Where does the time go at all, thought i'd better resurect this old thread as i'm hoping to get a little more time on the 'van' this year.
So here's how things are so far...
I finished welding the rear door in and decided i wanted to turn my attention to the bulkhead. My idea is to run the wiring loom inside the inner wings like they do on the later escorts.
So here it is.
Wiring grommit hole cut out.
welded into it's new home.
Old hole filled in, and how it looks so far.
i decided too tackle the rust issue in the floor, sills (inner and outer) and seat mount.
Heres the pics of progress.
Heres how the floor started.
As you can see, rust and lots of it...
cut out the seat mount and removed the absolutly rotten support bracket from underneath too.
i then put in a fresh piece of steel once i'd cut out the rusty bits.
spot welded a mint seat mount back on
gave all a lick of chassis oil resistant black and started on the inner sill.
Just a quick pic of the repairs to the inner sills as i just plodded on to try and get as much done as i could.
Just floor repairs, middle sill and outer sills to do then one side is finally complete.
Just gotta do it all again to the otherside.
When i had a quiet couple of weeks in work i decided to attack the proposed engine for the van.
I'm gonna go the 2.0 16v hybrid route and have most of the parts to build it.
The head is stripped and in the engineers shop getting a light skim and a couple of valves guides put into it (better to get the pro's on the case) as there was 9 bent valves in the head and one snapped in half when i took it out!!!!
So, ,i started with a relatively easy piece to strip, overhaul and recondition.....
The alternator:-
I didn't get any before pics but you all know what a dirty alternator looks like, the colour is a clue as to the final colour of the van too....
Fully stripped, bead blasted and then painted in............................................
Wait for it
Kawasaki green, sorry for those who don't like it.....
the project has got a name now, hussy
Reason being is the reg is H*** USS and also the fact of that everytime i take something off (metal or deadening) she throws me a suprise.
Heres the progress of the floor.
I started cutting the rust out of the floor and was left with this.
Tacked in the replacement steel and lined it all up.
All done.
Underside view, bit of a clean needed under here. Once the under sealant is on you'll never know any differant.
In between welding the floor together i started to remove the sunroof housing as i'm desunroofing it, giving the floor cahnce to cool and not warp.
All gone, nearly, i'm leaving some of it attatched to the roof to stop it sagging down.
I also spotted a couple of 'blisters' under the factory sound deadening so i removed the lot to investigate further and found just a couple of holes that will be cut out and plated up.
With the floor all welded up it was time to mock up the outer sill cover.
And thats where i'm up to so far. Hope you like, sorry it's been so long.
