vanmansam's van

Here is my 1978 Ford Escort Delivery/Panel van! She's got the 1.6 crossy and a 4 speed manual... She even came with a free bed!!! Hahahahaha! Anyway, she is in good condition, not to much bog in her or rust which is a good thing, there was a little rust in her but thats been patched up with some fresh steal and had a little filler gone on as well... My plan is to get her back on the road ASAP and then same for some new paint and other cool things for the van. I'm not to fussed that my body repairs wont be 100% perfect and I know I could do better but I just want her on the road ASAP and later on I'll do it properly. Anyway here are some photos and things I have done.




The goal is to tidy her up, get her running right and get it on the road in the next month or two. Then in the long run I'll be looking into saving up for a new paint job, but for now she will do :D But the only thing I dislike about her is that she wont start now :( She would run super rough before and I had a mobile mechanic that looked over the car for me put in some new points and she will not start now and to make things worse the starter motor is on its way out :? :evil: I'm pretty sure its spark thats the problem so tomorrow I'll have another look at her when I've cooled down a little. Other than them two problems I'm happy with my purchase... But wait there is more! Because I couldn't wait to get her started and I had to study for a big exam I got a mechanic around to look at her but after the mechanic mucked around with it she wouldn't start :? So I called dad (he's an awesome mechanic!) he told me to get some a pack of rollies and use the cardboard to gap the points! Then BAM she started but ran rough as guts :( I tried to pick the coil up and it was sooooo hot! So this leads me to suspect the coil may be going out... Anyway it was a great win to hear her sing again and tomorrow hopefully I'll do a little more trouble shooting! And I also tidied some of the body up to today! I'm not to 

(The paint was just sprayed when the pic was taken)





Also after doing some trouble shooting I think I've narrowed down another problem being a dodgy starter motor so I ripped that out and now I'm looking to get another one or mine reconditioned. Anyway thats the progress so far :D

Hope you work out your pic problem, i cant wait to see pics of this old girl

And some more

Not much rust at all mate, the big stuff has been taken care of already the only rust left is in the water channels and in the door sill thingys... She's really good for rust! Hardest thing is getting her started... Already ran 2 battery's flat. Put a new starter motor in it yesterday and I'm just waiting to charge the batteries up to try and start it again... I've set the points up and now im just playing with the dizzy timing, I'm hoping I can get it running this weekend!
 
Also does anyone know where can I get one of them door seal things that is in the second pic?

She`s gonna be sweet when finished. Are you going to keep the purple or respray it another colour?

And some more happy snaps, I'm not to good at this system you guys have here... Sorry!

Took the plunge and I upgraded my pretty stuffed dizzy for a new electric one, I also got a new coil while I was at it and I ran a new switched wire too. I couldn't get it started for a while but the problem was an easy fix. It turned out that the plugs were all blocked up, found this out when I was trying to test the spark. So all I need to do now I get my hands on a timing light then I can start to look at giving the carb a tune. The list for road worthy is getting smaller by the week, which is a great thing... Hoping to get it on the road by the Easter weekend, might be able to go to camp in it if I'm lucky!

I cannot get the progress pics of inside this door to upload.... I'll see if it will want to work for me tomorrow though because I did find a little rust and I did borrow a wielder to fix it... And got bored so I fixed some of the bad paint match... I've also done all the painting that needed to be done so she can be made water proof... I need some help to finding what the seal between the left front door thats between the window and door on the outside is called and I'm also having trouble finding one too as I really need it!