Flash

This year is one of those significant wedding anniversaries for Mrs Flash and I, so a few weeks back I asked my lady what she would like. Now most ladies would ask for some new jewellery or maybe a new outfit or two, or perhaps a romantic weekend away at some fancy resort. But that's just not how my girl rolls. Without even thinking about it she immediately asked if we could rather spend the money getting the upholstery work done for the back of the Thames. Jeez, no wonder I love this woman so much.

So, with the decision made off I headed to town to visit two of our local upholstery places. The first stop was at the auto trimmers. Now I get that these guys do nothing but cars all day, but I was still expecting the chap to at least comment on the Thames, but not a peep. He noseyed around with a measuring tape and then proceeded to give me one of those loosey goosey "between this and this" verbal quotes where you immediately know that the final figure is going to be nowhere near the bottom figure quoted and you are likely to get very little change back from the upper figure quoted.

Anyhoo, undaunted by his lack of enthusiasm I headed off to the next stop which is a place that mainly specialises in recovering furniture. Now as I pulled into their driveway, I spotted this guy scurrying across to greet me and we proceeded to yarn about the Thames for a good 10 minutes before we even started talking business. It turns out that Bill is originally from Masterton where his dad ran a motor trimming business back in the day. The minute that Bill was big enough to reach the pedals on the sewing machine he was put to work and by the age of eight he was already doing diamond stitching which was all the rage back then. 

We chatted a bit about what I was looking for style wise and Bill was already throwing in some really good suggestions, so I knew I was on to the right guy. We looked at some samples, Bill took some measurements and the next minute Caroline the owner handed me a written quote that was significantly less than the first quote I got. Winner!

Roll forward a few weeks whilst Caroline sourced the marine grade vinyl material and some top-quality foam, and I then took the van around for final measurements. Because the cushions are loose, I didn't have to leave the van with them which was another plus.

Roll forward another week and late yesterday I got a call from Caroline to say that the cushions were ready for final fitting, so we wheeled through first thing this morning and Bill laid down some velcro to keep everything in place and then proceeded to do the final fit up.

To say that we are blown away with the results would be an understatement. The job has turned out absolutely amazing.

Rear facing couch looks like so:

Bill even shaped the base of the front facing "dog box" so that it clears the engine cover tie downs:

 

And lastly even our doggo seems happy with her comfy wee seat.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

 

 

When I climbed under the Thames to remove the radiator, I noticed a slight weep right where my two portions of lower hose meet.

I was surprised as the engineering shop that had turned me up the aluminium joiner piece had done a really good job.

Once I had it all apart and on closer inspection, I suspect that the issue is the placement of the clamps. I'm thinking I've got them too close to the transition point on the adapter, so I've now spaced them further apart.

Took the van for a squirt around town to get the temp up then crawled under for a look see.

So far it looks good, but I'll keep an eye on things just to make sure.

 

 

 

Those following along on my journey will recall that I managed to track down an a/c compressor bracket for my 3Y engine back in September. At the time I mentioned that I'd need to grab the compressor from the same wreck as I needed the pipe manifold. Anyway, after that update I wheeled past the wreckers on my next trip into town and grabbed the compressor. The good news is that it may not be as shagged as I'd originally thought as the system was still pressurised when I pulled the compressor off. 

And this grubby puppy has been patiently sitting in the corner of my shed for the past six weeks:

So this weekend I thought I'd pull my finger out and get the damn thing fitted.

First step was to mock up the bracket and compressor on my spare engine. All fitted good, but when trying to fit the drive belt I noticed that the adjusting mechanism on the idler pulley had seized up. Used some heat, a few dabs of WD40, a piece of crusty old flat bar and a through bolt and managed to eventually free the thing up by using the threads on the bolt to force it one way and then the other.

This way to wind the pulley all the way down:

Then this way to wind it all the way up:

 

Repeat half a dozen times with liberal squirts of lube and she was good to go.

Next step was to work out how I was going to squeeze everything in between the side of the mighty 3Y and the right hand chassis rail.

After a quick look about I realised that this was going to be a radiator out job, so out she came.

For my first attempt I bolted the compressor to the bracket and then tried to slide the combined unit in from the front while trying to squeeze past the power steering pipework.

Instant fail. The a/c hose tails were in the way. So those came off and I tried again.

And .... another fail. The combined width of the bracket and compressor just wouldn't squeeze through the small gap available.

Scratched my head a bit and then decided to try sliding the compressor in first from underneath and then slipping the bracket down between the compressor and the engine block from above.

Worked okay, but when I came to bolt up the bracket to the engine I could only get three of the four mounting bolts to line up. Couldn't see past the compressor to figure out what was wrong, so I ended up pulling the bracket and compressor out for a look see. Tried mounting the bracket on its own and I immediately spotted the issue. The back bolt tab on the bracket is clashing with my home fabricated engine mount. Bugger.

Had to drag out the engine crane to take up the strain while I whipped the engine mount out for a little nip and tuck:

 

Pulled the offending engine mount out and you can see the witness marks in the paint where the mounting bolt hole is clashing.

Gave the engine mount a little tickle with my grinder of angles and then mounted everything up to the test donk. Perfect

 

Gave the engine mount a quick spritz of paint then chucked it back in the Thames. 

Squeezed the compressor and bracket back in the gap, then realised that I didn't have enough room to get the compressor through bolts in.

Out came the compressor one more time and I chucked the through bolts into their sleeves like so:

Back in went the compressor and after a bit of double-jointed spanner work, I managed to get everything bolted into place. The front lower bolt was the easiest of the lot:

Well, it's all in with about 20mm to spare between the compressor and the chassis leg.

What a relief as this was the part of the puzzle that was causing me the most angst.

Some photos of the final position for your viewing pleasure:

Now that I know it fits, I'll go ahead and order a new drive belt. I also need to replace the existing hoses on the compressor as they are facing the wrong way for my application.

It looks like my local a/c parts supplier stocks the required pad to o'ring adapter for my Denso compressor, so I'll order a set of those too.

Then it's just a matter of buying a new under dash unit, condenser setup, drier and a hose kit and a few other small bits and pieces.

I'll take a punt on the existing compressor, but at least I know that I can get a replacement from my local supplier if needed.

But all of that will have to wait until we have gained some funds from the sale of our Bongo van.

In summary the rest looks pretty straight forward, I think...... famous last words.

Thanks for looking.

 

 

 

 

 

Apart from the usual small bits and pieces that still need to be completed, there are two high ticket items left on the Thames "to do" list, these being the air-conditioning system and getting the rock n' roll bed professionally upholstered. In order to free up some cash Mrs Flash and I have taken the decision to sell our current daily which is a 2004 Mazda E2000i. It will be sad to see her go, but the plan was always for the Thames to take over daily driving duties and we are now at that stage.

So, although this update isn't strictly about the Thames, it still has a part to play in the overall project, so I'm hoping everyone will allow me some latitude.

The poor old Bongo has spent the last few years living out in the elements, so she needs a bit of TLC before she goes on the market. The biggest job is resolving some rust that has crept into the edges of both side panels, so this morning I cracked into the first panel. A while back I replaced the panel in the sliding door with a window, so I was able to cut some patches from the spare which made the job a whole lot easier.

Cutty, cutty, weldy, weldy, grindy, grindy and I'm almost there. Just needs a bit of bog and a lick of paint and she'll be good to go.

 

 

 

My mate Grant was giving his Mk2 wagon a bit of TLC when I dropped by his place yesterday.

Yesterday arvo I took the Thames through to town for its hot date with the wheel alignment machine.

As luck would have it the workshop was unusually quiet, so the whole crew gathered around for a bit of a nosey and the swapping of a few yarns.

I had visions of them telling me that everything was skewwhiff as I had used some pretty rudimentary methods to line up the front and rear units before welding them in. But by some miracle everything was straight and all that was needed were a few extra shims to get the LHS camber spot on and a bit of adjustment on the strut rods to get the caster where we needed it.

What a relief to have that job behind me.

 

Managed to centralise the gauge cluster in the opening by moving the mounting holes in the side brackets.

Then I turned my attention to each individual gauge pod and how exactly I'm going to fix the gauges in them. Since the back of each pod is completely sealed the usual U shaped fixing brackets that come with most 2-inch gauges won't work.

A set of instructions would have been nice, but I guess I bought the economy version so no such luck.

At first I thought that the gauges might just be a press fit, but upon sliding one into the pod the gauge is loose as, so that can't be the answer.

Going through the bits that came with each pod there seems to be a few strips of double-sided tape. Surely, they aren't expecting me to fix the gauge into the tube with that are they?

Asked my mate Google, but couldn't find anything useful, so figured I'd just do my own thing.

So first up I poked a hole in the rounded end of the pod. The little factory dimple made it such that even a rough bastard like me managed to get the hole centralised.

Then I trimmed a little metal offcut to size, poked a few holes in it and made this little doohickie:

Slapped it onto the back of the gauge like so:

A quick test fit and I even went as far as fitting a lush looking stainless steel domed nut.

Next step is to tidy up the little bracket and give it a spritz of paint.

Repeat times three and I'm home and hosed.

 

 

 

 

Next step on my gauge panel is to trim my plastic surround rings down to the correct length.

 

Scratched around my tool collection for something appropriate but I figured that using a cut off wheel or hack saw just wasn't going to give me the finish that I am looking for, so time to call in some professional help.

My "go to" general engineering shop in town closed down a while ago so I've been asking around to see if anyone could recommend another crowd. Then a mate of mine suggested that I head along to see the Barrys that hang out at the local Men's Shed. It's only about 5km from home so first thing this morning I hopped in the Moke and headed on down. Gotta say that I was really blown away by the equipment that these old blokes have at their disposal. Hooked up with a really nice bloke called Stuart who chucked the rings on a wood lathe and in next to no time I had these perfect specimens:

And all for the cost of the equivalent of a few beers. AAA+++ would happily trade again.

So, from a gauge perspective I'm going with Speco units cause cheap and cheerful. Their Street Series have the black face that I am looking for and they also supply chrome snap on trim rings for those wanting that old school look.

A few weeks back I ordered one of their water temp gauges as a starter for ten.

Now with the surround rings ready to go I clipped on the trim ring and mounted the gauge on the panel just to get the feel.

Noice !

Flushed with success I headed over to the Thames and quickly chucked the panel in.

 

And, whilst I'm happy with the overall look the jury is still out on whether this is going to work as well as I envisaged. Reason being that the angle that the gauges sit at in the panel makes them quite hard to read from the standard driving position. If they were tilted a bit up like the factory speedo is they would be perfect.

So, I need to come up with some kind of wedged shape intermediate panel that will provide me with the angle that I need.

Gonna have to give some more thought to how I'm going to achieve this.

 

 

It's time to build the new gauge panel that I was talking about a few weeks back.

My mate Cameron kindly supplied me with 3 aluminium offcuts thus giving me an opportunity to make 2 cock ups before I get things right.

First step was to make a cardboard template.

I needed to join two cereal box sides together to make a piece long enough hence the dodgy looking tape joint.

The next step was to work out the gauge spacing. First time I used a spacing of 86mm between gauge centres, but it looked a bit odd, so I reduced the spacing to 80mm which I am much happier with.

I had to create a little crescent shaped notch in the top of the template in order to clear the steel tab in the dash for the latch on the hinged glove box lid that were factory fitted to the bus versions. I've had to slot the mounting hole on the right hand side as there is only a thin gap between the back of the dashboard panel and the wiper motor.

 

Carved up my first piece of aluminium and chucked it in for a test fit.

Then took to it with my hole saw:

Had to pace myself with the drilling as I didn't want to overtax my little Ozito battery drill.

Eventually ended up with this:

Gave it a quick test fit.

Not bad, but I'll need to put some shape in it as the dashboard has a slight curve.

 

More tomorrow.

 

 

 

Finally finished off the wiring yesterday and took the van for its first drive with the new Astra power steering pump. I'm chuffed to report that it works really well.

We ended up taking the van for our usual Friday night burger cruise which highlighted a few extra items that needed adding to the snag list. The most urgent one being an intermittent belt squeal. To be honest this has been lurking around since day one and up to now I've just been masking the issue with liberal applications of soap. I was hoping that the belt driving my original power steering pump was the culprit, but now that this is no longer, the squeal persists, so must be the alternator belt.

So, first thing this morning I took a closer look. Belt tension looked good, but focusing closer on the belt alignment I noticed that the alternator was sitting a smidge too far forward.

Things are so tight in the engine box that to get the alternator out you need to drain the radiator and remove the lower radiator hose, which leaves just enough room to turn the alternator on its head and wrestle the bloody thing out. 

I'm using a reverse mounted 3Y alternator bracket with a piece of threaded rod that acts as the through bolt. A standard nut and spring washer on either end fix the threaded rod in place, so the simplest way to sit the alternator further back without modifying the bracket is to reduce the thickness of the front nut. Scratched around in my box of spare nuts and was lucky enough to find a narrower nut with the correct thread.

Chucked the alternator back in, but it was still a fraction too far forward so I ended up ditching the front spring washer, which made things perfect.

Should be okay as I still have a spring washer on the rear nut.

Before re-filling the coolant, I took the opportunity to replace the factory temp gauge sender unit with the new sender for my aftermarket gauge.

Old:

New one with correct adapter:

All sorted and ready for the fitting of the gauge.

 

Thanks for looking.

Saw this Morrie at a local car show yesterday. Guy had stuffed a V8 Daimler engine into it. Thought I'd post this for @tortron and the rest of the Morrie foamers.