22 replies to this topic

[shavenYak]

Discussion here: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=20216


So it's a bit rough - most of the van looks painted in house paint, (edit: now it's definitely painted in house paint) and there's definitely a fair share of bog lurking under it.

The other thing is the rough bastards at work mangled the driveshaft when they picked it up with the hoist, and also the petrol tank has been spiked to recover the petrol.

Aside from that and some body work I think it should be pretty sweet, there's heaps of new parts in the back of the van - can't wait for the weekend when I'll get some time to crack into it and see what I've got myself into...


So anyone got any hookups for parts for this? Specifically petrol tank and N-S driveshaft.
Previous owner mentioned someone called Graham Gordon (?) out on Scenic Drive. Apparently was a BMC dealer or something? Anyone know who this is?

[shavenYak]

Soooooooooo...

here it is!!


the seats basically sold it for me:













Lots of fun times ahead!

[shavenYak]

Righto - had a productive day today, pretty much 12 hours solid working on the van. Want to get it ready and legal for new years and take it down to tauranga. With christmas only days away the clock is ticking..

So here's the progress:

Petrol tank: Sorted. fixed with "Minute Mend" (knead it) sandwhiched between steel riveted together. shh don't tell my wof guy.

Driveshaft: Sorted. Dad the good bugger found a donor shaft from a lancer - shortened it and welded the universals onto it. He's not a certified welder so again, just keep this between me and you and everyone else who reads this.
Jacked the back wheels up and tested it up to about 90 kph and it seemed nice and balanced so should be all tickedy boo.


Had a few more hurdles:

After filling engine with oil it kept dripping from the sump drain plug. Figured it was because there was no soft washer on it so got one of those, tightened it up and refilled - still leaking.
So pulled the sump off and had a look from the inside, and noticed some sunlight shining though the steel right next to the plug. So it seems whoever drained the car has been a bit brutal and somehow punctured it.. So fixed that the same way as the petrol tank - good old epoxy putty!

Also more forkhoist damage - the gearbox mount brackets were a bit mangled, but managed to straighten them out alright. Also the muffler has a huge hole in it so gotta get that sorted too.

But all in all pretty successful day - engine runs well and most if not all the electrics work.

These next few days before christmas will be tricky as I'll be at work right up till the 24th, So will need to make any purchases I need during lunchbreaks etc.

If anyone wants to help me make this a very special hiace christmas, I still need:

Front brake shoes (drums) sorted
Rear half exhaust + muffler fixed/replaced soon to be sorted
Reverse gear light switch sorted

Any hookups / recommended places to go would be mucho appreciato.

Photos next update!

[shavenYak]

Went for wof today..



Adjusted the brakes while it was still on the hoist during the wof, so that's ok - getting tires tomorrow morning and also got me a wiper blade!
The exhaust was basically snapped just after the muffler, and also the muffler had a "tear" in it from forkhoist damage. The guy at the workshop welded the tailpipe back on, then welded the hole in the muffler. It looked pretty rough, and sure enough after I got it home and patched up a small hole further up the pipe the muffler was still leaking from the weld.

My awesome spray-can-steel ghetto fix:


and the mechanics not so awesome ghetto weld:



Anyway so gonna go look for a muffler in the yard at work tomorrow while I'm getting tires. Here are some photos of the van once I got it home. Dog likes it.




Started chipping off bog from the side of the van and found a big dent. And LOTS of bog.



My paedo shutters / gangster gun slits




pulled out some of the manky cupboards and dad helped me extend the bed base so it's reasonably roomy now.



Sleeps 2 people plus a short person comfortably!




It's so sweet having a van.

[shavenYak]

Took the van down for new years at Papamoa beach.




Awesome weather and the van went really well - even on highway 29 over the kaimais on the way back. Surprising power from the 12R!

Only issues were:
Leaking clutch cylinder somewhere that meant I had to keep re-pumping the clutch - made parking and city cruising a bit awkward.
Noisy petrol pump sometimes - possibly drawing air from somewhere, will investigate.
Petrol gauge didn't work until the way back. Ironically ran out of petrol on the motorway once I got back to auckland.
Very noisy overall above 80kph. Think the driveshaft will need balancing as it was pretty noisy even coasting down the bombay hills in neutral. Carpets in the front should help too.

Next trip is at the end of Jan, then I'll probably put it back on hold and the complete stripdown will begin!

[shavenYak]

Took the van out to Raglan this weekend, was meaning to stay until today, but ended up driving home last night due to the MISERABLE FUCKING WEATHER and the fact that the boot leaked a bit, soaking the mattresses.

On the way down from Auckland the electric fuel pump decided to stop working - i took it apart and had a fiddle, then put it back together and it went again. More on that later!

Anyway here are some photos from saturday while the weather was still nice. We painted the van just before we left with left over house paint - so no more yellow patches.





And sunday, it started raining but was still a pretty sweet place to hang out




by sunday afternoon the weather really packed it in so we decided to head back home.
We got about 20ks out of Raglan when the fuel pump stopped again. I took it apart again, to find that a little spring had come loose - I sussed out how it was supposed to go, but as trying to fiddle it back into place - it popped out and flew down through the engine bay on to the wet gravel below.
I knew I was never going to find it and I hadn't thought to bring one of the spare pumps with me, so I resorted to plan B:



That's the windshield washer bottle with the fuel line attached to it.
I hadn't thought to fill the jerry can so I had to drain the petrol tank (luckily it has a drain plug) into the jerry can and some water bottles, then fill the washer resevoir every 10km or so.
So that's how I drove the rest of the 120km back to auckland. Was incredibly sketchy - especially a couple times when the bottle came loose and was pissing petrol all over the hot exhaust manifold.

Anyway, relieved to get home. Fuel system will be next on the list to fix.

[shavenYak]

tested the 12 slots I got from solidstripe:

They are 14x8 at 0 offset.




the door still opens! yuss! (as long as I don't put balloons on it)
hmm.. will need bigger mudflaps
here are the orignal rims:

[shavenYak]

managed to crack my thermostat housing, but a guy at my brothers work welded it up and now it's all good!
and shiny!

[shavenYak]

Look what's in the back of the van! It's part of another van!

Thought I'd look into a disc conversion for the front - and by look into I mean buy front-end from later model hiace and hope that things will work out.



progress will probably be slow, gotta get the subaru back on the road so I can sell it and get some cash moneyz for this and the suzuki.

Plus I only recently spent like $80 on front brake shoes so I want to get some use from them first

[shavenYak]

started working on the subaru today but got bored pretty quickly and started exploring under the hiace paint.

seems the whole lower drivers side has had a lot of damage, there is (was) a pretty thick layer of bog:



and I also found a couple of nice body panel joins, which explains why there was something that didn't look quite right before.



that is all.

[shavenYak]

thought I'd attempt some pinstriping before I took the van to the jap meet a few weeks back.
printed out some examples from some hot rod site and attacked the front and back with some paint pens.





and I was on a roll so I thought I'd have some fun with it:




putting the old beast away for winter, will strip down and attempt to straighten some of these panels - probably
just end up putting all that bog back on... then chuck some new paint on. Suggestions for colour choice? So
far I'm leaning towards straight gloss white, but also pretty keen on gray. Or red.

[shavenYak]

Probably the one thing I shouldn't be spending money on when the van's gonna be off the road for 6 months.. but I really wanted these rims on the van so I got a pair of tires for them. They're 205-65-14 so theyre NOT LEGAL according to that tire size table.. but they look pretty good I reckon. I didn't want to lose too much rolling diameter since the gearing is so fucking awful anyway.. So with these I only lose about 5% from the 185-80-14's. Well worth the compromise I think.

Haven't had time to put them on the van, but will do so this weekend and post the results.




(note that clothes pegs are now the universal dish indicator)

[shavenYak]

not the greatest photo but you get the idea:


and the tire *just* clears the sliding door.

[shavenYak]

So after a long winter of sitting idle and serving as a drinks lounge for the band, I am getting the van ready for Labour weekend in Napier.

This will include:

[*:1tutq3b1]Replacing fuel pump.
Original one starts rattling like it's sucking air, but I'm pretty sure it's not. Already have a replacement so just gotta plug it in and mount it really.

[*:1tutq3b1]Getting charging sorted.
CHG light won't go out - got a cheap reco alternator, no change. Replaced external regulator, no change. The alternator IS charging, so I figure it's just a bad connection to the charge lamp. Not too worried about this.

[*:1tutq3b1]Getting engine running properly.
Currently doesn't want to idle and hesitates when accelerating. Accel. pump is working, but suspect idle circuit? Will have a look at timing and possible vacuum leaks this weekend.

[*:1tutq3b1]Better sounds.
Installed 4" speakers in the walls but they're pretty cruddy and I'll need a bit more volume to counter the song of the pushrods. Which brings me to:

[*:1tutq3b1]Carpet / Sound Deadening.
Probably just whack some carpet cutoffs in the front. Looking at getting a new carpet set from that place (forget the name).

[*:1tutq3b1]Fix leaks.
Not that I'm expecting rain, but it pays to be prepared. Put a newish rubber seal around the tailgate but it still seems to leak, so may have to bung some silicone in there somewhere.

[*:1tutq3b1]Fixing rust and painting.
Plan is some sort of slick two tone ensemble. Can't quite decide but it will either be grey, white, or tan and maybe some sort of red.
Will probably just do the rust part and leave the paint till later. Will rock primer/bare metal for labour weekend.
last weekends efforts with the wire cup grinder:




what is this? Strange indent in the side above the rear wheel.

[shavenYak]

Progress:

[*:2qz64y7q]Replacing fuel pump.
Original one starts rattling like it's sucking air, but I'm pretty sure it's not. Already have a replacement so just gotta plug it in and mount it really.
done! new plastic body one is awesome. Nice and quiet.

[*:2qz64y7q]Getting charging sorted.
CHG light won't go out - got a cheap reco alternator, no change. Replaced external regulator, no change. The alternator IS charging, so I figure it's just a bad connection to the charge lamp. Not too worried about this.
umm.. pulled out the CHG light.

[*:2qz64y7q]Getting engine running properly.
Currently doesn't want to idle and hesitates when accelerating. Accel. pump is working, but suspect idle circuit? Will have a look at timing and possible vacuum leaks this weekend.
yes! Felt kinda dumb cause it was the crankcase vent hose that I had plugged in causing the greif. Bunged up the outlet on the manifold. Someone make me a catch can!

Still to be done:
[*:2qz64y7q]Better sounds.
Installed 4" speakers in the walls but they're pretty cruddy and I'll need a bit more volume to counter the song of the pushrods. Which brings me to:

[*:2qz64y7q]Carpet / Sound Deadening.
Probably just whack some carpet cutoffs in the front. Looking at getting a new carpet set from that place (forget the name).

[*:2qz64y7q]Fix leaks.
Not that I'm expecting rain, but it pays to be prepared. Put a newish rubber seal around the tailgate but it still seems to leak, so may have to bung some silicone in there somewhere.

[*:2qz64y7q]Fixing rust and painting.
Plan is some sort of slick two tone ensemble. Can't quite decide but it will either be grey, white, or tan and maybe some sort of red.
Will probably just do the rust part and leave the paint till later. Will rock primer/bare metal for labour weekend.

[shavenYak]

Took the van to work on thursday and it overheated on the drive home. Water was spraying out from right in the middle of the radiator core. So this morning I put in some radiator stop leak and that seemed to sort it out.
Also today I replaced the intake/exhaust and the rocker cover gaskets. I wish I had of done it earlier! I didn't realise quite how much the exhaust manifold was leaking - no wonder it sounded like a kombi!
Nice and quiet now and no more feeling sleepy on long drives.

While I was at it I painted the rocker cover. White! It's already dirty. Surprise surprise.



Want to have a play at lowering soon - need new U bolts (although might just flip a leaf), and would like a spare set of front coils if anyone knows of a van (or truck) wrecking somewhere.

[shavenYak]

Well, I still own this thing.

Since last update it's gone quite well, drove it fully loaded all the way from Auckland to Palmy with no issues. Handles bloody well actually, especially once there's some weight in the back.
We lived in it at a campsite for the first week or so, then found a place with a double garage and parked it up.
About a year passed, then wagnats 2011 happened and I thought I'd drive it the 40km to the Vinegar Hill. After about 10 minutes of driving it overheated. I stubbornly refilled with water and kept going. Overheating got worse and I noticed the radiator had developed a thin crack on the inlet. Judging by the frothing from the radiator it seems it has a blown head gasket. I parked it up for the evening and drove the suzuki to the rest of the way to wagnats. Later that night I drove the van back home very slowly with radiator cap off. Made it home but engine now has bad knock from one of the (three) main bearings.

So here's the plan: There's a cheap 18R and box on trademe which Richie is kindly bringing down from Auckland. I will attempt to get this into the van. The modifications needed to fit this will then allow me to fit an 18RG (twincam) at a later date if one becomes available to me. The 18R is 2000cc, which should give a bit more power than the 1600 12R that was in there originally.
Stay tuned.

[shavenYak]

RIGHT, so almost a year later - I still own this beast. Joker was kind enough to lend me his trailer after Hawkes Boes, and KK and his grunty Commodore towed it from Ashhurst to our new place in Wellington. Bless.
Some time later I scored a cheap 12R that is supposedly in good running condition, got it back home and then more time passed...

Until today, when I finally mustered some motivation and cracked into the first half of the engine swap; getting the engine out.







Wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, and with Amber helping we got it out in about half an hour.

Now I have a large space where the old engine once was.



Next steps are, clean up the engine bay, get the new engine in. Then once that's done, I need to sort out the exhaust, which is broken/rusted out. Should really get the radiator re-cored, and of course fix lots of RUST!!!!

[shavenYak]

Thought I'd better make use of this nice dry weather we're having and crack into some of the rust on this thing.

here's some!


don't know if I'm gonna be able to get this back in..








slapped some POR15 into the holes









Procrastinated too much today so this was as far as I got. New steel goes in tomorrow.

[shavenYak]

Cut, weld, cut, weld, drink, cut, weld etc.






both sides pretty much done now, which is just as well since I ran out of gas for the welder.
Will have to get a refill as I need to attack the rust that's lurking below the rear bumper, which will be interesting cause I find it really hard to weld upside down.