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.
Thanks for the comments guys, means a lot to me.
February update
This month I have been mostly focusing on getting the engine and its ancillaries in place. All the little adjustments I need to do to get it to fit. As I mentioned in my previous post the main culprits were the oil sump and the throttle body position. Before I started on them though I finished off the gearbox mount/cross brace.
Im quite happy with how this turned out, I done it pretty much free-hand, not really following a plan. I added 2 curved pieces of box to what I had done in the previous update then put in a couple more box for strength.
Once I box the chassis rails I will be adding gussets to make it a bit stronger, should do the trick though.
I was still juggling in my head with what to do to the air manifold. In my last update I mentioned about making an extension piece. That opened up a bit of discussion with others about how it would effect the engine. The main thing I would have felt was a very slight delay in response, which logically it would but I don't think it would have been so noticeable, probably more so if I was building a race car or track car. Anyway, in the end, after some more measuring and laying out of the seat plan I found out that even the extension coming out of the side would still interfere with some bits so that hit a brick wall.
As I was thinking of how to overcome the problem I made a start on the sump. The steering centre link was interfering with the front of the sump so I removed the sump then measured how far back the centre link came and found I needed to take 44mm off the front of the sump. It was also pretty close to the top of the sump flange so I had to bring the cut out off the sump right to the top.
Here is how it looked when I took it off the van.
(some of the more astute of you will notice I have actually already cut it ๐ )
I marked a line across, 44mm from the centre of the front bolt hole and cut it with the grinded then used a piece of thin card to make a template for the new metal.
I put the sump in the caustic tank at work to help remove the remaining oil and give it a bit of a clean. Then I removed the paint from around the edge of where I will be welding and neatend the cut up. I cut out my templated piece of steel and tacked it into position.
I also tacked the sump to the work table to try and minimise distortion.
Then I got around to welding it. I used my Tig for this one. The benefits were good penetration meaning it would be sealed and a bit of a neater weld to tidy up. Also because I haven't used the Tig in a while and thought it would be fun.
Gave it a nice bit of a tidy with the flap disc in the grinder and it turned out quite nice.
I also filled it up with water and left it over night to see if anything would leak out and by jove, it all remained in the sump with no leaks, good stuff.
I temporarily put it bank in place.
And attached the centre link, right now at the minimum it has given me 15mm clearance above and 30mm clearance behind, should do the trick.
Ok, so, the next hurdle that I had to overcome was the air manifold. As I said already, the extension piece was a no starter. The only real alternative was to block the old throttle body flange and make a new one on the top. I done a fair bit of research and looked up how to weld aluminium as I haven't actually done that before. Unfortunately my Tig is DC only which means I would have to use my Mig for it.
I came up with a plan of making a new flange out of aluminium, welding that to the top of the manifold. Drill a new hole through it then use one of my 90 degree stainless bends with 2 flanges cut from stainless and attach the whole thing together. Oh, and a blanking plate for the old hole.
First up was to remove the manifold from the engine, easy enough job to do.
Then I needed a piece of aluminium. I was about to go to a few local fabricators and scrounge a piece when I remembered that my garage used to be a fabricators shop years ago and I was sure I saw some plate in the attic. Luckily I found it again and cut a piece out of 10mm thick aluminium, lucky or what eh!.
I may get heckled at this point for my lack of real engineering style but I don't have access to a milling machine and I don't want to pay some one else to do this process so I improvised. I needed to smooth down the groves in the manifold so I get a better seat of the plate. I scribed the edges then used a flap disc to remove the most of the material and then a file to get it flatter. Turned out not too bad, wasnted perfectly flat but it allowed a closer contact for the welding.
I then neatend up the plate I was using and cut it to suit. I drilled 4 small holes that I would use to clamp it down whilst welding. I drilled 4 holes in the manifold then tapped them to bolt it on.
Right, bit of a lecture coming up now. I checked out a few books and websites about Mig welding aluminium and I found it quite tricky to set up so I will share my findings here. I was told id need Aluminium welding wire, which I got from machine mart (0.8mm) . As the wire expands much more than steel wire I would need a tip the next size up (1mm) so I got some of those. I was also told id NEED a Teflon liner, which I made me think "psssh, nah I don't need that". Also, you need pure argon or an argon/helium mix, as I use a Tig aswell I already had some pureshield Argon. The length of the liner can also play an important part of the process. As aluminium is much softer it tends to snag on tight bends so you want it to be as short and as straight as possible. I didn't want to shorten my lead for a small job so I got a piece of 25mm Angle and cable tied it to the torch and lead, like so:
Then I made my first attempt at it on a scrap piece of aluminium. First go it melted the tip straight away. Next go it done the same, its so different from welding steel. I swear I went through atleast 15 tips trying a whole range of amps, wire speed combos. I just could nto get it right and ofcourse everytime it jammed it would "bird-nest" the wire and id have to pull it all through again. I was getting so frustrated with it. Then I thought, "maybe a Teflon liner would help out" so I went back along to machine mart, got a liner and some more tips. I put the new liner in and wow, what a fool I felt. It made all the difference and I could now get a proper weld going. So, after messing about again with amp and wire speed I felt comfortable enough to make a go of the manifold.
I followed another bit of advice of pre-heating the manifold to help the welding process.
If I could give some basic advice with the welding I would say to definitely get a Teflon liner, try to keep the cable as straight as possible and I found myself welding with the torch much further away from the weld than normal and moving it a lot faster. I was lucky that what I was welding was reasonably thick so I never got any blow-through but I think it would be very easy to do with thinner metal.
I was so engrossed with the welding I never took any photos of the process, but here it is after I tidied it up a little.
The manifold attaches to 4, dual port flanges with 3 bolts on each flange. I knew the manifold would distort slightly with that much heat going through it. The reason for the paper being in there was I wanted to bolt the manifold on with 4 bolts tight down and I thought if it traps the paper tight enough then it should seal back up nicely when I come to re-attach it. The pieces of paper wouldn't budge so that was good.
I had to drill a 3 inch hole in the top of the new flange so I went and bought a 76mm hole saw from tool-station and done that, to help take a bit of stress off the hole saw I also drilled small holes around. Then I drilled out the 4 holes and threaded them out to M8. That way not only is the weld holding the flange on but so will the bolts. When cutting through I noticed I but out a section of a piece of pipe that im assuming has something to do with the EGR system so I put another little blob of weld back on to seal it.
Using some 6mm stainless sheet I cut out 3 flanges, one for the new hole I just added on top, one to attach the throttle body and one to act as a blanking plate. I put the bend in the hole which recesses down about 10 mm, should give a better seal . Here is the blanking plate I cut out.
Then I tacked on the 2 other flanges.
I haven't Tig'd stainless in a very long time but I was getting the hang of it again. Once finished welding I put it in place to see how it looked.
Not the neatest welding but I can live with it,
That's pretty much it for now. It still needs a little tidying up but its a big thing done. Im hoping I can get away with out having to get anything milled down. What I shall be doing is making up some crappy blanking plates for the whole manifold to seal everything I have done so far then fit a valve and do a pressure test to make sure none of my welds are leaking or that there is any distortion that will effect things later. If there is then I will need to take it somewhere to mill the faces, fingers crossed.
The garage is turning into a bit of a pig-sty so I am doing my early spring clean. I spent today pretty much making a floor in the attic where I can hide some my******and clear some space. Next month, mmmhmm, not sure what to start on next. I think I will attempt the seating area, get that back in , I think I need to raise it a couple o f inches and make a new frame to support it all.
Oh, almost forgot, i did have a little fun project to do. My desk chair at home was looking abit tatty and i was going to buy a new one when i thought i could maek an evern better and comfier one than store bought.
I got an old desk chair and removed the seat which left me with the base.
Then i got my passanger seat from the old lexus.
Made a qucik little frame to go underneath it and join them both together.
And voila, a new xomputer desk chair. First thing my darling wife said "it doesnt match anything else in the house...." Ohwell, i think it looks good so its staying.
February update
This month I have been mostly focusing on getting the engine and its ancillaries in place. All the little adjustments I need to do to get it to fit. As I mentioned in my previous post the main culprits were the oil sump and the throttle body position. Before I started on them though I finished off the gearbox mount/cross brace.
Im quite happy with how this turned out, I done it pretty much free-hand, not really following a plan. I added 2 curved pieces of box to what I had done in the previous update then put in a couple more box for strength.
Once I box the chassis rails I will be adding gussets to make it a bit stronger, should do the trick though.
I was still juggling in my head with what to do to the air manifold. In my last update I mentioned about making an extension piece. That opened up a bit of discussion with others about how it would effect the engine. The main thing I would have felt was a very slight delay in response, which logically it would but I don't think it would have been so noticeable, probably more so if I was building a race car or track car. Anyway, in the end, after some more measuring and laying out of the seat plan I found out that even the extension coming out of the side would still interfere with some bits so that hit a brick wall.
As I was thinking of how to overcome the problem I made a start on the sump. The steering centre link was interfering with the front of the sump so I removed the sump then measured how far back the centre link came and found I needed to take 44mm off the front of the sump. It was also pretty close to the top of the sump flange so I had to bring the cut out off the sump right to the top.
Here is how it looked when I took it off the van.
(some of the more astute of you will notice I have actually already cut it ๐ )
I marked a line across, 44mm from the centre of the front bolt hole and cut it with the grinded then used a piece of thin card to make a template for the new metal.
I put the sump in the caustic tank at work to help remove the remaining oil and give it a bit of a clean. Then I removed the paint from around the edge of where I will be welding and neatend the cut up. I cut out my templated piece of steel and tacked it into position.
I also tacked the sump to the work table to try and minimise distortion.
Then I got around to welding it. I used my Tig for this one. The benefits were good penetration meaning it would be sealed and a bit of a neater weld to tidy up. Also because I haven't used the Tig in a while and thought it would be fun.
Gave it a nice bit of a tidy with the flap disc in the grinder and it turned out quite nice.
I also filled it up with water and left it over night to see if anything would leak out and by jove, it all remained in the sump with no leaks, good stuff.
I temporarily put it bank in place.
And attached the centre link, right now at the minimum it has given me 15mm clearance above and 30mm clearance behind, should do the trick.
Ok, so, the next hurdle that I had to overcome was the air manifold. As I said already, the extension piece was a no starter. The only real alternative was to block the old throttle body flange and make a new one on the top. I done a fair bit of research and looked up how to weld aluminium as I haven't actually done that before. Unfortunately my Tig is DC only which means I would have to use my Mig for it.
I came up with a plan of making a new flange out of aluminium, welding that to the top of the manifold. Drill a new hole through it then use one of my 90 degree stainless bends with 2 flanges cut from stainless and attach the whole thing together. Oh, and a blanking plate for the old hole.
First up was to remove the manifold from the engine, easy enough job to do.
Then I needed a piece of aluminium. I was about to go to a few local fabricators and scrounge a piece when I remembered that my garage used to be a fabricators shop years ago and I was sure I saw some plate in the attic. Luckily I found it again and cut a piece out of 10mm thick aluminium, lucky or what eh!.
I may get heckled at this point for my lack of real engineering style but I don't have access to a milling machine and I don't want to pay some one else to do this process so I improvised. I needed to smooth down the groves in the manifold so I get a better seat of the plate. I scribed the edges then used a flap disc to remove the most of the material and then a file to get it flatter. Turned out not too bad, wasnted perfectly flat but it allowed a closer contact for the welding.
I then neatend up the plate I was using and cut it to suit. I drilled 4 small holes that I would use to clamp it down whilst welding. I drilled 4 holes in the manifold then tapped them to bolt it on.
Right, bit of a lecture coming up now. I checked out a few books and websites about Mig welding aluminium and I found it quite tricky to set up so I will share my findings here. I was told id need Aluminium welding wire, which I got from machine mart (0.8mm) . As the wire expands much more than steel wire I would need a tip the next size up (1mm) so I got some of those. I was also told id NEED a Teflon liner, which I made me think "psssh, nah I don't need that". Also, you need pure argon or an argon/helium mix, as I use a Tig aswell I already had some pureshield Argon. The length of the liner can also play an important part of the process. As aluminium is much softer it tends to snag on tight bends so you want it to be as short and as straight as possible. I didn't want to shorten my lead for a small job so I got a piece of 25mm Angle and cable tied it to the torch and lead, like so:
Then I made my first attempt at it on a scrap piece of aluminium. First go it melted the tip straight away. Next go it done the same, its so different from welding steel. I swear I went through atleast 15 tips trying a whole range of amps, wire speed combos. I just could nto get it right and ofcourse everytime it jammed it would "bird-nest" the wire and id have to pull it all through again. I was getting so frustrated with it. Then I thought, "maybe a Teflon liner would help out" so I went back along to machine mart, got a liner and some more tips. I put the new liner in and wow, what a fool I felt. It made all the difference and I could now get a proper weld going. So, after messing about again with amp and wire speed I felt comfortable enough to make a go of the manifold.
I followed another bit of advice of pre-heating the manifold to help the welding process.
If I could give some basic advice with the welding I would say to definitely get a Teflon liner, try to keep the cable as straight as possible and I found myself welding with the torch much further away from the weld than normal and moving it a lot faster. I was lucky that what I was welding was reasonably thick so I never got any blow-through but I think it would be very easy to do with thinner metal.
I was so engrossed with the welding I never took any photos of the process, but here it is after I tidied it up a little.
The manifold attaches to 4, dual port flanges with 3 bolts on each flange. I knew the manifold would distort slightly with that much heat going through it. The reason for the paper being in there was I wanted to bolt the manifold on with 4 bolts tight down and I thought if it traps the paper tight enough then it should seal back up nicely when I come to re-attach it. The pieces of paper wouldn't budge so that was good.
I had to drill a 3 inch hole in the top of the new flange so I went and bought a 76mm hole saw from tool-station and done that, to help take a bit of stress off the hole saw I also drilled small holes around. Then I drilled out the 4 holes and threaded them out to M8. That way not only is the weld holding the flange on but so will the bolts. When cutting through I noticed I but out a section of a piece of pipe that im assuming has something to do with the EGR system so I put another little blob of weld back on to seal it.
Using some 6mm stainless sheet I cut out 3 flanges, one for the new hole I just added on top, one to attach the throttle body and one to act as a blanking plate. I put the bend in the hole which recesses down about 10 mm, should give a better seal . Here is the blanking plate I cut out.
Then I tacked on the 2 other flanges.
I haven't Tig'd stainless in a very long time but I was getting the hang of it again. Once finished welding I put it in place to see how it looked.
Not the neatest welding but I can live with it,
That's pretty much it for now. It still needs a little tidying up but its a big thing done. Im hoping I can get away with out having to get anything milled down. What I shall be doing is making up some crappy blanking plates for the whole manifold to seal everything I have done so far then fit a valve and do a pressure test to make sure none of my welds are leaking or that there is any distortion that will effect things later. If there is then I will need to take it somewhere to mill the faces, fingers crossed.
The garage is turning into a bit of a pig-sty so I am doing my early spring clean. I spent today pretty much making a floor in the attic where I can hide some my******and clear some space. Next month, mmmhmm, not sure what to start on next. I think I will attempt the seating area, get that back in , I think I need to raise it a couple o f inches and make a new frame to support it all.
Oh, almost forgot, i did have a little fun project to do. My desk chair at home was looking abit tatty and i was going to buy a new one when i thought i could maek an evern better and comfier one than store bought.
I got an old desk chair and removed the seat which left me with the base.
Then i got my passanger seat from the old lexus.
Made a qucik little frame to go underneath it and join them both together.
And voila, a new xomputer desk chair. First thing my darling wife said "it doesnt match anything else in the house...." Ohwell, i think it looks good so its staying.
Dicktill :- The front brakes are going to be discs. I still need to buy hubs from a consul,zodiac or zephyr. Once i have those i can decide on a disc and caliper combo to go with it. I will also be adding a different brake cylinder and a remote servo. The front suspension is actually quite advance for a 1950's van. Double wishbone with coil-over shocks. I will definitely be servicing the shocks and replacing all the bushes.
Mumkin :- I always wanted something with a V8. I could have went down the Rover/Buick V8 but they dont make a lot of power without mods. I could have also went the chevy/ford V8 but theres not a lot of those over here. I choose the Lexus V8 for power, fuel economy and because you can pick up a whole car for ยฃ400, like i did. It is a lot bigger than the stock engine but as the old one was all heavy cast iron and the 1UZFE is all alloy i dont think theres a huge amount of weight difference.
BillJ999 :- Nothing was wrong with the donor Lexus. It was in really good shape and i felt almost criminal when i was stripping it down. I just had to keep reminding myself that the reason i bought it was for the engine. At least its heart will live on in another form. The original engine was a pre-war designed 1.7 litre 4 cylinder. Making 54bhp when new. I could have rebuilt it for the van but i wanted a sleeper. Also, if i am travelling around the world i think im more likely to get parts for a 1uzfe rather than some obscure engine that was designed about 70 years ago. I did sell the engine on to someone who does have a Thames though so it is still going to be kept alive.
January update
This month I have been focusing on clearance issues and getting the engine in its place. I went along to the garage a couple of times and checked over the engine and after lots of measuring I decided to use the original engine mounts but with different (thinner) rubber bushes and fabricate new chassis mounts.
First thing I done was remove a section of the chassis to allow easier removal and installation of the engine and box. I marked in chalk where I wanted to cut.
When removed it made it a lot easier to jack the engine up on my own and position it easier. I will be welding on a few bits of angle back to the chassis so I can have this section as a bolt on piece for the future should I need to work on it again.
The sump was fowling both the steering track rod and the suspension cross brace.
So I had to come up with a solution to it. I had a few options.
1. Cut a section of the sump out at the rear and move the whole engine back to let the track rod have the space but doing so might still not give me enough room.
2. Raise the height of the engine to clear both with out modifying the sump or anything at all. Bad point is it raises the centre of gravity, larger angle for the prop shaft to run and fitting seat would be tricky, so I pretty much blanked this.
3. Cut 20-30mm of the front of the sump to allow the trackrod to move. This is a good contender as the oil pickup wouldn't get interfered with as it sits far enough to the rear
4. Heat and bend the trackrod and extend it ever so slightly. I have determined the trackrod to be made of forged steel so it would be possible to do all this then get it re-tempered again. I'd really rather not have to mess with anything to do with the steering though.
5. Get a whole rear sump from a soarer, unfortunately there's not many soarers around here.
In the end I went with number 3.
Having made that conclusion I got the engine where I wanted it and measured up for a set of chassis brackets. I also spent about 3 days trying to source suitable rubber bushes. After a lot of searching I ended up going with BMW M20 bushes. They are a nice simple design. M10 thread, 67mm round and 47mm tall. If they work on a BMW engine then they should be upto the 1UZFE. Plus at ยฃ9 each they are affordable. I ordered a set and used a piece of threaded rod as a spacer whilst waiting on them arriving.
The way I worked out where I needed the brackets to go I worked out the width of the inside of the chassis rails which was 600mm then the width between the engine mounts was 505mm. That gave me 95mm clearance, divided by 2 is 47.5mm. That's how much each chassis bracket hole had to stick out by. Next was height. I knew the BMW mounts were 47mm tall so I took that into account and marked it on the chassis.
(the scribbles probably mean more to me)
At this point I realised that it would interfere with another piece that joins the cross brace to the chassis. It was made from quite thick metal so I assumed it was definitely needed for strength.
I looked at the engine mounts and realised there 25mm off set from the centre of the bolts. I swapped both sides over which put the offset further back.
I moved my marks 50mm further back and clearance was fine.
I moved onto fabricating some brackets. With all my sizes in my note book I done a couple of sketches and came up with a nice simple bracket. I cut the base out of card and double checked my sizes were fine then cut all I needed from some 6mm plate.
Tacked and welded them up.
Then cleaned up.
I lifted the engine back up and tacked the brackets on with an inch of weld either side. Strong enough to support the engine but easy enough to remove if I had to reposition them. I also used my piece of threaded rod as the bushes hadn't arrived yet.
I slowly lowered the engine and hoped for the best. They lined up perfectly and I checked engine mounts off my list.
With the position finalised I checked over all my other clearance worries.
Sump sits about 15mm from the cross brace, plenty enough for me.
May need to do a little check-out for the alternator unless I reposition it up to where the steering pump was (not going for power steering in the van)
Even the oilfilter has access in its stock location. The perspective of the photo makes it look closer to the spring than it is, its fine, although I may use a Hi-lux filter as its a little shorter in length.
I haven't modified the sump yet but will do soon.
I placed the stock radiator in place to see what it looks like. Im unsure what to do with the rad. It is quite thick so I may get it re-cored and see how it goes. I know of someone in Australia that has a rover V8 in his Thames and uses the stock rad with good results. If I could find a thin engine fan it might get bolted in, or an electric fan pushing through.
A few weeks later I had been thinking of how to mount the gearbox mount. I used the original Lexus bushes and mount bracket and came up with a little idea for chassis mounts.
First I cut 2 pieces of 6mm plate, drilled some holes and bolted them into place for something to start from.
I toyed with a few ideas and ended up using some 25mm thick wall box section I had left over from another job. I experimented with my pipe bender to put a nice radius in them rather than a sharp angle cut and welded.
My apprentice... Sorry, my brother came along and helped me out with some cutting and coffee.
With his help I made a pair of brackets up and tacked them into place. Oh, to get my position for the gearbox I first made sure the shaft was in the centre of the chassis rails. Then remembering my pinion angle on the gearbox was 2 degrees I lowered the jack under the gearbox so it was also perpendicular at 2 degrees and took all my measurements from there.
That was just yesterday so I haven't finished it yet but you get the idea. I will be putting another 2 bits of box between both brackets to strengthen it all up.
I have also been thinking of clearance around the air intake. Where it is just now it comes out pretty much where I will need a seat. I thought about raising the seat height (which I need to do anyway) but I would need to raise it way too much for it to be comfortable for me sitting.
My solution is to re-position the throttle body away from the manifold. I have bought 3 76mm Stainless steel elbows and found some 6mm stainless to use as flanges and using my Tig I plan to join it all so it will look something like this, with the throttle body now above and pointed behind. Aslong as its airtight it shouldn't cause any running issues.
Remember the 'bonnet' has a double hump so there is plenty of clearance underneath.
Oh, The engine mounts arrived so i also put them on.
I am setting myself a goal. The Scottish Ford day I went to last year was good fun and I hope to get it along again this year. So, my goal is to have the van towed down like last time but for it to be able to move under its own power to get it into position at the show. Which means I have a lot to do like finish up the engine bay, prop shaft, brakes and steering re-hauled, modified, replaced etc.. Scottish Ford day is September 7th, so 7 months and 12 days to go. Wish me luck!
Mumkin :- I always wanted something with a V8. I could have went down the Rover/Buick V8 but they dont make a lot of power without mods. I could have also went the chevy/ford V8 but theres not a lot of those over here. I choose the Lexus V8 for power, fuel economy and because you can pick up a whole car for ยฃ400, like i did. It is a lot bigger than the stock engine but as the old one was all heavy cast iron and the 1UZFE is all alloy i dont think theres a huge amount of weight difference.
BillJ999 :- Nothing was wrong with the donor Lexus. It was in really good shape and i felt almost criminal when i was stripping it down. I just had to keep reminding myself that the reason i bought it was for the engine. At least its heart will live on in another form. The original engine was a pre-war designed 1.7 litre 4 cylinder. Making 54bhp when new. I could have rebuilt it for the van but i wanted a sleeper. Also, if i am travelling around the world i think im more likely to get parts for a 1uzfe rather than some obscure engine that was designed about 70 years ago. I did sell the engine on to someone who does have a Thames though so it is still going to be kept alive.
January update
This month I have been focusing on clearance issues and getting the engine in its place. I went along to the garage a couple of times and checked over the engine and after lots of measuring I decided to use the original engine mounts but with different (thinner) rubber bushes and fabricate new chassis mounts.
First thing I done was remove a section of the chassis to allow easier removal and installation of the engine and box. I marked in chalk where I wanted to cut.
When removed it made it a lot easier to jack the engine up on my own and position it easier. I will be welding on a few bits of angle back to the chassis so I can have this section as a bolt on piece for the future should I need to work on it again.
The sump was fowling both the steering track rod and the suspension cross brace.
So I had to come up with a solution to it. I had a few options.
1. Cut a section of the sump out at the rear and move the whole engine back to let the track rod have the space but doing so might still not give me enough room.
2. Raise the height of the engine to clear both with out modifying the sump or anything at all. Bad point is it raises the centre of gravity, larger angle for the prop shaft to run and fitting seat would be tricky, so I pretty much blanked this.
3. Cut 20-30mm of the front of the sump to allow the trackrod to move. This is a good contender as the oil pickup wouldn't get interfered with as it sits far enough to the rear
4. Heat and bend the trackrod and extend it ever so slightly. I have determined the trackrod to be made of forged steel so it would be possible to do all this then get it re-tempered again. I'd really rather not have to mess with anything to do with the steering though.
5. Get a whole rear sump from a soarer, unfortunately there's not many soarers around here.
In the end I went with number 3.
Having made that conclusion I got the engine where I wanted it and measured up for a set of chassis brackets. I also spent about 3 days trying to source suitable rubber bushes. After a lot of searching I ended up going with BMW M20 bushes. They are a nice simple design. M10 thread, 67mm round and 47mm tall. If they work on a BMW engine then they should be upto the 1UZFE. Plus at ยฃ9 each they are affordable. I ordered a set and used a piece of threaded rod as a spacer whilst waiting on them arriving.
The way I worked out where I needed the brackets to go I worked out the width of the inside of the chassis rails which was 600mm then the width between the engine mounts was 505mm. That gave me 95mm clearance, divided by 2 is 47.5mm. That's how much each chassis bracket hole had to stick out by. Next was height. I knew the BMW mounts were 47mm tall so I took that into account and marked it on the chassis.
(the scribbles probably mean more to me)
At this point I realised that it would interfere with another piece that joins the cross brace to the chassis. It was made from quite thick metal so I assumed it was definitely needed for strength.
I looked at the engine mounts and realised there 25mm off set from the centre of the bolts. I swapped both sides over which put the offset further back.
I moved my marks 50mm further back and clearance was fine.
I moved onto fabricating some brackets. With all my sizes in my note book I done a couple of sketches and came up with a nice simple bracket. I cut the base out of card and double checked my sizes were fine then cut all I needed from some 6mm plate.
Tacked and welded them up.
Then cleaned up.
I lifted the engine back up and tacked the brackets on with an inch of weld either side. Strong enough to support the engine but easy enough to remove if I had to reposition them. I also used my piece of threaded rod as the bushes hadn't arrived yet.
I slowly lowered the engine and hoped for the best. They lined up perfectly and I checked engine mounts off my list.
With the position finalised I checked over all my other clearance worries.
Sump sits about 15mm from the cross brace, plenty enough for me.
May need to do a little check-out for the alternator unless I reposition it up to where the steering pump was (not going for power steering in the van)
Even the oilfilter has access in its stock location. The perspective of the photo makes it look closer to the spring than it is, its fine, although I may use a Hi-lux filter as its a little shorter in length.
I haven't modified the sump yet but will do soon.
I placed the stock radiator in place to see what it looks like. Im unsure what to do with the rad. It is quite thick so I may get it re-cored and see how it goes. I know of someone in Australia that has a rover V8 in his Thames and uses the stock rad with good results. If I could find a thin engine fan it might get bolted in, or an electric fan pushing through.
A few weeks later I had been thinking of how to mount the gearbox mount. I used the original Lexus bushes and mount bracket and came up with a little idea for chassis mounts.
First I cut 2 pieces of 6mm plate, drilled some holes and bolted them into place for something to start from.
I toyed with a few ideas and ended up using some 25mm thick wall box section I had left over from another job. I experimented with my pipe bender to put a nice radius in them rather than a sharp angle cut and welded.
My apprentice... Sorry, my brother came along and helped me out with some cutting and coffee.
With his help I made a pair of brackets up and tacked them into place. Oh, to get my position for the gearbox I first made sure the shaft was in the centre of the chassis rails. Then remembering my pinion angle on the gearbox was 2 degrees I lowered the jack under the gearbox so it was also perpendicular at 2 degrees and took all my measurements from there.
That was just yesterday so I haven't finished it yet but you get the idea. I will be putting another 2 bits of box between both brackets to strengthen it all up.
I have also been thinking of clearance around the air intake. Where it is just now it comes out pretty much where I will need a seat. I thought about raising the seat height (which I need to do anyway) but I would need to raise it way too much for it to be comfortable for me sitting.
My solution is to re-position the throttle body away from the manifold. I have bought 3 76mm Stainless steel elbows and found some 6mm stainless to use as flanges and using my Tig I plan to join it all so it will look something like this, with the throttle body now above and pointed behind. Aslong as its airtight it shouldn't cause any running issues.
Remember the 'bonnet' has a double hump so there is plenty of clearance underneath.
Oh, The engine mounts arrived so i also put them on.
I am setting myself a goal. The Scottish Ford day I went to last year was good fun and I hope to get it along again this year. So, my goal is to have the van towed down like last time but for it to be able to move under its own power to get it into position at the show. Which means I have a lot to do like finish up the engine bay, prop shaft, brakes and steering re-hauled, modified, replaced etc.. Scottish Ford day is September 7th, so 7 months and 12 days to go. Wish me luck!
Thanks guys!
December part 2
Well, I was going to wait until later on to post this but the news is too good to wait. The photos are a mixture of crappy tablet photos and normal digital camera photos so the quality may not be the best.
On Friday evening my brother helped me get the other Lexus along to the garage. I didn't have any insurance so we had to tow it. I know it was probably still not very legal but atleast it was less illegal than driving it without insurance. We used a one man tow and I got my Bro to sit in the other Lexus so he could help me brake. Both of them together was just about 40 foot long.
Then, yesterday I went along to the garage to start the stripping of the engine bay. I tried searching on various forums about removing an engine from an LS400 but I couldn't find anything so I thought id document the process of doing it for others. I don't go into detail about how to remove it, more of a list and in the order I done it.
First I started with the bonnet, 4 bolts and the window washer tube to remove.
Next up was the removal of the battery and battery tray. There are 4 bolts holding the tray down.
Then the air intake.
After that I jacked the car up and took the Frankenstein of an exhaust off. (for sale if anyone's interested)
Whilst under there I took the prop shaft bolts off.
I then drained the radiator and removed that. 2 Bolts hold the radiator on at the top, careful when removing the transmission lines as some fluid will come out. There is also a block connector on the radiator to take off.
Up next was the removal off the radiator fan. 4 bolts and a tap of a hammer to free it off.
To make the engine removal easier I decided to take the power steering pump off. I got under the car and disconnected the power steering lines with a bucket underneath to catch the fluid. Make sure to turn the steering a few times to pump as much of the fluid out as you can.
The pump is held on with 3 bolts, one on the front of the block and 2 behind the pump.
After that I called it a night and went home. Then today I got up early and picked my brother up and we headed back to the garage to get on with it.
I wanted to take the A/C pump off. Ofcourse this is going to be filled with refrigerant gas. I know your supposed to get it drained professionally but well, needs must and all so I jammed a set of pliers in the valve to release the pressure then undone 2 lines to the pump and another 4 bolts.
On the engine bay firewall you can see the wiring re the harness goes into the interior. There are 2 nuts holding the rubber grommet in place. Inside you want to remove the carpet, air bag and a bit of the dash to get access to the ECU and another box that I don't know what it was called. Unplug the connectors then pull the loom through to the engine bay.
Then there are a few other obvious connectors and not so obvious Earthing straps to remove but that's about the jist of it. The next step was to get the engine out. My brother went under the car and took the gearbox bracket off (4bolts) . Then we put the engine crane into position and tied a bit of rope around the lifting points and put a little bit of tension on it.
Ross wrestling with the rope.
Back underneath I thought it would be wise to slacken the anti roll bar to let it drop down a bit, 4 bolts that hold the bushes in place and a nut on each side of the ball joint. Only thing left was to undo the engine mounts, 2 bolts.
Then the big step, jacking the engine out. We managed to jack it up a bit and pull. There was a earthing strap that Ross managed to notice and stop us in time before damaging it. It did get jammed and for a while I was certain I had to undo the other bolts on the propshaft linkage, so I wasted about 25 mins doing that and it still wouldn't budge. Turns out the exhaust header was hitting against the steering rack. A good mighty shove and it released its grip and it was starting to come out quite easy. Easy until we reached what we thought was the Max height of the engine crane.
To make a bit more clearance I removed the wheels and let the body down a bit more. Doing so gave us just enough clearance and the before we knew it, the engine was out.
After a bit of celebration and gazing at its magnificence I set it down on a pallet to take the strain off the engine hoist. We had plenty of time to kill so we thought we would see if we could place it into the van, just to see what exactly would need to be done to get it to fit.
We put the engine crane back to work but it just wouldn't pick it up. The engine crane has always been a bit funny. I remember when we were taking the engine out of the van it took ages to get it to lift. I thought it may have not had enough fluid in it so I took the little rubber bung off and filled it up but that didn't do anything. Then I released the valve and manually extended and retracted the piston which I think helped as when I retracted it right down it gave me the money shot and squirted fluid all over my face. It worked fine after that..... It even went higher up than before, which would have helped earlier on.
So, engine on crane and jacked up. We removed a wheel from the van to make it easier getting the engine in the passenger door.
It was a tight squeeze but it got in.
Feeling a bit excited and my head rushing 1000mph thinking of all the cans of worms.
We were just going to rest it on top of a bit of wood and the box on the chassis so we could visualize how it would look but excitedly decided to get it lower and more of how it would look. To do so we encountered a few extra bits to remove. The oil filter was hitting against the chassis so that got removed and the exhaust manifolds were fowling the chassis so they got removed. Then the engine mounts were taking off and it managed to slide roughly into position. The What's in the way now is the bar that joins both hubs in the steering which I think I could maybe dog-leg or U bend out of the way but, its in! So, to all the naysayer's out there saying it wouldn't fit, it does! ๐ .
Ok, OK, I know its not really in and installed but its looking promising, its a huge relief for me anyway. So with a million and one things in my head now about what direction to take and lists of what to do to get it properly in I will do some mundane things like removing the ret of the wiring look from the Lexus and various other pieces I will need.
Oh, and a special thanks to my Brother, You were a huge help today!
December part 2
Well, I was going to wait until later on to post this but the news is too good to wait. The photos are a mixture of crappy tablet photos and normal digital camera photos so the quality may not be the best.
On Friday evening my brother helped me get the other Lexus along to the garage. I didn't have any insurance so we had to tow it. I know it was probably still not very legal but atleast it was less illegal than driving it without insurance. We used a one man tow and I got my Bro to sit in the other Lexus so he could help me brake. Both of them together was just about 40 foot long.
Then, yesterday I went along to the garage to start the stripping of the engine bay. I tried searching on various forums about removing an engine from an LS400 but I couldn't find anything so I thought id document the process of doing it for others. I don't go into detail about how to remove it, more of a list and in the order I done it.
First I started with the bonnet, 4 bolts and the window washer tube to remove.
Next up was the removal of the battery and battery tray. There are 4 bolts holding the tray down.
Then the air intake.
After that I jacked the car up and took the Frankenstein of an exhaust off. (for sale if anyone's interested)
Whilst under there I took the prop shaft bolts off.
I then drained the radiator and removed that. 2 Bolts hold the radiator on at the top, careful when removing the transmission lines as some fluid will come out. There is also a block connector on the radiator to take off.
Up next was the removal off the radiator fan. 4 bolts and a tap of a hammer to free it off.
To make the engine removal easier I decided to take the power steering pump off. I got under the car and disconnected the power steering lines with a bucket underneath to catch the fluid. Make sure to turn the steering a few times to pump as much of the fluid out as you can.
The pump is held on with 3 bolts, one on the front of the block and 2 behind the pump.
After that I called it a night and went home. Then today I got up early and picked my brother up and we headed back to the garage to get on with it.
I wanted to take the A/C pump off. Ofcourse this is going to be filled with refrigerant gas. I know your supposed to get it drained professionally but well, needs must and all so I jammed a set of pliers in the valve to release the pressure then undone 2 lines to the pump and another 4 bolts.
On the engine bay firewall you can see the wiring re the harness goes into the interior. There are 2 nuts holding the rubber grommet in place. Inside you want to remove the carpet, air bag and a bit of the dash to get access to the ECU and another box that I don't know what it was called. Unplug the connectors then pull the loom through to the engine bay.
Then there are a few other obvious connectors and not so obvious Earthing straps to remove but that's about the jist of it. The next step was to get the engine out. My brother went under the car and took the gearbox bracket off (4bolts) . Then we put the engine crane into position and tied a bit of rope around the lifting points and put a little bit of tension on it.
Ross wrestling with the rope.
Back underneath I thought it would be wise to slacken the anti roll bar to let it drop down a bit, 4 bolts that hold the bushes in place and a nut on each side of the ball joint. Only thing left was to undo the engine mounts, 2 bolts.
Then the big step, jacking the engine out. We managed to jack it up a bit and pull. There was a earthing strap that Ross managed to notice and stop us in time before damaging it. It did get jammed and for a while I was certain I had to undo the other bolts on the propshaft linkage, so I wasted about 25 mins doing that and it still wouldn't budge. Turns out the exhaust header was hitting against the steering rack. A good mighty shove and it released its grip and it was starting to come out quite easy. Easy until we reached what we thought was the Max height of the engine crane.
To make a bit more clearance I removed the wheels and let the body down a bit more. Doing so gave us just enough clearance and the before we knew it, the engine was out.
After a bit of celebration and gazing at its magnificence I set it down on a pallet to take the strain off the engine hoist. We had plenty of time to kill so we thought we would see if we could place it into the van, just to see what exactly would need to be done to get it to fit.
We put the engine crane back to work but it just wouldn't pick it up. The engine crane has always been a bit funny. I remember when we were taking the engine out of the van it took ages to get it to lift. I thought it may have not had enough fluid in it so I took the little rubber bung off and filled it up but that didn't do anything. Then I released the valve and manually extended and retracted the piston which I think helped as when I retracted it right down it gave me the money shot and squirted fluid all over my face. It worked fine after that..... It even went higher up than before, which would have helped earlier on.
So, engine on crane and jacked up. We removed a wheel from the van to make it easier getting the engine in the passenger door.
It was a tight squeeze but it got in.
Feeling a bit excited and my head rushing 1000mph thinking of all the cans of worms.
We were just going to rest it on top of a bit of wood and the box on the chassis so we could visualize how it would look but excitedly decided to get it lower and more of how it would look. To do so we encountered a few extra bits to remove. The oil filter was hitting against the chassis so that got removed and the exhaust manifolds were fowling the chassis so they got removed. Then the engine mounts were taking off and it managed to slide roughly into position. The What's in the way now is the bar that joins both hubs in the steering which I think I could maybe dog-leg or U bend out of the way but, its in! So, to all the naysayer's out there saying it wouldn't fit, it does! ๐ .
Ok, OK, I know its not really in and installed but its looking promising, its a huge relief for me anyway. So with a million and one things in my head now about what direction to take and lists of what to do to get it properly in I will do some mundane things like removing the ret of the wiring look from the Lexus and various other pieces I will need.
Oh, and a special thanks to my Brother, You were a huge help today!
December part 1
I've been taking it easy since I got the new Lex. I could have been finishing off the drivers door but I decided I would take a break from the van for a little bit. In the mean time I decided my welders could do with a cart to make moving them around the workshop easier. I didn't really go into too much detail with plans, I had it in my head how I wanted it to look and just went with it. I had 2 large rear wheels from an old power wash lying around and lots of scrap 3mm sheet from work collected already.
I wanted it to look nice as well as being practical so I put a bit more extra effort into it than I normally would. It had to hold my Mig, Tig, gas bottle and a drawer for accessories.
There's not a lot of build pictures for it as my digital camera is borked and im having to use my tablet in the mean time. I started with a basic frame made from 25mm box then cut the sides out and tacked them in, then the top and bottom shelves. I wanted a nice curved recess for the gas bottle so I cut the 3mm plate into 500mm strips, bent them around a smaller gas bottle then tacked them together. Tacked that to the cart and cut down the side to remove the excess.
After I got the basic shape done I made a drawer for it then welded it all up. Smoothed it down and a little bit of filler on some of the welds to tidy them up then a nice coat of blue we had lying around the work to match the welders. It took a bit of time but I wasn't doing anything else so it was a fun build to do.
I did go down to the van today. Next week is the big engine removal from the Lexus job so I went along to tidy up and prepare a few things. Once that was all done I was looking at the engine bay of the van and was thinking about what I'd need to remove to get the engine in. Its played on my mind for a long time about where to cut and so I had a good clear image of what id need to do. I felt confident enough with my plan to just go ahead and start cutting. The 1UZ-FE dimensions are around 26" cubed.
I marked out with my scribe the area I'd need to remove, the area left between the sides was around 36". That gives me 5" space each side for access when fitting.
I also had a few bolts to undo.
Then with a 1mm cutting disc in the grinder I started to cut.
Once cut the panel lifted straight up and out.
So now I have loads of space to fit a V8!.
Now I can't wait to get on with next week, Just got to get Christmas out the way first ๐ .
Oh, I have also put my little book on offer for the holiday period. For the next 2 weeks I have taken 35% off the price so for the UK that's ยฃ3.90 and for the USA that's $6.38 for 585 pages of images and reading . You could buy it for yourself, something to read on that nice shiny new tablet, laptop, phone etc... That someone bought you for Christmas or give it as a gift to someone you know that may be interested in it. Either way, it helps me out with the build.
This link will take you straight to the discounted price https://sellfy.com/p/zFxy/-kev/
Or click on the pic below.
If it asks for a discount code its - Kev
Merry Christmas everyone expect part 2 of this update late next week!
I've been taking it easy since I got the new Lex. I could have been finishing off the drivers door but I decided I would take a break from the van for a little bit. In the mean time I decided my welders could do with a cart to make moving them around the workshop easier. I didn't really go into too much detail with plans, I had it in my head how I wanted it to look and just went with it. I had 2 large rear wheels from an old power wash lying around and lots of scrap 3mm sheet from work collected already.
I wanted it to look nice as well as being practical so I put a bit more extra effort into it than I normally would. It had to hold my Mig, Tig, gas bottle and a drawer for accessories.
There's not a lot of build pictures for it as my digital camera is borked and im having to use my tablet in the mean time. I started with a basic frame made from 25mm box then cut the sides out and tacked them in, then the top and bottom shelves. I wanted a nice curved recess for the gas bottle so I cut the 3mm plate into 500mm strips, bent them around a smaller gas bottle then tacked them together. Tacked that to the cart and cut down the side to remove the excess.
After I got the basic shape done I made a drawer for it then welded it all up. Smoothed it down and a little bit of filler on some of the welds to tidy them up then a nice coat of blue we had lying around the work to match the welders. It took a bit of time but I wasn't doing anything else so it was a fun build to do.
I did go down to the van today. Next week is the big engine removal from the Lexus job so I went along to tidy up and prepare a few things. Once that was all done I was looking at the engine bay of the van and was thinking about what I'd need to remove to get the engine in. Its played on my mind for a long time about where to cut and so I had a good clear image of what id need to do. I felt confident enough with my plan to just go ahead and start cutting. The 1UZ-FE dimensions are around 26" cubed.
I marked out with my scribe the area I'd need to remove, the area left between the sides was around 36". That gives me 5" space each side for access when fitting.
I also had a few bolts to undo.
Then with a 1mm cutting disc in the grinder I started to cut.
Once cut the panel lifted straight up and out.
So now I have loads of space to fit a V8!.
Now I can't wait to get on with next week, Just got to get Christmas out the way first ๐ .
Oh, I have also put my little book on offer for the holiday period. For the next 2 weeks I have taken 35% off the price so for the UK that's ยฃ3.90 and for the USA that's $6.38 for 585 pages of images and reading . You could buy it for yourself, something to read on that nice shiny new tablet, laptop, phone etc... That someone bought you for Christmas or give it as a gift to someone you know that may be interested in it. Either way, it helps me out with the build.
This link will take you straight to the discounted price https://sellfy.com/p/zFxy/-kev/
Or click on the pic below.
If it asks for a discount code its - Kev
Merry Christmas everyone expect part 2 of this update late next week!
