doullama Posted June 24, 2017 Share Posted June 24, 2017 Better start at the start I suppose. At the tender age of 17 I bought a 1977 Austin-Morris 10cwt (ok, its a marina) from some barry in rukuhia for $1200. 4k motor, 5sp, disc front, air shocks rear, certed in 94'. Had it for around 7 years, and had a blast in, on & around it. Painted it repeatedly, and had to fix everything on it myself as my beer, ciggy and tinny budget was tight. Sold it to a mate of mine, he ran it for around 2 years until the intake gasket went, it then went on a suburban lawn & had the windscreen pinched for a marina ute, which was the last I had seen or heard of it, so assumed it had become poor quality refrigerators. Caught up with the mate on facebook, hadn't spoken in years. Asked him about the vans fate, turns out it had been shedded with the rego on hold since a few weeks after I last saw it, and would I like it back? Apparently the footwells were now pretty rusty etc. Was pretty keen for nostalgia's sake, so sold the 48' superpoise to make space. Went to have a sharn & pick it up today, was pleasantly suprised by it's condition. The fancy paint job ain't so fancy anymore, but the van is still very solid. footwells only have rust on pass. side around one of the drain-holes, and where the old (now discarded) toyota seat reinforcing plate sat against the floor. Came with heaps of parts, i'd given the guy a good cond but woefully hopeless mk3 marina estate at the time I last saw the van, he'd dismantled it for anything useful, so should have just about everything to put back together, and then some! His kids had been using it as a playhouse, they've painted the inside rear of the van with clouds, rainbows, dinosaurs etc, I think i'll leave it as it'll be brilliantly creepy. Also found my marlboro lighter that had been m.i.a for a decade haha To do: -patch pass. floorpan, clean & paint entire floor & underside (cbf dependant, doesn't look too bad.) -chuck driver door on, was removed to make it easier to push haha -few dents to beat n bog -new sprayjob, colour to be determined, probably black again for nostalgia -jam in one of the windscreens, even has good rubber -hook the rear brakes back up, he had planned to put the estate diff in as its taller, however its marina stud pattern (4x95?) and I wanna keep my cheviot 6x14's. -set tappets, bolt on exhaust & intake manifolds -new fluids etc etc ETC, get er running -brakes, bearings etc if needed -wof & escapades -presumed death by piano - 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doullama Posted June 24, 2017 Author Share Posted June 24, 2017 Some old pics from its heyday (I think around 04-05) 7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post doullama Posted June 24, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 24, 2017 And today, was a good sharn/tow expedition 12 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doullama Posted June 25, 2017 Author Share Posted June 25, 2017 Had work today, didn't stop me hitting up eBay though. nos rh tail-lamp on its way from blighty, along with a marina key-ring. On the lookout for Leyland mud flaps, perhaps a 4k inlet manifold with single carburettor for initial ease, may get the twin Aisans overhauled. A set of good rear doors would be nice, the ones on there have seen a few inattentive drivers over the years. Has a meaty steel step about 1 1/2 ft wide to go on the tow bar, which ought to prevent further damage. 27/6/17 Have ordered a one piece 7kc manifold gasket, the reason it was parked up was it kept blowing manifold gaskets between 2 & 3, measured up and seems it's fallen victim to the ol' 12mm intake flange, 10mm coby extractor flange scenario, plus crappy acl 2-piece gaskets. I could get the intake machined down, but that's not bodgy enough for me so i'll just chuck a few cut down 2mm washers on there. Need a smaller feeler gauge set for the tappets, mine only goes down to .010 nyaaah. Finished removing and tidily-ish storing the van-load of spares from van finally too, even has a fully siiick chin spoiler from estate edit: also all fluids, belt, plugs, feeler, ground strap, filters, extra bodging supplies etc. Thanks supercheap with yo free delivery. Will try 4rage oil filter, better startup oil pressure the 4k foamers say. Can't wait to get this motor buttoned up.. luckily found manifold & rocker cover bolts in parts mountain. studs would probably be better, see how it goes. Better get a battery at some stage too I suppose. Cheap bunnings compressor has finally died after years of abuse, plus theres a "mysterious" 6" piece of air-hose missing, probably an 8mm socket too. May spring for a fancier 2nd hand unit, though it did provide great service! painted 4-odd bedfords, several cars and a good deal of my house over the years. Am kinda leaning towards heinous mustard or satin black for its initial repaint at this stage 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doullama Posted July 8, 2017 Author Share Posted July 8, 2017 We have a runner! Set, tappets, shimmed up the exhaust, set the timing and away she went, runs nicely stationary anyway. Once new h/brake cable turns up can commence "round the block" testing. Thought for sure i'd have carburetor trouble since the twin aisans have been shelf-bound for so long but so far, so good. Can now hack into the body in earnest 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doullama Posted July 24, 2017 Author Share Posted July 24, 2017 question the sexual decency of my female relatives here : Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post doullama Posted July 24, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 24, 2017 Van update time! Been reasonably busy fiddling with it (and the van), tuned it up more, turns out the missus good tweezers are a good substitute for toyotas tamperproof mixture screw adjustment tool. hooked up the largely un-necessary manual choke, found the speedo cable randomly missing (lucky is just plain ke20 spec) so ordered an $11 replacement from thailand. managed to break the ancient aftermarket temp gauge and one of the front indicators due to incredibly fragile 70s plastic and general ineptitude, luckily I wanted an AC brand gauge and needed new parklight/indicator assemblies to go on the front spoiler anyways. Have ordered generic but kinda OS looking led ones. Got the hole in the passenger floor welded up, now i'm getting fussy and am going to grind out some old bog in the front valance and passenger outer sill behind the guard and weld that too. Missus and I gave it a quick blow over with some random purple for that coveted "one colour" stz, will suffice as a working paintjob until the body is straight enough for leyland black violet, as per coupe below. Also have found a u.s outfit that does a badass frazetta "the huntress" decal, which alone makes me keen to get it paintified. Been going a bit ott with the leyland stuff, I now even have a british leyland notepad (doesn't work in the rain obviously). Yes those are leyland-logo'ed valve caps, nothing worse than when your valve caps don't match your long-socks 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doullama Posted August 6, 2017 Author Share Posted August 6, 2017 Well, tits. Hooked up the speedo cable (bodged ke20), a vacuum gauge (epic bodge involving the cut down end of an old grease gun extension, v proud) and a new temp gauge. Had the thing running for a while (perhaps 10 min) when I plugged the temp sender in, oh f**k its boiling! turns out the thermostat was seized shut, didn't even think to check if the radiator was getting warm. Binned thermostat and now theres oil/compression bubbles in the water, hooray! thankfully only a half hour job to tear it down (realistically 15m of which was smoko). Never would have happened with a leyland product, thermostat would have been binned decades ago! Will get head reco'd & planed, some new head bolts & round 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post doullama Posted August 8, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 8, 2017 Well the lord taketh away, and the lord hooketh it up. Scored 2x complete 4k engines locally today for the princely sum of $200, one has a reco-ed head, arp bolts etc and flogged rings, the other went hard for what it was. Good score, came with all accessories, manifolds mounts clutches etc 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post doullama Posted August 14, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 14, 2017 time for some panelvan particularisation! put the motor back together with the supposedly recon head from aforementioned engine collection, im no expert but looks a lot nicer, can still see toyota logo stamped on valves, rockers move a bit more freely etc, used oem gasket and the arp headbolts and pushrods from head-donor, and lower thermostat-holder thingy from the old head. I laugh now but when I fired it up, immediately a loud & terminal sounding knocking resounded, after extensive jerking about turned out to be the valve cover needed to be .027mm to the left to stop a rocker tapping it! Is now running like a dodgy 70s sewing machine, i.e beautifully. Also put the windscreen in, used the ol string trick which quickly devolved into the "steal missus good crochet-hooks and use them like tyre levers" when my crappy string broke. Used swearwords as lubricant. This led to the revelation that the windscreen wipers are in fact still operational, in all of their glorious 2 speeds (one of those speeds being "off") Have some more bodging in the works so should have another update soon 17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doullama Posted August 20, 2017 Author Share Posted August 20, 2017 Getting so close to wof-attempt time now, got windscreen squirters & fuel gauge going, chin spoiler on (+10 bhp) seats, door cards etc. Hopefully just re-attach the earth to the horn and a pair of tie-rod bushes (which I should really order) to go. Brakes work well with new fluid and various levels of abuse to free them up 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post doullama Posted September 1, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 1, 2017 All I'm waiting on now is tie rod bushes from the UK, should have ordered them earlier damnit. Have painted a good deal of the floor pan, and ingested at least 6.2kg of ancient road debris, mostly through the eyes of course. Got a new horn, it's a Lucas high tone so a bit cheery but ah well. Jammed some cheap driving lights on, even used a relay, flash I know. They emit at least 3x as much light as the Lucas headlamps, which just get left on high beam, couldn't blind a possum. Also nos Marina front mud flaps to keep the mud out of the bottom of the guard. heater blower is no go, motor is getting current but not spinning, unsure how keen I am to get involved in 70s BL heater nightmare tbh 13 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doullama Posted September 13, 2017 Author Share Posted September 13, 2017 Van is now road legal for the first time in a decade Just needed a couple of bits & pieces, wiper bolts tightened, one plate light out, rear brake balance, rear door weatherstripping (chucked some random stuff on, effective and s&m looking) and headlight aim. Still heaps to tutu with as I go Next on the list: -get a needle point grease nozzle/ maybe jack van up on random angles so I can grease front & rearmost universal -halogen headlight conversion -pair of 70s house speakers for GWAR and slayer only (and jethro tull's aqualung) -keep tidying the body -idle past educational institutions etc 8 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post doullama Posted September 16, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 16, 2017 Shakedown run today, "little van in the big city". Went well, just need to tighten fanbelt a touch & vent the fuelcap (is a radiator cap fitting, typical leyland build-efficiency) bit of excess lash in the diff too to look at, not terrible though. 19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doullama Posted September 20, 2017 Author Share Posted September 20, 2017 New fanbelt, vented the cap, re-oiled the front shocks.. turned out what I thought was diff backlash clonking was actually the u-bolts being loose a.f clonking, phew! also much less rattly in general, not that it matters as I now have giant speakers All I can really think of now to suss out before random upgrades/neglect is a non-working heater blower motor (though enough crap came flying out of the vents during test running that i'm hopeful it will work now) and a non-working front interior light. Idles a little erratically too, sometimes steady at 700rpm, sometimes steady at 1000. Probably carbs a bit out of sync or timing but no big deal, she runs good! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doullama Posted September 22, 2017 Author Share Posted September 22, 2017 Sussed out my interior light tonight, and plugged in the heater blower switch. Flicked the switch and plenty of current draw but no go.. After staring at it thoughtfully for a bit, gave the heater box a judicious kick and with a Whrcrunchsqueaksqueakwhirrcrunchsqueakwhirrrrrrrrrrr It came back to life, meaning that at this point EVERYTHING WORKS. Place your bets on what will break first now 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post doullama Posted December 4, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 4, 2017 Prepare your eyeholes, tis a van update! So far nothing has broken, which makes me rather suspicious. When i replaced the head I just filled the rad with h2o, thought i'd better chuck some coolant & a thermostat in. With the thermo in it started dieselling on shutoff, I managed to overcome my inner barry and leave it in, and fix the dodgy linkage that was causing it to idle a little too high. Carbs dont have fancy electrical wizardry solenoid. Has gotten lots of use lately, several inter-city trips etc which has been cool. Also picked up a rather cool but somewhat rotten parts ute/lawn ornament + parts from yet another ute thanks to Ben the car-wrangler (not sure what his username here is) so now have even more surplus parts for my next of kin to scrap in the future. Funnily ended up with yet another 4k motor, had given one with scooter-pile to blizzo as I really only need one spare, Ben had one lying around and was like hey, you'll want this! I was like "nah its all good just gave one away".. "yeah but this one has a k50 attached" yeah fair enough so in the back of the ute it went. Most importantly I now have genuine leyland(tm) seat mounts which will allow me to put the seats back a little further, which will improve comfort considerably, and a pair of navy xtra-cheap commercial spec door cards just like it used to have. Had to fight numerous, large, BL lovin' white-tails for these. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post doullama Posted December 17, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 17, 2017 Another van = a collection! Picked up @Shakotom 's Hz van today, had wanted one for years, and as time goes by they're certainly not getting any easier to find intact, or cheaper for that matter. Nice solid base for a panel & paint, and the 202/ three on tree combo is perfect. First H series holden, and i'm quite impressed, remind me of a GM B-body car without the pitch/yaw & bordello spec interior. Was a comfortable, relaxing drive home. Gets a better ratio of thumbs up to confused looks than the marina! The list: exhaust leak to fix sand, bog, sand, bog etc paint top & bottom rustproofing re-sprang for offroad stz oem hubcaps cheviot turbos new weatherstripping soundz 330ml can ejection port chloroform, duct tape etc profit 22 1 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post doullama Posted December 18, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 18, 2017 Had a tutu with new van today, had a pretty bad manifold leak tick so checked the nuts, no1 was finger tight, tightened it but no joy. Luckily there was a spare if equally crap (hate the thin perforated stuff) mani gasket in box of spares, chucked it on and found this van was suffering from the same issue as the austins k-motor, mismatched inlet & exhaust flange thickness. Had burnt out the old gasket in 6-odd places. Cut up some more 'shims' and no more ticky-touring whipped the aircleaner off during this, good thing as there was no filter inside! Will order another but in the meantime: improvise, adapt, overcome. Next thing temp & oil pressure gauges, suspect it might be getting a bit warm but no way to really tell. Already have a gauge/sender for temp so just need an appropriate adaptor thing for whatever the 202's sender hole thread/size is vs whatever the sender I have is haha 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doullama Posted January 3, 2018 Author Share Posted January 3, 2018 Been mucking around a bit with Hz, rot-hunting mostly. Water blasted off heaps of primer and filler, no more than expected really. Worst of it (so far) is probably the belt line where the turret mounts onto the "ute" bit at the back, pulled the carpet off inside & looks like the windows have leaked over the decades & rotted out the junction of upper, lower & inner skin, in fact someone's added an overlay inner skin to brace the sides (glued on even) , but the 6 inner pillars are more or less floating. Some welding has been done here but some has been subject to a space-age solution. (Panel steel glued on & filled) Will probably have to remove the inner bracing & extra inner skin to patch the original. Would dare say this will warp the sides a bit but they're already pretty warped! Bit hard to see in the pics as the inside looks awful with various paint/glue/fluff/80s pubes etc. should have just fixed the lil bog-blowouts & called it good haha. Unfortunately most filler is over bare metal so will be an ongoing thing unless the body is blasted/dear god no 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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