Mk2 Panny Van Resto

Hey all.
Just thought id throw a little info and some pics up of my panny van
Picked it up late december 2011, 2.0ltr, auto, windowless, stock as rock, mechanically pretty good, just a few suspension things to change and a service and was running like this for 12 months. Then i went to mallanats and seen a few different cars there and thought, i want a car out here next year to have a bit of fun in. So inspired by that, i started the resto the next day.
I'll just start throwing some progress pics up rather than talking on and on but i'll say this first, i like things a little different, not a huge fan of following the crowd and i like having a crack my self. Let me know what yas think. 
The day i got it.



 
Picked up these

 
Gave it a clean and removed the stickers

 
Modified cluster for a little more light

 
Then started on the body, with the help of my trusty companion.

 
End of first day and a bucket load of spot welds drilled.

 
Plenty more photos to come but i'll leave you with a teaser of whats to come.

 
Hope yous enjoy.
Cheers
Benny Mac

cool good too see another pvan in sa getting some love, 
 
are you jakes mate by any chance
 

I forgot to mention how much of a false hope being able to buy new rad supports and lower cross member are, you would think that the fact you can buy new ones means they can be changed easily enough (and i say that loosely).......... Well WRONG, they are a thorough pain in the arse to get out, words can't describe it, it took me hours.....
Also for any one taking apart the front of an escort like i did, be prepared to drill, i think i counted 42 spot welds holding on the front right hand guard alone..... I'm fairly over it now, but feeling pretty good in that i only have to take the heater bubble off now and that should be the last i have to drill off.
 
 

Ok, so a little bit about the engine I'm using. It's a 4.0 ohv v6 from a 96 ford explorer.


Being a cologne engine, it would of been fairly easy getting a t9 from a Sierra and using that trans but because I want to keep it an auto that made things a lot harder.
After weeks of research and cross referencing, turns out the auto behind the explorer is just a 20yr updated version of the c3 I have in my Panny van. So I went about getting my hands on a bellhousing of a 5r55e gearbox and what do you know. .........

Pump galleries are similar enough and.......

Bam!! bellhousing bolts straight up. Trans sorted. I know the c3 isn't a very strong gearbox but hopefully with a rebuild it will do for a while.

Go from this,

To this,
.

Stay tuned, I'll post some more pics later. I just finished making the engine mounts.
Cheers
Benny Mac

Nice conversion there, plenty grunt with a 4ltr v6 .
What you doing with the old pinto motor...selling?? I got a friend looking..

Ok, so next on the list we tried to dummy fit the engine......... which didnt go so well. The sump fowled massively. So i removed the sump so i could get it in there and check clearance issues. With the trans bolted back up i was pretty happy about where the engine sat, it just needs custom headers, modified sump, engine mounts and probably will need a bonnet buldge of some description. Other than that, heaps of room. Enough to put the factory ac comp and pwr steer pump back on at a later stage ;)



 
I then went on to make the engine mounts so i could have it sitting on its own wieght.




 
It turned out pretty good, the suspension didn't drop as much as what i thought it would with the engine in.



 
Also took the water pump off because i couldn't get the stupid fan off it. We then sat the rad supports and radiator in just to see how close the crankshaft pulley sits to radiator...... Another win, just enough clearance, however i will need to run the thermo in front of the radiator.
 
And i'm about up to date now, the engine is back out and now its time to get heavily stuck into the body work, i have a deadline to meet.
Cheers
Benny

You're lucky to start off with a auto van. Progress is rapid mate! A few yrs ago i was asked to destroy a 75 mk2 1300 auto van. Didn't want to but the guy bought it for spare panels only...grrrr, and rust free too !
I will be starting on my mk1 van soon . Having a rest from the Anglia for now.

Hey , with the fan have you tried to undo it clockwise? I had same trouble with a 2.8i water pump yrs ago. Clamp the clutch body and rattle gun it ..