Where did you get the wrap? Looks great

me likey the leather wrap

Hi Moler,

Have just finished reading through this whole thread. I was up till 1.30am this morning and thought I should turn in as I still had 8 pages to go. After 4 or so hours reading, re-reading looking at photos and then re-looking at photos all I can say is awesome job dude! Love what you did and seeing how you did it! Really inspiring thread. I got a RHD '67 walkthrough with my dad Sept 09 but unfortunately he passed away in early feb '10, it had just been dipped....... I promptly became project manager!! Never really having done any car mechanics or bodywork I have been learning a lot since then.

Just wanted to say that you thread has fuelled me up to keep pushing things forward!
Its currently at Haywoods in West Mids for all the body but i have started on the beam and other bits to get it all ready for when the van is back!

Much respect for sharing your journey with us all!

Peace out. Matt.

Sorry I missed this...a guy on ebay sells them for Morris Minors, I sent him the sizes and he made one for me

Thank you, always nice to hear that I've helped motivate someone, this whole thing was to help keep me motivated

Just saw this on ebay for sale. Can't be for real??

Yep for real...need more windows!!

Heay

FBI are selling a 15 window section for £1750. Fancy a project?

Good luck with the sale and future project it may finance.

Paul

Shame you have to sell dude, but whoever buys it knows they're getting a completely solid RHD van, you should have no trouble selling it.



What you going to buy next, got your eye on anything?

It's baywindow shaped, something I've wanted for a long time now...but will still be on the lookout for a rhd '66 bus project

It's been a while since I've done anything for a proper update, but as of today the vans immobile, and having a spring refresh…


…I'm doing jobs that I have wanted to do for while, and definitely want done before he goes. So starting at the back, one mucky looking engine bay, mainly down to the appalling quality of breather hose supplied with the Empi breather kit...




...hmmm, this is my second VintageSpeed exhaust, the first being replaced because of corrosion, and this doesn't look much better now

...it's supposed to be 304 stainless!!! (A2)

So with the engine and box out (I thought the box had a ‘jumping out of reverse’ issue, but now think it might be the rear selector coupling, more on that later)…


…I dragged the tank out, I thought this had a leaking sender or vent, but found this…

…yes that’s a through wall crack, not just the powder coating!!! So it looks like a good time to do that bay tank conversion.

Much grubbiness…








…after a jet washing…














…and that was it for today, I was bloody soaked anyway

The plan is clean the oil and road tar off, clean and treat any rusty bits, stonechip the inner arches and forward facing surfaces, then repaint. And while that’s drying, I’ll turn my attention to the engine.

Finally got around to repairing the nearside wheel arch damage from the wheel off incident, this was the damage…




…and after a couple of hours of gentle massaging…




…happy with that

So, bay window tank conversion! This tank is from a ’72, late bay tanks have extra clearancing at the bottom for the gearbox hanger, early bays don’t have the hanger, so don’t have the clearance…


…the only real issue you have is the filler pipe, I didn’t want to cut the splittie tank up, and I also wanted the filler neck to be rigid, so it needed bolting down. So I’m using a filler neck from a ’71 bay, but as you can see the angle is all wrong…




…to sort the angle I slit the tube almost all the way through, then closed the gap, tacked it, and offered it up. It needed much more than just a slit, I took about 10mm out at the top of the wedge in the end…


…the neck on the tank needs a very slight adjustment too if you want them in line…


…nice…




…I’m not using the middle breather so sorted that out…




…then 2 coats of black smoothrite made it look nicer (well for a petrol tank!)


The biggest headache it turns out, was the filler hose, not all hose is fuel resistant, and I didn’t really want to use silicon, by chance I found this at Merlin Motorsport, pukka filler hose


…bay filler neck all bolted up…


…I’m gonna use this breather later, but for now…


…and the other has a one way breather valve fitted. I fitted the filter as it looks better than the bear end!...




…because I had non standard tank straps, increasing their length was easy enough…




…that’s it for the pictures!! But the engine and box are back in, and all ready for Viccy Farm in the morning

Resto thread for the new toy can be found HERE

I finally got my wish and now have part shares in a lock up, this made the last few bits that needed doing to the split much easier…


…me and my mates bay crewcabs in the background, another mates ’72 Dormobile that I’m doing some welding on over the winter, and another bus that just in there for storage.

I have refreshed most of the paint on the van, and installed a new rear hatch…


…and that’s it, ready for the new owner, Zanji on here…




…the hand over…


…and the proud new owner…


…going going gone…


...this is actually the first ever time I'd seen it moving from the outside!!...






Well that’s the end of the line for me and the split, it’s a sad farewell but it’s been a good 4 and bit years. Now on to the ’69 crewcab I imported from Cyprus earlier in the year, and the Trekker my dad just bought…and there’s another split on the horizon too, this time with windows

Thank you all for your motivational comments along the way, please tune into my future resto threads because no doubt I’ll need motivating on them too

I always keep an eye out for Jet Rocket when I'm over at the refinery, look forward to spotting your new ride in the car park.

Jet Rocket certainly looked good as you passed us on the A1 close to the M62 on the way home from Harewood House last week.

Good luck with your new resto.