Ahh, great info there Rhys, taa for that. I just checked back over the correspondance, and I am pretty sure they are made to the same recipie as the ones on Marks Cossie RS. So I will have to hastle him for more info :D.

Cheers Sundowner, yours is one of the cars around here that has inspired me to get my sh!t together. I hope I can make something even close to as nice from mine. Amongst other things your sig reminds me of how much ramp time I used to get when I had the van on the road. I will chat with MAXRS about those doors, and let you know if I grab them. I still have to get round to a mates place where I stashed heaps of escort bits.. I can't remember if I have spare doors or not.. or what nick they are in.

Progress today was very steady.. just heaps of blasting.
I would have to say.. after blasting all day, I did some of the worst can spray painting I have ever done. I'm trying not to be too fussy.. but damm, I'm glad I started under the back.. By the time I get to the engine bay I hope I have my eye in. Long story short, I got good inital results by applying a heavier coat than yesterday... but I then went too far, and gunked it on.:( Oh well, they are just U-bolts lol.

Started scrubbing the diff housing down, and wow.. under the black paint which is coming straight off, there is a shiney, almost polished alloy type shiney steel housing.. It almost looks good enough to polish lol.. Ever so tempting to get it chromed.

what was that about the ramp time......???????

thats cool about the doors, mine are real dodgy so a spair pare in case i ever paint mine would come in handy....

like i said keep up the updates...

Glenn

Sorry that was cryptic of me, Ramp as in 1/2 pipe or similar. I love to get down there and catch some air on the BMX, but couldn't be buggered riding one to the park lol. Plus I might need to drive myself to hospital lmao.[88]

All the suspension and diff are cleaned ready for blasting. I think I will hit the diffhousing with a wire wheel, as my compressor could spend a loooong time trying to blast it. I test fit one of the kings leaf packs, and hmmm lowness. Probably lower than I was aiming for, but I'm sure it will look good. I am looking at an interesting shock absorber option that I posted about in the suspension section.

Next steps are get brackets welded onto the housing for the pug calipers, and drop out the drop tank for a total clean and detail. I have another fuel level sender which I am crossing my fingers about. It really would be nice to know how much juice I have.

Ok more done. The supercheap grinder ended its life in a noisy, firey and non too safe way. But it did get the diff housing done before that happened . I knew what I was getting when I paid $10 for a grinder. I think I got my moneys worth lol.

So to skip all the dusty messy details, it now looks like this. Please excuse my ancient 1Mpixel camera. I do think most of it looks better in real life than the photo's.



And a few of the other parts coming together as well. I really want to paint the Pug calipers blue, but think they should stay standard black until I have been to see an engineer. I am hoping they will look pretty much stock... sorta. Same with the rear kings for now. Black and boring will have to do.




Thats close to the full set of pieces. 4 bits remain including the upper shock mount frame. Thats going to slow me down briefly, as I wish to have one custom made to a design I have penciled up. I will have one made up that is longer, and offers a range of upper mount points including vertical.
The reason for this is I have some 37cm Bilsteins from an old project. From my trial mounting and measuring, I am pretty sure it will slot straight in vertically like a charm. And if its too long, I can just move it in notch by notch till I find the sweet spot.
Well thats my plan anyway. I have had trouble getting any feedback on the idea in the suspension section, so I will just try it out.

glad to see progress on the van! my friend has / had a near mint mini panelvan (not so mint now) sitting in his driveway slowly deteriorating and every time i walk past it, it makes me sad...


damn thats a clean diff, i wouldn't doubt the grinder died at the end of it

p.s i have another non cracked plate you can have if you need it?

Thanks for the comments guys. Yep really happy with how the diff came up. Now all that finish has to do is be a bit chip resistant, and I will be stoked.
There is a challenge in spraying the correctly weighted coat to get the best pattern. When I get it right, it comes up in this super smooth shiney finish that dries looking wet. But on the edge of the spray, any overlap will dull the bits already done. So its a case of mask up and do the lot in one big go. But anyway, that was one of the larger pieces, and it will do nicely for this job.

I have to say, working with clean parts makes everything so much more fun. So much.
I removed all the extra air plumbing for the old shocks, wasted a bit of time cleaning them up just to play with them. I'm facing some interesting decisions re the underside of the car. It would sure be nice to get under there with the sand blaster. No matter which option I take its going to be a huge job. Its the usual patches of flakey old tarcoat and paint with dirt jammed in the gaps.

Thanks for the offer Shea, The other one I had was in good nick, so I should be right on that one. Yeah I had a mini van a long time ago. But I like the esky one better :D.

Excellent, can wait to see the build up. My van is taking entirely too long to get looking the way I want, I'm at the rust stage now. Glad you've decided to have another go at it. Keep on with the pics. COZ

Ok well not much excitement, but I am settling into the fact that any progress is good progress. I finally got some more hours to spend on it, so today I removed the fuel tank and related paraphenalia. Not such an easy task when its been in place for 28 years lol.

I had everything out and the tank balanced on two trolley jacks before I wondered if it had some fuel in it [:I] Of course there was about 10 litres. I was glad to have 2m of clear fuel hose lying around, and syphoned with no drinkage. the rest was fun, got it out ok, but not looking forward to putting a freshly painted one back in, might get a mate around for that.

Projects need pics, so here they are.. nothing too exciting, except maybe the billie.
As you can see, its barely longer at full extend than the stock one is when closed. But my calculator says it will fit vertically, so I will report back on that when its tested.

Heres the tank out. That long side filler didn't help a bit. Sedan tanks are much easier than this was.


And inside.


And underneath with no tank or rear end. Its hard to see, but there is lots of room in between those rafters. Now I need to work out where my pumps and battery will go. I want them tucked away down there, but the battery to be accesible with some ease.


And lastly a cute sticker off the back door. I figured someone doing an original resto might want it, I am going to scrape it off and paint soon.

ok, more progress from the weekend. Fuel tank is scrubbing up ok. Only the top half done so far tho lol. Amazing where the hours go sometimes.


I left that with a second helping of rust convertor on the few rusty patches that remain.
Tomorrow I hope to get most of the underside done to the same point.


The tank has a different filler position, but otherwise its exactly the same shape as a 2L droptank. And the fuel senders are identical too, which is handy. I also found a world of dirt and rusty mud in and around the sender wiring tabs. Fingers crossed a good clean gets my fuel gauge back and working.

I also sat down with a spare 2L sedan wiring loom to copy, and started working on a brand new van loom.

Well, I also spent a bit of time under the car yesterday, making some hard decisions.

Basically, its bent. I think its probably fixable, but I am not going to waste time stripping and painting a shell that may end up being discarded, or cut up for panels or something. I will press on with the cleaning, detailing and replacing of parts. If I can start by getting it back on the road, then I can take it around the place and seek some professional opinions.

All of that is interrupting my scheming. Colour scheme that is.

The paint I bought for the car is Pearlescent Imperial Blue from the TVR colour charts. I am pretty sure it would be the same Imp blue that showed up on last years falcons and the Focus too.
Heres a sample of what it looks like on a TVR anyway.
And here it is in the tins.


As for the engine bay and other parts scheme. I put some computer colour chips together to show roughly what I am working on.
Ford badge blue(non metallic)
Gray Hammertone
Polished Alloy(or chromed)
Black because I cannot afford silicon hoses like these..
When I can afford to, I would like to cut back on the black and get more blue in its place where possible.