bit of a lack of posts but have been posting on another forum (gasp) - so here is a post dump from there. still moving forward... things get in the way but will get it done sooner rather than later
Still plugging away at this, hard making time at the moment/motivation plus working in the car port where the doors don't even open the full way doesn't help.
Threw it into Lee's shop over december which gave me a chance to clean the underside, rip out the old engine, sound deaden/stone guard the underside, weld in the new brake booster mount, paint the diff (used to be blue??) /springs / front axle / drums.
Ran out of time at the shop so back home it came, made a fuel tank, chopped the old throttle pedal mount out and patched the floor to mount a lokar unit (brake pedal matches), customised lokar hand brake (old one used to bolt to the old master cylinder and pull upwards next to the seat - wasn't flash), made a custom cold air intake (fits in a factory blanking plate for something?) and made oil and trans oil cooler mounts for under the huge sill panel on the drivers side (non-exhaust side). Aiming to shoe-horn the motor in over Anzac weekend - should have the intercooler and radiator mounted by then and hopefully sort some of the wiring.
Have gone overboard as usual. Has gone from a 200ci log motor with 3 speed column shift and unboosted single circuit drums to 4L turbo, manualised C10, boosted dual circuit and decent discs on the front. I think I get paranoid about finishing things for some reason, but hopefully this is finished soon (by finished I mean driving).
finished my radiator and cooler mount on the weekend, ended up finding a generic ally 3 core radiator which was the perfect width and a tiny bit too tall but will work still (just can't go lowering the front end much now - gasser stance for life) - it's about 45% bigger in surface area than the mustang one. Didn't lose too much hair while upgrading the mounts underneath the van. onto the next job.
Plugging away at the van still, motivation levels are high so making the most of it.
Working in the glamour of a poorly lit asphalted car port doesn't have many perks especially when it isn't wide enough to open the van doors fully but still gets the job done. On the plus side the van sits high enough that I can slide under it to work on without jack stands.
Quick recap- fan shroud all sorted for the bigger fan, did a measure up with everything bolted in and realised my tailshaft is going to be very very short so made the call to shift the radiator support forward 100mm and extend the dog box to match. So I opened up the floor 100mm, made brackets to shift the radiator forward 100mm. Steering box was a bit iffy so pulled that and found the lower bearing didn't have a great deal of bearing ability left so replaced that and did the drag link and rod ends while I was at it. King pins felt fine so left them for now. Made up some dust covers for the brakes using the hammer forms that I made for the hot rod and fitted them up. Onto the hand brake cable at the moment so that should be finished this week. Seats fit well it seems at least!
Bit more on the van. opening up the floor that 100mm meant 100mm needs to be added to the engine cover so I made some panels up and extended the front section of the cover. Few bits of metal and a sturdy bench make short hammerforming work.
Completing that allowed me to knock up a shifter bracket (didn't realise how bad the photo was until I put it up on the computer). once again hammer formed, 3mm ally this time though, complete with speed holes.
Then onto the belly pan, longer radiator and the addition of an intercooler meant some cutting was required. While I was at it I added a bbq grille, then painted it black - all ready to put back now.
Got my radiator overflow bottle today in the post so will make a bracket up for that this week.
Little more progress, next up is brake lines and wiring etc so nothing too exciting.
Rolled (towed) the van out to get a lathe into the workshop (logistical nightmare)
The lady gave vangrene a sponge bath and a couple of sunny snaps were taken.
Got the trans all good to go, coat of black paint, fitted the deep pan and bell housing. Trans lines fitted up, B&M bracket on and lokar dipstick in place.
Finished up the overflow tank and re-fitted the shroud into the van and also finally fitted up the fuel tank. Pretty happy with how both turned out. Next onto deciding if I should build a decent donk or just run them as a disposable item like many do.
Posted: July 2nd, 2014, 10:38 pm
that is fffffffn cool
