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.
August update
Some of you may have been thinking I've dropped off the edge of the planet. Well, don't worry, I've just been upto a few other things plus a wee holiday abroad.
What's happened to the van since the last update? Nothing really. This update is about another little project I've been wanting to do for a long time but never got around to it for various reasons, but its time has now came. I wanted to just do one post about it so I've waited until it was finished and road legal.
When I was about 14, like a lot of kids I was into riding my BMX and I just heard about 'Beach cruisers' . They are bicycles styled like chopper/bobbers and I really wanted to build one but I never had the skills to do so back then. I did get so far to do a drawing of what I wanted. Which I happen to still have.
I kind of kept coming back to the idea of building one but as I grew older and lazier I thought it would be cool to have an engine in it. I started changing my plans to buying an older moped with pedals and a small 2 stroke engine and modifying that into chopper or bobber. I have even went so far as to going to look at some mopeds but they were either way over priced or missing loads of stuff so I put it all on the back burner.
Fast forward to about 3-4 months ago. I was at my friends garage buying a small hobby compressor off him for my brother. As I was leaving he said "you wouldn't be interested in a Honda CB 125 would you?" I wasn't, but I had a quick look over it anyway. It was a bog standard CB that had been MOT'd the year before but that had ran out. He just lost interest in it and had spent quite a bit on parts, new piston and barrel, new tyres etc..I told him I'd think about it but it wasn't really for me. He even told me he just wanted ยฃ100 to get rid of it, which made me a bit more interested but at the time I had no plans for another project.
A few weeks later, Jana and I went to Ibiza for a little break together. When I was there I just saw lots of small capacity bikes, all different styles and conditions. It started to peak my interest in that bike my friend was selling. Then it started to become my obsession. I looked up all the info on them much to the disdain of my sunbathing darling wife. Then it clicked!, I could use this bike for my foundation of the bobber / chopper I always wanted to build. A quick few txt's later and the bike was mine.
I had decided to make this as low budget as possible so I settled on a bobber style, this meant I didn't need to buy longer forks for a chopper. It had to be a hard tail and kept in an Old skool style. First task was to go pick it up. The day after I got back from holiday I borrowed the work van and collected it then took it back to the garage. Here it is the day I got it, a 1981 Honda CB125T.
Then I started to tear it down.
It came apart really easy, about an hour later I was down to a bar chassis. I then cut the rear sub-frame off.
Stripped it a bit more to leave just the frame then cleaned up left over bits from the sub-frame.
As I was going to hard-tail it I needed to set my fork height first. I wanted the front to sit a bit lower so I took the bolt off the top of the forks, pulled the springs out and cut an inch and a half off to drop it a bit.
I placed a sheet of stirling board on a bench I had to extend it and mocked up the basic lay out of the new hard-tail section. This is the standard wheel base. Oh, I had also went to my other friend who works in a motorbike scrapyard for some bits and bobs. Keen to keep the price down I also took along some of my stuff (tank, rear light/mudguard, lights etc..) to part exchange for some more bobber looking bits. I got a tank off a DT125 Yamaha with a few dents, 4 retro indicators, side stand, chrome headlight, chrome pod gauges and a few other things.
I settled on a 6 inch stretch. I wanted it to be long and low. That's a 5inch bit of box section the frame is on for reference.
I had some copper tubing found outside my garage that someone had dumped so I used that to mock up the frame.
MMhmm, seems uncomfortable enough.
I wasn't too sure how id do the exhaust but I did like the cone shape, I tried it on in its stock position as it was.
Once I was happy with the mock up I started to get serious. Preparing now would save me having to do it all over again so I wanted to get things as accurate as I could. I chalked a line down the board and marked the critical locations.
Tacked the frame to the box
Added a few tabs for adjustment.
Then squared the frame up.
To stop the front wheel from moving I boxed it in.
I cut the swing arm bits out that the wheel bolts to and tidied them up to re-use.
Then I fabbed up a replacement for the rear wheel that I could screw down into place.
Everything all set up its time to start on the rear frame.
I bought a few sections of 1inch thick wall tubing from my work for about ยฃ30 and used my pipe bender to bend it. I know a pipe bender isn't the best thing to use for structural stuff but as all my bends weren't huge angles it didn't kink the tubing at all. I done one side by eye then used that as a template for the other side.
With plenty of tacks in place I took the frame down and bolted the back wheel in to see how it looked.
Then I had to come up with a seat. I made a cardboard template for my butt, cut it out in 3mm plate and curved it slightly. As this was going to be hard tailed I wanted to make it as comfortable for my posterior as I could. My dad gave me a small shock absorber off a mountain bike he had so I welded in another bit of tubing and made a few brackets to join it all together. I used a bolt as a temporary pivot at this stage.
The old tank slipped into place with a little tab but the DT tank never had that so after rinsing the tank out with gallons of water (with a few nuts inside to dislodge any rust inside) I welded 2 M5 bolts to it then made appropriate brackets welded to the frame to hold it in place. The tank never had a fuel tap I could use either so I had to do something with that.
I got a tap of another DT125 but this was a completely different way off fitting to to the tank so I had to modify the tank a bit more.
I had to cut the old tap mount off, plate it, then used a bit of 10mm bar to make a new manifold to bolt the new tap to. It took a while as every time I made a weld I had to fill the tank up with water to make sure it was all fuel tight. Perseverance pays off though.
The tank also uses 2 rubbers at the front which under friction keep the tank in place so I had to weld 2 chunks onto the frame for that. I also found that an old foot pedal rubber was perfect to stop the tank rubbing on the from and keep it at the required height.
The steering lock was jammed so the easiest thing to do was to remove it and fill it with the Mig.
Next up is the foot pegs, I thought of moving them forward, just in front of the engine but as its a twin it never left me much room I stayed closer to the stock location.
I just tacked them into position for now but later made "cups" so they would still fold. The pegs I got from my dad as well.
I had to buy a new chain as the old one was now a tad too short. I also tacked the side stand on, which I also had to shorten by about 3 inch's, don't know what it was off originally.
The position of the exhaust was the next thing to sort out.
I had another length of exhaust with a nice curve in it so I welded that in place then cut the original cone down to a nice stinger style. The chrome on the down pipes was quite tatty plus the new section I welded in was just bare steel so to tidy it all up I ordered some exhaust wrap which arrived later.
My brother was down that day so I wanted to get the engine started and hear what it sounded like, he made a little video of it for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLFy8O4YtaA
It was quite loud so I made little silencer insert that I bolted down inside.
You can also see here that I had also added the 2 small chrome pods to the top of the bars. One of them has the idiot lights in them the other has a bicycle speedo I managed to modify to fit inside.
Oh, I also mounted the rear mudguard. Originally this was off the rear wheel on an older CB125, I pulled it apart and the profile was pretty much perfect for the tyre. Later on I would round off the brackets.
To make a bit more room for ground clearance I modified the rear brake lever.
Which turned out fruitless as it still never gave me the ground clearance I wanted. I then made up my own lever to go above the exhaust, don't have any specific photos of that though, keep an eye out later on for it.
I found an old aluminium fuse box that I was going to use as a battery/cable box but it just wouldn't sit symmetrically, nor would it have been big enough in hindsight. Did look cool though, may use it on something else later. I had to come up with another idea.
I thought id make my own box for all the bits I needed to hide, to begin I welded a floor in. The bike uses 6V electrics so the battery was tiny. The box would have to contain the battery, rectifier, ignition switch and various wires.
A few more measurements and templates I had the basic design of the box sorted.
I also got a phone call from my brother. He had found a pair of carb trumpets he had lying around in his garage and said I could have the, bonus!
Getting closer to the basic design being completed. One of the last things to do was the position of the rear light and indicators all round. I went for the classic bobber style of an off-set rear light to the right hand side. The indicators went where I thought looked cool.
And that was that, a complete mock up done.
Next up was to take it all apart, weld everything up then get it painted. I painted it at my work on a weekend. Going along with the retro them I mixed up 2 different shades of blue to get the colour I wanted. I also wanted it o be a 2 tone so I mixed a bit of white in there too. I never took many photos of this stage, infact only one of the frame before paint.
Once painted it was time to put it back together. I really enjoyed this bit, seeing it all starting to become a proper bike. I also wanted to have white sidewalls for that classic look. I used spray on Plasti-dip for that and they turned out very well. I also made a chain guard form a piece of stainless sheet that was a cooker hood at one point. I also bought a retro Honda decal off Ebay
I took the tank back into work to finish it off with the white and sprayed the rear wheel sidewall. The exhausts got the wrapping treatment. I covered the seat in some foam and vinyl I had lying around from when I done the pedal trike.
I spent the next few days after work sorting out the wiring and cables. I did have an issue with getting the bike to run properly. It seemed like it would only start up one one cylinder then the other would kick in at higher revs. I gave the carbs a good cleans but that didn't really do much. I messed about with the adjustment screws etc.. But still , it wouldn't run right. It wasn't until after checking a few forums about idle issues that I thought maybe the carb is has a leak. So I started the engine, let it warm up then sprayed carb cleaner around the carbs and noticed that the side that wasn't firing right would build up in revs. I took the carb apart from the actual flange on the engine side and noticed that who ever put it together the last time forgot to add an O-ring. One O-ring later and the bike ran sweet as a nut.
And that brings us up neatly to today, MOT day. The first proper test drive on the road was fun, I took it along to the MOT station and he sent me right back to go put a front mudguard on it. Fair enough, luckily the garage was only about a mile away. I put the mudguard back on and it passed first time, no issues! Then I took it for a nice drive around town. The Edinburgh festival is on in full swing right now so I was kinda showing off to all the tourists. I have had a really great day today, so happy the bike is now road legal and I can have fun with it, well, as soon as all this rain stops. Here's a few more pics of the finished bike.
Oh, another little thing. No retro bike would look retro unless the rider was suitably dressed. Old second hand leather jacket and Easy rider style helmet ๐ .
Some of you may have been thinking I've dropped off the edge of the planet. Well, don't worry, I've just been upto a few other things plus a wee holiday abroad.
What's happened to the van since the last update? Nothing really. This update is about another little project I've been wanting to do for a long time but never got around to it for various reasons, but its time has now came. I wanted to just do one post about it so I've waited until it was finished and road legal.
When I was about 14, like a lot of kids I was into riding my BMX and I just heard about 'Beach cruisers' . They are bicycles styled like chopper/bobbers and I really wanted to build one but I never had the skills to do so back then. I did get so far to do a drawing of what I wanted. Which I happen to still have.
I kind of kept coming back to the idea of building one but as I grew older and lazier I thought it would be cool to have an engine in it. I started changing my plans to buying an older moped with pedals and a small 2 stroke engine and modifying that into chopper or bobber. I have even went so far as to going to look at some mopeds but they were either way over priced or missing loads of stuff so I put it all on the back burner.
Fast forward to about 3-4 months ago. I was at my friends garage buying a small hobby compressor off him for my brother. As I was leaving he said "you wouldn't be interested in a Honda CB 125 would you?" I wasn't, but I had a quick look over it anyway. It was a bog standard CB that had been MOT'd the year before but that had ran out. He just lost interest in it and had spent quite a bit on parts, new piston and barrel, new tyres etc..I told him I'd think about it but it wasn't really for me. He even told me he just wanted ยฃ100 to get rid of it, which made me a bit more interested but at the time I had no plans for another project.
A few weeks later, Jana and I went to Ibiza for a little break together. When I was there I just saw lots of small capacity bikes, all different styles and conditions. It started to peak my interest in that bike my friend was selling. Then it started to become my obsession. I looked up all the info on them much to the disdain of my sunbathing darling wife. Then it clicked!, I could use this bike for my foundation of the bobber / chopper I always wanted to build. A quick few txt's later and the bike was mine.
I had decided to make this as low budget as possible so I settled on a bobber style, this meant I didn't need to buy longer forks for a chopper. It had to be a hard tail and kept in an Old skool style. First task was to go pick it up. The day after I got back from holiday I borrowed the work van and collected it then took it back to the garage. Here it is the day I got it, a 1981 Honda CB125T.
Then I started to tear it down.
It came apart really easy, about an hour later I was down to a bar chassis. I then cut the rear sub-frame off.
Stripped it a bit more to leave just the frame then cleaned up left over bits from the sub-frame.
As I was going to hard-tail it I needed to set my fork height first. I wanted the front to sit a bit lower so I took the bolt off the top of the forks, pulled the springs out and cut an inch and a half off to drop it a bit.
I placed a sheet of stirling board on a bench I had to extend it and mocked up the basic lay out of the new hard-tail section. This is the standard wheel base. Oh, I had also went to my other friend who works in a motorbike scrapyard for some bits and bobs. Keen to keep the price down I also took along some of my stuff (tank, rear light/mudguard, lights etc..) to part exchange for some more bobber looking bits. I got a tank off a DT125 Yamaha with a few dents, 4 retro indicators, side stand, chrome headlight, chrome pod gauges and a few other things.
I settled on a 6 inch stretch. I wanted it to be long and low. That's a 5inch bit of box section the frame is on for reference.
I had some copper tubing found outside my garage that someone had dumped so I used that to mock up the frame.
MMhmm, seems uncomfortable enough.
I wasn't too sure how id do the exhaust but I did like the cone shape, I tried it on in its stock position as it was.
Once I was happy with the mock up I started to get serious. Preparing now would save me having to do it all over again so I wanted to get things as accurate as I could. I chalked a line down the board and marked the critical locations.
Tacked the frame to the box
Added a few tabs for adjustment.
Then squared the frame up.
To stop the front wheel from moving I boxed it in.
I cut the swing arm bits out that the wheel bolts to and tidied them up to re-use.
Then I fabbed up a replacement for the rear wheel that I could screw down into place.
Everything all set up its time to start on the rear frame.
I bought a few sections of 1inch thick wall tubing from my work for about ยฃ30 and used my pipe bender to bend it. I know a pipe bender isn't the best thing to use for structural stuff but as all my bends weren't huge angles it didn't kink the tubing at all. I done one side by eye then used that as a template for the other side.
With plenty of tacks in place I took the frame down and bolted the back wheel in to see how it looked.
Then I had to come up with a seat. I made a cardboard template for my butt, cut it out in 3mm plate and curved it slightly. As this was going to be hard tailed I wanted to make it as comfortable for my posterior as I could. My dad gave me a small shock absorber off a mountain bike he had so I welded in another bit of tubing and made a few brackets to join it all together. I used a bolt as a temporary pivot at this stage.
The old tank slipped into place with a little tab but the DT tank never had that so after rinsing the tank out with gallons of water (with a few nuts inside to dislodge any rust inside) I welded 2 M5 bolts to it then made appropriate brackets welded to the frame to hold it in place. The tank never had a fuel tap I could use either so I had to do something with that.
I got a tap of another DT125 but this was a completely different way off fitting to to the tank so I had to modify the tank a bit more.
I had to cut the old tap mount off, plate it, then used a bit of 10mm bar to make a new manifold to bolt the new tap to. It took a while as every time I made a weld I had to fill the tank up with water to make sure it was all fuel tight. Perseverance pays off though.
The tank also uses 2 rubbers at the front which under friction keep the tank in place so I had to weld 2 chunks onto the frame for that. I also found that an old foot pedal rubber was perfect to stop the tank rubbing on the from and keep it at the required height.
The steering lock was jammed so the easiest thing to do was to remove it and fill it with the Mig.
Next up is the foot pegs, I thought of moving them forward, just in front of the engine but as its a twin it never left me much room I stayed closer to the stock location.
I just tacked them into position for now but later made "cups" so they would still fold. The pegs I got from my dad as well.
I had to buy a new chain as the old one was now a tad too short. I also tacked the side stand on, which I also had to shorten by about 3 inch's, don't know what it was off originally.
The position of the exhaust was the next thing to sort out.
I had another length of exhaust with a nice curve in it so I welded that in place then cut the original cone down to a nice stinger style. The chrome on the down pipes was quite tatty plus the new section I welded in was just bare steel so to tidy it all up I ordered some exhaust wrap which arrived later.
My brother was down that day so I wanted to get the engine started and hear what it sounded like, he made a little video of it for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLFy8O4YtaA
It was quite loud so I made little silencer insert that I bolted down inside.
You can also see here that I had also added the 2 small chrome pods to the top of the bars. One of them has the idiot lights in them the other has a bicycle speedo I managed to modify to fit inside.
Oh, I also mounted the rear mudguard. Originally this was off the rear wheel on an older CB125, I pulled it apart and the profile was pretty much perfect for the tyre. Later on I would round off the brackets.
To make a bit more room for ground clearance I modified the rear brake lever.
Which turned out fruitless as it still never gave me the ground clearance I wanted. I then made up my own lever to go above the exhaust, don't have any specific photos of that though, keep an eye out later on for it.
I found an old aluminium fuse box that I was going to use as a battery/cable box but it just wouldn't sit symmetrically, nor would it have been big enough in hindsight. Did look cool though, may use it on something else later. I had to come up with another idea.
I thought id make my own box for all the bits I needed to hide, to begin I welded a floor in. The bike uses 6V electrics so the battery was tiny. The box would have to contain the battery, rectifier, ignition switch and various wires.
A few more measurements and templates I had the basic design of the box sorted.
I also got a phone call from my brother. He had found a pair of carb trumpets he had lying around in his garage and said I could have the, bonus!
Getting closer to the basic design being completed. One of the last things to do was the position of the rear light and indicators all round. I went for the classic bobber style of an off-set rear light to the right hand side. The indicators went where I thought looked cool.
And that was that, a complete mock up done.
Next up was to take it all apart, weld everything up then get it painted. I painted it at my work on a weekend. Going along with the retro them I mixed up 2 different shades of blue to get the colour I wanted. I also wanted it o be a 2 tone so I mixed a bit of white in there too. I never took many photos of this stage, infact only one of the frame before paint.
Once painted it was time to put it back together. I really enjoyed this bit, seeing it all starting to become a proper bike. I also wanted to have white sidewalls for that classic look. I used spray on Plasti-dip for that and they turned out very well. I also made a chain guard form a piece of stainless sheet that was a cooker hood at one point. I also bought a retro Honda decal off Ebay
I took the tank back into work to finish it off with the white and sprayed the rear wheel sidewall. The exhausts got the wrapping treatment. I covered the seat in some foam and vinyl I had lying around from when I done the pedal trike.
I spent the next few days after work sorting out the wiring and cables. I did have an issue with getting the bike to run properly. It seemed like it would only start up one one cylinder then the other would kick in at higher revs. I gave the carbs a good cleans but that didn't really do much. I messed about with the adjustment screws etc.. But still , it wouldn't run right. It wasn't until after checking a few forums about idle issues that I thought maybe the carb is has a leak. So I started the engine, let it warm up then sprayed carb cleaner around the carbs and noticed that the side that wasn't firing right would build up in revs. I took the carb apart from the actual flange on the engine side and noticed that who ever put it together the last time forgot to add an O-ring. One O-ring later and the bike ran sweet as a nut.
And that brings us up neatly to today, MOT day. The first proper test drive on the road was fun, I took it along to the MOT station and he sent me right back to go put a front mudguard on it. Fair enough, luckily the garage was only about a mile away. I put the mudguard back on and it passed first time, no issues! Then I took it for a nice drive around town. The Edinburgh festival is on in full swing right now so I was kinda showing off to all the tourists. I have had a really great day today, so happy the bike is now road legal and I can have fun with it, well, as soon as all this rain stops. Here's a few more pics of the finished bike.
Oh, another little thing. No retro bike would look retro unless the rider was suitably dressed. Old second hand leather jacket and Easy rider style helmet ๐ .
May 2014
I got the hubs and discs away to the machine shop to get turned down etc.. So in the mean time I've been busy with making it all look a bit neater and making the shock absorber extension piece.
To do the extension piece I first measured how much of a difference between the old and new shock was. It was roughly 30mm. I went to my old work and got a piece of tubing 60mm x 5mm wall. Should be plenty strong enough.
I also used it to mark out on the shock mount.
Plasma it out and use a grinder and die grinder to tidy it all up a bit.
Then I cut a piece of tube to length and tacked it all together making sure it was all plumb and square (or round in this case ๐ )
To get it to fit I had to slightly enlarge the hole on the suspension top mount using the die grinder again.
Then I tested it in place.
It looked good so I welded it up (pic later in post).
I then moved onto cleaning all the suspension and steering components up. To get rid of the grease, dirt and old paint I dunked them in the caustic tank at work then washed them down with the jet wash. I was going to send them away to get blasted but the chassis paint I am using says I don't need to. As long as I get it clean with a machine wire brush it should be good enough. The chassis paint I am using is made by 'Rustbuster'. The same company I got the primer and rust converter from and I've been really happy with there products so far. I spent 2 weekends cleaning the parts up. After I cleaned them I washed them. Then I used an Acid wash to eat the little bits of pitted rust away then washed it all off afterwards. A very boring and tedious job.
Now onto the paint. I thought that id give it all a good thick coat of this stuff so I will brush it on. It was going on thick but I hoped it would level out whilst it was drying.
Unfortunately it didn't level out as much as I'd hoped. Here's a lower arm as an example.
I tried to tell myself that it will do but I don't want it to be "that will do". So I bit the bullet and sanded everything again smooth so I could have a go at spraying it on instead. I didn't want to remove all the paint, just to smooth it. Another weekend gone. Hey, atleast it will have one good thick coat and one fine spray coat. Here's the same arm after all the hassle.
Much better! .
I had put an order in for bolts to re-do the whole front end, ยฃ105 it cost!! Just for bolts,copper grease and lock-tite. Bloody hell.
I started by building up the cross member.
Then the lower arms. I have the label of the shocks pointing forward so people can see there not standerd, I'm so vain.
Then the top mount.
At this point I quickly mocked it up before I went home to see what it would look like. I had re-greased the ball joints and they seemed OK, I guess that's what test drives are for. The bump stops are the original ones, I just sanded the top layer off and they came out pretty well.
When I got back to the garage I had to compress the springs to get them to fit. I hate compressing springs at the best of times but these springs are tiny. I had to cut my compressors down a bit just to get them to fit. Also the top rubbers were pretty knackered so I doubled them up with some rubber used for roofing I had laying around.
Then I started to bolt it all back to the van.
I had painted the bits of chassis that will hold the front end in place but I will do the rest later once I have finished welding on the chassis. I started with the passenger side first. It was a bit of a pain getting the new bushes installed but once I figured it out the other side was a lot quicker. Im going to be going on holiday on Sunday so I wanted to get the van off the axle stands and back on its wheels just incase so that's what I aimed for today. I put the old hubs back on for now until I get the machined ones back.
It looks better in real life under natural light. But I'm happy how it has all turned out. Really glad I decided to smooth it all back down and re-paint them. I guess its one of those life lessons you pick up on the way.
I had a little panic moment when I went to try the suspension out. I jumped on the passenger side and it was nice and bouncy but the drivers side was still stiff. It wasn't moving at all. So I thought about it for 10 mins then decided to slacken the bush mounts. Got underneath, done that and it was still stiff. Another closer look I had realized that I forgot to pull out the "emergency" jack stand I placed further along the chassis just incase the main ones failed. Pulled it out and it bounced quite well, doh!
Next up is the steering and brakes. I never had enough time to put the tie-rods and centre link together so I will do that when I get back. Also I should have the new hubs and discs back from the machinist by then. All that shouldn't take too long so I'm also hoping to get the engine back out so I can weld the engine brackets in place and give the engine a good clean up. I also want to take the engine and gearbox one step further and paint it in the old Ford green that the Thames would have had. Maybe get "Lexus" writing in old 50's style on the cam covers.
I got the hubs and discs away to the machine shop to get turned down etc.. So in the mean time I've been busy with making it all look a bit neater and making the shock absorber extension piece.
To do the extension piece I first measured how much of a difference between the old and new shock was. It was roughly 30mm. I went to my old work and got a piece of tubing 60mm x 5mm wall. Should be plenty strong enough.
I also used it to mark out on the shock mount.
Plasma it out and use a grinder and die grinder to tidy it all up a bit.
Then I cut a piece of tube to length and tacked it all together making sure it was all plumb and square (or round in this case ๐ )
To get it to fit I had to slightly enlarge the hole on the suspension top mount using the die grinder again.
Then I tested it in place.
It looked good so I welded it up (pic later in post).
I then moved onto cleaning all the suspension and steering components up. To get rid of the grease, dirt and old paint I dunked them in the caustic tank at work then washed them down with the jet wash. I was going to send them away to get blasted but the chassis paint I am using says I don't need to. As long as I get it clean with a machine wire brush it should be good enough. The chassis paint I am using is made by 'Rustbuster'. The same company I got the primer and rust converter from and I've been really happy with there products so far. I spent 2 weekends cleaning the parts up. After I cleaned them I washed them. Then I used an Acid wash to eat the little bits of pitted rust away then washed it all off afterwards. A very boring and tedious job.
Now onto the paint. I thought that id give it all a good thick coat of this stuff so I will brush it on. It was going on thick but I hoped it would level out whilst it was drying.
Unfortunately it didn't level out as much as I'd hoped. Here's a lower arm as an example.
I tried to tell myself that it will do but I don't want it to be "that will do". So I bit the bullet and sanded everything again smooth so I could have a go at spraying it on instead. I didn't want to remove all the paint, just to smooth it. Another weekend gone. Hey, atleast it will have one good thick coat and one fine spray coat. Here's the same arm after all the hassle.
Much better! .
I had put an order in for bolts to re-do the whole front end, ยฃ105 it cost!! Just for bolts,copper grease and lock-tite. Bloody hell.
I started by building up the cross member.
Then the lower arms. I have the label of the shocks pointing forward so people can see there not standerd, I'm so vain.
Then the top mount.
At this point I quickly mocked it up before I went home to see what it would look like. I had re-greased the ball joints and they seemed OK, I guess that's what test drives are for. The bump stops are the original ones, I just sanded the top layer off and they came out pretty well.
When I got back to the garage I had to compress the springs to get them to fit. I hate compressing springs at the best of times but these springs are tiny. I had to cut my compressors down a bit just to get them to fit. Also the top rubbers were pretty knackered so I doubled them up with some rubber used for roofing I had laying around.
Then I started to bolt it all back to the van.
I had painted the bits of chassis that will hold the front end in place but I will do the rest later once I have finished welding on the chassis. I started with the passenger side first. It was a bit of a pain getting the new bushes installed but once I figured it out the other side was a lot quicker. Im going to be going on holiday on Sunday so I wanted to get the van off the axle stands and back on its wheels just incase so that's what I aimed for today. I put the old hubs back on for now until I get the machined ones back.
It looks better in real life under natural light. But I'm happy how it has all turned out. Really glad I decided to smooth it all back down and re-paint them. I guess its one of those life lessons you pick up on the way.
I had a little panic moment when I went to try the suspension out. I jumped on the passenger side and it was nice and bouncy but the drivers side was still stiff. It wasn't moving at all. So I thought about it for 10 mins then decided to slacken the bush mounts. Got underneath, done that and it was still stiff. Another closer look I had realized that I forgot to pull out the "emergency" jack stand I placed further along the chassis just incase the main ones failed. Pulled it out and it bounced quite well, doh!
Next up is the steering and brakes. I never had enough time to put the tie-rods and centre link together so I will do that when I get back. Also I should have the new hubs and discs back from the machinist by then. All that shouldn't take too long so I'm also hoping to get the engine back out so I can weld the engine brackets in place and give the engine a good clean up. I also want to take the engine and gearbox one step further and paint it in the old Ford green that the Thames would have had. Maybe get "Lexus" writing in old 50's style on the cam covers.
April update-
This month I've been busy getting the seat and 'bonnet' area sorted. I carried on fabricating the raised extension.
I added a bit more to the flange that will bolt down to the body.
Then done the exact same for the drivers side.
With the main removable section tacked up I moved on to the radiator tunnel, I needed to raise that 85mm aswell to match the rest of the body. I marked out with my pencil where to cut.
And used the grinder to cut the top off. I done a few measurements and cut out the extension piece to raise it. Then bent it around a piece of round bar I had lying around. I had to do it in 2 pieces to save metal.
Then I tacked that to the body.
I put the remaining pieces in place to mock up the final look
Next up was to work out a way to get the opposite side of the seat rail raised up to allow the seats to bolt in place. I found a piece of 100mm x 50mm box section which I could use.
Unfortunately it was 15mm too tall so I had to cut it down its length and tack it back together.
I wanted it to have a bit of shape to it so I cut a piece of tubing in half and tacked that to the end.
Then I plated the top of the half tubing and rounded it off to match the profile of the box. Perfect height for the seat now.
I was really happy with how it was looking so I decided to weld it all up. I used the Tig to minimise dressing and distortion on the removable section.
Then I mig'd the radiator tunnel as there was a few larger gaps to fill.
And cleaned it all back up. I also marked out where I wanted the bolts to go that will hold it in place.
I was going to use Dzus fasteners but after realising they were about ยฃ4.50 each and I needed about 20 I passed on that and used some nice Stainless domed socket cap nuts and bolts. The nuts will be welded in place so I will only need an Allen key to remove the large section. Oh, also the seat belt latch is the old one and isn't the one being used, I just never got round to removing it yet.
Then I attached the seat rails.
And put the seat in place, all done for this side.
I made up a seat rail bracket for the other side and done the bolts aswell. This seat looks like it has seen better days.
A view from the rear.
I was so happy I decided to christen the van and have my first picnic in it. McDonald's, yum!
Now, if you remember the last time I wrote I had just sold a car and had a bit of extra cash for parts. I got on with ordering a bunch of stuff for the van. I bought a full re-bush kit for the front suspension and steering, along with 2 brand new shock absorbers. I also had to buy new hubs and stub axles but I will explain why in a moment.
I also got the radiator re-cored. The guy done a fantastic job and it was a semi-reasonable ยฃ168. ( I say semi-reasonable because I was quoted ยฃ130 at first)
Now for the best thing I bought. I wanted a decent set of brakes upfront and ( boring history lesson coming up now) the easiest thing I could have done was get a set of solid discs with hubs and 2 pot callipers from a mk2/3 Zephyr or Zodiac as they would be a direct swap for the van hubs. I don't have any real knowledge of how powerful this set up is but I thought it would be cool to have something bigger and better. I have been emailing the owner of the 400e Thames club (Sandy Glen) and his knowledge of these vans is so vast its mind numbing. He suggested fitting mk2/3 transit solid discs and 2 pot callipers as he had done so before and according to him its a 30% improvement over the Zephyr or Zodiac brakes.
I liked the idea of this and he sent me a few photos of how its done and an email with tips and advice about how to do it. I was quite set on this but I still wanted to try something a little different, so I can say I had my part on how the brakes were done. I found out that the long wheel base Transits came with 4 pot callipers and vented discs. Yep, this is what I wanted. Not only would it be and even bigger improvement over the 2 pots but they look pretty cool to boot. I found a polish website that breaks Transits and found a pair of 4 pot calliper for ยฃ105 including P&P, so I bought them. Then on another website I bought discs, pads and 2 calliper refurbishment seal kits.
They look awesome eh.
Now that I had the brakes I was trying to mock up how they would fit inside the wheels. When I came across a problem that took me forever to figure out.
Sandy told me they should fit inside the standard Thames wheels as the transit also used 15 inch wheels but when I tried it seemed really tight, too tight infact. I spent about a week thinking the best way to overcome my problem.
Actually, I better tell you what needs modified to make these brakes fit first then explain my woe. What you do is use the standard Thames hub. Knock off the old brake drum and then get the rear of the hub machined flat for the disc to sit flat on the back of the hub. The brake discs themselves are attached by 5 counter sunk bolts so you then need to drill 5 holes into The Thames hub at 5x100 PCD, the disc centre also needs enlarged slightly to sit on the back of the hub. Then the original wheel studs need knocked out and countersunk to fit countersunk wheel studs. This is one of the picture Sandy sent me to make it sound a bit clearer.
Back to my problem, the only solution I could come up with was to use a spacer to push the wheel away from the calliper. I worked out I needed atleast a 25mm spacer to make it work. I used 5 M10 bolts to work out my spacer size.
I was quite against that idea as it would put a lot of strain on the outer wheel bearing. I know I could just change the steel wheels but I want it to look as standard as possible (with the exception of being banded) from the outside.
My brain started whirring into action and I realised something, That's it, the wheels! The wheels are wrong! That's why there not fitting! You know when something is staring you right in the face you don't see it anymore
, well That's what happened to me. I got to the garage as soon as I could and checked the wheels out. 14 inch rims, yep, at some point over time someone changed the rims to 14 inch.
These wheels were only ever fitted to mk4 Zephyr/Zodiac over about 2 years so it was abit strange but Sandy gave me a good reason for it. It was quite popular to do that as 14inch commercial tyres were a lot cheaper than 15 inch ones.
Lucky for me there's a guy close to me who is also restoring a Thames and had a spare 15 Inch rim for me to borrow to double check
I placed the disc and calliper in and it fitted a lot better. I think I may still need a spacer, but only about 5mm or so. This is because the 4 pot callipers are slightly podgier then the 2 pots.
The reason I had to buy different hubs though was because I noticed mine were a lot thinner than the ones Sandy had shown me on his. If I were to do the same modifications then the part of the hub that gets machined down to accept the disc would only be down to about 6mm in thickness, not as strong as id hope for. I emailed Sandy about this and he told me about the 3 different generation of hubs that relate to the Thames (another history lesson coming up, copy/paste form the email Sandy sent me) :-
"when the 400E was introduced in November 1957, the inside diameter of the inner or back) front wheel bearing was 1.0625 inches. This very soon proved to be a weakness, and from July 1958 a new stub axle was introduced using 1.125 inch inside diameter bearing. Ford also requested their dealers to upgrade all the earlier vehicles to the new parts, free of charge. Replacement parts to the first specification were also discontinued by Ford. A later service bulletin that Ford issued, is very insistent on this being done, sounding a bit panicky. This is before the formal recall system now in place. This too, proved to be not quite man enough, but not a major issue, and in March 1960 another new stub axle was introduced, with the inside diameter of the inner bearing now 1.25 inches. There was no campaign to replace the 1.125 inch bearings."
My old hubs are on the left and the newer ones on the right, notice the thickness differences.
Quite a lot of machine work I'm going to need done. Wish I had a lathe and 3 years spare to learn how to use one properly but I guess this is one of the things I will need to get someone else to do.
Another thing that needs modified will be the shock absorber mounts. The new shocks I got are slightly shorter but much better quality than the reproduction ones you get now, plus they are adjustable so will be able to make them suit the extra weight over the front than stock. I just need to get a piece of tubing and lower the mounting point.
I now need to get my plan worked out, I feel a bit like a head less chicken right now as I'm jumping from one thing to the other, trying to think everything out. In the mean time though I have started stripping the front suspension into its component parts ready to get cleaned up and painted with the new chassis paint I ordered from Rust busters.
Im also measuring and making a list of all the nuts and bolts that I'm taking off to replace with new ones.
Anyway, I better get back to it, cheers!
This month I've been busy getting the seat and 'bonnet' area sorted. I carried on fabricating the raised extension.
I added a bit more to the flange that will bolt down to the body.
Then done the exact same for the drivers side.
With the main removable section tacked up I moved on to the radiator tunnel, I needed to raise that 85mm aswell to match the rest of the body. I marked out with my pencil where to cut.
And used the grinder to cut the top off. I done a few measurements and cut out the extension piece to raise it. Then bent it around a piece of round bar I had lying around. I had to do it in 2 pieces to save metal.
Then I tacked that to the body.
I put the remaining pieces in place to mock up the final look
Next up was to work out a way to get the opposite side of the seat rail raised up to allow the seats to bolt in place. I found a piece of 100mm x 50mm box section which I could use.
Unfortunately it was 15mm too tall so I had to cut it down its length and tack it back together.
I wanted it to have a bit of shape to it so I cut a piece of tubing in half and tacked that to the end.
Then I plated the top of the half tubing and rounded it off to match the profile of the box. Perfect height for the seat now.
I was really happy with how it was looking so I decided to weld it all up. I used the Tig to minimise dressing and distortion on the removable section.
Then I mig'd the radiator tunnel as there was a few larger gaps to fill.
And cleaned it all back up. I also marked out where I wanted the bolts to go that will hold it in place.
I was going to use Dzus fasteners but after realising they were about ยฃ4.50 each and I needed about 20 I passed on that and used some nice Stainless domed socket cap nuts and bolts. The nuts will be welded in place so I will only need an Allen key to remove the large section. Oh, also the seat belt latch is the old one and isn't the one being used, I just never got round to removing it yet.
Then I attached the seat rails.
And put the seat in place, all done for this side.
I made up a seat rail bracket for the other side and done the bolts aswell. This seat looks like it has seen better days.
A view from the rear.
I was so happy I decided to christen the van and have my first picnic in it. McDonald's, yum!
Now, if you remember the last time I wrote I had just sold a car and had a bit of extra cash for parts. I got on with ordering a bunch of stuff for the van. I bought a full re-bush kit for the front suspension and steering, along with 2 brand new shock absorbers. I also had to buy new hubs and stub axles but I will explain why in a moment.
I also got the radiator re-cored. The guy done a fantastic job and it was a semi-reasonable ยฃ168. ( I say semi-reasonable because I was quoted ยฃ130 at first)
Now for the best thing I bought. I wanted a decent set of brakes upfront and ( boring history lesson coming up now) the easiest thing I could have done was get a set of solid discs with hubs and 2 pot callipers from a mk2/3 Zephyr or Zodiac as they would be a direct swap for the van hubs. I don't have any real knowledge of how powerful this set up is but I thought it would be cool to have something bigger and better. I have been emailing the owner of the 400e Thames club (Sandy Glen) and his knowledge of these vans is so vast its mind numbing. He suggested fitting mk2/3 transit solid discs and 2 pot callipers as he had done so before and according to him its a 30% improvement over the Zephyr or Zodiac brakes.
I liked the idea of this and he sent me a few photos of how its done and an email with tips and advice about how to do it. I was quite set on this but I still wanted to try something a little different, so I can say I had my part on how the brakes were done. I found out that the long wheel base Transits came with 4 pot callipers and vented discs. Yep, this is what I wanted. Not only would it be and even bigger improvement over the 2 pots but they look pretty cool to boot. I found a polish website that breaks Transits and found a pair of 4 pot calliper for ยฃ105 including P&P, so I bought them. Then on another website I bought discs, pads and 2 calliper refurbishment seal kits.
They look awesome eh.
Now that I had the brakes I was trying to mock up how they would fit inside the wheels. When I came across a problem that took me forever to figure out.
Sandy told me they should fit inside the standard Thames wheels as the transit also used 15 inch wheels but when I tried it seemed really tight, too tight infact. I spent about a week thinking the best way to overcome my problem.
Actually, I better tell you what needs modified to make these brakes fit first then explain my woe. What you do is use the standard Thames hub. Knock off the old brake drum and then get the rear of the hub machined flat for the disc to sit flat on the back of the hub. The brake discs themselves are attached by 5 counter sunk bolts so you then need to drill 5 holes into The Thames hub at 5x100 PCD, the disc centre also needs enlarged slightly to sit on the back of the hub. Then the original wheel studs need knocked out and countersunk to fit countersunk wheel studs. This is one of the picture Sandy sent me to make it sound a bit clearer.
Back to my problem, the only solution I could come up with was to use a spacer to push the wheel away from the calliper. I worked out I needed atleast a 25mm spacer to make it work. I used 5 M10 bolts to work out my spacer size.
I was quite against that idea as it would put a lot of strain on the outer wheel bearing. I know I could just change the steel wheels but I want it to look as standard as possible (with the exception of being banded) from the outside.
My brain started whirring into action and I realised something, That's it, the wheels! The wheels are wrong! That's why there not fitting! You know when something is staring you right in the face you don't see it anymore
, well That's what happened to me. I got to the garage as soon as I could and checked the wheels out. 14 inch rims, yep, at some point over time someone changed the rims to 14 inch.
These wheels were only ever fitted to mk4 Zephyr/Zodiac over about 2 years so it was abit strange but Sandy gave me a good reason for it. It was quite popular to do that as 14inch commercial tyres were a lot cheaper than 15 inch ones.
Lucky for me there's a guy close to me who is also restoring a Thames and had a spare 15 Inch rim for me to borrow to double check
I placed the disc and calliper in and it fitted a lot better. I think I may still need a spacer, but only about 5mm or so. This is because the 4 pot callipers are slightly podgier then the 2 pots.
The reason I had to buy different hubs though was because I noticed mine were a lot thinner than the ones Sandy had shown me on his. If I were to do the same modifications then the part of the hub that gets machined down to accept the disc would only be down to about 6mm in thickness, not as strong as id hope for. I emailed Sandy about this and he told me about the 3 different generation of hubs that relate to the Thames (another history lesson coming up, copy/paste form the email Sandy sent me) :-
"when the 400E was introduced in November 1957, the inside diameter of the inner or back) front wheel bearing was 1.0625 inches. This very soon proved to be a weakness, and from July 1958 a new stub axle was introduced using 1.125 inch inside diameter bearing. Ford also requested their dealers to upgrade all the earlier vehicles to the new parts, free of charge. Replacement parts to the first specification were also discontinued by Ford. A later service bulletin that Ford issued, is very insistent on this being done, sounding a bit panicky. This is before the formal recall system now in place. This too, proved to be not quite man enough, but not a major issue, and in March 1960 another new stub axle was introduced, with the inside diameter of the inner bearing now 1.25 inches. There was no campaign to replace the 1.125 inch bearings."
My old hubs are on the left and the newer ones on the right, notice the thickness differences.
Quite a lot of machine work I'm going to need done. Wish I had a lathe and 3 years spare to learn how to use one properly but I guess this is one of the things I will need to get someone else to do.
Another thing that needs modified will be the shock absorber mounts. The new shocks I got are slightly shorter but much better quality than the reproduction ones you get now, plus they are adjustable so will be able to make them suit the extra weight over the front than stock. I just need to get a piece of tubing and lower the mounting point.
I now need to get my plan worked out, I feel a bit like a head less chicken right now as I'm jumping from one thing to the other, trying to think everything out. In the mean time though I have started stripping the front suspension into its component parts ready to get cleaned up and painted with the new chassis paint I ordered from Rust busters.
Im also measuring and making a list of all the nuts and bolts that I'm taking off to replace with new ones.
Anyway, I better get back to it, cheers!
ernie1 wrote:
Kev,
What are the specs of your mig welder. I'd like to do aluminum too with my 220v mig but wasn't sure if it had the power. Did you also use the mig to weld the stainless?
Its a 180amp mig, good for about 6-8mm of aluminium. If what you want to weld is more than say 3mm thick then mig welding is good. Any thinner and i'd use a Tig for sure. I used the Tig for the stainless, just a bit neater looking for something that will be seen.
March update
I haven't really done quite as much as I'd hoped to on the van but I was giving a great opportunity to make some cash so I jumped at it. My wife's old boss just bought a new car because her old one was coming to its end of life and was worthless, as she said anyway. Its a 2003 Toyota Avensis D4D with 110,000 miles. The main reason she bought the new car was because this one would slip out of 5th gear all the time and she didn't think it was worth getting fixed.
She actually gave me the car for free!, she didn't think it was worth her while trying to sell on. I stuck it on my mates drive whilst I worked out what was needed to get it fixed. 5th gear is a very common fault on these toyotas. I found a tutorial on what to do to fix it on a Rav4 forum and ordered the parts, 6 in total. I contacted Toyota UK and they were wanting something silly like ยฃ650 for the parts but I found a great website called anayama.com that import genuine Japanese parts worldwide at a much lower cost, ยฃ280 for me including delivery and customs tax.
Anyway, I took the car to the garage , repaired the broken gearbox and gave it a dam good clean inside and out. It made me realise why my dad never let me eat in the car when I was younger. There was rotten bits of orange under the seats and sweetie wrappers everywhere. I think I wont be letting my future kids eat in my car either. After about 20 hours of hard work I had it finished and sparkling.
When it came to selling it on I wanted to get a fair price but not be stuck with the car for weeks so I went a little lower than the book price and put it up for ยฃ1495. Literally 5 minutes after the Ad went on I had a guy contact me wanting to look at it straight away. So I headed back up to the garage, showed the guy around, quick test drive and he bought. Knocked ยฃ95 off for him which left me with a cool ยฃ1400. Nice one! This means I have a pretty penny in the bank to splash out on the van when the time comes for all the bits I will be needing.
Back to the van. I did manage to get a few things done in between sorting out the Avensis and day to day life.
I needed to decide what my new seat height would be, after a bit of measuring I decided 8cm would give me enough clearance and still be driveable. I mocked up the seat height with a few bits of wood so I could physically sit in the right position.
I needed to have a good, strong support for the seat rail but it also had to be removable for when it came to removing the engine whenever I need to. I used 50mm box for the uprights and 50x5 angle for the top.
I missed a few steps but basically I used a piece of angle I had pre-drilled as a template for marking my holes and 4 bits of angle to bolt the top piece onto.
After that I countersunk the holes on the top angle and welded nuts onto the uprights. Once I had both sides done I welded a plate to the chassis and tacked them on top.
I then started to workout how I would box it all in at the back. I took the spot welds off the top cover and removed the back piece.
I spent a little bit of time trying to figure out how to do it. I want the back to be separate form the top and it will hold into place with 4 bolts.
I made a simple panel to fill in the gap that I don't need to be removable, its also wide enough to get a fixing on for the centre section.
I marked out how I wanted to cut up the rear panel.
Once I cut out what I was keeping I laid it in place and put the top bit back on to get a feel for it.
I then decided I'd need to strengthen the other parts of the seat area to stop it flexing. (the area where my hand is.)
I made up a simple bracket.
Tacked into place underneath.
That stopped all the buckling from happening.
Back to the top cover. I folded a lip on a piece of sheet I had cut and plug welded it back into place.
Now onto the sides. I don't want a really harsh sharp angle so I made up a forming stake.
Which allowed me to tap a very slight curve into my side panel I had cut.
I also tapped the upper panel and tacked them both together.
The front of the panel also had the same treatment.
tacked in.
I managed to set up the drivers side with door to see how it felt from the drivers side.
Got my arm lean spot on!.
So, im getting there. I don't have anything else on my plate for the next few weeks so lets see how I get on next month. Oh, also , you may have noticed the throttle body is now facing the front. I think this will actually be better. As the area around the radiator is going to be 8cm taller it will be a great place to have the air intake coming through to get fresh air. It just means a little bit of modification to the "bonnet". The radiator is away getting re-cored as we speak aswell.
