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.
hotsparks wrote:
Hey Kev, It's good to see that you are still going full speed ahead. Looking at all your photos makes me feel like I am back at work almost. I know how it is when you work on some small piece of metal and sometimes you need to bang it with the hammer and cut it and bang it again and the cut it again and again. I know how it can take you a few hours to make just that little part and then after you weld it in and clean it up, it looks like you didn't do anything.
- Yes, a lot of the work just looks like how it did before but with less holes.
From what I've seen so far I think it will turn out great. I know it has been a lot of work and you still have a lot of work still to do. But I think this is all the hard part. Some of the rest will get finished quick. I bet sometimes you wonder to yourself if it will ever get finished. I have to ask...Did you realize it would be this rusted and this much work when you pulled the van out from the field?
- I knew it was going to be bad, but i guess not this bad, nievity eh.
When I first read the start of you project, I thought you were nuts to take on this restoration. I had an idea of how bad it would be rusted. I've done almost the same thing on a few different cars and trucks. Then I saw the photos and seen your abilities and I knew you could do it. Hey, it's only metal, right? Just bang it, pound it, slam it, bend it, heat it, punch it, drill it, work it, and then put a bandage on your cut finger sometimes.
- I think this way too. I try not to get overwhelmed by ti all and just treat each bit as a little project, like you say, it is just metal and with a few basic skills and common sence you can creat what you want.
Speaking of banging and pounding. Where is your shop that you are using? I hope that you are not making the neighbors mad with your noise. I know that grinder can be very loud and that banging and pounding can get very old after a few months. How long have you been working on this now? I would have to go back and look.
- It is a little garage in an urban area so i do have to watch the noise. No one has yet to complain. When i first started i had the compressor on which was really noisy so i went to the nearest house and tapped on there door. I asked if i was makign too much noise and they never even knew i was working there so that was good.
And I'm going to remind you again. WEAR YOUR EAR PLUGS...ALWAYS. Trust me, I'm 56 and have been doing the same kind of work as you for many years. If you want to hear your grand kids laugh, WEAR YOUR EAR PLUGS...and your glasses and face shield. I've had grinding specks in my eyes over a dozen times. And I once even had a wire from the wire wheel stuck in my eye. And that was while I was wearing glasses. It still happens.
I always put plugs in. I wear earplugs for work so its all second nature now, im sensible and wear the safety gear. Ive seen just how wrong it can go for people not using them.
How are you going to get the van to the auto show? Are you going to drag it onto a trailer? It's going to collect a large crowd with lots of questions. And I even have a question. How rare are these vans where you live? Could you even find another one for spare parts? I've never seen one here where I live in America. If I have seen one I've never noticed it.
- It was going to be trailered on the same trailer i used to pick it up. The Dormobile vans are rare, i think i heard around 10 - 15 might survive. My van was actually going to be used a spares van but it was deemed unuseable. That made me want to restore it even more.
I've seen a lot of restorations. Some good, some bad, some the owner never even got his hands dirty except when the pen leaked while he was writing the check to pay for it. I always give more credit to the guy who does his own work and does not have an endless supply of money.
- I feel the same. I hate reading articles in magazines where some guy has claimed to 'restore' his such and such. Then yuo read it and he has basically just sent evewrything away to be fixed then he bolts it back together. I want to be abel to say i done everything, this is MY van that I restored.
Another thing I was thinking about... Have you ever thought about writing a book about this build? Or maybe even an E-book or a DVD? You could provide a little more detail and more photos. maybe tell some of the lessons that you have learned the hard way. I'm sure that when you get it finished you "might" have some extra time to get the book started. But you might have to write it while you are camping someplace in your van. It just might get you some extra cash to pay for the build. I'm sure a lot of people would be interested in the book. Just look at how many hits you have on this thread. Too bad you didn't have something ready for the auto show. It could be just a cheap booklet with photos just like this thread. You could sell them cheap sort of like asking for donations for the project. You can have them made up at the printer/copy stores.....I don't know, just something to think about. :C
- I had thought about this, it would be agreat way to make moey for the van. I liek the fact that all the build threads people make are free though. Mabey a book when im finished would be good to do. 'The diary of a restoration' or something.
July update
This wedding planning and saving money stuff has dented my productivity on the van this month. Oh , i was also on holiday in Slovakia for 2 weeks so that kinda got in the way too.
You know the Scottish ford day i was looking forward to, well , it got canceled due to the typical Scottish weather, bugger. I did feel quite upset because i had been looking forward to taking the van there for a while but ohwell, always next year.
Last time i wrote i was just getting round to finishing the rear corner of the side part of the van
As it is the corner the sheet metal had lost its shape a little due to being cut. Luckily i had taken a template of that corner before cutting. I cut a bit of sheet and angled it.
A little bit of time in the shrinker/stretcher and tacked it in place.
Then weld and tidy up, the usual.
With that done the whole bottom waist line of the van was done, yippee. Another thing to check of the list.
Little patch under the wheel arch.
When Dormobile made these vans i don't think finesse was a major factor in there work. To make room for the seat/bed in the back it looks like they just burned a section of the rear wheel arch out then riveted a steel plate on top. I decided to neaten it up a bit by cutting /drilling it out then making it look like a factory panel.
I never had any cardboard to hand so i done a lot of measuring, unfortunately, i had a few gaps when tacking it all together so right now its still just tacked, i may re-start this piece.
As i was deciding what to do i stripped the paint from the inside of the van and applied a wipe-on phosphoric acid which eats into the metal and converts any light rust and seals the metal from moisture for a little bit.
Something that has been playing on my mind a little has been the roof section i repaired. The roof its self is good but where the spot-welded seams have been i can see rust coming through the non-porous primer. This is a bit upsetting as the only way to deal with it is to drill our the spot welds , clean the metal underneath then reweld and hope for the best, or, and this is a big expensive or which i am now contemplating as a long term solution, finish all the metal work on the van and send it away to a place to get dipped into a big tank of chemicals which eats all the rust then a coat of zinc primer. That way its guaranteed rust free, downside is it will cost roughly ยฃ1200 to do, which i don't have. So a lot of thinking to do. My biggest concern is i don't want rust to come through after 2-3 years.
Thats pretty much all ive done to the van lately because of other stuff happening. One cool thing i made w as a wheelie bar for my friend. He has a ZZR1400 trike and wanted it to be a bit more safer when it came to not flipping it, as you would.
I started by making a few sketches then when i was happy with the design I made a scale drawing.
I then bought 2x75mm castor wheels from toolstation, binned the castor piece and made my own brackets up. The rear brake light is in a V shape so i tried to incorporate that in the design.
To minimize and distortion when welding it up i made a Jig to hold it altogether out of scrap pieces i had lying around. First bar in place.
Next bar in. To get the angles right i held it in place then judged it and marked with a pencil, these flat cuts were easy compared to the fish-mouthing/notching later.
One more side in.
Now the bracing. I know you can buy fandangle machines which will notch the tube for you and even some software that you type in the thickness of tube and angle then it prints it out and you tape it round the tube. I decided to eye-ball it. If you can imagine where the centre line of the tube will meet and mark it, turn the tube 90 degrees to face you and imagine how the circle would fit, it kinda works. I used a cutting disk in the grinder to get it roughly to shape then used a flap disc to sweeten it all up.
Bottom cross section in.
Then the top and its all tacked together ready for welding.
Welded it up, alternating from one angle to another to minimize warpage.
First pass with the grinding disc
Then the flap wheel to neaten it up and its done.
I primed it for my mate then he came round to my house and we bolted it on. He used 4 x handlebar risers clamped to the back of the frame which acted as mounts.
He was really happy with it and so was I. Its good to make something different , another thing to add to the portfolio.
Lets see how this month pans out, although i know not a huge amount will happen. My wedding is in October and i have to work 6 extra Saturdays to make up for extra time off work. I'm trying not to lose sight of my dreams.
RSchleder wrote:
I just discovered this thread, and I'm so pleased I did. I've spent the last hour or so reading every word you've written and examining the pictures with a growing admiration and awe. Thank you for taking the time to share this miracle restoration with us as well as some of your other terrific projects. You are certainly a giving/caring person and Uncle of the Decade!
You have a right to be proud of the work you do, however, it pales to the right you have to be proud of the person you are. Best of luck with the van and be assured, I'll read every post and look at the details of every picture you post. A sincere thank you for sharing this journey with us!!!
Wow, that was a great reply, thanks buddy. Comments like this mean a lot to me.
June part 2
I had quite a good productive week off in the garage. I would like to have gotten more done but then I'll always say that until its finished.
I was looking over the other corner of the van at how bad that was.
Pretty much just as rotten as the other side...... great!
I was going to get start cutting the metal away on the other side but i thought id be best to leave it alone for now as a reference for the side i was working on. I did need to cut the rear valance out of the way so i could get the door frame repair welded in and finish the metal work on the corner i was working on. Here's a few pics of the rotten valance.
And now removed.
The usual, lots of holes and rust.
I used the spot weld cutter in the drill to remove it into its 3 sections plus brackets.
I will be repairing the main valance and making up the other 2 pieces from scratch.
Lets start with the repairs, nasty rot.
I used the wire disc in the grinder. i like to use the wire disc as its quite abrasive and hard. Therefore it will burst holes in the thin rusty sections but just clean up the good thick stuff. Gives me a better indication of what i need to repair. I used a bit of chalk to mark out what i needed to cut out first.
I found myself humming and hawing about whether this was the best approach to fixing this piece. In the end i just grew a pair and cut it.
I flipped it back over and made a patch for the corner piece. The rough shape.
Then tapped the edge over a little to follow the curve and trimmed the end.
Finally i put a curve in the piece to follow the shape and tacked it into place.
Next step was the upper inside piece, this piece only has a slight curve but as it gets to the other repair piece i made it has a compound curve that flows into it so i cut this into a round shape and tacked it on.
Nice easy flat piece with a slight radius on the tacked edge to help the corner flow.
This bit was quite tricky. I used a bit thin cardboard for the basic shape, then traced it out. to get the 'conical' shape i opened the jaws of my vice to about 80mm then used a piece of tubing as a hammer and beat the panel whilst turning it like a fan ( hard to describe). then i used a body hammer to planish most of the bumps out. when happy i tack it in and also tacked in the last piece which was the lip at the bottom.
All tacked and ready for welding.
All welded up.
Then after making love with the grinder we get a nice looking panel which just need a little bit of tidying up with the hammer.
old vs new-ish
I clamped it back into place to get a better idea of what it would like.
i clamped the other repair section with the dome in it just behind for better effect.
No time to sit in my own pleasure, get cracking with the other side Kev!
Cut a bit more out, thankfully not as much as the other
A lot of it was pretty much what i done already so I'll just let the picture do the talking.
Panel is now finished, except for a lip that i need to weld on all along the top. I will come back to that later though as i can now get the corner finished.
I took a little break from the van to get the towbar sorted. My dad gave me his old towbar which i think was last used on his Volvo 340 from years ago.
My original plan was to use the existing holes that are already pre-tapped on the Lexus bumper. Before i started cutting stuff up i thought i better check the threads are still OK. They weren't. Looks like someone has stripped them already or the rust has gotten to them because the bolts wouldn't tighten at all. That left me with the only option of un-bolting the tow hooks from either side of the underside. (2x M12 + 1 M8)
And making up some brackets and use the whole existing towbar. I got some 100mm x 100mm x 10mm angle and cut them about 130mm long. I drilled the holes in the brackets and bolted them in place. Then placed the towbar roughly where i needed it. It needed to come further out by about 40mm so i cut some 80mm x 70mm plates and welded them onto the angle as extensions. Then tacked it all up. I cut 2 x 80x80 gussets and tacked them in place also. I placed a brace between the 2 angles and welded it all up using 3.2mm rods at about 130 amps for good penetration using the Arc welder. Even with the brace the angle4s pulled in by about 8mm so afterwards i used the original Thames screw bottle jack to push them apart enough to bolt the towbar in place.
In place and a quick lick of black paint to make it look a bit more professional. Just need to buy the electrics and wire it up. At least now i know (weather depending) I'll defiantly get the van to the Scottish Ford day on Sunday.
Back to the van and i wanted to get the corner section done.
Eeeugh, time to get the door frame repair section tacked in place. I took a bit of extra time to make sure i got this right as there is 3 axis of movement to get wrong.
When i was certain it was right i welded it up then cut the other repair sections and tacked it.
Top repair.
Welded it up.
Then tarted it up a bit.
With that done i was getting closer to having the corner finished. Cut the lower lip out and welded it in.
Then the top lip, as its the corner its double skinned for strength, i think....
That was it for the week. Like i say, i would like to have done a lot more. I had bought some extra epoxy primer as i hoped to have gotten a some on the pieces that were finished. I do intend to go after work this week to get some more don before the show but we'll see.
Looking forward to the Scottish ford day, after selling My Consul Ive missed taking something along to shows so even if it is a very incomplete van it should be good.
