1959 Ford Thames camper van restoration

BILL Carson wrote:glad your back when do you think you will paint your van.mabe some day you an your family could bring it to the vintage van show here in the states .michigan we have room for you all an a place to stay

That would be pretty cool, Id like to do a road trip around the states but i think it would cost a fortune to get the van over there.


May 2015,

Wow, its been a pretty long time since I had any updates. As I mentioned the last time I've been building a garage as my boss wants his garage back. The good thing is he hasn't really been in too much of a rush to get me out. As with the van I've only been able to do the garage on the weekends and some nights after work if im not too busy, too tired, crappy weather, planets all a lined, blue moons etc... Its actually taken quite a bit longer than I hoped but I am getting there. I'm also too cheap to pay someone else to do things for me.

So, to recap from my last post il add what I wrote before.

So my new project that I'm going to have to rush though is a double garage. Scotland's rules regarding a garage without having to get planning permission are actually quite relaxed. Here are those rules.

(1) The provision within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse of a building for any purpose incidental to the enjoyment of that dwellinghouse or the alteration, maintenance or improvement of such a building.

(2) Development is not permitted by this class if-

(a) it consists of a dwelling;

(b) any part of the development would be forward of a wall forming part of the principal elevation or side elevation where that elevation fronts a road;

(c) the height of the eaves would exceed 3 metres;

(d) any part of the development would exceed 4 metres in height;

(e) any part of the development within 1 metre of the boundary of the curtilage of the dwellinghouse would exceed 2.5 metres in height;

(f) as a result of the development the area of ground covered by development within the front or rear curtilage of the dwellinghouse (excluding the original dwellinghouse and any hard surface or deck) would exceed 50% of the area of the front or rear curtilage respectively (excluding the ground area of the original dwellinghouse and any hard surface or deck); or

(g) in the case of land in a conservation area or within the curtilage of a listed building, the resulting building would have a footprint exceeding 4 square metres.

The only part of that which has been my biggest challenge is the 2.5 metres max within 1 metre of the boundary, due to my garden being about 6 metres wide and the garage being 5 metres wide. Ive spent a lot of time drawing and measuring so I don't need written permission (I,e a huge amount of money and time).

This is the garden when I moved in.



Since then I've had to lift all the stone chips and mark out my dimensions for the monolithic slab I will be pouring in. Underneath the blue tarp I have about 40 concrete sectional panels I got for a steal second-hand.



The outer edges of the slab will be 300 x 300 then the centre will be 150mm thick, of course I will also have rebar and mesh in there too. Gives me a good indication size, really happy to actually start my dream of my very own double garage .



Which brings me to today. The trenches are dug and I'm now skimming the top layer for the centre of the slab. A few people have already asked me why I'm not just hiring a digger and skip to do it all but to be honest I'm absolutely skint. I managed to get a small loan for the material but if I can save myself money by digging and disposing of the clay/soil in a trailer at the local tip I will. (even if that means roping in my poor brother to lend a hand, cheers bro)



I'm hoping next week will be the last weekend of digging. And I can get the rebar in and concrete poured maybe around mid February, we'll see........



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Ok, so I did manage to skim the top layer off but I stumbled across a bit of bad luck. The weather took a really bad change for the worse and it chucked down with rain for a solid week a few days after all the digging. The ground was complete mush, really sticky clay and it was soaked all the way through. I had hoped that it wouldn't rain as the clay was quite firm and I hoped to just pour directly over that. In a very vain attempt to do something I even covered it with tarp to see if a couple of weeks would help to dry out at least the centre.



But it was no use. Once I took the tarp off it was just as bad. I felt really quite upset and a bit stressed out at this so I looked up what to do on google. So to remedy the situation I ordered 3 tons of hardcore to be delivered. To make space for all the hardcore though I had to go down another 150mm which my dad kindly helped me wit, thanks dad. Then I think it was the next day the hardcore was delivered. I had learnt my lesson not to have too much time between vital jobs.

My dad came back along that day and helped me to spread it out and I hired a whacker plate from the local hire shop and after a few hours I had a really good strong, firm base to pour on. I bought a few lengths of 6x2 to use as shuttering with some 2x2 stakes and took my time laying it all out.



Once I was happy with the shuttering I ordered the concrete and took a long weekend off so I could prepare the damp proof membrane and rebar to go down the day before it arrived so I wouldn't get puddles if it rained. I bought the rebar a little while before so for speed I had already welded these into long cube shapes so all I had to do was place it in, no need for tying them together with wire. The rebar is 16mm thick with 8mm mesh, its probably a bit more heavy duty than it needed to be but for the sake of £30 - £40 I thought id do it strong.



Then the DMP went down. I also ran a small length of water pipe so I can run an electric cable through it when I'm finished. Also, to save a bit cash on mesh supports I just broke a few slabs into small bits which raised it to about 60 mm, the thickness of the foundation in the centre is around 120-140mm



All ready !



I had ordered a mix of C25 concrete from a company that done a pretty good price. My brother and Dad came over to help out with the spreading. None of us had ever done this kind of thing so we may have made a few mistakes but the end product is pretty good. I had looked up a few videos on yotube about concrete pouring but I couldn't find one that covered pretty much all of the pour without being either sped up too fast or just a lot of editing to make the video short. I decided to record a full hours worth of video and I put it on youtube if anyone else is interested in the process. Here's the link to that video if anyone's interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTWCKyfLWgk

It was pretty hard going, shovelling, raking, scooping really took its toll on us. Trying to do all of these things as quick as we could and keeping a level head to know what to do next was difficult, but we managed to get all the concrete poured in in about 45-50 mins so I didn't have to pay any extra to the driver and once he left I just had the skimming to do. I hired a long float from the same place as the whacker plate to get a more professional looking finish. At the end of the day I was left with a very expensive piece of concrete but I was really happy as it meant no more muddy shoes and clothes ! .



The next few days I was pretty apprehensive, checking on it all the time to make sure there was no cracks forming and that it was setting well. After a couple of weeks I too all the shuttering off and it was still intact, phew!



I had a few other things going on at the time so I left it another couple of weeks. I then ordered 60 concrete blocks to be delivered. The garage panels I bought second hand are only 2 metres tall, so to get a bit of extra height I wanted to build a small one row of blocks around to put the panels on top of. This is also the first time I've done any mortar/block work. My big book of DIY came in handy again for this.





The only real bother about this is the fact I don't know 100% to the millimetre where the panels will end so I decided to build the front half of the garage first, then when I work back I can put the last few blocks in place when I know where the last panel will land.



Once the blocks I needed were in place my brother came along and helped me put up the first corner. I managed to get 2 double glazed windows for free from my work so for that area I built a small wall up with blocks.



Then when I was happy with the little wall I welded up a door frame.



Few more panels put up. The panels join to each other with 4 M8 bolts. I managed to tap into the door frame so there attached to that also.



I had also been making up my roof trusses after work during this time too. They are scissor trusses made from 50x3 angle and 50x50 box. When designing them I wanted all the joints to be extra strong so they overlap in some areas and braced in others. My boss was nice enough to let me use the workshop for this.



The beauty of them is I needed 14 halfs to make 7 whole ones but 11 of them are identical so I only needed to make one jig.



My dad and brother came back along to help me set the first end truss up plus put a few more panels up. Then when they left I put the windows in.





Which brings me upto how it is today. Both my brothers were here yesterday and helped me get 2 of the trusses up into position and a few more panels up.



To attach the trusses I bolted down a length of 50x5 angle to the top of the panels. Worked out the centres for them, then cut out a 55mm wide slot to drop them in place. Once I was happy with there position I welded them down.






I wish I never took so long to do this update as I've forgotten half the details I was going to put in. I did actually think id have it done by now but so much is going on I'm strapped for time. I got a promotion at work so I'm now th eworkshop foreman which has been pretty good plus it means a little more per hour, yippee.

Now I need to go outside and mortar the last of the bricks as I know where they are going to be so I can get the rest of the panels up and secured.

I have also managed to buy insulation for the roof, 50mm thick foil backed foam as I'm making it a warm roof. I got them from gumtree from someone that bought some for his conservatory then changed his mind so there still brand new. I also managed to get some second hand box profile roof sheets, 0.7mm thick. That was a bargain! £80 for the whole roof. They had been in a firedamaged building. They still have all there integrity, just a little bit of soot on the underside.

My biggest concern are the actual garage panels themselves. 80% of them are fine but the rest do have some fine cracks in them, I'm not really sure exactly what il do with them. I thought about some kind of crack injection repair but il have to look into that. In hindsight, I think I should have just built the whole thing out of concrete blocks. Too late for now, il need to see how it goes.

great job a steel roof would look great on your new home away from home

Best of luck with the rest of the build Kev but so far it looks brilliant!!! Soon you'll be working on the project we're all drooling over! You certainly seem to be a Jack of all trades with all of your different skills! Keep the pics coming as you progress...Please!

August 2015
Time for another belated update on the garage/life. Lets see, the last update was May so this is 3 months worth of stuff that's been going on.
Ok, I got the rest of the trusses up without much hassle, that was the good thing about making them up on a jig., just repeat everything.

When it came to the other end of the garage I did have a little problem joining the panels together as I only had 2 "corner" pieces that I had already used on the front of the garage. The panels are about 75-80mm thick so I bought a length of 80mm box section and used that as the corner posts. I drilled and tapped the holes to bolt the panels too them and also welded on base plates to help strengthening it up a bit.
I then started on the purlins. To save even more money, I made use of what I already had and reused the 50x150 I had used for boxing in the foundations. I attached these using Tek-screws, wonderful things! Just like screws with inbuilt drill bits on the end so no need for pilot holes, just screw them in with a cordless like you normally would putting screws into wood.



Put them in over a few days, then stood up on the highest point for the first time.



Then it was time for the actual roof. I bought some 18mm OSB3 board as my first layer. I managed to rope both brothers to help me out with this as I wanted everything to be water tight in one day in case it rained (this being Scotland and all)
Ross turned up first, raring to go.



Starting to sheet it up. I borrowed the works rip-saw for the weekend which was very useful.



Then the centre section. It was feeling pretty surreal actually walking on the roof, atleast it made me feel more confident about the strength of the whole thing.



First layer done, ready for the vapour barrier, and pose.



Vapour barrier all taped up.



This was when Scott turned up and we reunited as team Barlas!, nothing could stop us now.



Attaching the 50mm insulation panels. We worked out a way of doing the roof. The insulation panels were 1200mm wide and the roof panels were 1000mm so once we had one sheet of insulation down and pinned we then placed a roof section on top and put a few more tekscrews in to keep it down. I had decent length screws to get into the purlin underneath also. I also put sticky rubber between the roof section joints to help make it even more weather tight. Oh, I also used proper foil tape between all the insulation sections to make another barrier.



Bit too much posing and coffee breaks for my liking .



Scott's pretty tall so it was handy having him at the ready to pass the panels up, after a while we started getting a good system going.



One panel to go.



To tidy up the apex and edges I cut a few lengths of 1.6mm galvanised sheets from work into strips then took them along to my old work and folded them over. I still had a few things to do at either end so I just put the centre up first and folded the vapour barrier over so the OSB and insulation wouldn't get wet in the mean time.



Cut to a few weeks later. I neatend up the eaves of the garage with a metal cicular saw and a straight line. I had also installed the guttering but hadn't plumbed everything in yet. Oh, and you cant really see it here but I have the foam eave fillers in too. I couldn't find the right profile anywhere so I went to a local foam centre and was quoted £85 just for foam, no special shapes or anything, just a continuous section of foam!. So, being the cheap ass that I am I went around a few of the bargain shops and found a place that had foam knee pads that were made from 50x50 sections of foam, best thing was they were only 50p each and each knee pad had 10 sections. All I did was separate them , angle the ends and they fitted, so I saved £80.50.



To seal the end trusses of the garage I used more OSB3 I had left over, cut the triangles out, painted them in extra thick bitumen paint to seal them from water and installed them using a mixture of screws and tek-screws. I also fitted the flashings by this point.



I had then hoped to get straight onto the doors but shortly after fitting the gutters we had a huge downpour. Now, I was probably very naive thinking that I could use 2 x 25 gallon buckets and that I would empty them "everynow and then" because it had been raining for about an hour and each bucket was over flowing!

Well, that means I better plumb in the roof water drainage.
Got the pick-axe ( my dads one really, I cant seem to find mine, the running joke is its buried in the foundations somewhere ) and shovel and started to dig. I had forgotten just how much of a work out it was.



Good thing is I have a vent in my garden just outside the back door so I was able to tap into that using a clay to PVC adaptor.





P-trap concreted in.



As I could only really do stuff after work this was my temporary solution so I don't flood my garden, flood the council grass instead.



I bought some drain channels on Ebay and set about laying them. I bought a few bags of cement and 24 bags of ballast to mix up. I really wish I had a mixer but I dint so all of it was done by hand, all half ton of it, my guns were aching by the time it was all done.





Whilst I had a trench dug I thought id lay the power cable too. My dad gave me an old bit of 5mm thick wall piping so I ran a 10mm twin and earth cable though it which should be more than ample for what I need.



Great, that was the drainage done, now back to the doors. As usual, I didn't want any flimsy nancy pansy wooden door, I wanted steel! So I took some measurements and drew up some plans.



I wanted all the height I could get so I designed the doors to go right up including the anlged section.

I took a weeks holiday from work......so I could then go to my work and make the doors.... I used 50mm box section for the frame.



I used 1.6mm galvanised to sheet it out and made my own heavy duty hinges.



After a weeks work my dad came round and helped me fit them. I was a bit anxious as I only left a 10mm gap all around but they fitted like the proverbial glove.




Inside



Then I used some 25mm angle and rubber beading to make a weather tight seal.



Ive since fitted more sliding bolts. The beauty of it is there's no way to open it from the outside right now (that wont be until much later when I'm using the van) Even if someone cuts the hinges there's a back up system .

Now for the entry door, again it had to be metal but I didn't want it to look like an industrial unit so I made a faux 4 panel door. Framed and sheated then I cut up some wooden (bleugh) beading for decoration. I also have 2 nice anti-saw locks attached



I managed to fit this door myself. I had 3 hinges on it to start off with but as the door has a slight bow in it the middle hinge was binding with the door frame so that whenever I opened the door it made the frame twist slightly. That caused the sealant to flex so I had to cut the middle one off, never mind. Il deal with the hole later.



You may have also noticed in the last photo I have fitted my strip lights. I only have them wired to a plug just now so I can have light if I need to work inside when its dark until I get all the electrics connected up. My boss was throwing them out as he bought new ones for the showroom. Little bit paint and they were fit for purpose. They are a tad long though so I have had to stagger them , beggers cant be choosers and all that eh.



Getting close to where I am right now. I've started doing the bit I've kind of been worried about. Rendering the upper part of the trusses and wall to match the rest of the garage panels. I've looked up a lot of information regarding how to do it and so I went and bought all the materials. To render onto wood it needs to have a mesh put on first, this is called lath. It needs to be as tight as possible so I attached it with about 120 screws and washers over the looser areas.



Then my scratch coat. I used a 4:1 mix of sand and cement with some waterproofer/plasticiser mixed in and bought myself a good trowel. It was a bit daunting but I was getting the hang of it. I'm definitely not a plasterer though.



Then I bought some galvanised beading to put around the windows so it looks neater then I gave the wall a scratch coat.



To level everything out I gave the upper section another scratch coat as it was 10mm further back than the wall. Then that brings me nicely to today. I bought some small stone chips from a garden centre and started the roughcast coat. Now that is tricky! I messed up the first time as I had not made the wall wet enough before rendering so by the time I finished a section all the moisture had seeped into the wall and the outside was dry so the stones never stuck in. I scraped it all off and started again, this time I really wet the walls then got on with it. I was a bit more successful this time but I can honestly see why this is a proper time served apprenticeship kind of job. The professionals make it look so easy too.



The good thing is its all getting painted when I'm finished anyway, I think il use a textured masonry paint to blend it all in. I have already gotten the slate grey for the roof , just waiting for a few sunny days to do it.

That's me completely upto date now. Once I have finished this wall I will move onto the back of the garage and do that end in the same way with the roughcasting. After that its just a few other little things to tidy up/finish then paint and the exterior will be done and I can move onto the inside to insulate and sheet. I think my boss wants me out pretty soon though so I think I will have to move a lot of stuff along to the garage and work around the van. Will be a bugger but will be pretty cool to have the van home as well .

Until next time!

Jesus Christ!! Is there anything you cant do!?!?!?! You Sir are my Hero!!!

Could I make a suggestion on the lights.

Why not fasten them to the peak of the ridge rather than the bottom of the truss?

This will raise them to give you a better spread of light plus it gets them up out of harms way and gives you another 200mm of working height.

You may find when using your engine crane the additional height is needed.

I had a garage with a similar height ceiling and I was forever hitting the lights. My wife made me replace the light with new ones that had mesh guards to stop me smashing the tubes.

And I agree, it doesn't look like there's anything you can't do.

Nice work. Nothing like having a garage/shop at home!

November 2015

Its been roughly 3 months since my last update but I've been a very busy boy.

The last time I put an up date I had just started doing the harling on the walls so I'll carry on from there.


I carried on doing the harling a section at a time, just mixing enough myself by hand so as not to waste much. It was also at this point I had chosen my colours for the walls and bought a couple of tester pots.



All the harling finished on the front.



Then I moved onto the rear of the garage and that got the same treatment.



After all that I wanted to get on with painting the walls. As the garage is made from concrete sections I bought some proper gap sealant designed for these panels and ran it in between all the panels. I didn't bother filling the gap at the bottom between the blocks and walls as inevitably water will find a way in and that gap should let the water evaporate rather than containing it. I got home from work on an unusually warm day in Scotland and went into beast mode.



Once the front wall was painted I went and bought a nice dark green for the door. I repaired the hole I had cut in it from removing the middle hinge. I also got another colour for the block work at the bottom as a nice contrast. If you look closely to the roof flashing you will notice a few pairs of vice grips. I had noticed when it rained a lot of water would come running down the flashings and drip randomly on the ground. Not a big deal but it kind of annoyed me. To remedy this I wanted a small mini gutter. I thought of getting some thin sheet metal and folding a U in it but then I had a good idea to use plasterers beading. Its already in a U shape plus being galvanised it was also protected. So I used that and stuck it on with some generic builders adhesive in a tube. Works a treat, now the water collects and drains from the side.





I liked the colour I used for the block work so I also painted the flashings the same colour. I also managed to get around to painting the roof panels in a nice slate grey, made them look brand new.



Then I moved on to the rear and painted that too.



I haven't done the side walls yet. I don't have much room right now as that's where I've been dumping my excess stuff and its just aesthetics right now which can wait until next year once the weather gets better again. I was focusing more on making what I see from my house/back road nice.

Exterior done, now its the inside needing done. I knew that as I was going to be spending quite a bit of time in there that I would want it to be comfortable, dry, warm, basically a happy place to be. First thing I done was order some 3x2 to make the studding, 13 sheets of 9mm ply for the walls.I chose ply for strength compared to plaster board and its also a lot easier on the eye compared to OSB board. Then I took a long weekend off work and got started.



I was a bit unsure of how to attach the studding to the garage walls and then I came across these L brackets. There intended to be used to tie in blocks to a wooden frame when building. I found with a bit of cutting the longer end I could use them with some washers to keep the frame tied to the wall.



A bit like this. I know I could have made my own but these were like 32p each and I needed 94 of them so it was a no brainer.



A few things I had ordered hadn't arrived yet so I couldn't put the insulation in at this point. I didn't want to waste my time off so I got on with cutting all the ply for the walls.





Once I had the whole thing framed and ply cut, I then took all the ply back off again and started looking for insulation. My cavity space was around 100mm, not much but better than nothing. I had thought of using the rigid board stuff like I used for the roof but changed my mind , due to price and the fact that each cavity wasn't really a easy shape to cut and it would be left with a few empty spaces. I went to B&Q and they had an offer on for attic insulation, 5 rolls of 100mm for the price of 4. Worked out to about £35, deal done! .
The rolls they came in were already pre-cut to 400mm wide, which was close enough to my spacing , bonus. Once the insulation was cut and teased into place I then moved onto running my electric cables, I put 6 double sockets in on a ring circuit using 2.5mm cable on a 32amp breaker. I also added 4 more fluorescent tubes and wired them in using 1.5mm cable on a 6amp breaker. Lastly I used 6mm cable for the dedicated 16amp socket for my welder. All fed by a 10mm cable running on a 40amp breaker in the house to a consumer unit in the garage on a 63amp RCD main.





I thought that if I'm going to the effort of insulating it I will go the whole hog and buy proper vapour barrier ( this is what had not arrived dfor my holiday in time) and got that into place.



Next up I put all the ply back on the walls and moved onto insulating the doors. This is when I did use rigid insulation board. I had some 50mm left over from the roof and my brother gave me some 100mm stuff that I cut in half for the front door. I had also painted the floor by this point. Oh, also , if you look closely a the bottom of the doors you will see the rubber seal that was stuck to the ground to stop any rain, dust, leaves etc from being blown in.





Getting there, so close now!!. To neaten things up inside I filled the joints and gaps with a cheap wood filler, I also added some nice skirting boards which you cant see here yet. I bought a small 3Kw heater and I tell you what. The garage may not have tons of insulation but it holds the heat really well. If its around 11-13 degrees outside I can put the heater on for around 45mins and I'm toasty. Once I get it to a comfortable temperature I put if off and haven't found myself having to put it back on for another 2-3 hours.



Atlast, the garage was complete inside and out. Now I needed to move all my crap. I spent the next 3 weekends in a row borrowing my work van. I didn't want to bring useless stuff along so I made a few piles, scrap, recycle tip, garage etc.. And sorted it all out. I had bought 2 nice shelving units ages ago so I built them up. My boss was kind enough to let me have the work bench that I used in the old place.
Id go there on the Saturday, move the stuff I needed into the garage, Sunday was dumping crap day and then id spend time after work organising shelf's, roof space, hooks etc... Until all but one thing was left. The van!
I thought of borrowing my friends trailer and doing it myself but then I remembered that the guy I sold what was let of the Silver Lexus LS400 could maybe help me out. I managed to get a hold of him and organised him to collect it on his loader and drop it off. I also got my dad to come along and help too.
Cut to this Tuesday (10/11/2015) around 10am and I went to the garage to take this last photo of the van in the surrounding its been in for the past 5 years (has it really been this long already!).



We rolled the van out on a really heavy rainy day and got it loaded. Looks tiny compared to a modern Mercedes Sprinter van.



Then we got to my freshly built garage and got it in . The guy that dropped it off for me is a top bloke. Done it for a great price and wasn't shy to help unload it and get it in the garage, cheers James!





Oh, you can also see the metal shutter I made for the windows here. Stop people looking in and a bit of extra security.



Plenty of space between the trusses and roof of the van.



I cant say how happy I am for this right now. Its been literally around a year since I drew my first plans for the garage and now I'm here, atlast. My van is in the garage I designed, researched, bought, built, etc.. I feel really proud right about now. The day I brought it back I was actually just happy to sit in my garage and reflect on what I've achieved for a good hour or so. I have everything I need here, inside is nice to look at, I have electricity, Its warm, Its water tight, still plenty of space to work around , heck, it even has Wi-Fi.



So of course this is the point where I say I'm back to working on the van. Id love to say that but as its nearly xmas the wife wants some piece of the house to be re-decorated. I think she made her point when she started to half strip the hallway about a month ago then abandon it so I have to finish it off now, yippee..........
Never mind, 2 weeks holiday from work over Xmas and I'm getting myself stuck in the garage then!
Expect an update around then, so long......

You my friend are inspirational!!!

Congrats Kev! The van looks right at home now. Always love to see your posts. The garage looks Fantastic and you've made it comfortable for you and the van. Keep your wife happy and I will look forward to seeing more progress on your van. Nice piece of work!

Totally Awesome Kev. Garage looks great and the van looks happy to finally be home. I to look forward to your updates...as was said earlier...you are an inspiration my friend .

Great job on the garage! Looking forward to more on the Thames! Cheers!

Thanks guys

January 2016

Happy new year! , lets see where I get to in this one.

I spent the first week of my holiday doing absolutely nothing, it was great to just not do anything. I started the garage in the last xmas holidays so every weekend/nights/holidays I had I spent building the garage. Then when that was done I was helping my bro to do up his new house then when that was done I spent about a month and a half remodelling my hallway/stairs. So to be able to just sit on my butt and relax was amazing!
But, I cant be lazy all the time so I went into the garage in the second week to continue the van. I started by just recapping what I had done before and familiarizing myself with where I had put everything. After some time I settled myself back into the front suspension set up. I had remembered that the anti roll bar was now being fouled by the 4 pot callipers so I had to do something about that.

I figured id need to move it further back by 35mm so I first redrilled new holes in the chassis I brought the brackets further back.



Then I had to extend the lower mounts which re attached to the A arms.



Cut it off with the grinder.



Which left me with this.



Then I used some 3mm sheet to extend it, weld, grind, clean.



Welded it back on. Much better position.



To try and stop any fatigue now that it was longer I also welded in 2 braces.



Put the link in and Ta-da, The callipers now clear it on full lock. I repeated the same for the other side.



Now that that was done the front end is pretty much ready for connecting and testing the brakes. Before I do that though I want to get the rear end finished. I have the axle and stuff fitted already but I still need to buy new bushes and paint it all. Something I need money for so that will have to wait for a few weeks.
Now for something not van related again but it is classic car related.
I was asked by a guy at the pre67 Ford forum to have a look and fix his wings and front valance for his Mk2 Zodiac so I got started on them.
This is his original valance which had 2 dents underneath and the corners had fatigued.



I started on the smaller ding first.



It wasn't really that bad so I was able to just use the hammer, dolly etc.. To knock it back out.



The other side was quite a bit worse. The metal had stretched quite a bit too much to knock out.



Luckily he had a spare valance. The lower half of which was rust free so I cut that section out.



Then I cut the same area out of the old one and tacked this section in its place.



Weld it up and clean it off.



And there we go, one fixed valance.



Upnext was the offside wing. The paint was blistering around the rear edge so I started to sand it down to get an idea of what was going on.



Quite a bit of filler was removed from a previous "repair".





I suspected that this was just a patch welded on top of rusty metal, which it was.



So to fix this I cut slightly larger than the patch right out. That also revealed the inner part had rusted right through also.



I needed to repair this inner piece before I could do the skin.



Then put a new section in flush with the skin.



Weld it up and grind it down, beautiful.





Then I added a new lip and tidied that up.



Quick wee spray of primer to stop it surface rusting in the mean time, seamless .



Upnext is the headlamp area. You can see how water has ran in between the wing and headlamp plate and has just rusted away at the bottom and pushed the metal apart in other place.



To get the old headlamp plate out I used my spotweld drill but .



And the offending plate that's too far gone to be repaired



I had to make this section up. Looks simple enough but it had a double lip, the inside and outside edges.



I started by getting my sheet out and tracing out the shape slightly larger to allow for the lip.



Easiest way to cut it out was using my old slightly knackered plasma cutter, does the job though (I should really fix it up one of these days). I then traced the shape of the plate out to its correct size in marker pen.



To get the fold started I used long nose pliers with a little bit ground off one jaw (flatter end for internal bends). Then I got a bit of 5x50 flat bar and cut a small grove in it to bend the lip up more.



Once I got it raised I used a hammer and former to finish it off.



I repeated the same for the outside lip and after a bit of time and fettling I had a replacement for the old one.



To attach it I began to wirewheel inside the wing when I noticed another bit of rust. Its a bit hard to see but its where the water would have been running down below the headlamp area. Which I thought of as odd as externally the panel seemed fine.



So, sander /wire wheel out I wanted to investigate what was going on.



Yep, you guessed it, another patch over rotten metal. That's why it looked OK externally.



Ok OK, cut it out and time for a proper repair.



ITs a bit of a tricky repair. Looks simple but that shape was quite complex to put into a flat sheet. I managed to tack it into place.





Welded, dressed and started to repair the other rotten bit around the bowl area. I also repaired a little bit that ran underneath and into the grill area but I forgot to photo that, dam.



Then I clamped and welded in the new headlamp plate.



Last little piece to fix.



Fixed.



Little spray of primer to stop surface rust and that was this wing done.





Now I just have one more wing to go.

I really enjoyed fixing those up. I forgot just how much I like to do bodywork. Maybe il make a career out of it one day .

Hopefully next update il have made enough money for bushes, paint and new shock absorbers.

Kev, it's a pleasure watching someone do the job Right!!! If you really enjoy doing the bodywork, you ought to make a career out of it! You did the repairs the way they should have been done the first time around. As always, thanks for sharing your metal working skills with us...It's very informative and inspirational to see someone who enjoys metal work so much and spark something in the rest of us to push on with our own projects! I'd love to see the reaction of the guy who owns this MK2 Zodiac when he gets his panels back! He'll be tickled pink for sure!!!

As always, looking forward to the "Next" installment once you get back to your own van!!!

Long time listener, first time caller. Wow you are the man. I have been watching this thread and am always impressed with what you are doing. Now get back to the Thames!!!

It's great to see how much your skills have improved over the years. You just pound that stuff out now, no problem. First class work.

Duane.

Great to see you back on the project! Great work on the garage to, nothing like having a shop right at the house. I live 3 1/2 blocks from our shop at work but I still hate having to run down there to use tools I don't have here in my garage to finish things on my own projects... Still better than no home shop at all!!! Good man on insulating it to. An unheated shop in the winter is a refuge of last resort for emergency repairs and desperate projects Makes a great 'man cave' to when projects are done or waning

Thanks for that guys , i also like to look back at my projects and stuff from when i first started to what i can do now, practice makes perfect

February 2016

I've been able to start work on the van again, yippee!, more on that after this last wee bit about the Zodiac panels I was working on.

I started work on the nearside wing, it had pretty much the same problems as the other side with just a bit extra for good measure, dam. Wasn't too bad though, just an extra hour or so work.
I've already explained the process for the rear edge of the wing in my last post, so il just let the pictures do most of the talking here.



Another concealed rust patch.



New bit in.





Add a lip to the underside then a wee bit of primer and done.



Time to move to the front of the wing, removing the paint revealed a blob of brazing and a nasty water trap patch , the headlight plate had also rusted out here so I made another as per my last post.





Cutting the patch off revealed the true horrors underneath.



Now to cut out the rot.



I decided to make the repair section in 2 pieces. Doing so made it a bit easier to make them. Easier bit first.



Now the harder bit. This was probably the most difficult bit out of all the panels. It took me a wee while to get just the right curves into a small section.

I started by cutting out a little flat patch as you can see.



Then using a whole variety of formers, pliers etc.. I tweaked it into shape.



Tack it in.



Weld it and clean it, ta daa.



Then I cut out all those blobs of braze and also fitted the new head light plate I made up.



Another wee spray.



Then this little piece was next.





And that was that, all done. Was a good wee side project and a nice little challenge, Thanks Kenny .



With all that out the way I was able to get back onto the van. I had managed to save a bit of money up to buy all the goodies to totally refurb the rear axle.
I bought:-
8 Polyurethne bushes for the 4 link bars
5 Poly bushes for the Watt's linkage
Brake shoes
Brake cylinders
Handbrake cable
Inner axle tube seals
Hub seals
Gaskets
Wheel bearings
8 lock nuts
New hub puller
Brake spring T hook

Which all came to an unbelievable £460 ish, uuughh, expensive hobby eh, but atleast I can be safe in the knowledge that everything is all nice and new and I hopefully don't have to take the axle back off once the vans up and running to fault find. The polybushes should also help with the handling and shouldn't need replacing for a long time. I do still need to buy a brake fitting kit (new springs, boots etc) and also 2 rear shocks but that's going to have to wait until I get some more cash.


(still doesn't look like £460 worth though! )

I began with taking the axle back out of the van.



I wanted to remove the back plate to check everything was OK in there and also to confirm the diff ratio.



That all looked good and its a 3.3:1 ratio which should be good. From there I started to strip it down. Took the half shafts out, bearings out, linkage bars off etc..



These bushes have seen better days, the Watt's linkage was actually seized solid to the pin.





To remove the bushes the easiest way was to drill out the rubber with a drill.



Then use a hacksaw to cut through the metalastic liner.



Finally I used a chisel, prybar, hammer etc.. To curl the liner and knock it out.



Do that another 12 times for all the bushes, boooooring. Then I wire brushed and ground everything clean.



Those watts linkage bars look a bit beaten up from the rust though eh.



I also cleaned up the hubs, drums etc..





I still had to fully weld the brackets onto the axle, now that everything was out the way I got on with that. I just grazed the welds with the grinder, just to take any rough blobs off, didn't want to affect the strength.



I still had to make up some handbrake cable mounts. I put the back plates and brake assembly back together so I could get the mounts in the right place by mocking it all back up again. After plenty of measuring I made up the mounts.



I pretty much just used 50x5 angle cut into a nice shape with a hole in it



Here's why I find it hard to throw anything interesting out. I was giving this pulley to me by a fabricating friend who was going out of business. I didn't know what id use it for then but I do now. The Scimitar uses a pulley for the handbrake assembly and this one just so happens to have the right size groove in it for the cable so il be using this when it comes to linking it all up.



I was looking over those Watt's linkage bars again and decided I wasn't happy with the amount of bumps in it. I wasn't sure how thick the tube wall was that made it up so I decided to replace them.



To make sure I got it the correct length I tacked 2 bits of angle to the bench tight to the open ends. I also never had any 22.5mm tubing lying around but I did have 20mm round bar, so that got used instead. Atleast I know it wont rust through, right.



New and old.



Which brings me to today, now that everything is all clean and welded up its time to start painting. I used the same 2 part epoxy that I used for the front suspension to coat the axle and components.





The van also doubles as a hanging area.




There we go. Next up il be pushing the bushes in. Fitting the wheel bearings and getting the end float right then fit the new brake parts. Once that's done il have to fully weld the brackets that are on the van, I'm also thinking of adding rigidity to the chassis by boxing the chassis in at some areas then paint it. The list goes on and on........ One day though, il have everything on that list ticked

Cya next time.

Inspiring as always Kev...and you made the right choice on replacing those rusted linkage bars. I've seen better looking steel crack under stress and those probably would have failed you in the near future. And the last thing anybody needs is a vehicle deciding to rear steer and 50 mile an hour when it was never designed to. Awesome job on the side project...you definitely have a talent for metal fabricating.

Amazing stuff. I love seeing how it's done and seeing it done with such talent, effort and ease is awesome.

May 2016

Its been a long time between these updates lately. Never enough time in the day.

Anyway, back to the van for a bit. I say this is the May update but I done this in around end of March really.
Back to the rear axle, I replaced the oil seals in the tubes.



Then new wheel bearings. I pressed these in using a piece of tubing and lightly tapping them home. Things you have to do when you don't have access to a press.



Then I got the end float set up right.



With the rear axle pretty much done I then fully welded up the brackets that are attached to the chassis (forgot to take pics of that).

I had been thinking for a while as to how id band my steel wheels. Splitting them preciously was going to be my biggest obstacle so I thought I could get that bit done by someone else and do the rest myself. Unfortunately the engineering shop I like to use said the wheels couldn't fit in there lathe. I know I could have sent them to another shop but as I like to try and do as much as I can I started to think of ways to do that bit myself too. I looked over at my axle and started to think I could use that to split my rims. With the wheel bolted on I knew it would be true and so all I needed was a cutting action to take place. I am good with an angle grinder but I needed it to be a bit more precise than free hand.



So I utilised one of the 4 link brackets and made up a quick holder for the grinder.



Having a big lever attached also made it more controllable.



Doing it this way I could let the grinder lightly touch it with one hand and use the other to spin the wheel. Kind of like a lathe.



I spun the wheel around taking care not to cut through to the centre part but I was able to cut right through the gapped areas. On the areas that the rim was spot welded to the centre I left a fraction of metal on and was able to then use a chisel to separate them .



Thus leaving me with a perfectly cut rim .



I also marked each gap to make sure when I was it back together it was close to how it was originally.



I did this to all 4 wheels. Then I used the grinder to tidy the edges and put a chamfer onto where I will be welding.



Original wheels are 4.5 inches wide. I wanted the fronts to be 5.5 inches wide and the rears to be 6.5 inches wide as I want 195/60/15 on the front and 205/55/15 on the rear. These tyre sizes are pretty similar to the original tyre wall sizes to give it that more stock look and ride height.
At my work we buy in 25mm and 50mm flat bar at 3mm thickness which just so happens to be the same thickness as the metal used in the rims so that was perfect for the job. I used my former at work to bend them round.



Getting ready to tack into place.



Now I don't have any images of me tacking it into place as I was wanting to make sure I could get it done as best I could and no distractions. Basically I welded the band to the wheel using various clamps and keeping it all inline with the original outer piece. Then the outer part of the rim was tacked on and with plenty of fettling and persuasion it was pretty dam good.

Love the look of banded steels and so glad I'm going this route than alloys. Note that I'm not banding them for a stretched tyre look, its so I can actually fit wider rubber but not too wide as I don't want to start causing steering and suspension issues on the front.

This is the rear that is now 6.5 inches wide compared to an original.







I was then able to mount it back onto the free standing axle and check for trueness, which was fine. ( still love the look!)



I also did a front one with a one inch strip which looks cool.



Rear, front and stock.



Of course they are still to be fully welded which il use my Tig for that as I would like to run them without tubes and Tig should make it easier to get a non porous weld all the way around.

I then moved my attention onto boxing in the chassis for strength.

Using some cardboard I made up a set of templates.



Laid them out, just need to make 2 of everything for both sides.



Before I started any welding I painted the internal parts of the chassis now as ofcourse its a lot easier to do at this stage. I used the same paint as I used for the axle from rust.co.uk.



I was able to cut them out from scraps of 3mm plate at work. I then carefully tacked them in a corner weld so I can get the best penetration when welding time comes.





Then the other side got the same treatment.



Ok, now , as usual as life is so busy I haven't been able to do the van for a month or so now due to it raining less and the garden is a complete bomb site that needs work done. So much earth moved, slabs laid, rubble binned etc... Has been going on.

I'm sorry for the lack of actual van updates over the past year and a bit. I just want everyone to know that its not because ive became disillusioned with the van project its just general life that's getting in the way. I always say that I wish I could split myself into different people. One to go to work, one to do the house, one to do the garden, one to do the van and one to chill out.

Another little thing ive been working on for the past month is something ive been wanting to make for ages now but haven't had the time. Ages ago when I got married my dad made me a sword as a gift to me for my wedding which is now like a heirloom that il treasure forever until I pass it onto my future son/daughter.





About 2 years ago I was out in my dads back garden where he grows his veg. I noticed the knife he used for it was a bit battered looking so since then ive been meaning to improve his situation. As his birthday was coming up I thought it would be a cool birthday present.
I drew out a few plans for a cool knife which then turned into a machete and knife combo. The machete blade is about 14 1/2 Inches long and the knife is about 4 Inches blade length.



So with a bit of time on my hands after being fed up with the garden I got on with it. I was originally going to use the leaf springs from my van as material but I then thought real O1 tool steel at 3mm thick would be best. I traced my patterns down onto it.



Then using the grinder I cut them out taking care not to over heat the edges.



Then taking some inspiration from other knife makers on the Internet I built a jig for roughening out the edges. Basically its a T shape frame with a raised adjustable eye bolt on the longer end. Then a brand new quality file attached to a piece of 12mm round bar via jubilee clips. This allowed me to keep a constant angle along the length of the blade



After what seems like an eternity (2-3 hours) it started looking good.







I did the same to the smaller blade.



Then before heat treatment I polished both blades upto 400 grit.



I also wanted to drill the holes before heat treatment.



I had bought 12mm and 6mm square brass bar for the hilt and finger guard. I took my time at this stage to make sure it was perfect.

Then onto the heat treatment, not a lot of photos hear. Infact just one of the quench tank I made filled with veg oil.



The machete had a differential treatment done to it so it has a bit more give when hacking but the small blade got the full treatment. I followed a few tutorials on youtube as to do it which was pretty nerve wracking but I think it has done the trick.

I was unsure as to what finish to go for on the blades. I like the satin brush look but also the full polish look. I thought what would my dad prefer and I think he would prefer full polish so that's what I done. After heat treatment the blades were pretty bad again so starting at 180 grit I worked my way through 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, and finally 1500.



Then onto the buffing wheel for that shiny goodness.



It was at this point I messed up.....

So, with the machete blade clamped down onto my narrow work frame I had the mobile buffing wheel tool in my hands and I thought "well, my hands aren't on the blade so no need for gloves." I was working away when the back of the wheel skelpped the back of the machete and it rammed its self into my finger. I wasn't really aware at first, just that something had hit my finger. When I put the tool down and checked it out I started to feel a bit queasy. I could see my tendon moving up and down. At first all I saw was white and thought it was my bone. I didn't really want to think too much of it at that point so I calmly put everything away, put a plaster on and drove to the hospital. When I got there and after a short wait I left with 3 stitches in my finger.



From this point on my respect for just how dangerous these blades were grew and I made sure to wear gauntlets when handling the blades roughly, dumbass.

To attach the brass parts I used a mixture of epoxy and brass rod peened over at the ends.



The wood I used for the scales was pitch pine from an old floor board. Held in the same way as the brass.



Then I used a file and sander to get the shapes of the handles roughed out.





More final sanding and polishing. I also wanted the handles to be a bit darker so I gave them a brown stain.





Then I lacquered the wood for protection.



With the blades finished I made a sheath from an old bit of leather that came from a damaged chair at work. No photos of the making of this but it turned out lot better than I thought it would. I wish it was thicker leather but beggars cant be choosers eh.

The final product.









I gave it to my dad yesterday and he seemed really happy with it. He seemed really proud and amazed that I made it which made me feel great and every second of making it made it all worth while for me, heres to you dad .

A true craftsman at work. Bravo!

Duane

Wow, you are an amazingly talented and gifted with your hands...glad you still have 10 fingers! Those knives turned out fantastic. I take it you must have learned a lot from your Dad!!!

The wheels look fantastic and I love how you just find a way to get things done when other options aren't available. You're kind of like McGiver when it comes to thinking out of the box and getting things done! Nice work as always Kev and thanks for the updates. Always look forward to seeing MORE!!!

The knives are really cool. Well done.

We haven't been allowed to band wheels for over 30 years here in Australia.

A wheel can't have more than 1 circumferential weld.

To widen a steel wheel you need to use a new half rim of the correct width then you weld it to the half of your original wheel.

We do live in an over-regulated society downunder!

Honestly, I will get back to the van. I have gotten a few things done to it but nothing major, nothing worth putting pictures up just yet anyway. So if you can forgive yet another update in my van thread that has nothing to with my van, that would be great.

Further back in the thread I showed the digger and trike I made my nephew Ruaridh for his birthdays. Well Ruaridh has an awesome wee brother called Broden and for the past few years I've been really busy close to his birthday. What with buying the house, building a garage etc.. This year I really wanted to make him something, unfortunately I never had the chance before his birthday. I didn't want to wait another year so I thought id just make him one big cool thing to equal the 2 gifts I gave Ruaridh then I can say that's it for a few years (Think my bro and sis-in-law will be glad to hear that, the projects tend to get bigger and bigger ).

Broden loves bin lorry's. He has quite a few toys of them and even told his mum he wants to be a bin man when he grows up. So I thought the best thing to make him would be his own little bin lorry. I didn't really draw any plans for this, I did a few sketches and had a few ideas of how to do it. I started by scanning the local ads for an old Mobility scooter and came up trumps when one down the road for me went up for sale so I went and collected it.



It has a 300w motor and 2 good 12V batterys. The usual thumb controller for direction, variable speed pot, indicators, horn, hazards, front and rear lights etc... It was all in pretty good condition so this was the ideal donor vehicle.
I wanted the truck to look good aswell as perform the task. I've seen some other mobility scooters converted into small vehicles but a lot of them have a weird scale thing going on, really tall and narrow. What I did was to use the wheels as the basis to my scale. The wheels are 250mm diameter and by looking at other trucks I found it was about 5 wheel spaces for the wheel base and around 2 and a half wheels high. "coincidently" I had just made a new workbench at work so I drew the side profile down on to it.



With that worked out I stripped the whole mobility scooter down to its chassis and separated the rear from it.



Working from the drawing I stretched the chassis using some 50x25 box.



The first main brain teaser was the steering. It took me a little bit of figuring out how to do this. As the steering wheel is now in front of the front wheels I came up with a L shape brackets and hastily tacked it up with some temporary flat bar to act as rods so I could get my sizes for the final thing.





After I had all that settled I moved onto the body. Another thing I saw on other converted mobility scooters was really sharp corners which I didn't want. My boss said I could use all the scrap 3mm plate I wanted which was great but unfortunately we don't have a bender at work so the way I got a nice bend was to cut 25mm pipe into quarters and then tack that along the edge of the 3mm plate to create a nice bend.



I liked building the body this way, its double welding but looks much nicer. Also I know 3mm plate is over kill but this is meant to be played with by a 4 year old and sometimes accidents happen. If it was thinner gauge or fiberglass the body would just smash and dent. After a while I got the majority of the cab done.



Oh, I also wanted to make sure adults could play with it too so here I am setting up the seat height and working out the steering wheel position. Its hard to try and make it useable for heights of 6ft to 3ft but I managed in the end. The seat is from the mobility scooter as well. The whole seat runs on an adjustable runner which was good but the back was fixed so later on I also made that on sliders and was able to move the back move forward independently to the base for better back support.



Cab taken on its final basic shape. I used some more 50x25 for the rear of the chassis to support the bed.





Then I took the body off and free styled the rest of the chassis. I used the nice new shiny chop saw from work for all my angles. Its made from 25x25 box section. I also made a steering pivot point better than the one shown using an old bearing and an old socket.



With the body back on I could get the steering shaft in place and the seat in place.



At first I had intended it to have pedals for controls. I used the steering bar from the scooter on an adjustable pivot so it can be raised but after a lot of faffing about I decided it would actually be simpler for the controls to be used by the thumbs on the steering wheel. The steering wheel is something my bro gave me that he picked up from an auto jumble years ago.



Back to the body. I had started to drew a lights and grill design on the front in chalk so I could mess about with the design a bit. For aesthetics I added a grill to the rear portion of the cab. I also stitched the whole cab up. Full welds weren't really necessary.



Here's a better look at the final steering assembly.



For easier access to drive it I thought a door would be a good idea. I cut one out from the side and used a door hinge to put it all back together I also made a little pull latch for a handle. You can see I had started on the floor too, used some nice chequer plate.





Looking mean eh .



With the cab nearly finished I started on the electrics. I put the main motherboard of the electrics into the right hand side wing and extended all the light, controls and horn wires to fit into the dash board.



I also started on the rear bed. I made this from more 25x25. Now, once a bin lorry is full of rubbish you need some way of getting that rubbish back out.



I looked into liner actuators, which if you don't know is pretty much an electric version of a hydraulic ram. I managed to get one for free from an old hospital table that thankfully ran on 24v.



Which was great, but after spending the time to shorten the ram down and work out the electrics for limit travel I managed to shred the plastic teeth. Oh well, atleast it worked long enough for me to set the whole thing up and I just bought a more heavy duty one from ebay.



I also have a video from the bed lift test on youtube here.

https://youtu.be/So6lHqrhW6k

It was also at this point I could have my first test shot of it, which is also on youtube here.

https://youtu.be/Ax18TTEvgbM

Once the bed was done I started on the top half.



bed up again





Started on the rear where the bin will go.



That was the basic rear done.





To line the rear I used some galvanise sheet to give it a more industrial look.





It was a bit tricky trying to figure out a way for the bin to attach, flip up and back down again without falling over. This was my first attempt. In the end I made the C claws a bit larger to stop the bin from flying on the down stroke and to also make taking the bin off easier



I have a test video of that here too.

https://youtu.be/MNTvFFdiEB8

Getting to the final stages now, the bin truck is pretty much all there so its just the little details needing done like a grill, lights and paint.



I stripped the cab and bed off to leave the chassis which I painted semi gloss black.



I was able to use the mobility scooter rear lights and indicators, they had a nice shape. I also ordered up a set of number plates on Ebay.


The front of the cab got a pair of nice new lights. They are designed to be used as reverse lights for a truck so there safe for 24v. I popped the indicator bulbs inside the housing as well. I had to wrap them in some orange jaffa cake wrapping as I didn't have proper orange bulbs, works a treat. The grill is fine mesh attached to a bit of sheet. My brother told me about one of his toys has the brand name "MAN" on the grill that Broden points out so I thought id include the good old BARLAS brand on this one .


Stripped the body down and started to fill in all the gaps and smooth stuff over.



I never had any orange paint at work so I mixed some up from red and yellow. It took a while to mask off the rear but was worth it in th eend.



Let the rebuild begin. I was finishing off a few things at the same time. I lined the inside of the cab with some fake leather I had.





I was down to my last day here so I never took the time to take more photos before presenting it to my Nephew.
I went round to his house on Sunday there. We spoke to Ruaridh and he was a good sport, realising that I was giving his brother a gift when it wasn't his birthday or anything. He understood that I had been busy and had already made him 2 special things so that was cool. My Mum and Dad also came round to see it. We all went outside and I said to Broden I had a present for him. So whilst he waited patiently for me I unloaded it from the van and drove it round. As soon as he saw he shouted " A wee bin truck!". As soon as I heard that I was happy. If he could tell it was a bin lorry then I had done a good job. I was trying to explain to him all the things but I could tell he was all excited and just wanted a shot.



Oh, the tuck is also modular, you can remove the bin picking up part and then the top so it turns into a pick up style truck.



His brother also got a shot.



Then my dad got in on the action .



Me next.



My brother had a good idea to get the other toys out and show all 3 of them together. The digger, trike and bin truck.



I hope you have lots of fun with the bin truck Broden, I had fun making it.




Now, maybe my next update will be actual van content. Wife is starting to nag about the bedroom needing decorated though.....