Vk304

https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/78072-vk304s-1988-nissan-vanette-w-added-sr20det/

Anyone wrecking any c22 Van's? I need some small parts ...

Yea I might have to drop the tank and check it sometime its possible the sender isn't at the right level , it reads half full at all times, probably when drop the diff and put my lsd in. Thanks !

This is awesome thanks for documenting it, a dream of mine and my wife's to do something like this.

Better pic of it re-assembled, hopefully do some engine stuff tomorrow, and wash the dust off maybe, some of that depends on me machining some weld-on barb fitting up for the intake-plenum, to further reduce hose runs and mess that's hard to work on/has potential to fail....

Such as hose clamps under the plenum, waterlines joining in hard to reach areas, basically I hate having to pull 10,000 bits off everytime I wanna do an oil filter change or call a tow truck if a hose fails and I can't do a roadside fix 

Thanks @vk327!! I need to do that, that info can be so hard to find, in my vk I just spliced the whole vt cluster in, all works except fuel and temp, no bcm, not sure why the fuel doesn't work properly, it has vt sender in the tank

@Otodatthanks, it's fun to drive and gets some confused looks haha 

3rd times a charm, if anything the previous runny attempts have provided some extra thickness, taking off the masking was the best part, some light polishing will take off the bits of dust on the surface and this part is done.

Overall it's really straight and even 

1st attempt at topcoat, was spraying the door and going well, there weren't any major runs, moved on to the door sill and that went well, but the front of the van didn't go so well, looked like it went through lipo haha flabby runs everywhere (diddnt even want to take a picture) 

But I wet sanded that all flat again, only going through to primer in couple spots, no bare metal, so next couple coats I'll be a little more careful, might leave the door as I put quite a few coats on and it should polish up just fine!

Some primer on and final sanding coming soon then couple coats white

Decided to throw in the drivers door sill as it was worn and rusty, got my paint, dressed the van up for primer tomorrow hopefully...

if I dont get tempted to do more bits.... I should just leave it alone .... but I can't... I'll probably do a couple more panels.

After these though, and after putting the engine back together with the improved parts. 

Again... donor van came to the rescue, I did rust paint behind my fix and sanded the weld off, the surface looks bad with the filler, but it's at the most 2.5mm thick with most being under a mm.

I can't feel any peaks lows or chips so I think it will come out good, I have good quality primers, paint, hardener and filler so shouldn't experience too many problems, will paint when it's a dry/warm day 

This stuff takes time when your an amateur haha

Sold a bunch of things such as the motor clutch diff which leaves me some dollars, brought some nissan 002 white 2pac paint, I'm no paint/body guy but I've enjoyed doing these bits, fixed up corner, whole front was full of chips and dents.

The 2 worst panels I'm doing are front and driver door which had some bog cracks and rust in it , sanded to the metal and yea.... re bog hahah sorry I cannot and will not strip the whole door and panel beat it out, so there will be bog/filler but less of it I guess, since I did get rid of some excess and beat it out a little...

So I skimmed some filler on, sanded back, repeat x7 and we have a smooth finish ready for primer and paint next week!

Haven't done too much lately, needed a break from the van, if I forced myself to work on it, would result in some halfass work haha .

But anyway it's just getting tidy up of wiring, hosing, delete some unneccessary bits like the throttle body heater, etc, no snow here lol, and I could use the space to make it less of a b#Tch to service it in the future.

Not very photo moments... so I'll come back with some body work soon hopefully.

 The new van came with a new steering arm bush/pivot/thing, so I put it in, while I was there I thought to check the brakes, they weren't too bad but maybe a bit spongy.

Turns out the caliper on drivers side leaked brake fluid out when I push the piston in... , so I swapped all the parts from the old van.. which I'd already gone through for the previous cert process, and the discs are new (came with the old van) and new pads.

Cleaned up the surface rust, bit of high heat paint, some other cleaning 'while I was in there' layers of grease removed...., also did a general check of ball joints, loose nuts (which there were ) and tightened everything.

And it now stops much better. I have been driving it a bit, seems to be no major issues so far, next thing will probably be driveshaft hoop.

I've extended the shift arm as much as I think is necessary, welded a piece of 5mm steel in.

Welded on both sides so should handle any abuse thrown at it, it now selects all gears easily, maybe 1st is a little harder than the rest but is bearable for now, a little adjustment the other way and it will be mint . 

I'm probably going to leave the side steps made of aluminum on, someone made them before I got it 

Been trying to make the shift levers work properly, barely gets 1st and no reverse unless I really yank on it, so i figured it's the bushes, which were loose, fixed all of them by adding washers and bushes to make all the joints tight when moving, and its better..

gets 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th, but still doesnt want to reach reverse no matter how much I adjust it at the gearbox, either 1st at the bottom, or reverse at the top work, but not both, being column shift it's different than the cable floor shift of the old van (up/down-neutral lever that's the issue, gear select- forward, backward lever works fine)

So tomorrow I'm gonna have a go at increasing the throw of the lever which should fix the issue (I prefer the column shift) 

poor old van 

The old van keeps giving,.. the thin piece of aluminium disguised as a window on the rhs rear... not very secure 

So now it's got an opening rear window 

A donor car is soo good, 2 of everything and mix/match parts everywhere

One more improvement, van had one cracked plastic monsoon shield, my 'luxury' sgl datsun van had stainless shields, so polished them with some autosol and installed. I like the look.

it'll tie in with the rear trim and door slides which are all stainless/chrome plastic .