Dawgvan: A '64 A100 Build thread

Finished the fan install. It was wired as a pusher already and does move a lot of air.

Panel wired, 12 gauge to an 80 amp breaker on the battery. Note the red tape for the live surfaces...


Switch wired up


Soldered connectors


Installed




Still have a little buttoning up to do with the wiring, but need to run some aux stuff first. More on that later.

We will see tomorrow if this was worth the effort.

Fingers crossed!!!

And...It didn't help the high temps on the freeway It does however greatly help cool the van down quickly, once I get off the freeway. Got it back down from near 235 to 195 in about 6 minutes of putting, but within 5 miles of freeway driving, I was back up to 230.

I need to go over the timing again, thing is, I don't know what I am doing with the light, Cant see any marks. Is there a special spot on an LG170 where I should be shining from?

Saturday was the Pride parade in San Diego, and I got tasked with moving a bunch of friends and gear from a staging area, to the parade route, and back, and in all the gridlock, with the electric fan, and a very hot day, I could keep her right at 190 degrees. Very happy about that. My "full load" is apparently 13 people... All my shuttles were of about 3miles each way, and I moved 31 bodies...That's my girlfriend right behind me in the first pic.

Looks like a Fun time was had by all!

AHAHAHAHA!!!! Awesome!!!!

As for freeway driving... What speed are you having trouble at with the high temps? Im not sure about other people, but my van seems to have a "fulcrum" if you will, Im not sure (yet, more experimentation required) of about 60 mph. That and under even at sustained speeds and distance seems fine, but over that and the temp rises more quickly than I'd like (ironically, only after installing the belly pan that you helped me get!) Not sure if its airflow yet or rpm based.

Anyway, something to think about my friend. These vans dont airstream well, lol.

I finally solved my cooling issues. The B@%$($ that "rodded" my radiator had not done itat all. Kirks Radiator in EL Cajon CA told me it had never been unsoldered and rodded. at best the dude had rammed something in there to make the holes you could see from the filler look clean. Said the radiator was about 70% clogged, and was able to fully clear all but 2 tubes, both where the D-bag had jammed something in through the filler.



So now the van runs cool.

In the process of reinstall and testing, I found the needle and seat on the Carter BBS carb to be leaking fuel. on further inspection, the float bowl was stripped out 8((. Talked to San Diego Carburetor, and they wanted $260.00 to repair.  I then hit eVilbay, where I managed to snag an Holly factory rebuilt CarterBBS for a Dodge truck for $79.00. Installed it before work this morning, and it just purrs. Better than ever before! It's always had a little "skip" in the idle that is now gone too. I did the ether test on it and no air leaks or fuel leaks so the rebuild kit is going in the spares bin.

Old POS


New POS


Installed and running


I declare it Freeway worthy again!

Congrats Dawgboy! Gotta love these guys who rake you over the coals and charge you for something they didn't do. How they sleep at night is beyond me. Hopefully bad Karma will find them someday! At least you found someone honest who did the job the way it should be done in the first place! Good Score on the carb, 79 much easier to take than the 260. Keep on Vannin!!!

Karma is goingtoget him a lot sooner. I sent him a certified letter demanding my money back and cc'ed the California Bureau of Automotive Repair. Let's see how that goes...

Hope you get your money back, like most of us just trying to bring these old girls back and some con man takes your money

I don't blame you one bit. He's only getting what he deserves so hopefully, someone else down the road doesn't get burnt by this guy again!

Going on to interior and cosmetics

Today after jury duty I did this to the right front door, to slow the rust before rainy season. Grind out rust, wet-sand, sealing primer. Going to come back to it for final body work later, getting the metal sealed is the goal here.















Btw, the sand colored paint comes off very easy.

Smart thinking Dawgboy! Nice way to protect the investment. Cleaned up real nice!

LOOKIN GREAT my friend!!! Cant wait to meet up and let our vans play again!

Lots of roof grinding yesterday and today. Got all the heavy rust ground out and treated with Ospho. There is no perforation anywhere, even the drip rails are clean of anything but surface rust. There is quite a bit of solid paint I left. I may grind it out later, but for the winter coming, red primer, and a white coat of Henry sealer.

My Minion...










Everything got wet sanded and hit with a scotch brite before the Ospho. I'll let it set until the weekend and then rinse and on with the rust inhibiting primer.

Tell me, just how bad do the winter's get in San Diego?!!!

Me thinks the minion is wanting to get his mitts on this van when the time is right! Nice work, I think I've got to get me a minion too! We'll see if I can talk my grandson into it. I'll just bribe him with some BeyBlades and that'll probably do the trick.
Thanks for the idea!

The phosphatizing after four hours. Coming along well!

Exactly what does the phosphatizing do to the metal? Does it just give the metal a thorough cleaning in preparation for priming?

It's Phosphoric acid solution, it eats the iron oxide and converts it to Iron Phosphate, which is inert, and so it stops rusting. After a good rinse, I can paint over an not worry about the rust. Ospho isa very popular product for steel ships, We used it by the Barrel in the USCG...

Thanks for the tip. That's good info. I'm filing that for future reference.

Here's a before pic:


Finished completely stripping the roof today. This last pic is one last Ospho treatment, which will require one last sanding I think, and then zinc primer tomorrow.

So that's a total of four of those 3M disks, one scotch Brite, 2 quarts Ospho, 6 sheets of 220 grit wet n dry paper.







Final shots post 3rd and final acid wash and wet sand. Yes it has a flash rust or blush, but it looks much worse in the pic than it does up close.

Tomorrow we paint.

Looks like lots of Hard Work! Nice Job!!!

First coat. Got to go to a wedding, if it's not windy when I get home it gets a second coat.

Looks much better! Another one saved!!! 

You're doing good work. You are inspiring me. Only problem is i live in Portland, OR. and the rain has started for the year. I'm without a garage  
What kind of primer are you using? Is it roll on or spray on?
A guy at work was telling me about Naval jelly to paint over rust.
I like what you used
OSPHO 1G Metal Treatment