1360 turbo clubby van
Turbo Mini Forums

im not making it into a proper van, always wanted 1 though, im just making a car that i think will look pretty damn cool lol and its cheaper to convert it to van rear sides than it is to buy new seals for the rear sliding windows lol

here are a few pics of the radius arms after a check over and a paint...

internals are all good, new bearings have been fitted, new shoes and brake cylinders!


quick 1st coat of paint, gonna be doing another tomorrow incase there are any bits missed




refurbed the arms, bought some radius arm kits from ebay after checking the condition of the arm shafts for wear, which there was none, but one had some thread missing from over tightening at some point, so i whacked in a new set, just have to remember to grease them up when fitted to the car!

also contacted spax about my coil overs, turns out the collar thats on the top of the spring is missing, so they gave me a part number and the number for a supplier who can order the parts i need to get them complete and ready to fit!

ALSO tonight, i have made a start on making my own sills up... i had some sheet steel from work (came from the remains of an old gas analyser that tells you whats happening inside a cremator!) heres a few pics and a brief description...

this is what the side looked like from the gas analyser (the lines are from where i measured the sills on the car, and where i need to cut/bend)


now i have a piece of steel ready to make into a sill shape..

after "scoring" a line along the steel, i use a piece of angle iron as a dolly and start to bend the sheet into more of a sill shape



as you can see im starting to get something that resembles the bends on a sill


i have yet to make the vents in the sill, but these are just rough markings of where they need to be, they will be abit longer than shown in felt tip, but that was just a rough area where they need to be made...

Nice one, be interested to see the finished article!

im putting the turbo engine on hold for the time being, all my spare cash is going on getting the car up and running (with a standard 1275 engine for now until funds allow)

that looks like pretty good fabrication on the sill.

Have a read of this for lots of really good tips on panel making.

http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?...ay&thread=70135

cheers for that link mate! very interesting reading! gonna carry on with the sills now, gotta get the drainage vents knocked up! will post a few more pics to show my workings

tonight i have been finishing off the sill i have been making up for valerie... i know i can buy them off the shelf, but wheres the fun in that!

heres how i did it...

i started by marking out the basic shape of the drainage vent using felt tip


i then slit the steel up until the furthest most line, and "scored" the steel with a thin cutting disc to aid acurate bending


as you can see, once i had bent the "scores" it gave me the basic raised section of the sill vent


i then cut out and fabricated the infill sections that go on each side of the raised vent section to make an original looking sill



i then seam welded all the way around each of the sill vent holes



after grinding back the welds, and re-welding any thinned areas, im left with this..


i then gave the new home made sill a quick coat of paint to stop any rust forming


so thats one sill virtually finished, just needs trimming up and fitting up! hope you enjoyed this update!

ive decided to convert the wiring loom to earlier spec, more basic with the 2 switches and 1 stalk on the column, spent 3 hours checking over the loom, removing all old tape and re-taping it all, i now have a mint loom to replace the original butchered loom, i would post a pic, but its only wiring lol

here are some pics of todays progress..


van side fully welded in and ground back ready for the skim of filler

passengerside turret made a start on

all seam welded in, quick example of my seam welding

passengerside turret all finished!

done more work today, took the engine out, stripped all the wiring, dash, all electrics, pretty much got her down to a rolling shell with only subframes and steering connected so i can flip it on its side to do the heal board and sills and tidy the underneath up, stone chip and paint it before it goes off to the body shop for a respray...

few piccies...






theres still a few small areas that need attention, but these will be done once the major surgery is complete

been pretty productive again today, got the subframe off so i can assess the heal board and also make it easier to do the sills with it on its side...

here are some pics

front subframe off first... just picked the shell up and over it, and swung the shell out the way...



then the rear came off (only sheered one bolt.. considering what i found!)



i then cut the oversill off to find the original sill underneath, glad i bit the bullet and did it now, it would only of reared its ugly head sooner or later!



cut out most of the rot on the heal board and cleaned up the inner sill with a wire brush on the grinder!




made a start on repairing the inner sill, got most of the holes welded up, just the heal board end and 1 or 2 small patches and thats the passengerside all finished!




dont worry, the shell is supported both ends by scaffold poles to keep it from tipping back onto me lol

passenger side inner sill completed, homemade sill test fitted and the fit is good just the heal board end to go, and thats the passenger side all finished! then driver side sill to sort and then the finishing touches before prep and paint!

passenger side pretty much complete, except stonchipping and repairing the front wing as it has 2 little holes in it, here are pics if anyones actually bothering to read this lol




i have filled in the hole above the heal board, just didnt get a pic of it finished lol

even got the girlfriend out practicing welding!





for a begginer she did pretty well, even wrote her name

its coming along well, and when i took my oversills off it was much worse. What was the outer and inner sill just fell out in a big flakey mess. Good work on fabricating your own sills though.

i was horrified when i took the oversill off, i feared the worse, but i was pretty lucky, as the inner sills from the inside of the car looked sound, the bits i cut out were pitted and thin, the worse area was under the cross memeber, but thats to be expected really, as they hardly ever see much paint other than primer inside there! but once its all painted up and lookin sweet, im gonna pressure blast engine oil in all the cavities and sills with my compressor, nothing beats oil on rust prevention! i know waxoyl is good, but oil is cheap especially when its used lol and good at keeping water away!

got more done today, i love having time off work to do my cars finished the passenger side completely now, and made a start to finish the drivers side, here are a few pics!

repaired the front wing, was abit holey but made a plate up, once its had a skim of filler you'd never know



finished all the welding underneath, seam sealed, painted in rubberised paint and then stone chipped




i then spun the shell round once the stone chip had dried, and made a start on the drivers inner and outter sill, not as bad as the passenger side






thats all for today! im pooped lol

Coming along well mate.

cheers mate! another update!

blagged a sick day off work so i could get the welding completely finished, finished the drivers sill this morning, painted and stone chipped same as passengerside, then once dry ive test fitted the rear beam and coilovers... i have to admit, it looks rather good! it sits just right too, not to high, and not to low!

here are some pics

floor and sill after painting with rubberised paint



stone chipped and trial fitting rear beam



radius arms and coilovers bolted up



underneath view



finally on some 10" steelies



there are still some small patching to do on the inside where the rear seat bolts to, but this is easily done with the beam fitted, and its on my list of little bits to finish off beofre paint!

looking good mate

what rear beam is that?


josh

My build thread..

http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php?p=vt&tid=542985

Bloody hell, your not hanging about. Good progress.

its a huddersfield beam axle, but ive modified it slightly so the exhaust doesnt catch it

nice lewis mate

Looks like you are getting on well buddy, although I must ask, would it not have been easier to just buy a replacement sill?

i have made sills for both sides, i would of just bought them off the shelf, but the quality was very poor, with poor definition, poor metal thickness, and just plain crap lol the ones i have made are 1.5mm thick, so will last a hell of a lot longer than the less then 1mm thick off the shelf sills