anyway.
Next piece, same as before.
*grind, grind*
I done another 3 sections when I started to wonder if it would actually look OK with filler on it. I didn't want to jump ahead a stage but just before I left for the night I thought I would put a quick skim on filler on a little piece as a sample of how it may look when finished, just to reassure myself.
Not too bad, remember this was only a quick 5 minute test piece, I will be sand-blocking this section much better when it comes to that stage but I felt quite happy about it.
This is as far as I got with the repair sections this weekend. There will be about 4 more sections to make then its a curved section at the back which I will hopefully have a proper shrinker/strecher by that time to help me with.
Stay tuned.....
September 2011
The Consul finally got picked up. I managed to get ยฃ1800 which is pretty good, ยฃ800 profit. I feel quite sad to let it go. I said to my dad that the only way I could compare it was like having a girlfriend that you love, but things haven't been working out for a while and you know the best thing is to let them go. The guy who bought it seems decent enough, him and his son are going to restore it together he says so hopefully it will be back as good as new and another it gets another generation interested in old cars. I would love to buy it back in the future but we'll have to see eh.
Back to the van, using the profits from the Consul I bought myself a new toy.
Its a 160amp Tig welder. The brand is R-tech which seem to have not too bad reviews. Its a British company that sources the parts from Germany and Asia. They use there own schematics and everything is covered by a 2 year guarantee. Im really happy with it. Its been about 3 years since I last used a tig, and that was for welding 50mm tubing at 3mm thick. Its a bit trickier on 1.2mm sheet. The reason I got it is to save time and get a better weld. It does take longer welding than the mig but a hell of a lot quicker and neater to grind/sand the welds up afterwards.
I have been trying to recreate the guttering myself, I cut 10 metres worth of 50x1.2 strips using the guillotine at my old work. The idea was to also use there sheet metal folder. The only problem was when I got there I remembered just how******there folder was. Im sure in its day it was great but after about 60 years of use it wouldn't give me the crisp fold I wanted. I was able to fold the safety edge though, as that was going to be pressed against its self anyway . I bent a 5mm lip as far as it would go, about 120 degrees then seeing as I never had a press I thought I could hammer the lip flat. It didn't quite work out as I hoped. As I hammered the lip there was bits that I squashed and nipped more than others so I never got a good straight line, doh!, oh and eh, I done that to all 10 metres, bigger doh!. I managed to straighten the edge out a bit by sanding and filing it. Seeing as the max length my folder would hold is 600mm I cut the strips to 500mm.
You can see the hammer marks but as this was going to be the inside it never really mattered, the outside was still smooth.
I tried it out on my folder but I just wasn't happy with it. To fold a bit of 1.2mm 500mm long doesn't sound like much but you would surprised by the amount of force it takes. As it was bending the blade was lifting ever so slightly in the centre at the weakest point so I would get a nice crisp fold on the sides but the centre was more rounded and because of that the bowed slightly too. I tried it out on two of them and welded them together to see how it would look.
Crap is how they looked. At this stage I could have spent time trying to straighten and mess about but I decided to cut my losses and got hold of a fabrication shop (pentland precsision engineering) and they said they could 10 metres for ยฃ150.... Or if I supply the metal cut into strips they would fold it for ยฃ85, much better. For a 2200mm x 1250mm sheet of 1.2mm its ยฃ48 so I bought another sheet and cut 8 strips at 50mm by 1250mm for them to fold, saving ยฃ17 and leaving me with a sheet 1250mm x 1800mm, What would you choose?. There's a tip for anyone looking to get some metal work done, provide the metal yourself and save a fortune.
Whilst im waiting on the guttering to be done I decided to clean the light surface rust and spray a weld through Zinc primer on the upper body.
Once I had done that I made a start on the drivers side , where the window panel meets the lower half of the van. I wanted to try and stay focused on one bit of the van at a time but as I have nothing else to do regarding the roof until the guttering is made up I decided to make an exception. I mentioned this part before as one of those bits I never realised was bad until I stripped the van.
(quoted from earlier in my thread)
This side is also the worst around the swage line for rust, here's a close up from the outside.
And the same area inside
It doesn't look too bad outside but the inside is all completely rotten. Here's a crappy mspaint cross section to show you how they look.
(end quote)
Looking back at it again you can see it doesn't look too bad form the underneath or outside.
Unfortunately its another story inside
.
It seems that water has been lying in that channel inside and then eventually rusting its way through the spotwelds.
Lets get this started.
I decided to replace the whole length of the van in 280mm sections. The body bows out slightly in the middle so using shorter sections can account for that. I made up a repair section, the bottom lip will be 12mm and the upper 15mm with a joggled edge taking the lip that you see down to 10mm. So I cut a strip at 27mm x 280mm.
My folder managed to get an even fold on the shorter piece.
Then used the joggler.
A little bit of tweaking and tapping I got a nice repair section waiting to be fitted.
I forgot to mention that once I had cut the rusty section out I drilled 4 holes for spot welding the lower lip and I also painted the rust converter/primer inside. I also sprayed more weld through primer on the repair section.
I used the mig to tack it into place for convenience.
I still need a lot more practise with the tig but you can see here that it leaves a lot less weld to dress up.
Couple of minutes with the grinder and job done, well, 1/8 of it anyway.
Next piece, same as before.
*grind, grind*
I done another 3 sections when I started to wonder if it would actually look OK with filler on it. I didn't want to jump ahead a stage but just before I left for the night I thought I would put a quick skim on filler on a little piece as a sample of how it may look when finished, just to reassure myself.
Not too bad, remember this was only a quick 5 minute test piece, I will be sand-blocking this section much better when it comes to that stage but I felt quite happy about it.
This is as far as I got with the repair sections this weekend. There will be about 4 more sections to make then its a curved section at the back which I will hopefully have a proper shrinker/strecher by that time to help me with.
Stay tuned.....
Thanks everyone, it really helps to keep goingg when i read the feedback.
21/8/11
Last time i wrote i was halfway through the front section. I was back at the garage today and was determined to finish it off.
I made another template and cut it out. Then shaped it and tacked it in place.
Then i made the other angle bit to fill in the last space.
Everything all tacked up and ready to weld.
Everything all welded up. It never looks pretty just welded eh.
I had to make two small dished areas that sit infront of where the sun visors go. Its to make access for the mechanism that sits inside the channel. I just cut 2 rectangles out and bashed them until they dished then welded them in place.
That looks prettier. This front part of the roof channel was the most challenging for me to do so far. I was really worried i would distort the structure of it. I was also worrying too much about trying to make everything perfect, sometimes you have to just grow a set and actually get on with the job rather than procrastinating and getting frustrated with your self.
FEET!
I feel like i have something i can check of my list now
- Fix upper roof channel , Done!
Tune in next time where I will mostly be trying to figure out how i will make and attach the gutter.
ps, Consul is on Ebay ๐
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330604252223
21/8/11
Last time i wrote i was halfway through the front section. I was back at the garage today and was determined to finish it off.
I made another template and cut it out. Then shaped it and tacked it in place.
Then i made the other angle bit to fill in the last space.
Everything all tacked up and ready to weld.
Everything all welded up. It never looks pretty just welded eh.
I had to make two small dished areas that sit infront of where the sun visors go. Its to make access for the mechanism that sits inside the channel. I just cut 2 rectangles out and bashed them until they dished then welded them in place.
That looks prettier. This front part of the roof channel was the most challenging for me to do so far. I was really worried i would distort the structure of it. I was also worrying too much about trying to make everything perfect, sometimes you have to just grow a set and actually get on with the job rather than procrastinating and getting frustrated with your self.
FEET!
I feel like i have something i can check of my list now
- Fix upper roof channel , Done!
Tune in next time where I will mostly be trying to figure out how i will make and attach the gutter.
ps, Consul is on Ebay ๐
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330604252223
sorry its been a while
August 2011
Its been a very long time since my last update. I have had a busy past 2 months and that has meant not a lot has been happening with the van. First thing I done was get engaged to my beautiful fiance, which meant working more to get a bit extra cash. I then also had a holiday for 2 weeks which meant working even more to get more cash. In the mean time i have scrapped my Fiat Punto. I would need to have spent about ยฃ200 getting it through its next MOT so it wasnt really economically sound. I bought it for ยฃ70 and managed to get ยฃ190 for it from the scrappy. Im now using the Lexus as my daily driver and my pocket is feeling it. ยฃ60 a week in petrol just to go to work and back and a couple of other trips is not fun. Driving it with one silencer and side pipes does make up for it though. The sound is amazing, thats probably why im going through so much petrol. So if you afre in Edinburgh and see a silver ls400 being driven loud and hard you know its me.
So, back to the van. The last time i wrote i had just finished doing the side and rear of the upper channels. I now have the front to do. Its been a little bit of a challenge doing this part. Its hard to see in the photos but the part i need to re-create curves down slightly and to the back. I started on the nearside corner last weekend.
The way i went about making the panel wasnt the best. I took a while thinking about it and decided to break the panel down into its parts and weld it all back together instead of trying to form the panel before hand. The welding looks very messy here but eh, dont worry about that, im good with the angle grinder ๐ .
I left it like that and went home. I had grinded it but I wasnt really too happy with how i had approched it. This weekend i decided that I really should see if i can form the panel instead of welding a lot of strips together.
I put a clamp onto one of the wheel drums then stuck it in the vice to act as a form.
I traced around my templatre and cut it out.
Then hammering over the brake drum i started to form a lip.
I forgot to take a photo of the panel on its own but i felt a lot happier with it. Ive tacked it in place for now.
I then repeated the process twice to get the majority of the front done
I started on the offside corner, the rust has been cut out.
I then made a template and cut out the inner panel repair first and tacked it in.
By this time it was 5:15pm and as luck would have it, It was also the time i ran out of mig wire, 15 mins after machine-mart closed. I was a bit miffed as it meant i couldnt get more done so i decided to wash the Lexus. The good thing is i will be back at the garage a lot more now as im taking a break from extra work to get back into the swing of things.
Another thing that im having to do is sell the Consul. I really really really dont want to but im finding it harder and harder to find the time to fix it and drive it like it deserves. The past few months i havent done much to it at all and its starting to resemble more of a statue than a car. I could also actually do with the money. I want to buy a TIG welder and also a cheap run around so im not spending so much on petrol. If anyones interested in the Consul then you can PM me.
August 2011
Its been a very long time since my last update. I have had a busy past 2 months and that has meant not a lot has been happening with the van. First thing I done was get engaged to my beautiful fiance, which meant working more to get a bit extra cash. I then also had a holiday for 2 weeks which meant working even more to get more cash. In the mean time i have scrapped my Fiat Punto. I would need to have spent about ยฃ200 getting it through its next MOT so it wasnt really economically sound. I bought it for ยฃ70 and managed to get ยฃ190 for it from the scrappy. Im now using the Lexus as my daily driver and my pocket is feeling it. ยฃ60 a week in petrol just to go to work and back and a couple of other trips is not fun. Driving it with one silencer and side pipes does make up for it though. The sound is amazing, thats probably why im going through so much petrol. So if you afre in Edinburgh and see a silver ls400 being driven loud and hard you know its me.
So, back to the van. The last time i wrote i had just finished doing the side and rear of the upper channels. I now have the front to do. Its been a little bit of a challenge doing this part. Its hard to see in the photos but the part i need to re-create curves down slightly and to the back. I started on the nearside corner last weekend.
The way i went about making the panel wasnt the best. I took a while thinking about it and decided to break the panel down into its parts and weld it all back together instead of trying to form the panel before hand. The welding looks very messy here but eh, dont worry about that, im good with the angle grinder ๐ .
I left it like that and went home. I had grinded it but I wasnt really too happy with how i had approched it. This weekend i decided that I really should see if i can form the panel instead of welding a lot of strips together.
I put a clamp onto one of the wheel drums then stuck it in the vice to act as a form.
I traced around my templatre and cut it out.
Then hammering over the brake drum i started to form a lip.
I forgot to take a photo of the panel on its own but i felt a lot happier with it. Ive tacked it in place for now.
I then repeated the process twice to get the majority of the front done
I started on the offside corner, the rust has been cut out.
I then made a template and cut out the inner panel repair first and tacked it in.
By this time it was 5:15pm and as luck would have it, It was also the time i ran out of mig wire, 15 mins after machine-mart closed. I was a bit miffed as it meant i couldnt get more done so i decided to wash the Lexus. The good thing is i will be back at the garage a lot more now as im taking a break from extra work to get back into the swing of things.
Another thing that im having to do is sell the Consul. I really really really dont want to but im finding it harder and harder to find the time to fix it and drive it like it deserves. The past few months i havent done much to it at all and its starting to resemble more of a statue than a car. I could also actually do with the money. I want to buy a TIG welder and also a cheap run around so im not spending so much on petrol. If anyones interested in the Consul then you can PM me.
