I made a post about a month ago about i got my Thames ( http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/24150005.cfm ). Since then ive made a start stripping it out and assessing all the******i have to do to get it back to life.
I figured out how the 'dining table' was set up
and how the seats fold out into 'beds'
This is the first weekend we went to the garage and the magic started.
My girlfriend has taken an unusual interest in helping me to restore the van. I think its great as if i was in the garage myself it could get a bit boring but its a good laugh having her around and helping me out. Its ok right now at the stripping down stage but i think she may get bored when I'm welding and cutting **** up. I was thinking i could buy her a sewing machine and she could re-upholster the seats and curtains etc..
Yeah, check out those comfy ugly slacks I'm rocking.
I got Jana started on removing the light lenses and units etc.. she even managed to get the rear bumpers off herself. I don't mean to sound patronizing but when someone calls a ratchet the "clicky-thing" its quite a big step for her.
I even bought her a special tool kit for the job, shes since bought herself a proper tool bag and pliers set.
First door removed. It was a ***** as the hinge bolts were rusted solid, lucky for me there is a huge tool store opposite the garage (machine mart) so i managed to get an impact screwdriver.
All the seats and interior came out easy, the gas cooker was a bit of a joke really, The cage that held the gas bottle underneath the floor was about 8 inches from the ground and about an inch from the propshaft, then the gas pipe went to the cooker where someone had used a T-piece for some reason, with one pipe going to the hob and the other pipe was bent round a few times to stop gas leaking.... i don't know why the never just used a single pipe. There was a lot of cork insulation which i think had been stuck on with tar. Oh what fun i had with a scraper. Jana 'helped', but well, she got bored of it a lot quicker than i did.
Handsome eh,
Then i got stuck into the wiring loom, there was a lot of house-hold wire in one colour for switches and lights all over the place. I know I'm going to be re-doing the interior lighting differently so those got binned and i kept the standard loom. Note the intensity of my concentration.
The next weekend we started on taking the pop-up roof off. The fabric of the roof its self isn't too bad. There is a rip in it but its along the seam so once stitched up it will be ok. It was held down with aluminium strips and brackets.
WEST SIDE Y'ALL
peek-a-boo
Starting to get quite bare now, in total we found 3 dead birds in the van, 2 of which were skeletons and the other was quite fresh looking underneath the radiator intake, perhaps from the drive home on the trailer, oops.
We got the other door off and then i set about the lower panels, there pretty easy to come off as there all bolt on panels, something Ford promoted as a key selling point apparently.
The right lower panel its self was not bad, just a bit of surface rust and a few dings. Even behind the panel it was not bad. You can see the battery tray is pretty much gone but thats not really a problem at all, its just a welded up box. Although a lot of rust came flaking off as you can see.
The back of the wheel well is the worst, good thing is a lot of the panels to replace are just flat sheet with bends in it.
The other side was a bit harder to take off as it had spot welds along the side door opening but it came off none the less.
During all this a few bolts were completely seized and i had to grind them off, sending sparks flying. I finally thought id be a lot safer doing all this **** with the petrol tank out. Only problem was the bolts underneath had seized and the only access was to rip the floor out and take them off from the top.
So out the floor it went. The guy that rents the other side of the garage popped down and gave me a hand. The floor was inch thick plywood and all the coachscrews holding it down were, as you could guess, seized. We came up with a plan of him using a big lever and me drilling lots of holes around the coachscrews. You can see the petrol tank is quite small for something to go travelling with, may need to find something bigger. Once i disconnected the tank i poured the petrol away and it was pure orange, like irn-bru. Must have been laying in the tank for years.
The weekend after my brother came along instead of Jana as i wanted to get the engine/gearbox and the rest of the glass out. We even managed to get the rest of the doors off.
Glass out
Checking out how to remove the engine. We disconnected the gearbox first and tied rope around the engine to lift it straight up.
My garage buddys engine crane came in handy.
CHEEESE!!
A full 53bhp or so of pure antique metal
This is the hole that has been left from taking the motor out, The plan is to replace it with a 3 litre Cologne/Essex V6, i know it fits as ive seen the set up before in a Thames van. I'm going to go for an automatic box too as i just want it as a cruiser and i hope to keep the column change and rig it up to the autobox.
Thats as far as ive gotten with the van. I'm pretty much at the stage where i need to take the suspension, steering and rear axle off but before i do that i need to make up a way of supporting the van off the ground. I was looking at building a rotisserie but i came up with a slightly different idea. I'm going to build 2 huge dodecagons that split into 2 pieces. That way i can roll it on its side and sandblast/repair underneath then roll it back, unbolt the top half of the dodecagons and work on the roof etc..
Only thing is its going to cost about ยฃ180 in material so i need to do a few homers to make up the money for that. I also just put down a deposit to rent a new house with Jana so money is quite tight. Next update will probably be in a few more weeks.
I figured out how the 'dining table' was set up
and how the seats fold out into 'beds'
This is the first weekend we went to the garage and the magic started.
My girlfriend has taken an unusual interest in helping me to restore the van. I think its great as if i was in the garage myself it could get a bit boring but its a good laugh having her around and helping me out. Its ok right now at the stripping down stage but i think she may get bored when I'm welding and cutting **** up. I was thinking i could buy her a sewing machine and she could re-upholster the seats and curtains etc..
Yeah, check out those comfy ugly slacks I'm rocking.
I got Jana started on removing the light lenses and units etc.. she even managed to get the rear bumpers off herself. I don't mean to sound patronizing but when someone calls a ratchet the "clicky-thing" its quite a big step for her.
I even bought her a special tool kit for the job, shes since bought herself a proper tool bag and pliers set.
First door removed. It was a ***** as the hinge bolts were rusted solid, lucky for me there is a huge tool store opposite the garage (machine mart) so i managed to get an impact screwdriver.
All the seats and interior came out easy, the gas cooker was a bit of a joke really, The cage that held the gas bottle underneath the floor was about 8 inches from the ground and about an inch from the propshaft, then the gas pipe went to the cooker where someone had used a T-piece for some reason, with one pipe going to the hob and the other pipe was bent round a few times to stop gas leaking.... i don't know why the never just used a single pipe. There was a lot of cork insulation which i think had been stuck on with tar. Oh what fun i had with a scraper. Jana 'helped', but well, she got bored of it a lot quicker than i did.
Handsome eh,
Then i got stuck into the wiring loom, there was a lot of house-hold wire in one colour for switches and lights all over the place. I know I'm going to be re-doing the interior lighting differently so those got binned and i kept the standard loom. Note the intensity of my concentration.
The next weekend we started on taking the pop-up roof off. The fabric of the roof its self isn't too bad. There is a rip in it but its along the seam so once stitched up it will be ok. It was held down with aluminium strips and brackets.
WEST SIDE Y'ALL
peek-a-boo
Starting to get quite bare now, in total we found 3 dead birds in the van, 2 of which were skeletons and the other was quite fresh looking underneath the radiator intake, perhaps from the drive home on the trailer, oops.
We got the other door off and then i set about the lower panels, there pretty easy to come off as there all bolt on panels, something Ford promoted as a key selling point apparently.
The right lower panel its self was not bad, just a bit of surface rust and a few dings. Even behind the panel it was not bad. You can see the battery tray is pretty much gone but thats not really a problem at all, its just a welded up box. Although a lot of rust came flaking off as you can see.
The back of the wheel well is the worst, good thing is a lot of the panels to replace are just flat sheet with bends in it.
The other side was a bit harder to take off as it had spot welds along the side door opening but it came off none the less.
During all this a few bolts were completely seized and i had to grind them off, sending sparks flying. I finally thought id be a lot safer doing all this **** with the petrol tank out. Only problem was the bolts underneath had seized and the only access was to rip the floor out and take them off from the top.
So out the floor it went. The guy that rents the other side of the garage popped down and gave me a hand. The floor was inch thick plywood and all the coachscrews holding it down were, as you could guess, seized. We came up with a plan of him using a big lever and me drilling lots of holes around the coachscrews. You can see the petrol tank is quite small for something to go travelling with, may need to find something bigger. Once i disconnected the tank i poured the petrol away and it was pure orange, like irn-bru. Must have been laying in the tank for years.
The weekend after my brother came along instead of Jana as i wanted to get the engine/gearbox and the rest of the glass out. We even managed to get the rest of the doors off.
Glass out
Checking out how to remove the engine. We disconnected the gearbox first and tied rope around the engine to lift it straight up.
My garage buddys engine crane came in handy.
CHEEESE!!
A full 53bhp or so of pure antique metal
This is the hole that has been left from taking the motor out, The plan is to replace it with a 3 litre Cologne/Essex V6, i know it fits as ive seen the set up before in a Thames van. I'm going to go for an automatic box too as i just want it as a cruiser and i hope to keep the column change and rig it up to the autobox.
Thats as far as ive gotten with the van. I'm pretty much at the stage where i need to take the suspension, steering and rear axle off but before i do that i need to make up a way of supporting the van off the ground. I was looking at building a rotisserie but i came up with a slightly different idea. I'm going to build 2 huge dodecagons that split into 2 pieces. That way i can roll it on its side and sandblast/repair underneath then roll it back, unbolt the top half of the dodecagons and work on the roof etc..
Only thing is its going to cost about ยฃ180 in material so i need to do a few homers to make up the money for that. I also just put down a deposit to rent a new house with Jana so money is quite tight. Next update will probably be in a few more weeks.
hotsparks wrote:
Hey Kev, were all still reading your updates. :C
I was just wondering how the hinges were on your doors. Are they very worn out and loose or are they snug and tight? Don't try to fit the door gaps with loose hinges. With the doors open see if you can wiggle the doors up or down. If the hinges are loose you can take the pins out and maybe drill the holes bigger and make up some larger pins to fit the larger holes. Then you can get some grease in there and make them swing nice and smooth.
The rear door hinges are still good and tight
I'm just wondering how is the budget holding out for this project? Or are you even keeping track? Have you kept track of how many hours you have worked on it so far? I know it is a lot. Keep it going. If you don't finish it will be all wasted time but I know you will finish. I can tell you will.
I dont really have a budget as such, but id say including the price of the van and the metal ive bought im probably about ยฃ1500-ยฃ2000 so far, considering these vans are about ยฃ12,000 complete im doing not too bad. Its not a huge money pit for me to throw money at. The hours, well, i havent counted those but i can guess a lot. I will never give up on it, ive put way too much time and effort into it, plus writing this blog for others to see would have been one big pointless exercise. All the compliments and suggestions from everyone on the board helps me to keep track of it all too.
CA POPPY wrote:lizzie wrote:
This has been an amazing journey. Thank you for taking us along. Can't wait to see photos of the finished van. Best of Luck. lizzie
Yes! I keep wanting to hit Fast Forward and see the finished project. I know it's going to be beautiful. Kev, I was wondering how you will register this vehicle when it's done. Are there ID numbers on it? Do you have any paperwork for it? You can tell I am an old govt employee, worried about details like that. :B Congrats on the upcoming nuptials. Hoping you and your very understanding lady have a long, happy life together.
Here in the UK you have what is called a V5, as long as i have that then the van is still registered for the road. As im not using it on the road right now it is classed as being 'sorn' When the van is done all i have to do is go to the postoffice and get a tax disc for it.
November update 2012
Well, i did it, i got married. It was a great day and i now have a wife. One extra cool thing was my dad made me a sword. He made my brother a dirk (long dagger) for his wedding a few years ago and i remember saying i wanted one too when i got married, but bigger (as brothers do). So my wish came true and he hand crafted me this.
Its a hand and a half sword. The blade was a piece of steel he found in a skip i think and the handle was a piece of red-wood i gave him a while ago. The pommel piece was from a hydraulic ram cut to size and the brass was from bits he had lying around. Ive mentioned before how old-skool my dad is and he cut it all by hand, with a hacksaw and file, then hand polished to mirror like reflection. I love it!. He even made a strap for me to be able to wear it on my back, i wore it the whole day.
Me and my beautiful wife , Jana Barlas.
I wasnt formerly told i was getting a sword so it was a great surprise to get it a week before the wedding. I did have a huge incline i would get a sword though. So i wanted to make something for my dad as thanks. I thought about a little kilt pin so i started to draw a few designs and got stuck on a mini claymore style one, like this.
I had a little piece of stainless steel left over from a stove handle i made so i shaped it into a blade.
Then i got a thick piece of brass and scribed the shape of the guard piece on it. drilled 6 holes for the decorative part and roughly cut it out.
Then the most labourious part, using some small jewelers files i added some shape and rounded the decorative ends off.
Then i made the handle, i had thought about using some copper pipe but i really wanted it to be about 6mm wide all i could find was 8mm which put it out of scale a little. I then had an idea of using a piece of 6mm round bad and cutting a spiral in it with a hacksaw. Then using the jewlers files again, i rounded the cut mark off to give it a kind of 'rope' look.
After that i drilled a hole through the guard piece, into the blade and into the handle and tapped it to m4 i think, then threaded a piece of brass so when it was all tightend together it wouldnt come back off easily. A little ball of brass was put drilled and tapped and held in a drill. I used a file and spund the drill to act like a ghetto lathe then glued the brass end cap on the handle. I bought a basic large nappy style pin and welded it on the back of the blade part. Little bit of a spit and polish and it was done.
The day before the wedding we got the kilts from the hire shop and my dad tried his kilt ont. Thats when i gave it to him. When i first gave him it he said thanks and then i told him i made it he couldnt belive it, He thought i had just bought it, awesome.
Anyways, back to the main reason im writing this blog thing, the van! I did get a few days of work done when i could over all the wedding jazz. Just before the big day I made the other dished panel for the rear of the van, using the one i had made already as a template and working in a mirror reflection kind of way. Mark it all out using a scribe then chalk around it so i know what lines to follow, the cutting disc was a good size for the dished area.
dished part first, lots of blows then tidying up the edge.
Cut and fold the lines and weld it up.
I then tacked them in place to get an idea of how the back end will fit together.
Not bad, getting there.
I was driving home from work one night with the work van and i drove past an newsagent that had chucked an old newspaper stand out in a skip. So i went back at night and took it out, perfect for keeping my garage a bit neater.
The next peice i started on was getting the rear valance sorted. I was waiting on some more 1.2mm sheet so i thought id make the smaller peice up in 2 sections then join them together. This is the peice i started on.
outside:
Inside:
2 rectangles cut to size.
I folded them up seperatly on my folder.
I drew in chalk on the old piece to help me identify the crease lines.
Using the hammer, vice and a few other things i got the lines to match.
Both ends done i tacked them to a straight edge and clamped them, then welded them together to make one longer panel.
Welded up
Using my new hole saw i cut the 3 larger ones then drilled out the rest for spot welding them to the other panels.
I clamped it into position on the van to get an idea of it all together
Neat.
On another note, i think ive gone off getting it dipped (this van has had lots of plan changes eh) . The main reason is cost, it would be minimum ยฃ1000 for it all to be done and thats not including trailering it somewehere down south, petrol, etc.... So, ive went back to the rust converter paint. I cleaned up the waist line metal on the inside and splodged a whole load of this stuff on it.
The next part for the rear valance was the top peice. I wanted to re-do this in 3mm plate as this will get a lot of foot traffic being the first thing you step on to get in the back of the van. The old peice was all bent and dented and i dont want that. I had to bide my time though as i wanted to make this in the work and seeing as they helped out a lot anyway with holidays for the wedding i didnt want to push my luck. In the mean time i made a little start on the front, just under the drivers side wheel arch to be precise. I forgot my camera this day (well, i thought i did, turns out i just never noticed it was there) so i used my tablet pc for these, photo quality isnt the best.
Outside doesnt look too bad
But from the inside its gone.
I made some chalk marks of where to cut.
Then quickly changed my mind as i realised i was cutting a double seam, so i moved it over a wee bit, oops.
*sigh*
Just cut that******out and re-make it.
As i was cutting i was making a plan of where to start. I treat it like a puzzle "well, i cant start there as that needs to be done first, but if i do that then that will mess up the idea for that bit, mmmhmmm, well, il do that, then i can do that."
First bit to do was remake the area around the rear inside. There is an aperture for a little storage box, i think it was just a dormobile thing as its been cut out with a torch or something and not very neat, like the rear wheel arch area i already fixed. It should become a bit clearer as i work.
I had this to work from.
Little bit of measruing and guessing i had this panel to cut out.
Cut cut, snip snip.
Folded up and tacked in place.
Clear now?
I started on the next peice to put in there, that joins the floor pan area to this panel i made.
Folded up
To be continued.
I thought seeing as it was after the wedding that enough time had passed at work so i asked to stay behind one night so i could cut the rear valance top out of some scrap 3mm plate. A lot easier at work as we have a plasma cutter there. I never had my camera there so these are when i got it back to the garage. for the lip at the rear i used a peice of 25mm angle with one edge cut to 13mm and tacked on to the top. Heres the old and somewhat new peice.
Bit closer
I tacked it to a peice of square box to minimize distortion. I decided to Tig weld it along to make it a bit neater and less to grind.
Even when you try your best to stop heat distortion theres always some, you can see the slight curve in this peice.
I used a hammer to get it roughly back into shape, im going to be welding more to it so no point in getting it perfect right now. I then cut the ends to shape and test fitted it into place.
It was sitting a couple of mm high, upon further investigation i realised it was the dished panels i had made were sitting slightly squint.
I cut a line in to them then flatened the top out. (not photo'd)
I made the rubber seal channel out of another peice of 25mm x3mm angle, one edge cut to 14mm this time. I was going to cut slits into it to get the curve then weld them up but i found just bending it in the vice and some carefull taps were enough to get it to flow. I used the top panel as a guide for how much to bend.
Then i got a peice of 12mm square bar and bent that to follow suit, and used some 2mm packers and lots and lots of clamps. This is to minimze distortion again and to try and keep an even 14mm gap all the way round.
Prior to welding. I just used the mig for this peice to save time as its not going to be seen.
Tested in place again.
I closed the rear doors again and used a peice of chalk to mark where to cut for the actual valance peice.
Cut it off with the grinder.
after i cut it i thought a bit about preperation as once welded in it wont be easy to get at to paint, so i primered the underneath of the top panel and used that rust converter paint on the inside of the rear valance.
Which left me with nothing to do until it all dried so i decided to come home and write this post for today.
Hope to get more done soon, its been good getting back to it after all the time ive been away. especially when im working on a peice i want to see finished.
untill next time, cheers!
August update
Ok, so, I got through all my Saturdays at work. The only time ive had is a few Sundays and a few hours a week after work some days.
I had a little bit left to do to finish off the drivers side rear quarter. I had just tacked in the wheel arch piece last time, well I got it all welded up and cleaned. I wasn't really happy with how it was when I first tacked it, so I cut the top flat piece off and welded a bigger section on. Looks a bit neater now than what it used to look like.
The next piece I done joins the van body to the chassis which had rotted out a bit.
So I cut it all out.
Made a pattern piece.
Cut it out and made a few folds, same thing with other little piece.
All welded in place.
And cleaned up.
So that is now the drivers rear quarter officially finished, hurrah!
After that I had the sudden realisation that "what if I never welded the bottom leg that holds the rear door hinge in the right place." To find out I had to cut the rear brace away. Which I should have done earlier as with the roof being fixed it doesn't need it anymore.
With it cut away it felt like I had so much more room. All those times I was welding inside the van in really awkward position, all those times I got myself in the 'cage' and realising I had forgotten a tool on the bench and had to climb back out, were gone!
I offered the doors up and crossed my fingers.
Great success! I even clamped the rear valance in place for better effect. Now, if you shut one eye and squint with the other it looks a lot like a proper van, wouldn't you agree?. Look, they can even open.
It was actually a good boost to put the doors on. I forgot what it looked like, its been that long. Doing that gave me the determination to get the passengers side rear quarter done. ITs a bit of a pain as its all the panels ive made but in a mirror image. Starting with the leg, this one was just as bad as the drivers side.
I cut the front piece off like I did with the last one and set about saving it.
ta-daa!
The next time I went to the garage I forgot my camera so there's not much in the way of how I done this part, but nothing was missed really. In fact, you could scroll up to where I done the drivers side and hold a mirror up to the monitor and that was the exact same process for the rest of the leg.
I had to tidy up and weld a new section in on the wheel arch section, you can see the bit I cut out just to the right. Then I put my brave face on and welded the other leg in place with lots of careful measuring and tacking.
Little top piece made up to finish it off.
And a quick hit with the grinder.
Whilst I had the wire brush wheel in the grinder I thought id just double check that what I perceived to be nice solid metal was actually nice solid metal along the passengers side. That would save me a lot of hassle.
bugger. Ah well, ive stopped expecting an easy job with any of this now.
I decided to put the doors back on again and have another check now that both legs were welded on.
I think I managed to do pretty well.
Check those door gaps, obviously there's adjustment in the hinges and the door rubbers aren't on yet.
I also done a little experiment. If you remember a while back I was trying to figure out how to put some tension back in the long side panel. I got a spare length of 25 x 8 flat bar and tacked it on along the inside every 80mm or so.
It worked pretty well. I sprayed a light coat of primer onto he side then used a piece or flat perspex , about 500mm long and attached some sandpaper on it and went along the panel to get a gauge of the low spots. Not too bad, still a bit of tapping to get it better but nothing a light skim of filler wont fix.
That's all for this time, I have my wedding coming up in 4 weeks so wish me luck everyone, cheers.
Ok, so, I got through all my Saturdays at work. The only time ive had is a few Sundays and a few hours a week after work some days.
I had a little bit left to do to finish off the drivers side rear quarter. I had just tacked in the wheel arch piece last time, well I got it all welded up and cleaned. I wasn't really happy with how it was when I first tacked it, so I cut the top flat piece off and welded a bigger section on. Looks a bit neater now than what it used to look like.
The next piece I done joins the van body to the chassis which had rotted out a bit.
So I cut it all out.
Made a pattern piece.
Cut it out and made a few folds, same thing with other little piece.
All welded in place.
And cleaned up.
So that is now the drivers rear quarter officially finished, hurrah!
After that I had the sudden realisation that "what if I never welded the bottom leg that holds the rear door hinge in the right place." To find out I had to cut the rear brace away. Which I should have done earlier as with the roof being fixed it doesn't need it anymore.
With it cut away it felt like I had so much more room. All those times I was welding inside the van in really awkward position, all those times I got myself in the 'cage' and realising I had forgotten a tool on the bench and had to climb back out, were gone!
I offered the doors up and crossed my fingers.
Great success! I even clamped the rear valance in place for better effect. Now, if you shut one eye and squint with the other it looks a lot like a proper van, wouldn't you agree?. Look, they can even open.
It was actually a good boost to put the doors on. I forgot what it looked like, its been that long. Doing that gave me the determination to get the passengers side rear quarter done. ITs a bit of a pain as its all the panels ive made but in a mirror image. Starting with the leg, this one was just as bad as the drivers side.
I cut the front piece off like I did with the last one and set about saving it.
ta-daa!
The next time I went to the garage I forgot my camera so there's not much in the way of how I done this part, but nothing was missed really. In fact, you could scroll up to where I done the drivers side and hold a mirror up to the monitor and that was the exact same process for the rest of the leg.
I had to tidy up and weld a new section in on the wheel arch section, you can see the bit I cut out just to the right. Then I put my brave face on and welded the other leg in place with lots of careful measuring and tacking.
Little top piece made up to finish it off.
And a quick hit with the grinder.
Whilst I had the wire brush wheel in the grinder I thought id just double check that what I perceived to be nice solid metal was actually nice solid metal along the passengers side. That would save me a lot of hassle.
bugger. Ah well, ive stopped expecting an easy job with any of this now.
I decided to put the doors back on again and have another check now that both legs were welded on.
I think I managed to do pretty well.
Check those door gaps, obviously there's adjustment in the hinges and the door rubbers aren't on yet.
I also done a little experiment. If you remember a while back I was trying to figure out how to put some tension back in the long side panel. I got a spare length of 25 x 8 flat bar and tacked it on along the inside every 80mm or so.
It worked pretty well. I sprayed a light coat of primer onto he side then used a piece or flat perspex , about 500mm long and attached some sandpaper on it and went along the panel to get a gauge of the low spots. Not too bad, still a bit of tapping to get it better but nothing a light skim of filler wont fix.
That's all for this time, I have my wedding coming up in 4 weeks so wish me luck everyone, cheers.
