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.
CA POPPY wrote:
Fabulous news, Kevin! Who knows where this well deserved publicity will take you? Hopefully to great success with your amazing talent and patience! Just as an aside, what does the title of the article allude to?
on edit: Oops, just realized it's a take-off on "Old Father Time." :W
Is that the way Thames is pronounced? I always assumed it sounded like "Timms."
Close, its actually just a reference the river Thames in London. Its pronounced "Tay-ms". Being a Scotsman, i would have rather had a different title ๐ .
April Update,
Last time i wrote i was just getting started on the side door area. All the******had been cut out and was awaiting fabricated. So, i started on the inside flooring/wheel tub area.
This section is made up from 4 separate panels, beginning with the easiest bit, i made haste.
Nice simple cut out.
Couple of folds.
Tacked in.
OK, what next, i went for the flooring area around the door.
Folded the repair panel up and tacked a couple bits of box section to make sure the panel was flush and wouldn't try to move when welding it in place.
This is the adjoining piece to the previous one, worked out easier to split it into 2 sections.
That got tacked into place as well.
The wheel tub is a bit tricky. It has a nice curve where it joins the floor section. I got a piece of sheet much larger than i needed and bent it around a piece of tubing.
Then i got another piece of tubing slightly smaller in diameter and done the same to make the curve a bit tighter.
Kept repeating the technique until i got it as close to the original curve as i could.
Then i cut the excess off and folded the lip.
Which inevitably got tacked in place also.
Doh, silly me, i forgot to drill the holes for the plug-welds before tacking. Little tip if you happen to do the same mistake as me. Use the spot weld cutter drill bit to make some holes, cuts a hole in the panel you want and not the other.
That was that area done, now to sort out the upper section.
Once cut off i used it as a template to make the new one. There is actually a lot happening in this panel, quite a few subtle curves and twists.
Lots of clamps to keep it in place.
Welded up.
I had been welding the floor section up at the same time. Doing it in little bursts to minimise distortion and letting it cool.
Then cleaning it up a little.
Third thing to do was the side door opening sill/brace. It was made from roughly 2mm sheet so i decided to go stronger.
Using more of the 3mm plate from work i went to my old work place and used their sheet folder .
Doing this meant i had to cut the remainder of the sill/brace out.
Which meant i could clean up and repair the outriggers at the same time.
Lots of holes for the plug welding. I don't want to be the person to take this off. (hopefully that will never be needed anyway.)
Welded the door latch post piece back on as well and cleaned it up, nice'n'strong now.
Getting there, this little piece was the next up.
Made a couple of sections using the original as a template again.
Then a 10mm strip for the edge.
Looks horrible eh, soon get that sorted.
I put the back piece repair in first on the body using my good'ol chums "the magnets".
Tacked in.
Then a quick skim with the grinder.
Last bit to fabricate was the door hinge brace.
Unfortunately i forgot to take photos as i was making this, so eh, well, here it is finished. Just done the usual, made a cardboard template, cut it out of metal, few taps with the hammer and then its done.
Stuck it in place and tarted it up a bit to look good.
And that was that! Side door area done.
I decided to give myself another little boost and see how the side door fitted after all that. So i cut out the half the diagonal brace on the inside as it was obstructing the door opening at the top.
Bootiful!
It even opens, see!
Then, just to get an idea of it again i placed the side panel in place to get a feel for it.
Looking good, but here's the real test. Can it hold 13 and a half stone of pure muscle?
Apparently so,
That's all for this time. Ive been dragging my heels this month really. I could of had more done but for some reason i just haven't felt that too much into it. Never mind, I'll get my mojo back. To be honest, i haven't got a lot of work left to do to the main body of the van now. Just the passengers door opening and a couple of bits around that area. Then its onto the mechanicals to give me a break from sheet metal for a bit, woohoo!
Those are all good ideas guys, keep them coming.
March update
If you rememeber a couple months ago i said i had some exciting news, well the van has been featured in a magazine called 'classics monthly'. Its quite a big magazine in the UK, check out their website (http://www.classicsmonthly.com) Its a good 6 page spread that im very happy with. I wish i could put it all up here to show but due to copyright i cant. The editor has sent me a small image so i can put it on the forum though.
I had a good laugh the day the photos were being taken. Its also gave me a good buzz to keep going. Thanks guys!
The next stage of the bodywork has been the passangers side rear. I started on the lower waist-line. Thankfully its not as bad as the drivers side
Inspect the bad bits and cut them out.
Measure up the bad.
replace it with the good.
clean it up
And repeat, il let the pictures do the talking.
Ok, so now that that is over. My next bit is the rear of the side door opening. The metal here has corroded quite a bit.
I had to take a little bit of time to think what to cut out first as there is a few layers here that need to be sorted. First to come out was the door hinge brace.
It was a bit awkward getting to some of the spot welds so it looked a bit of a mess when out.
Little bit of carefull tapping and some CSI style re-creation i have it back to how it was so i can use it as my template.
I placed it to the side and carried on inspecting the rot.
I needed to cut the lower of the door post out to repair so i thought id put in an extra brace to stop it springing back.
Next to come off was half of the door step/sill peice. This looked to be a bit thicker than the rest of the bodywork, id say about 2mm. I think i may replace the whole peice with some 3mm like i did with the rear doors.
Then i cut the rusty peice that held the door hinge brace.
This let me get to the 'floor' and rear tub that needs replace. Where they meet they have been spotwelded together and there was a lot of rust between the seam so i though seeing as ive taken it this far i may aswell sort this out before it becomes a bigger issue later. I marked out with chalk where to cut.
Finally im left with good metal to weld to in this area.
And in order of what i need to fix first. I need to make this
The floor/wheel tub. This is actually 3 seperate panels once i break the spot welds.
Door hinge base
Side step
Door post lower
(forgot to take that pitcure, oops)
Door hinge brace
Hopefully the next update i will have all this done.
Thanks for looking. Dont forget to get your copy of 'Classics monthly' ๐
March update
If you rememeber a couple months ago i said i had some exciting news, well the van has been featured in a magazine called 'classics monthly'. Its quite a big magazine in the UK, check out their website (http://www.classicsmonthly.com) Its a good 6 page spread that im very happy with. I wish i could put it all up here to show but due to copyright i cant. The editor has sent me a small image so i can put it on the forum though.
I had a good laugh the day the photos were being taken. Its also gave me a good buzz to keep going. Thanks guys!
The next stage of the bodywork has been the passangers side rear. I started on the lower waist-line. Thankfully its not as bad as the drivers side
Inspect the bad bits and cut them out.
Measure up the bad.
replace it with the good.
clean it up
And repeat, il let the pictures do the talking.
Ok, so now that that is over. My next bit is the rear of the side door opening. The metal here has corroded quite a bit.
I had to take a little bit of time to think what to cut out first as there is a few layers here that need to be sorted. First to come out was the door hinge brace.
It was a bit awkward getting to some of the spot welds so it looked a bit of a mess when out.
Little bit of carefull tapping and some CSI style re-creation i have it back to how it was so i can use it as my template.
I placed it to the side and carried on inspecting the rot.
I needed to cut the lower of the door post out to repair so i thought id put in an extra brace to stop it springing back.
Next to come off was half of the door step/sill peice. This looked to be a bit thicker than the rest of the bodywork, id say about 2mm. I think i may replace the whole peice with some 3mm like i did with the rear doors.
Then i cut the rusty peice that held the door hinge brace.
This let me get to the 'floor' and rear tub that needs replace. Where they meet they have been spotwelded together and there was a lot of rust between the seam so i though seeing as ive taken it this far i may aswell sort this out before it becomes a bigger issue later. I marked out with chalk where to cut.
Finally im left with good metal to weld to in this area.
And in order of what i need to fix first. I need to make this
The floor/wheel tub. This is actually 3 seperate panels once i break the spot welds.
Door hinge base
Side step
Door post lower
(forgot to take that pitcure, oops)
Door hinge brace
Hopefully the next update i will have all this done.
Thanks for looking. Dont forget to get your copy of 'Classics monthly' ๐
Canadian Rainbirds wrote:
Kev, I have spent several weeks following your project since I discovered this thread. Internet is slow here so it takes a long time to load your great photos. (Here" is Zihuatanejo, where we winter, in south west Mexico--4 hours drive north of Acapulco)
Now I find it's going to take me another 2 1/2 years so see the finished product! Sigh! Looking forward to it.
Just wondering if this is your baby picture?
Art
Heh, thats a good one, i think i may need to take the same when i starting having little sprogs of my own.
February 2013
I got the Lexus sorted. Decided it would be better to get an original Lexus timing belt. It made it a lot easier actually as the belt also had the timing marks on it. Ive had no problems so far so its good to know the engine has a new timing belt on it for when i go to put it in the van. It also passed its mot so its good for another year. If it makes it that far, hopefully I'll be needing the engine sooner than that.
I took a little break from the van the past month. I chose to more than anything. I just fancied doing nothing for a bit. Sometimes when i wake up on a Saturday i feel almost obliged to go and do the van rather than actually look forward to it which is something i must break out of so that's why i was taking it easy, allowing myself to not over do it and destroy the enjoyment i get from it.
Anyway, last week i was finishing work at 2:30pm so i thought seeing as I'm already in my overalls id go to the garage and do something. Now that the front was nearly complete i wanted to set myself a goal of getting that piece in primer by the end of the week. I had a little snagging list of things yet to do , first thing was the drivers seat area, a couple of patches needed welded in.
tacked in place
Then welded and cleaned
I also had to make the little bracing panel that goes underneath.
Sorted!
Next up was the A-post. If you remember the passengers side was really badly rotten on the inside and i didn't want to take any chances as it wasn't looking too good from the outside of the drivers side.
Once it was off it wasn't really that bad, but I'm glad i did as it let me take care of the surface rust on the inside.
The panel i cut off will also be treated for surface rust.
The lower lip panel was pretty bad though so i thought id replace that little section.
Cut it out
Forgot to take another photo before tacking the a-post panel back in but you can kinda see it. Very similar to what i done for the whole waistline on the drivers side i done months ago.
Cleaned up again, you could never tell Ive been behind there ๐
There was a little piece i had to replace on the drivers seat pan area just behind the door opening.
Loadsa rust/primer converter in there so it doesn't repeat its self.
Quick template done.
Cut it out in metal, one fold and tack in place.
When i first go the van it had been fitted with a light bar which i wasn't too keen on so I'm not going to be putting it back on. That meant having to sort out the holes that had been put there for it. It looks like the light bar mounts were domed as the holes had been 'pushed' through so the metal was kinda like a slight cone shape.
Here's the passengers side as i had already cut the old one out and never took a photo.
Easiest way to cut it out was using a hole saw in the drill.
Then using the same hole saw i cut another disc out from some good steel.
Tip : if you can make a repair a circle then you will get a lot less distortion when welding.
Dressed.
The paltry seatbelts that were fitted previously were pretty poor. Whoever had fitted them just drilled a hole from the outside so i needed to fill that hole too.
Magnets are your friend. They can hold tiny pieces in place and at the right level.
Finished.
Bit of a rusty patch on the floor that i never noticed until now, silly me.
Welded in, forgot to take an after photo (i was on a roll so that's why i forgot to take a lot of pictures)
Also a bit of the windscreen surround that i of course forgot to take a photo of when it was done. I did fix it, honest.
With all those out the way i prepared to prime. Lots of sanding, buffing, grinding, wire-brushing etc..
Then acid was, degrease and tack cloth
Then i mixed up some primer, I applied it today so i managed to succeed in my goal, woohoo.
I only applied it to the areas that i was defiantly finished with metal work wise, so that's pretty much just half the front and drivers side interior.
Now all i have to do to the main body is the passengers side. Then, then i can start on the mechanical, slowly but surely i will get there.
Something i have been thinking about. As a lot of you will know that once you are married money gets a lot tighter, especially if your planning to have a family in the future. Ive been thinking of somehow making money from what I'm doing to the van to help pay for bits for it. I really enjoy writing this blog and letting other people see the progress as I'm going. I have had a few people in the past complain about how long the photos take to load or if i can send them higher res pictures so i thought about making a book CD. I hate seeing people that are doing something ask for money and give nothing in return to the person that donates (except a real charity of course). If i made a book CD then i could sell them and post them out world wide. That way anyone can look at the project any time and see higher res photos.
I actually started to make a book a few months ago as i planned to make it a 'photo album' for myself to print out.
Here is a little sample. Click to make them bigger.
http://oi45.tinypic.com/zjhxyq.jpg
http://oi49.tinypic.com/2vd61pg.jpg
http://oi45.tinypic.com/w1oph.jpg
The final book would be in a .pdf file format and the pages would be much larger than these, i think these images are around 50% of the size you will see in the .pdf
It would certainly help me buy stuff for the van. I was thinking of a cost of about minimum ยฃ5 including P&P for the UK and about $8 including P&P for the USA, then you could add a little extra if you were feeling generous ๐ . I would also post it anywhere else in the world. I also thought i could add my folder of over 1000 original photos at 3648 x 2736 for a little bit extra.
Of course, it all depends on demand, is this something anyone would buy? I imagine the final book would be about 500 pages worth with all my photos up to this point.
To put it into perspective, when i get paid i have about ยฃ30 to myself a week and i still need to buy a rear axle, door rubbers, window rubbers, paint, wheel banding, disc brakes, callipers, interior, lots and lots of various consumables etc.... I mean, i know i will get there but if i could make some cash from it then it would be a lot quicker.
Don't worry if no one does want to buy it, i will always keep showing my updates.
Kev, I have spent several weeks following your project since I discovered this thread. Internet is slow here so it takes a long time to load your great photos. (Here" is Zihuatanejo, where we winter, in south west Mexico--4 hours drive north of Acapulco)
Now I find it's going to take me another 2 1/2 years so see the finished product! Sigh! Looking forward to it.
Just wondering if this is your baby picture?
Art
Now I find it's going to take me another 2 1/2 years so see the finished product! Sigh! Looking forward to it.
Just wondering if this is your baby picture?
Art
