azzurro

Green Island 

Spent some money on stuff

Master cylinder bored and resleeved with a new stainless sleeve

Got to unbox my nice NOS rebuild kit - the master is different (later?)  from the books one, but lucky i took lots of photos when i disassembled it!

Got some paint mixed up from my swatch, chose the closest swatch they had in their book. Looking forward to wafting some around next year sometime.

Future reference Nason Ful-Thane 2K Urethane, Spectro #030

Got the rims stripped, and dropped them off to the blasters.

Got a set of pretty much new 195 R14C for $100 of FBM to go on them once i get them resprayed.

Unsure on black like factory or the new body colour?

And pulled the last main component off, the steering shaft/box.

it was utterly minging.

But came up pretty good!

Horn wire runs right though the hollow steering shaft from the wheel and out the bottom of the box. -

i thought it may have been leaking though the hole but it turns out the bottom plate has a pipe on it that goes above the level of the cast housing. 

Genius but total madness at the same time. 

Pretty sure the source of the grimness is  the pitman arm seal leaking, and maybe the adjustment nut too. It smells like its been (re)filled with gear oil which is too thin. 

I cant get the pitman arm off with any of the pullers i have to change the seal so ill use a mix of grease to fill the shaft up with and and a wee bit of moreys for sticking too and thining the grease around the gears when i refill it like i have on all the other cars steering boxes so it shouldnt leak (as much)

Steering shaft carries the column shift as well, this is the housing which was factory painted but i think ill leave it raw

 

Ol' Mate Jay at Daily Coffee has this pic up on the wall. 

The big vans are Alfa Romeo Romeo's but the little ones im not sure, might be coachbuilt Fiat Multiplas?

 

 

 

More cleaning and painting of the front suspension which is cleaning up very nice. No real wear or damage.

Shocks and springs. 

Shocks do need replacing but not today satan, not today...

They are short stubby bastards too, my stash of Nissan e2x series van front shocks are too long and they are pretty short by modern standards

Steering arms all come out lovely,

fresh grease and ready to go back on

Hubs and kingpins, spiders and tierods. Need some replacement tie rod boots (available from ladapower - the tie rods themselves are also hared with lada/125/2300 too) but otherwise everything is good to go.

Engine Cover got a quick rub down and some gloss black

May put a coat of satin on it to tone down the obviousness of my lazy prep 

Ive also been removing all the lines and wires so i can roughly paint and protect where new/restored/cleaned stuff will bolt back on.

The 3 reservoirs (front & rear brake and clutch) live on the cargo barrier behind the driver seat above the battery compartment, so this corner was pretty crusty looking.

I hit it with the sander after doing the engine lid and sprayed some  phosphoric acid on it and it come up great. this is just the first go.

VIN number is in this corner too, so I'm very glad all the rust is light and just seems to be from where brake fluid, battery acid mist and rat piss was just sitting and pretty much wipes off after a soaking with the phosphoric.

IGM 3046OM

FIAT 217D *107627*

 

 

 

With the rear suspension done, and reinstalled the handbrake cable, i started to unpick the front end.

I want to clean all the greasy dirt that is still caked on everything (and has actually done pretty well at preserving stuff) and then i can clean, paint, regrease and reassemble.

Im very pleased to say, the rust is all on the 'outside' of the van in the panels, and not the chassis structure. 

Took all the brakelines off first, including the lines from the reservoirs (they are up behind the drivers seat) to make later, they all unscrewed easy.

I didnt have the right spring compressor so just used the jack under the lower control arm but i think ill need one for putting it back together!

Some before and afters

Drivers side after dropping the wishbones out, and then after a scrape and waterblast

Same area immediately after dropping the suspension and after a scrape and a waterblast.

The light brown is a mix of oil, grease and road dust that is anything from 1mm to 20mm thick. Usually clean paint or metal under it, so could be worse!

Only surface rust really is where the greasy smeg wasnt - a lot of cleany shiny metal where the paint came off with the waterblaster.

This pic show where one of the main bolts comes thought, the inside of the rail is minty mint mint

The two wishbone assemblies and the steering rack. 

ALL of the tie rod ends!

 

One of the suspension assemblies, give a good idea of the crust on everything. Ive water blasted under the van about 10 times.

After a clean, still has factory (?) shim count stamps .

 

 

I got some new CRC degreaser for the parts washer, stuff is magic, seems to have a slight derusting action too.

 

The gear change linkages came lovely, and have no discernable wear which is another sign of low milage

Pretty sure these would have been factory fitted (CKD built by Torino Motors in Otahuhu), but cant believe how clean they came up! Pretty sure thats a manufacturing date stamp, which also makes me think this van is also a later (66 on) one.

I re-found this service sticker that was in the cubby in the van that i thought id lost put somewhere for safekeeping .

Along with the Kelso address painted on the Hubcaps, I reckon she is a Southland Van

Place is still going

Im going to get some paint made up soon (i have lost my paint swatch) so i can make a start respraying  the shock mounts and engine bay etc before bolting everything back in.

Still a lot of cleaning and stuff to do first.

Head is off at the machine shop getting looked at, and i have the rims in the back of the daily to get the tyres stripped and then off to the sandblaster, so progress is continuing.

 

Chucked the diff back in a while back, fresh black makes everything else look worse.

Had a bit of a splurge on ebay, got

• a NOS Pirelli windscreen rubber, which means i can cut the old one off eventually
• a NOS Sipea ignition switch 
• a replacement (not NOS but made in Italy) passenger side mirror
• some NOS tail lights lenses for the 125p ute

Ignition switch came with a nice note

Thanks Hans,

Installed, so van finally has some keys

Also got this parts catalogue, good for practicing the italian, french and german

But full of great diagrams like this, which has already proved invaluable taking a few things apart, and putting them back together.

Also broke my crawler with the diff so that got new base wood - used some random ply that would result in the least waste - tuned out fancy!

 

 

Spotted working hard in the car park at M10.

Heard it burbling past later on that day while getting an icecream, mrs on the passenger side with headscarf and sunnies, old mate with driving gloves on looking pleased as punch, V8 on turbos M8. 

2 door wagon

dont worry, wont be flat when you finished pushing it with abolt or making room for the back swing on the persuader  

Have you considered

a crane?

Jb weld?

10 propellors?

2ZZ?

Newtech and newspaper?

fresh underseal with dirt in it?

lower it more?

Turbo 6 falcon?

Turbos with eagers?

more jandal?

Have we found an edge case scenario where the OS standard answers do not apply, thereby proving they are in fact fundamental laws of the universe by exception?

heh, tell me about obscure nissan commercial radiators

 

Also, this is my family crest (seriously)

Classic surf wag in punch yellow

Double 'coon spot