'busavan by rustandoil

5 minute(s) of a 58 minute read

Trial fitted engine to frame, not happy about doing it but I had to grind a bit of the mounting bush away as I could not get the sprockets to line up.

With that sorted (thankfully looks a lot better in real life!) I removed the engine from the frame, don't know if that the best thing to do but I figured it would be better if the frame was as light as possible to manoeuvre, just got to do what you think is right at the time

The new steering rack fitted no big deal I know, but significant in the fact that its the first thing to be fitted to the shell not terribly impressed with the quality of the rack sounds awfully rough will have a look inside before final fitting, perhaps they are delivered "dry" and it needs some lube.

With the front end now on wheels it was now possible to lift the shell and have a go at installing the frame, I fitted some old steel 10" wheels on so the frame would roll better and reduce the amount we need to lift the shell.

Pedal box stripped down grit blasted, primed and painted, only with Halfords rattle cans but actually seems to go on quite well.

I don't knew if fitting the Z-Cars frame went well or not! but took a good few hours of pushing and shoving and a fair bit of hole fettling before it was anywhere near, anyway after speaking with Chris confidence was restored and I drilled and bolted it in.

The frame was hitting the shell above the drivers door so I cut away a bit of the pressing in the shell to relive, better but not perfect


Got some Metro hubs and fitted them to the front end also fitted the calipers, all this has been done mainly to reduce the amount of stuff hanging around.

Just checked I don't have any up to date photos on Photobucket so I have the misery of re-sizing and uploading them, sorry but you will have to wait until I am in the mood for that


Fitted the front end just to get it out of the way really.

Might need to trim the front

Initially I thought I would remove the frame to fit the engine but in a moment of mad inspiration I considered that if I removed the engine cradle from the frame I would be able to get the engine in from the back, no pictures but it was an epic fail! might have worked with a few helpers, anyway that was it that engine was going to go in that day! so off with the drivers door and lifted the engine on to a sheet of wood with the engine crane I then slid it in along the van and manhandled it into place in the frame sounds easy but it wasn't I will be calling in a few favours when anything heavy needs doing again........


Fitted the doors to see if they are any good , not too bad but they bow out along the bottom edge they sit on the seal ok so I think they will be ok, not going for the perfect show car finish, thinking more hardcore stripped out tarmac muncher.........


So there you have it 3 updates in one go! I will find some pictures of how it is now and post them up, after my recent visit to Z-Cars I have ordered one of there tubular front sub frames, and have a bit of a plan on how to proceed