Excellent work. What's this crap "She wants it gone by Xmas"? Ask her if she would prefer that you spent all your time and money at the pub! Tell her to get some interests or hobbies of her own. I am a female and although my partner doesn't particularly like my van he wouldn't dare suggest I get rid of it.
Thank you everyone. Ha Ha, its lucky she wont get to read this! The problem is that van isnt technically mine its my dads (although obviously it may return to me one day) and our own poor van has been sat for two years in my garage waiting for me to free up some time/motivation to finish it! So its not a case that she doesnt like/want the van its that she wants me to finish our van. Although I also have a hunch that she'd like to one day use the Ghia and our bay for wedding cars! hence theres no rush to get it done!!
@89Rallye what make is your body roller please? I'm thinking of investing in one, would you recommend it
I love the cj auto's roller, I don't think you can go wrong with theirs with plenty of options to suit your budget. My one I built myself, basically based on the cj autos basic roller. The steel was supposed to be for a set of gates for my sister! Oops... It was originally built to roll my caddy but that was sold on when the camper came along. It's gone through a few variations down the years as I've rolled late with front axle in, early and late without axles, beetles etc. The first incarnation mounted from the engine mounts and front hub, (basically because the van had already had its front axle out and restored) The mk2 version I switched it around and mounted it from the front axle and rear hub, gave better access for repairs/painting. And mk3 was mounted from both hubs, Anyway I'd highly recommend one, makes life so much easier, plus you'll always sell it on once your finished with it. Check out the http://www.cjautos.org.uk site.
Do you mean in the original brown or the green? As the title suggests I've had it 10years.... Came from a woman in Liverpool she'd had it 'restored' (if newspaper and filler is classed as restoration) and painted brown but it was then vandalized (someone had scratch it, including a nice big phallus shape on the drivers door) and she traded it in for a modern camper. The trader was a mate of my dads and we bought it from them at a pretty silly price.
i thought it was one i seen here identical colours , before purple then brown white lol your doing a great job
So I havent broached on the subject of engines, my achillies heal in some ways as I hate thesm! give me a big 6 cyclinder diesel any day. Although the engine from the van was running it was sick and poorly, so we plumped for a new engine. We were looking at inporting one (at the time the dollar was 2 to 1 ) but the shipping costs were ridiculous so we chose to build instead. Out with the old, very little was to be reused. In with the new, Built up (1st time) in my dads front room! Long block, And mocked up, It then sat in my dads front room for around 4 years waiting for the shell, even though I turned the engine over by hand every time I went down there I thought it best to pull the case apart again and just check everything. I bought a cheap Aldi ultra sonic cleaner, even though its only small it actually worked better than expected. So the case was stripped again and everything cleaned. These were some spare pushrods not the ones out of the engine, just a tester to see if the ultrasonic cleaner worked.
And the outcome was pretty surprising, Case back together and mock up part 2, have ditched the single carb in favour of a pair of EMPI's (I've heard bad things so not looking forward to setting them up) Tinware prepped and repaired, this was done for my 71 but I've changed plans so its now going on the 1776 for the 72. Lots of repairs required but original is so much better than repro so its worth the effort
Everythings modded and adjusted so its nice and tight, (even though this isnt being used now lol) I was smoothing off the rear panel but I didnt want it completely smooth and look like an aftermarket panel, So I left the mounts for the risers but blanked them off. Prepped and painted, And after all that work it stayed like that for about 18months again while the bodyshop had the van, my dad then decides he wants to fit heat exhangers so it meant changing the top tin again. I gave up at that point and told him to sort it himself! He has his mate paint the tins back to black and was charged a fortune in the process! So my current dilema, I had this cool idea for running the fuel lines out of sight along with the vaccum pipe then thought that may not be the brighest idea as they literally are out of sight. So what are peoples opinions of this? (you can see the inch of dust on it, its been sat there that long.) Anyway spec isnt wild but should still be fun, 1776cc New stock heads that have been ported and polished to within an inch of their life! (lots of spare time working nights ) New case and crank lightened/balanced Engle 110 cam Twin carbs Currently a 009 although I do have an MSD setup I'm just not sure its going on this engine. Few trinkets that my dad likes CB performance breather tower etc The man has no taste and just wants to paint everything green at the moment to match the van, including the engine, dash, doorcards you name it
I been working nights over the weekend and I like to keep myself busy with some 'homework', didnt really have a lot van wise I could take in with me but managed to get the gearbox and tank steamed off and the oil changed in the box. I finally got the last parts of the steering puzzled back from our turner, ever started a job and wondered why? this Epas steering is starting to feel that way with me. So I had a afternoon to myself, One part Vauxhall, one part VW.. The VW shaft has been machined to an interference fit with the Vauxhall part, brazed and pinned becomming hybrid VW, Then it was just a case of making the VW ignition housing fit into the vauxhall part, with a small amount of sanding with a flapping wheel its slots in perfect. This being my first attempt i'd cut the original vauxhall tube down to see how the steer shaft was assembled, knowing what I know now I would of been able to cut the vauxhall tube to the correct length so the join wasnt visible. I can live with this for now but the next one (as with most things like this) should be better. With them married together it was back to the van to trial fit and sort out the lower shaft, with some head scratching and a couple of different attempts at the lower coupling I decided on using the stock VW lower shaft which fitted perfectly into spline shaft once I cut off the UJ. And lastly for today I got the contact in for the horn push, a lot of the Ebay suppliers of these kits havent worked out how to get the horn push to work from the steering wheel (on early vans anyway). I'm hoping this is the solution. I've cut the lower tube in and the last job now is top cut the lower plate to match and weld it all up. I think the neighbours have probably had there fill for today.
Lol, if you saw the paintwork on the Ghia you'd understand! Plus it was just rested there for mere seconds for a photo in the sun.
Ok final, final.. Final! Mock up of the steering column, it's starting to put a lot of beef on and I'm getting sick dragging it in and out! Hole cut in base plate, free hand plasma cutting isn't my forte but couldn't use a circle cutter as it's an oval shape with the angle. With the base plate welded on I discovered another problem, I could no longer get the lower shaft on as the bay flange wouldn't fit through the tube. I could of split the lower spline but decided to just assemble the shaft after the tube fitted. This meant drilling an out of sight access hole for the bolt. Measure trice cut one! Actually pretty easy to assemble too. Final mock up assembly, And after a little clean up, I personally think there rather ugly, but it'll make it a lot easy for my dad to drive. He's due to retire end of April as his birthday is 1st of May so I'm pushing to get it all completed before then. Total costs for the steering conversion has been less than £50 (bearing in mind all the steel came from our scrap bin in work and the machining was done at mates rates, ie zero ) so it's certainly been worth doing. I just wished it was someone else doing it!
epas steering column now completely finished and ready to install, just waiting on some heavy wiring for the motor feed. Prepped and painted And assembled. I've left the patina on original ignition housing as I liked it and the original sticker etc but not sure it really works next to the fresh paint.
