1972 Panel Van

[72panelvan]

I forgot I had a Muchos account so have some pictures of my van - albeit old ones.


A cross memeber I welded in. Ended up doing a fair bit underneath, 4 jacking points, sills, front inner lower panel, inner step panels to name but a few repairs!


Fitted new front panel and lower panel. Smoothed it over which I kind of regret now. I should of gone to the extra length of removing the buldge in the middle though! Some BMC domed clear indicators.


I ended up doing a lot of repairs like this with limited success. I think it's something to do with panel vans not having a headlining, the sides above the gutters rot badly. My advice is not to buy the repair sections but to actually find a scrapped van and cut the gutters out. The repair sections are really poor.


And thats the results of my hours of welding! Ended up doing both outersills, front and back arches, rear quarters and numerous other little bits of bodywork. It's reasonably straight on that side but the sliding door is poor so it's not as pretty on the other. All the brakes and lights have been sorted now, so it's just a case of getting the Ford diesel in it and running! Currently at Uni so I can't really start work on the conversion till i'm finished - but on holidays I should be able to get a bit done.

[72panelvan]

I figured I should put up some photo's as i've made a little bit of progress - albeit little. Finished uni at the end of may and then celebrated for a while which put things back a bit. Also had a bit of a hiccup with my adapter plate, firstly before I fitted the engine and started making my engine mounts I thought i'd look to see if the length of the input shaft was sufficient as it was much the same as the 2ltr one (shorter infact!), it fell quite short. Found out that a dohc flywheel was deep enough (btw JP i think thats what yours runs? might be the same as the sierra diesel one but i couldn't find a sierra diesel one to have a look at). I was quite content that I could then go ahead with that adaptor and make up an extended spigot bearing - i then trial fitted the diesel starter and that was completely different. I didn't really want to start mucking about with different petrol starters, nor did i really want to make up a plate and weld it on. So i've set about making my own - not sure how it will turn out though.



I thought about using steel but seeing as I had the bolt patterns all their on an old bellhousing (it has a big hole in it so is useless!) i thought i'd try to use that.



My plan is to get someone to cut out a ally hoop the same inner diameter as the vw bellhousing (280mm) and the external diameter as the line which you can see around the ford bellhousing (forget the measurements!) then have it drilled. As i've got the machining on the plate made from the bellhousing I have a good guide to centre it properly (hopefully!). It all depends how accruatly the plate is cut and then clamped down when it's welded on.





the bottom one is the one which came with the kit, it's vw to ford. i might still use it as the splines are slightly longer and i will be making an extended spigot bearing regardless.



Here's a frame i've made up to put my rad in. I managed to get an aluminium transporter rad off ebay for 30 notes(+ postage so came to 45, set of fans and surronding mounting bars and rubbers for 20 from scrappy) which is pretty wide but comparatively low. I should be able to tuck it in at an angle fast approaching 45 degree's, perhaps more! i'm going to clad it in some wood and just have some chrome strips accross the front, should look cool and keep it cool.



i've started making some engine mounts but untill the adaptor is sorted I won't know exactly where the engine will be. gunna go see my neighbours mate who has a milling machine and lathe tmrw so hopefully some progress on that soon.

[famous phil]

looks like you've been try'ing to do some't i thought of doing 'to fit the peugeot engine this way ,,,, did a mercedes box like this and worked a treat ,, both were alloy though ,,,,,,,,,,

, this is the problem that i thought after see'ing a friends bus that had caught fire not that bad untill i looked under it, ,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,

the bus had been worked on and under it had been a parcel shelf ( GRP) which burnt whith enough heat that the magnesium gearbox ended up just a pile of cogs on the floor ,,

anyone had any joy welding these boxes
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Auto Union Munga Jeep ,T4 2.4td , T4 2.5tdi ,Mercedes S Class on LPG , 66 splity deluxe , GP mk1, 3 type 25s 1 with 1.9dt pug engine + 1 with N/A pug engine ,,there are 6 t25s with pug power in Darlington

[72panelvan]

I did consider welding the ford bellhousing onto the vw gearbox (then realised it was magnesium!) - but i'm just going to use the ford bellhousing to make an adaptor plate - pretty sure it's alloy - i can't see ford forkin out for magnesium!

a mate who's into bikes says theres a few people round here which do magnesium welding so i spose it's possible. I guess the t25 box's are mag aswell? bellhousings magnesium?

tom

[famous phil]

yes should have said it was a t25 that caught fire
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Auto Union Munga Jeep ,T4 2.4td , T4 2.5tdi ,Mercedes S Class on LPG , 66 splity deluxe , GP mk1, 3 type 25s 1 with 1.9dt pug engine + 1 with N/A pug engine ,,there are 6 t25s with pug power in Darlington

[Alex (FTS)]

Good work fellla-keep us posted with your updates looks like a very interesting project!
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www.faltownskateboards.com

[jp]

Lookin good dude Nice to see you're thinking outside the box


Keep us posted
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1971 Devon Bay with 1800 Ford Turbo Diesel Engine (wip)
1983 VW Golf GTI Campaign
1979 Mini 1275 GT
2013 Scirocco TDI GT

[72panelvan]

Finally got an adaptor plate! The guy who I wasked to weld up the bellhousing never did it. I ended up driving over there a fair few times and following it up, he kept saying he'd have it done in the next few days - but I think he had a loads of easier work on! I ended up deciding to contact kennedy after thinking that a vw diesel would be a nice option, now that i'm not such a skint student anymore. It took about 6 weeks to get here, and I'm pretty pleased with it. They were quite helpful and asked loads of questions about what I was planning on doing to ensure it would work and what I needed.



It's a 200mm flywheel - i'd had preffered a larger flywheel but with a type 1 bellhousing 230mm's is too big and with the 230mm one you need their hi torq starter, which was a few quid.



Instead, I bought this for $40 which converst the diesel vw starter to bolt up to the bellhousing, and spaces it correctly.



The adaptors pretty well designed, it has bolt patterns so that you can choose whether you want to run the engine at a 15deg slant or upright.

Now I just need an engine! Anyone have one for sale?

I've got a 1.8 ford diesel if anyone wants it too, wouldn't want a lot for it - came out of a 75k escort and is a pretty clean engine, not caked in oil or anything. and you can have those sierra mounts back if want them jp! A shame I'm not going to be using it - the vw engines go for silly money. hoping a cheap one will turn up locally though

tom

[jp]

That looks like some seriously nice kit you've purchased there Tom

So what VW engine are you thinking of going for? early TDI or brave the electronics of a later TDI

I hopefully won't be needing the Sierra mounts so pass them on if anyone else wants them.

So I guess the fun starts here


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1971 Devon Bay with 1800 Ford Turbo Diesel Engine (wip)
1983 VW Golf GTI Campaign
1979 Mini 1275 GT
2013 Scirocco TDI GT

[72panelvan]

yeah im pretty pleased with it! £265 complete with postage which I thought was reasonable.

engine wise, i don't think I could get my head round the tdi! I'd probably even prefer a non-turbo! but whatever I can get I suppose. at least I've got an adaptor kit which should, fingers crossed, work!

tom