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Anon
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Day 37 front bumper, cab doors, mirrors, driving seat
Front bumper came off again to fix the left corner that had broken studs in it & also have a dose of Kurust & a coat to Rustoleum on the back.
The studs are welded to small plates bonded into the plastic; the studs were drilled out, drilling through the plastic as well in order to counterbore on the outside for bolt heads to pull into -
Using 5/16" UNF bolts (1/2" AF heads), the counterbore was 7/16" so that the bolts locked into the plastic when the bracket was fitted & nuts tightened -
Plenty of Keenol on the threads and black RTV silicone to fill the recesses above the bolt heads. Once the silicone cures solid it'll shrink down, when body caulk over the top will provide a key for paint.
The paint shop in action -
When I was underneath the front of the van un-bolting the bumper end brackets from under the front panel I discovered a mistake: the brake pipes to the master cylinder were the wrong way round, rear pipe to the primary port closest to the servo, front pipe to the secondary port. Odd.
Anyway, sorted: there was enough spare length in the top bends to re-shape the pipes although the front pipe needed a couple of inches removing & a new flare making to fit nicely -
The truck mirror arms presented a problem when it came to re-aligning the doors so that they open & shut without creaking & groaning (or shut at all - driver's side needed lifting each time): the top brackets foul the door frame so much that the doors had been dropped to leave about 1/2" gap at the top -
There was some draught excluder strip in the top of the frame too with the door seal failing to touch the frame...
Along came a pair of LandRover/LDV mirror arms & heads; I had expected to be making brackets to kick them out far enough to see along the body sides but there's a rear view camera being fitted. Result: find the original holes in the driver's door & bolt one on to try out -
First move the driver's seat mounting backwards on the seat base though: seat was too close to the steering wheel. Naturally this took more than drilling some new holes: the rear cross head bolts were seized in & the base top needed repairing at the front corners -
First fit: the overhang at the back of the seat base originally was at the front. Original M6 bolts & nuts along the sides have been replaced by 5/16" UNF.
With the seat now in a sensible position (& a lot more solid!) the rear view is remarkably good in the smaller mirror given the body width although there's about 300mm of 'blind spot' at the body rear corner. See what it's like when it comes to driving the van.
Re-aligning the doors is a lot easier if the original cross head screws are replaced by 5/16" UNF bolts, 3/4" long -
Left side 'before', right side 'after'.
It's easier to align a door by removing the striker plate & ideally the door seal should be removed too. However, the little plastic retaining pegs pull out from the seal too easily so there's an amount of guesswork to allow for the seal pushing the door out as it shuts.
Added complication is the filler panel between the B post (striker post) and camper body: it's lapped over into the door aperture, reducing the front-rear dimension by about 8mm. Still, by lining up on longitudinal creases and best fit all round the driver's door opens & shuts as it should now despite having a bent lower hinge; passenger side should be a bit easier because it's not far off a good fit to start with.
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 Sun 11 Apr 2010 @ 01:10
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Anon
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Day 38 still in the body shop...
Bumper on straight waiting for some white paint on the front, grille & finisher fitted -
Still some tweaking to be done to align everything just so but the hard part of getting the bumper on straight despite it having a twist along it is finished; it took a while though...
Doors being made good after removing the truck mirrors -
Broken cab engine cover latches replaced by latches obtained from Woolies -
New latches have 3 mounting holes; the middle hole just happens to line up with one of the 2 holes for the original latches. However, the plates welded to the body for the side latches & the plate on the rear of the cover are too wide for the new latches & needed about 3mm ground off the width & a bit of bending before the new latches would work properly. Rear latch needed a strap making to hook over the loop in the floor before fitting the latch.
Aperture seal fitted -
Seal is adhesive-backed 1" wide closed cell PU, also from Woolies; 3/4" wide strip would have done the job but only just because there's some misalignment of the welded in sections to accommodate. Holes for the 3 locating pins were cut using a leather punch before peeling off the backing paper as the seal was fitted, starting from the right hand side & then as the other 2 locating pins were reached.
Cover fitted -
Side latches -
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Sun 11 Apr 2010 @ 23:47
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Anon
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Day 39 cab flooring, passenger seat, seat belts
Took another bite from the donor cab for some tin to make a gear lever aperture plate -
More PU foam strip to seal the plate; extra screws needed to pull the plate down flat. Round hole edge has been raised all round to stiffen the plate.
Handbrake lever boot fitted at the same time: steel frame in the boot hooks under a plate trapped under the handbrake lever front mounting bolt & one screw holds down the back edge; screw is a countersink head size 6 with a bezel washer.
Gear lever gaiter next (Bedford TK) followed by the soundproofing matting -
Then the rubber floor mat -
Engine cover refitted -
Rubber mat has to be lifted up around the cover while it is clipped down then the mat laps over the edge of the cover.
Passenger seat base fitted along with step edge finishers -
Spare piece of rubber mat cut to fit inside passenger seat base & seat belts partly fitted -
As yet there's no lap belt for the passenger with short legs but the floor mountings are in place. Stalk for left side inertia belt can't be fitted until the seat is in place.
Passenger seat fitted, inertia reel seat belts finished -
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Tue 13 Apr 2010 @ 01:01
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Anon
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Day 40 camper wiring & plumbing, rear view display
Most of the camper wiring that's visible hasn't been messed with so it was a question of dealing with the obviously suspect stuff then suck it & see.
First candidate was a Brigade reverse bleeper fitted to the side of the step behind the rear wheels with wiring taken all the way to the front of the van, said wiring having driven me daft with getting in the way every time I was under the van.
Excess wiring, a mix of 2-core 10A vehicle cable and 5A mains cable -
If I'd known it wasn't doing anything then it would have come out weeks ago but it wasn't obvious until it was pulled out from inside the plastic trunking carrying the split charge cable.
Bleeper works (no surprise because Brigade ones & clones are all sealed up with resin) & a fix was easy: there's a Rubbolite junction box for the rear lamps wiring at the end of the factory harness -
The cross bearer that the bleeper is screwed to is 3mm wall alloy box section: good stuff in terms of body integrity.
There's a second bleeper fitted as well, a huge thing fitted next to the left rear lamp cluster with a big bolt sticking out of the body panel & also with failed twist & sticky tape cable connections: one to remove & bin by the look of it though.
That left just the battery wiring & wiring up front. Up front the single cable that originally was wired to a 5A rocker switch on the dash via a number of connections & cable sizes & colours turned out to be 2 when the plastic trunking was opened up -
The thicker red cable is the split charge supply for the leisure battery. The green cable tracked back with the thinner red cable to 2 relays behind the fridge for running the fridge when travelling -
Provision of the second 12V supply seems overkill but it might be useful, e.g. for a Peltier chiller, because the cupboard under the fridge has a removable shelf.
In order to make use of the running supply the green cable needed wiring to the alternator terminal on the split charge unit once the red cables were separated & extended with equivalent thickness cables (brown) using AMP Solistrand crimp sleeves & insulated with heat shrink tubing.
No switch needed now -
At the leisure battery 2 red cables, one for split charge & one from the Zig unit, had been soldered together so they were separated like at the front (separating cables like this this makes for easier fault finding).
All connected, meter showing battery volts -
Fire up the engine to check split charge: meter reading up from 12.49V to 13.9V & rising as the battery charged up (anything above 13.8V is charging).
Zig unit was next: first replace mains 13A fuses with correct 10A glass cartridge fuses & remove bits of metal making up for the shorter mains fuses. Then plug in hook-up cable & put some water in the tanks ...
Half the fluorescent lamps have died but everything else on 12V works - water pump, cooker hood fan (squawk fixed with a spray of WD40), spot lamps and the battery charging circuit.
Fridge started working on mains so was switched to 12V & stayed working. The running supply checked out ok too: no Volts to the fridge or the second supply until the engine runs & alternator starts charging.
Gas next: new regulator & hose for the bottle then go sniffing for leaks with an Omnitron flammable gas detector. No leaks found so the first thing to try was the hob, then the oven because gas will get through quite quickly: both work. Fridge wouldn't light though but someone has been here already because the Peizo igniter has died -
Open hatch, slide up bean can, light jet, slide down bean can.
The water heater, original forced air cabin heater & added Carver pedestal heater with floor flue don't work: there's no gas getting to them. Something to look at later though because now there's nothing loose underneath the van the push is on to get it drivable.
Rear view camera install is in 2 parts: display & camera. Display is fitted 'head-up' & powered by the courtesy lamps supply. First re-wire the twin courtesy lamps though & change to colours that mean something (i.e. purple, purple+white, purple+black) instead of the mare's nest of blues (headlamps) & greens (indicators) I found behind the lamps.
Display supply wiring is simple: red & black for +12V & earth respectively with green for reverse lights switch but that's been patched into the power lead for continuous display: the display has a power switch on the front. Multi-pin plug & socket for PAL & DVD in/out was pain though because it's mighty small & hard to line up just right.
Display powered up -
Just the camera to fit & set up now.
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Wed 14 Apr 2010 @ 02:05
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Anon
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Day 41 finish off rear view camera & cab refit; gas kit; road test
Camera fitted -
Camera needs an independent power supply. It didn't take long to figure out where from: the spare 12V supply from the running relays for the fridge. Saved having to route a power cable the length of the van to wire to an ignition fed supply so that the camera can be switched off when not needed.
The 10-metre long PAL input cable got to the display by following cable runs in cupboards down the left side, eventually arriving at the display with just enough length left to plug into the display.
All working -
Field of view overlaps view through the door mirrors although it does nothing for seeing along the body sides & there's still blind spots at the rear of the body, about 300mm on the driver's side, 800mm on th passenger side.
Gear lever floor plate had to come out for a bit of bashing: the gear lever turret is clear all round but when the engine is started the turret clonks the plate as the engine fires. A small power driver came in handy for removing the 12 plate screws: with the passenger seat in place half the screws can't be got at so easily. Aperture in the plate needed only 4mm extra clearance on one side so the plate was soon back in: no clonk now when starting the engine.
Cab refit finished off by re-aligning the passenger door and refitting the door card. Like on the driver's side that Margrae had trimmed out once it was realigned, some polythene film cut from a large bag was used as damp check to prevent the door card from getting soggy too quickly -
Window winder handle needs a nylon washer to stop the card trim from getting chewed up & a spot of threadlocker glue on the screw -
Finished -
Bezel for the door release simply pushes on, handle screws on; handle screws go in at about 30 degree angle to horizontal.
Gas kit in the camper turned out to need little doing to get it all working, much like the fridge previously. The supply for the Carver heater is teed from the supply to the original forced air heater under the couch -
Turn on tap, light Carver heater - Piezo igniter works.
Had a look inside the forced air heater -
Operating instructions are inside the removable panel; followed those & the heater did its initialising: nothing for a bit then the fan runs & once the thermostat on the wall above the couch is switched on the burner fires up. Neat.
The water heater stuff is in the body side -
The pilot lights readily enough & the thermocouple works but the main valve was stuck. It's a conventional spring-loaded taper seat one so all it needed was lifting against the spring & working both ways until it moved smoothly. Heater works now & can be adjusted & water got to about 60C quite quickly. The real test will be whether the heater can keep up with the shower but the water went to 60C mid-range of the thermostat setting so the shower should stay hot at a higher setting.
So, with nothing left that shouted for attention all the loose stuff got cleared out of the van for a test run & the van got pointed at Wetherby before it got dark.
Engine was sluggish at first and there was a fair amount of exhaust smoke but after about 3 mile it seemed to sort itself out. Meanwhile it became clear that the tracking was way out: so much toe-in that the front tyres were squealing on turns and every time either front wheel hit a hole the van tried to skitter sideways.
Then the engine started misbehaving, getting sluggish again but picking up when given a bit of welly although now starting to puff out gobs of black smoke under power. However, I didn't have much time to figure out what was going wrong: the engine died & on the first of a series of bends in a 50 speed limit with no street lighting, not exactly a good place to stop but at the top of a hill so on went the hazards and coast down to the next 30 limit, to just make it to a pull-in by a bus stop.
Where I realised that not even having a couple of spanners to vent the injection pump was a bit stupid & found that the cell phone signal wasn't enough to call for help. It was a mile or so back towards Leeds before I got through & Mike (Margrae's brother-in-law) came to the rescue.
Eventually we got back with tools & lights & jump leads, injection system was vented & the engine fired up on jump leads & ran fine (van battery is way too small - almost dead flat with leaving lights on because it was going dark when the engine died). Suspect is the tank filler cap so it got left off.
Before moving the van I had a look at the front tyres: treads had started feathering already with excessive toe-in so the tracking got adjusted big time, about 3mm each side, & I kept the tools in the van to adjust the tracking again if need be.
So, carry on towards Wetherby to turn around at a roundabout - not many streetlights Leeds way if the van played up again & by the time we got back with some tools it was pitch black where it had died.
Engine running much, much better now & steering feels much improved too although the van skitters a little on bumps still, possibly because the tyres are a bit on the hard side. However, there's still something odd about the steering that's not just the tracking still out. There's a rumble that's crept in too, very much like a failing wheel bearing.
A few things to look at then and also the toilet window: I managed to scrape it against a gate post when I got back to base. Damn. Methinks the door mirrors are getting extension brackets so it doesn't take leaning out of the window to see the body sides while trying to work the pedals almost standing up...
Nearly there though even if it takes refitting the donor steering rack and there's something amiss in the rear hub bearings (rear axle hasn't been touched yet). It's only not taking any tools on the test run that made things difficult!
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Thu 15 Apr 2010 @ 22:46
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Anon
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Day 42 debug session
The reason for excessive toe-in -
What I hadn't realised is that the steering arms on the donor axle are CF2 type & they were introduced at the tail end of 1983 model year, not 1984 (earlier arm is wedged onto bolt ends for comparison - bend at the end is more suited to 13-inch wheels).
Also, the recon rack definitely has a lumpy bit that showed up going from lock to lock with the wheels off the ground & also has started leaking oil from one of the gaiters. (Something else to whinge about: grease is much better in my view because it doesn't drain away from where it's needed or pee out when the gaiter splits.)
No contest: donor rack got bolted on.
Number plate lamp not working turned out to be another bodge: a blown 21W offset pin bulb & holder with sticky-taped wiring (as removed in top pic) -
Fix for now is 2 panel lamp bulb holders, cables soldered. Plastic lamp cover has suffered some from the 21W bulb but it'll do until another Hella lamp or similar can be found - there's not much left of the steel in the old one.
Tyre pressures got adjusted, to 35 psi all round as somewhere to start to see how the van handles (rears were more than 50psi - no wonder the back end felt so harsh). A problem though: the new tyres at the rear fitted for the last MoT test had valve caps screwed on tight & without valve extensions on the inner wheels the only way the caps would come off was to remove the wheels first.
Oh fun. The only way the wheels will come off is to jack up the van, support the chassis on stands then let the axle drop down enough for the wheels to clear the rear arch mouldings...
In the process I discovered that the rear wheel nuts were nowhere near tight enough (but at least all 6 conical washers were in place against each brake drum) so now they're torqued to 290Nm (215lbft) as they should be.
Tank filler cap vent didn't take much to sort out: a new hole in the washer holding the 2 parts together. Added a bottle of Wynns Clean Burn to the fuel as well: this stuff has a lubricity improver in it that should help the injection pump (distributor pumps can get fussy on low-sulphur diesel) as well as a cleaning action although the test run seems to have blown out some of the cobwebs already.
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Sat 17 Apr 2010 @ 03:42
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Anon
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Day 43 more debugging
Tyre valve extensions fitted to the inner rear wheels -
Door mirror arm extensions -
Each being 4 pieces of 18mm birch ply glued together & using 3" long 1/4" UNF bolts through the ply to bolt the mirrors on. Rear faces of the extensions are tapered to make the bases wider to provide better support so that the mirrors don't wobble. Test was to slam the doors: pass 
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Mon 19 Apr 2010 @ 22:44
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Day 44 Gremlins...
Started off with the door mirror spacers -
The ply pieces have moved at the glue joints. Hmm. Maybe some dowels may have been a good idea. Left things as they were though to try out the mirrors before doing anything about it.
Cooling system flush & refill with antifreeze mix was uneventful. 50/50 glycol mix used, 9.5 litre to fill from 'dry' - radiator, cylinder block & heater drained. The radiator drain tap works too although I'd pulled off the bottom hose in order to get a hosepipe in & refitted the hose before checking the drain tap -
A fair amount of crud came out all told; says something for leaving flushing until running the engine some has got it all moving because first flushing as the engine & radiator went in didn't take long to run clean.
A pressure test to check for leaks then take the van out for another run.
First off the engine ran better than first trip out: a bit of smoke when starting & for a few minutes as the engine warmed up but the power is there now & the engine will get the van to 40mph in 3rd gear.
Door mirrors sticking out another 3 inch or so is a great improvement although the passenger side one could do with being another inch or so further out. Nonetheless there's less of a gap between rear view camera and mirrors when overtaking (yes, actually passed something!) and when being overtaken (lots). A lot easier to get through gateways too.
Tyres at 35psi instead of 50+psi on the back has improved ride & handling although it was hard to tell whether wallowing that occurred here and there was tyres a bit too soft for so much top weight (35psi is good for 3 tonne if a van isn't top heavy) or side wind. At least I can play with tyre pressures all round now the rear inner tyres have valve extensions! I'm thinking 40psi all round might be better anyway because the steering is a bit heavy now.
With everything seeming to to have settled in a bit the van buzzes along nicely at 40-50mph now & will tackle climbs in 3rd gear at 40mph but it gets noisier of course. Or did until the climb before Bardsey on the A58; ran up most of the way no problem but as it got to the top the engine died again. So, coast the the very same place as last time -
This time however the tank filler cap blows through no problem so off came the inlet pipe to the fuel pump for a quick suck: nothing, blocked solid. It took a bit to clear the blockage by blowing through to the tank but once it was clear it was back to base once the fuel system was vented (& again half way back when the fuel line blocked again). At least it was a nice sunny day & not much other traffic about.
One more item for the debug list then: tank off to see what's got in it. Door mirror spacers could do with a rethink too.
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Wed 21 Apr 2010 @ 00:34
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Anon
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Beautiful pic of the breakdown Phil. Looks more like a bit of wild camping with the daffs than a crisis. 
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Wed 21 Apr 2010 @ 07:22
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Anon
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If you post me the wooden blocks I can vacuum form over them in black for a tidy finish
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Wed 21 Apr 2010 @ 09:39
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Anon
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Mike, that's a grand suggestion. I need a pair ASAP so that the van can be driven some more while debugging so I'll make a second pair of mk II (studs instead of bolts, holes done more accurately on the pillar drill so that the studs become dowels) & let you have that to play with; can swap them over later.
Erm, can you do injection moulding?
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Wed 21 Apr 2010 @ 19:55
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Anon
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Well done Phil. I tip my hat to you again for the sheer amount of work & the daunting task you've undertaken. Most people, including myself, would have been nowhere near finishing; even if we were working in our own back gardens, never mind travelling & holding down a job as well.
Rae & Ann
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Wed 21 Apr 2010 @ 20:08
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Anon
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Rae, if it wasn't for the donor being in such good condition way through I doubt that things would have gone so well. As it is we're waiting for some last bits to turn up because the donor ones weren't up to scratch in the end but that's a week all told against having to do that every step of the way without something to go rob stuff from when needed.
Lucky too that when the scale of what had been butchered became apparent I had some leave to take before April or lose it (not that the slave job takes much of a week anyway - it's just enough to pays the bills but it leaves the rest of the week for things I like to do) & Margrae's sister put up with me put me up for a week or three which cut down enormously on to-and-fro.
Whether the van ever will be finished remains to be seen; it's a hybrid of second-hand parts all said & done & I'm not yet finished with debugging: found an oil leak today from the back of the engine...
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Wed 21 Apr 2010 @ 22:00
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Anon
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Phil, cant do injection moulding, skool workshop doesnt stretch to that, but could GRP be an option? If our ally crucible ever gets fixed, sand casting might be a good fix in the future?
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Wed 21 Apr 2010 @ 22:09
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Anon
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Pity about injection moulding, Mike.
GRP as a casting has merit as an alternative to ply: could bond in dowel tubes to pass studs through & get the shape just right for the door panel for minimum shake.
Alloy casting could be rather neat albeit with differential corrosion as a confounder, not that bolting a die-cast mirror arm on does much to help in this respect.
Main consideration apart from best mirror position for body width is being able to replace mirror arms that get damaged, spacers likewise so they've got to be fairly easy to knock up.
Studs seems to be the way to go (bolts I used were what I had already): no restriction on length cut from stock & arms & spacers should be easier to fit using nuts & lock washers inside the door once studs are thread-locked in the arms.
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Wed 21 Apr 2010 @ 23:00
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Anon
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Phil why not use a long arm off a luton similar to these 250614114698 on ebay.
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Wed 21 Apr 2010 @ 23:15
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Anon
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I've looked at long arm mirrors but went for LandRover/LDV ones because they're identical mounting to CF, look very similar to original, are easy to find new & second-hand & are relatively cheap as are the heads whether Britax or Wingard.
Once I've conjured up a better solution for spacers (i.e. simple, cheap & repeatable) it might help other members who have truck mirror arms and bent doors as a result (there was 1/2-inch too much gap on the front edge of both of the doors on Margrae's van).
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Thu 22 Apr 2010 @ 14:51
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Decided to try and make covers for spaces in area above driver. These could be used for storage
Used vinyl bought on fleabay, a piece of plywood and padding from a cheap screen cover.
Back of cover....I like the staple
I'll take a pic of them in place
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Sun 02 May 2010 @ 10:10
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Hi
Been doing a few paintwork jobs
Wheels painted with black hammerite
T-cut Bonnet......what a difference it made
Finished painting upper part of doors where filler had been put in previous mirror holes.
Some bumper and trim cleaner to front grill
Starting to look really nice now.
Phil coming to fix a few glitches.
Margaret
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Thu 06 May 2010 @ 19:58
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Anon
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Van looks really good ..well done
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Fri 07 May 2010 @ 17:59
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