Flash's 1965 Ford Thames

[Flash]

With the location for the booster finalised I did some cardboard aided design followed by some plywood aided design so that I could do a test fit. The test fit with the plywood bracket highlighted some fine tuning needed which I incorporated into the final steel bracket.

The remote booster is now tucked up in what will hopefully be its final position. I'll incorporate the single mounting bolt at the back of the booster into my protective steel cover plate which I'll fabricate next.

Thanks for reading. 

[Flash]

This morning I thought I would tackle the load compensation proportioning valve. If I had a choice I wouldn't be fitting this as the load carrying days of the old Thames are over, but having one is mandatory for cert of a van or ute here in Straya, so there you go.

I'm going to use the original HiAce unit which has a bracket that bolts up to the rear axle and then uses an activation rod which is swivel mounted to the valve. It works a bit like the ball valve in a loo. So I bolted it up to the rear axle and crawled under the Thames to see where I could mount the valve. Spotted some factory holes in one of the chassis cross braces that looks to be in the perfect spot so did a bit of CAD work and a bit of metal carving and I came up with this :

 

 

[Flash]

I quickly realised that I had grossly over engineered the bracket so I gave it a bit of a trim and a bend. Chucked some metal glue on the back of the bend, poked a few holes here and there and ended up with this:

[Flash]

Chucked it in and called it done.

The side outlet on the original exhaust is pretty close by. It won't rub, but I am worried about exhaust heat on the rubber wheel that forms part of the pivot mechanism, so I'll mount the outlet on the new exhaust slightly forward when I build it so that there is plenty of clearance. 

Thanks for reading.

[Flash]

My earlier thoughts were to incorporate the rear mounting tab on the remote brake booster into a cover plate, but after spending a bit of time this morning puzzling out the cover plate, I realised it would be easier to separate the two. I also didn't want to drill any new holes in the Thames if I could help it because OCD, so I did a little bit of metal carving, poked a few more holes and the mounting bracket is ready to rock and roll.

Because of the complex shape that the cover plate needs to be, I'm thinking of making it out of fiberglass. The cover is a requirement for cert so I'll just make sure that the cert guy is happy with that before I proceed.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Flash]

I managed to track down a local who runs a little eBay business supplying race parts for the oval track boys. Turns out he has a Sydney based contact that does custom made control cables for him, so I took a drive through to Gary with my sample cable and after checking out the cable ends that I need he quickly emailed through an order to his Sydney connection.

With my new gear shift cable on its way and my steering column still sitting at the local engineering shop, I'm kind of in a holding pattern on the bigger items, so today I thought I'd make a start on the smaller stuff, starting with the missing pieces of the fuel delivery system.

The Thames fuel tank is located under the loading floor just behind the rear axle and has a steel tube that runs the length of the chassis and terminates in the engine box. It has threaded fittings on either end, so I'm keen to keep it intact if I can. In the engine box there is a little fuel filter that my old Thames repair manual refers to as a sediment bowl. It's a quirky looking little piece of kit and since its mounted in a fairly prominent spot I'm keen to keep it too.

Now I don't really want to turn it into something bling, so I thought I'd just give it a sympathetic refurb.

 So I pulled it out for a closer look. Pretty yuck on the outside and when I looked at the stuff that came out of it I'm really surprised that the Thames was actually running pretty well before I pulled it apart.

[Flash]

The little gauze filter was almost invisible under a heavy layer of muck and it took a bit of effort to get it off its locating tube intact. The inside of the housing was pretty crusty too.

[Flash]

I cleaned the gauze filter up as best as it would come. It's still a bit crusty in a few spots but I didn't want to get too aggressive as the gauze already looks pretty thin in spots. The rubber seal also looks to be in serviceable condition. I'll use them both for now, but I have reached out to Sandy who runs the UK based 400E Owners Club to see if he has replacements available.

I gave the bowl and the housing a bit of a tickle and put everything together again and I'm pretty happy with the result. The threaded output fitting attaches to a rubber hose that will feed the Toyota carby via the mechanical fuel pump, so all pretty straight forward. The only thing that still worries me is that the HiAce fuel pump has a second outlet which I traced out on the HiAce and it seems to be a tank return pipe of some sort. Since the Thames tank doesn't have a return I'll need to plumb one in somehow. 

I need to drop the fuel tank when I paint the chassis, so I'll figure the return out then and I'll give the whole tank a birthday at the same time.

Thanks for reading.

[Flash]

The plan of action for today was to suss out the radiator setup and associated plumbing.

First prize would be to use the existing Thames radiator because it already fits in the front of the cozy little engine box. Also on the plus side is that it shows signs of a recent refurb by Red Devil Radiators down in Brissy. 

Since the engine now sits way lower than the radiator I can't run the original Toyota viscous fan, so current thoughts are to retain the original factory shroud and mount an electric pull fan in the hole. 

[Flash]

Just looking at the radiator I can see that the diameter of the inlet and outlet pipes are way bigger than the water necks on the Toyota engine. Sure enough my trusty vernier tells me that the radiator pipes are 45 mm outer diameter compared to the Toyota's 35 mm.  Not ideal, but easy enough to overcame I think.

Next thing I noticed is that the orientation of the water necks on the 3Y are not ideal for this application. The Toyota's upper neck faces to the right whereas the associated radiator pipe is on the left. The Toyota's lower neck exits the engine block just above the alternator and points directly at the side of the engine box. Okay, so that's another little hurdle I'll have to overcome.

Also, the lower pipe on the Thames radiator sits midpoint in the lower radiator tank which is pretty interesting.

Figured I would bolt the radiator in to see just how bad the situation really is. 

The first pic below shows the difference in height between the engine and the radiator. Pic two shows just how snug a fit the radiator is. Pic three shows what an awkward position the bottom radiator pipe is in.

Yikes, I'm in for some fun.

The coward in me is thinking that I should just get a new radiator manufactured with the correct diameter inlet and outlet that are located in the ideal position for the 3Y engine, but where's the fun in that.

 

 

[Flash]

The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed the newer looking power steering pulley attached to the crank pulley in the last picture above. This pulley is the original water pump pulley off the Mitsi Express that has been modified to bolt up to the 3Y crank pulley. It's still a "work in progress" because in its current format it bolts up hard against the existing crank pulley thus counteracting the harmonic balancer feature. So the plan is to turn up a spacer, but for now I've just mocked up a plywood spacer so that I could test fit the pulley as the bottom radiator hose will need to clear this when all is said and done.

Anyway I've digressed a bit, but to reward you for your patience I've included a pic of the half finished power steer pulley.

Thanks for bearing with me.

[Flash]

Okay, so back to the radiator saga.

I grabbed the original Thames top hose as it has a pretty sharp bend in it. Crawled underneath and chucked the hose on for a look see.

Where the bend ends the gap between the hose and the power steering pulley is around 20 mm. I could live with that, but there is a slight angle on the straight bit of hose  that causes it to creep dangerously close to the pulley as it goes along.

I'm wondering if I can source another hose that has just as sharp a bend but is perfectly straight after that or maybe even creeps more towards the radiator. Might need to visit a few of the local part suppliers to see what they've got next time I head into town.

View from underneath looking up:

[Flash]

As per my above post, if I can get the gap issue sorted then all I need to do to complete the lower hose is to sort out the issue with the current thermostat housing that currently points directly at the engine box side.

So I pulled the thermostat housing off for a closer inspection. Gave it a bit of a clean so I can see what I am doing.

Now the interesting thing with this housing is that it is tapered. I chucked my vernier on the thickest point of the neck and its 40 mm o/d which is a bit shy of the 45 mm that I need for the Thames hose, but I'm wondering if I could cut the pipe shorter and then weld up a thick enough bead to not only secure the hose but also get me to the magic number of 45 mm. A shorter neck with a similar hose bend to the one on the radiator might just do the trick.

My next thought was to see if I had a piece of bigger diameter aluminium tube that would slide over the current neck for a quick weld job, so I rummaged through my stash of scrap and found the remaining part of the  Harley Davidson inlet manifold that I bought with the SU carb  a while back. One of the pics below is at a crap angle so doesn't really show it, but as luck would have it the hole spacings on the Harley mounting flange are a perfect match for the Toyota housing. Only problem is that the o/d of the pipe is 50 mm. I gave it a quick clean up with my flapper disk and with a bit of effort I was able to  push the Thames radiator hose on. So I'm thinking I could use the Harley bit in its entirety. I'll still need some kind of bead to secure the hose properly. The tube has a wall thickness of 4 mm so maybe an option would be to turn the wall down to say 3 or 2.5 mm where the clamp needs to sit and hopefully that will do the trick.

I think I'm going to give option two a try. All its going to cost me is a bit of time to mock it up.

Thanks for reading.

[Flash]

Welcome to day two of the lower radiator hose voyage of discovery here at Rough & Ready Restos.

First off there has been a slight change in direction since yesterday's update.

Last night I was perusing the Aeroflow online catalogue and came across a listing for a silicone reducing elbow that measures 45 mm and 38 mm respectively. Now because my life is very sad this got my pulse racing as the 45 mm end will match the Thames radiator inlet and the 38 mm end is close enough to the 35 mm Toyota water neck measurement, that I'm sure I can make a plan. I found an eBay seller here in Straya that was flogging the same part at $22.19 including postage so thought I'd give it a punt.

[Flash]

If this reducer elbow works it means I can retain the original lower Toyota water neck which will make life easier. Thought I'd mock up the rest of the hose so gathered all of the radiator hoses from my stash of donor vans for a bit of a plug and play session.

First up was the HiAce lower hose on the standard 3Y lower water neck. Quickly chucked it on my donor engine for a look see and it looked pretty promising. I then moseyed on over to the Thames and chucked it on the mock up engine.

Instant fail.

[Flash]

Okay so that water neck is definitely going to need a haircut. I've got a crusty old spare that I pulled off the mock up engine, so I plunged in with my little grinder of angles and soon it was in two. I left enough meat on it so that I can weld up a bead to prevent the hose from popping off under pressure.

I was also keen to get the hose further away from the alternator pulley, so this time around I grabbed the lower hose off the Mitsi Express van and gave it a whirl. Looked good on the donor engine and even better on the mock up in the Thames.

[Flash]

Trimmed a wee bit more off the Mitsi hose and temporarily fitted a jubilee clamp and its looking pretty good.

I then climbed under the Thames, trimmed the last bend off the other end of the Mitsi hose and shoved it into the end of the Thames hose to get an idea of the total feel. Looks promising as there is plenty of clearance.

So I'll hold off any further work on the lower hose until the Aeroflow reducing elbow arrives. If it works out all I'll need to do is fabricate a short steel joiner pipe to mate the Aeroflow elbow to the Mitsi Express hose and I'll be "home and hosed" ........ oh what wit you possess Flash ... I hear you say.

Thanks for reading.

[Flash]

Flushed with the possible success of my lower radiator hose mock up, I decided to tackle the top hose whilst I'm on a roll.

As already mentioned the upper water neck on the mighty 3Y faces the wrong way. Whilst I could get it to work with a number of hose bends it will look anything but factory, so I'm keen to do something more elegant if I can.

I figured I would start off by sacrificing the crusty old water neck off the mock up engine for the greater good. So I spanked it with my grinder and ended up with a fairly decent looking flange. The off cut pipe portion looks too far gone with big chunks missing out of the lip. What to do.

Then, I remembered that I still have the piece of pipe that I trimmed off the lower neck earlier this morning. Ended up giving it a bit of a nip and a tuck so that it points at a slight angle towards the radiator pipe. I then chucked it on the mock up engine for a look see. The two halves are just balanced on top of each other for now, but if it all works out I'll get them glued together. 

[Flash]

I then turned my attention to the hoses that I will need. First up I'll need another reducer so I hopped back on the Aeroflow website and found a 45 degree reducing elbow.

If I trim it a bit on either end and angle it a bit I should be able to fabricate a little coupling pipe that will mate it to a standard hose with a single bend something like the mock up below.

So I've ordered this elbow and will hold fire on any more radiator pipework until it arrives.

Thanks for reading.

[Flash]

Today felt like a bit of a cooling fan day, so I thought I'd spend a bit of time with Uncle Google furthering my education.

When I built the Bedford V8 powered van it took a few iterations to get the cooling spot on so I've already learnt a few basic lessons, but I've still got a long way to go. The Bedford started off with a mechanical flex fan on one of those aftermarket aluminium radiators that every V8 shop seems to sell. At the time I put building a shroud in the "too hard basket" . Mrs Flash and I still remember some nervous moments during the Beach Hop night cruise when we were idling along in the traffic and the needle on the temp gauge started to head north. When we got home I thought I'd try my arm at building a shroud. It looked really poor and performed even worse, so that ended up in the bucket. In the end I chucked on two 10 inch electric fans without a shroud and that was the end of the overheating issues on the Bedford.

Now as previously mentioned on the Thames I don't have the option of running the Toyota mechanical viscous fan as there isn't sufficient clearance between the engine and the radiator in addition to the mismatch in engine and radiator height. So that means going electrical from the start. 

Spending some time this morning with Uncle Google the general consensus seems to be that fan shrouds are a good thing especially in a cozy engine bay which is definitely what we have in the Thames, so I'm going to try to retain the original Thames shroud. Uncle also says that mounting the fan directly on the radiator core gives the best cooling efficiency. So I'll aim for that too. 

I tickled the shroud with my measuring tape and the opening measures exactly 350 mm in diameter. Converting that into old money it comes in just shy of 14 inches, so my first thoughts were to try to squeeze in a 14 inch fan.

Did a bit of a cardboard mock up to depict the size of the fan blade compared to the size of the fan housing. At the same time factoring in the opening in the shroud

Not a good outcome as the fan housing overlaps the core and ends up clashing with the side mounting rails. I could lift the fan off the core by fabricating a fan mount with some flat bar, but the left and right sides of the shroud are pretty tight which may result in the fan and its housing not fitting inside the shroud.