Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted February 26, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 26, 2022 Last but not least I made a hot tub for the engine block out of a drum and a hot water element. I had my block, rod, caps, rocker gear, pcv valves, oil pick ups and odd bits of hardware brewing with caustic soda (washing powder) for 5days. No after photos as it was dark when it all got pulled out, but it all worked really well. 10 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted March 27, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 27, 2022 Rebuilt and assembled the rear brakes. New cylinders, shoes and spring kits. Started working the front suspension and connecting parts. I used new and used parts from my spares to rebuild the steering rack. The manual required 2.8kg of force to move the steering arms. 2.8kg of sand on the arm... ...2.8kg of sand on the floor. Yep, kit moved. Drilled, tapped in a new locking brass rod and penned the metal over to hold the rod in place. All assembled and has been thrown on the van with new poly bushes, tie rod ends and control arms. Not in the photo but I've pressed out the control arm to sway bar bushes and will use some new poly ones. New wheel bearing kits in the hubs. Hope to have the legs on in the next couple days. 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmxnz11 Posted March 29, 2022 Author Share Posted March 29, 2022 Shiiiit. Started to assemble the struts and thought hmm that spring perch looks a bit different. Compared it to the other spares I had and could see what I had refurbished and rebuilt were not escort struts, though they came out if a mk2 escort. The most obvious tell being the insert tube is not centre on the spring perch. The other tell is when I put the spring in, it didn't sit flat and upright. The spring perch doesn't sit horizontal, it's on quite an angle. Anyone know what these came out of? Confirmed mk2 escort struts. Looking down the centre of the tube. Spring perch angle Not mk2 escort struts Looks like I'll end up strip and repaint the correct pair I have. 2 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted April 9, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 9, 2022 V2. Find an unbent pair of the correct struts, strip, paint and reassemble. New shocks and fittings. The original rubber from the strut tops have been removed and replaced with poly. The 2 different strut bodies but look very similar. The correct mk2 escort in the foreground and the unknown in front. The tube diameter, caliper spacing, disk shield spacing, stub axles and heights all measures exactly the same. 17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted April 28, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 28, 2022 Sway bar and new control arms assembled. Poly bushes and new fittings. Even went so far as making my own tab washers years ago. Really getting picky on certain parts on this now, including all the different types of fittings. Have chosen to go with mostly anodized gear. Have offered up calipers and the brake booster gear in preparation of making all new lines. I'll remove the booster at a later date and repaint as it's quite flat compared it's surrounding parts. Also assembled the pedal box which I stripped down and painted some time ago. New bushes and pads etc. Feels like xmas unboxing parts all these refurbished parts. 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmxnz11 Posted April 29, 2022 Author Share Posted April 29, 2022 I don't know if it's a ford, late 70s or a commercial vehicle thing but I get the impression this van was thrown together quickly in the factory. Everytime I attach something to the van, it has to be slightly modified to fit. A bit of filing here, a shim there. These are the holes for the brake booster bracket to attach to the engine bay wheel guard. There's a plate welded on the outside which is supposed to line up with the hole. This is typical with alot of the double skin holes. I even had to modify the bonnet stay so it would work in both upright and tucked away positions. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmxnz11 Posted May 1, 2022 Author Share Posted May 1, 2022 I was tapping some threads in the engine bay, getting it ready for fittings, then this happened. It's the under side of the bonnet where the hook is attached. Nuts welded on the inside but this one decided it had had enough and decided to spin. Fuck. There's no access to the cavity behind to access to the nut so I'm going to have to cut it open, peel it back, weld the nut back on, stitch weld the panel back on and re paint the entire front section of the underside. Hard to see but agin the nut didn't line up with the hole very well when it was "welded" on in the factory and when I was cutting the thread it was hard up against the bonnet panel which probably caused it to break. 1 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted May 7, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 7, 2022 Thanks to the great ideas here I had a new plan of attack. I drilled a hole beside the tap and cleaned the area. I could see through the new hole that the nut had 3 factory welds holding it on. Must have been very fatigued/rusted because it didnt require much force for it break away. Tried to plug weld/tac the nut on and managed to get a strong enough tac to take the tap out. I decided I wanted two different spots of weld on the nut. Unfortunately the first weld broke off when drilling the second hole but thankfully I had a screw in place just in case. New hole, new weld. Accidently welded too much of the screw so it required quite a bit of cutting and grinding to remove it in one piece. Required a lot of concentration to avoid the raised stamped areas in the panel. Ended up nicking the top coat once. Cleaned the area again with the die grinder, put in another screw but this time insulated it with copper wiring which worked a treat. Ground it all flat and this time it looked much better. The weld had penetrated and filled in the holes. Best part yet, the bracket covers the entire worked area. Easy for these small jobs to chew up time. Just need to keep looking at the big picture. 20 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmxnz11 Posted May 9, 2022 Author Share Posted May 9, 2022 I couldn't find my bonnet cable clip so pinched it off the blue van and made a replacement. Could have used a cable tie or p clip but because it's visible I didn't want it to look too out of place. I'll have the old black one stripped and anodized. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmxnz11 Posted May 11, 2022 Author Share Posted May 11, 2022 Much like the steering rack, I had disassembled 3 steering columns all in various states and all slightly different. One column shaft was longer then the others, one column and housing has absolutely been munched by the steering lock mechanism and none really shared the exact same internals, with different springs and spacers etc. I used a good short column and the best housing and had them painted. I started to reassemble it last night but hit a road bump. The new top bush, which replaces the older style bearing, is too narrow in the ID to turn freely on the column shaft. The bottom replacement works fine. I'll need to trim down the OD of the shaft or increase the ID in the bush. Even with grease and vice grips it didn't want to turn. old bearing and new bush 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmxnz11 Posted May 13, 2022 Author Share Posted May 13, 2022 I don't have a lathe so I carefully cleaned up the shaft using using die grinder and a flap wheel, checking it as I went. I had removed enough material that the bush would snuggly fit over the shaft and move. Success. Then I couldnt work out why it was such as effort to fit into the steering colum. It would only go half way down. It's hard to see but the end of the shaft is slightly tappered. 39mm tappered down to 38.5mm. Out came the die grinder and flap wheel again. I enlarged the internal shaft to accept the new bush and we were away laughing. Until... ...I installed it all in the van and the ends of the steering shafts don't line up. Faaaaark. I will need to enlarge the hole on the firewall and move the shaft up. I thought the assembly was supposed to be the easy part. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted May 15, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 15, 2022 I couldn't see anything obvious with why the steering shafts weren't lining up so I ended up enlongating the hole in the firewall. This also gave me a chance to change the mounting design. The steering column is mounted to the firewall via a round bush housed in a bracket and bolted to the firewall on the cabin side via 2x 5mm screws, nuts welded on the firewall on the engine bay side. The engine bay side looks bare and had no real seal. I had a spare bracket and bush, so I cut the welded nuts off and attached the spare bracket and bush up the column from the engine bay side and bolted it all together, including the standard bracket on the inside, with 8mm bolts. Original Bracket added to the firewall Old vs new steering uni bush And I've started on making new brake lines. Austin princess calipers and rear cylinders are metric, flexi lines and brake booster are imperial. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted May 19, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 19, 2022 Calipers assembled and installed Attached the fuel filler. Had to remove and giggle everything around just to get the floor rubber grommet to fit correctly. Happy with the final fitment though. There's a shield that covers all this from the inside. 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted June 12, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 12, 2022 6/7 brake lines made. I had to buy a new brake master slave which had the brake fittings facing the drives gaurd instead of my original one which had them facing the engine. With my lowered brake booster set up, to run side drafts, the old brake lines were fouling on the fan shroud. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted June 16, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 16, 2022 Something something gold. Few dress up pieces. 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted July 24, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 24, 2022 Bag and tag people, bag and tag. I took my motor apart almost a decade ago and now I'm struggling to figure out where each bolt goes. Luckily I'm a hoarder and have a rooted motor to take apart for comparison. Have been slowly gathering my goodies for the engine build. Pretty much brought burtons catalog worth of parts. Currently the motor (711 1600) has been bored out and hone matched to the pistons at +40. Small ends have had the bearings pressed in and machined out for the gudgeon pins. I've also been tidying up parts for the door mechanisms. I've got through my spares, selected and tidied the best parts. I rebuilt the exterior door handles with new uprated springs. The thumb push button always feel a bit soft on escorts so I upgraded mine with thicker springs. Feels so much more satisfying. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted August 17, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 17, 2022 Door handles assembled and reinstalled with the best of all my spares. Added a second return spring on the thumb push button to support the movement. The wiper assembleys in these always get flogged. The rod/lever arms slowly elongate the bottom of cast posts to the point they end up with excessive rotating and vertical play. Checked my spares for the best set, pulled apart and the brass inserts looked good. I made 2 shims out of some very thin brass sheet to take up any vertical slack, cleaned everything up, regreased and reassembled. Purchased some front door rubber awhile ago from burton then heard some stories on fb that the rubbers too fat. Installed my set and yeah, you really have to slam the door extremely hard to get it to shut. Found some other type of rubber which looks more appropriate so will address this next week. The original rear door rubbers were a ford item and actually riveted on by little straps. These same doors fit an anglia van so it must have been the method in the 60s. I looked at my options and decided on a D shape rubber with a decent backing adhesive. I applied this to the bottom of the doors, and the sides and top of the body. The reason for applying the bottom section on the doors, and not the body, is just so it doesn't get hacked by things being dragged in and out of the back, plus it looks neater/hidden away. From the outside you don't see any excessive rubber poking through the gaps, just a solid black line. Reassembled the rest of the rear doors and now they all function. And ofcourse it threw me another curve ball. The top of the door locking rod didn't line up with the hole on the body. A little massage, file and the adjusting bracket that guides it into place all helped though. 23 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted August 27, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 27, 2022 A couple small jobs finished and a few more started. Went through all my spare glass and have selected the best. Rear doors are pretty good but unfortunately the front are all scratched from winding up and down. Escorts have a poor external door seal design which eventually damages the glass. I'll polish the bests one up and just deal with it. Added the petrol tank breather pipe and cover. Added a thin strip of foam backing to fill in any gaps and avoid any movement. Finally ordered some sound deadening. Was quoted about $400 for dynamat so decided to look into the os approved kilmat. I chose the thicker 80 mil sheets because I wanted to give it the best chance. 34 sheets, 35sq ft total, $250nzd landed and arrived within a week. Added sections to rear doors as an early test and so far so good. Looks like decent adhesive and its easy to work with. The 2x inner door sections took almost 3 sheets total. Gave it the before and after curled knuckle tap tap test and it's noticeably less tinny. Will apply it to the usual cabin places next week. 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted September 6, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 6, 2022 Firewall, front 3rd of the roof and floor done, and have starting working towards the back. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bmxnz11 Posted September 29, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 29, 2022 New parts for the doors arrived. New inner and out window seals, clips and new window channel seals/guides. Buffed all the glass while it was out. All my spare drivers windows were all scratched up pretty bad in the same way which is a bit shit. Have just used the best of what I have. New quarter window seals needed some adjustment in one of the corners. There's actually a machined groove in the side of the glass to fit over 2x rivet heads on the frame and the rubber needed a little snip snip to make it fit. All fitted up with stainless rivets for the window quarter frame rods. Inner and outer window seals seem like quality products and left plenty of meat to cut to suit. The clips for the outer seals ended up fouling on the glass. Quick bend of the top tags on the all clips and they just clear. 18 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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