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Flash's 1965 Ford Thames


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Yesterday I finished off the last of the a/c wiring being a pair of relays for the condenser thermo fans. I poked a few mounting holes in the RHS chassis leg and the relays are now tucked up in a sheltered spot. I ran out of single wire sheathing, but I'll grab some on my next town run just to neaten things up a bit more.

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I then spent a bit of time carving up an old HiAce roof rib to create a matching cover for the main wiring loom.

Ended up with this:

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I need to get some paint colour matched, but in the meantime I've just chucked on a few coats of primer followed by some appliance white.

Apart from the colour difference the two cover panels match up fairly okay.

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We are deep in the rainy season here and I'm a bit over getting sprinkled with liquid sunshine, so while in town today I wheeled by my mate Ben's place, and he worked his magic.

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Okay, so having a spare wheel doesn't really help if you haven't got a jack ... duh.

So today I thought I'd remedy that situation.

Rummaged through the pile of leftovers from my donor vans and I have a choice of two scissor jacks and a bottle jack. I'm not a fan of scissor jacks so the bottle jack got the nod.

Pulled it out into the light of day. Looks a bit crusty but it does come with a crank handle that looks just as crusty:

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First step was to check that the jack still functions and that it has enough bottle to lift the Thames (did you see what I just did there .... absolute howls of derisive laughter Bruce)

Grovelled under the van and it will lift either of the back wheels perfectly. Tried the fronts. Bottle is too tall to use under the front beam. Bugger. Scratched my head a bit then decided to try using my strut rod mounts as the lifting point and she lifts a wheel, but it's just on the borderline and I doubt that she is high enough to get my commercial profile spare on. So I grabbed a bit of timber which will make a solid base for roadside lifts as well as giving enough lift for the front. Perfect.

With the functionality box ticked I then focused on the aesthetics.

Took to the jack and the handle with my wire wheel of death and it started looking a bit better:

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Quick wipe down and a spritz of the usual satin black.

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I even fed my OCD by giving the wooden block a few coats of flat black fence paint.

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Tomorrow I'll work out a nifty way to store everything, so it doesn't rattle around in my storage compartment.

Thanks for looking.

 

 

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Tiny step forward today.

Sorted out a hiding place for the bottle jack and associated bits.

The bottle jack slides under the wooden side panel in my front storage box and jacking it up a notch to press against the underside of the side panel holds it firmly in place. I wedged the wooden block between the back of the jack and the side of the van so she ain't going anywhere either.

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I then fitted two little plastic clips that I found amongst my stash, and they hold my spare wheel crank in place.

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I've rolled up a thin piece of marine carpet that I've also stored in the same compartment just in case I ever need to crawl under the van for a roadside repair.

While I was mucking about in the two front storage bins, I figured it was time to fit some kind of stay for each of the lids as I'm a bit over them closing on my fingers all the time.

Scratched around in the shed and found some more leftovers from our kitchen reno:

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Chucked in a few wood screws and the lids now stay open all by themselves.

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I did think about fitting my new voltage sensitive relay to add the house battery to the charging loop, but it's so bloody hot here at the moment that I packed up and went to wallow in the pool instead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The van has been running really well of late, but I've noticed that it tends to leave a a few drops of coolant on the floor after it's had a hard run.

At first I assumed that I had overfilled the radiator after replacing the radiator cap and figured that it would sort itself out over time. However, it's been getting steadily worse and this morning I woke up to this:

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Lifted it up for a closer look and noticed this:

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Bugger .... it's not the first time I've dealt with weeping from this joint.

Anyway, wiped the drip off the hose, ran the engine up to temp and no sign off a leak. With the system now under pressure I switched off and sure enough after a couple of minutes the first drop of coolant appeared on the hose joint. Grabbed the black hose further away from the joint and gave it a good squeeze and the coolant drip turned into a steady trickle coming from the joint in the hoses.

Last time this happened I replaced the hose clamps and the problem went away for a while, so this time I got desperate in true "Rough & Ready Restos" fashion:

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Looks bloody awful but I've gone through a few heat cycles and some more vigorous squeezing of the hose with no drips experienced so I'll take the win for now.

Time will tell, I guess.

 

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Put the Thames through a few more heat cycles this morning and still no coolant drip.

Flushed with success I thought I'd give the system a spring clean:

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Hope you noticed what I did there. I'm just so funny ..... not.

Anyway, after doing that I figured I'd tackle another little leak, but this time of the oil variety.

Again, tell-tale signs of a little drip, nothing alarming, but enough to be annoying:

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On closer inspection it looked like it was coming from the sump drain plug and since I've now got 1000 km on the freshly rebuilt 3Y I figured I'd do an oil and filter refresh while I'm about it.

Pulled the sump plug and yep:

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No sealing washer fitted. What a numpty I am.

I've got this pack of appropriately sized copper washers in stock, so I'm going to give one of them a go:

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I'd also picked up a new filter and some oil on my last town trip, so everything was good to go.

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And that's another job jobbed.

 

 

 

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