1959 Ford Thames camper van restoration

Nice Work!! When is the last time anyone evere -ever =ever = had seen a hand crank for starting a van??/ look closely.

Thanks for motivating me to get off my lazy ass to do a little work to my own project. I decided to do something about the big hole that took up the entire center 1/3rd of the dash that was cut out for some unknown reason. My biggest motivation was to have somewhere to install a stereo into.
Your project is looking pretty good. Way to go!

August 2011

Its been a very long time since my last update. I have had a busy past 2 months and that has meant not a lot has been happening with the van. First thing I done was get engaged to my beautiful fiance, which meant working more to get a bit extra cash. I then also had a holiday for 2 weeks which meant working even more to get more cash. In the mean time i have scrapped my Fiat Punto. I would need to have spent about £200 getting it through its next MOT so it wasnt really economically sound. I bought it for £70 and managed to get £190 for it from the scrappy. Im now using the Lexus as my daily driver and my pocket is feeling it. £60 a week in petrol just to go to work and back and a couple of other trips is not fun. Driving it with one silencer and side pipes does make up for it though. The sound is amazing, thats probably why im going through so much petrol. So if you afre in Edinburgh and see a silver ls400 being driven loud and hard you know its me.

So, back to the van. The last time i wrote i had just finished doing the side and rear of the upper channels. I now have the front to do. Its been a little bit of a challenge doing this part. Its hard to see in the photos but the part i need to re-create curves down slightly and to the back. I started on the nearside corner last weekend.



The way i went about making the panel wasnt the best. I took a while thinking about it and decided to break the panel down into its parts and weld it all back together instead of trying to form the panel before hand. The welding looks very messy here but eh, dont worry about that, im good with the angle grinder .



I left it like that and went home. I had grinded it but I wasnt really too happy with how i had approched it. This weekend i decided that I really should see if i can form the panel instead of welding a lot of strips together.

I put a clamp onto one of the wheel drums then stuck it in the vice to act as a form.



I traced around my templatre and cut it out.



Then hammering over the brake drum i started to form a lip.



I forgot to take a photo of the panel on its own but i felt a lot happier with it. Ive tacked it in place for now.



I then repeated the process twice to get the majority of the front done



I started on the offside corner, the rust has been cut out.



I then made a template and cut out the inner panel repair first and tacked it in.



By this time it was 5:15pm and as luck would have it, It was also the time i ran out of mig wire, 15 mins after machine-mart closed. I was a bit miffed as it meant i couldnt get more done so i decided to wash the Lexus. The good thing is i will be back at the garage a lot more now as im taking a break from extra work to get back into the swing of things.

Another thing that im having to do is sell the Consul. I really really really dont want to but im finding it harder and harder to find the time to fix it and drive it like it deserves. The past few months i havent done much to it at all and its starting to resemble more of a statue than a car. I could also actually do with the money. I want to buy a TIG welder and also a cheap run around so im not spending so much on petrol. If anyones interested in the Consul then you can PM me.

Great to see you making progress again. Congrats on your engagement. Any girl that will get out to the garage and help fight rust and rot is a keeper. And she's cute to boot.

I'd love to buy a tig myself. Looks like a new mig is top priorty. My old one tanked out on me the other day. It bites having to sell your Consul but it will help in the long run. Having only one project will help keep you focused. I bought a driver six years ago and now find it almost impossible to find time to work on my project truck for keeping the project truck running. Good luck on your endeavors.
Duane in Tennessee

Thanks for the update!!!! Always like your pictures

Kev,

Best Site for information on the Lexus is www.lextreme.com

There's heaps of info and you can get the information on wiring the engine up.

It isn't hard and you can do it for nix.

Thanks Zuffen, ive posted on there forum before and i always get the answers i need.

21/8/11

Last time i wrote i was halfway through the front section. I was back at the garage today and was determined to finish it off.


I made another template and cut it out. Then shaped it and tacked it in place.


Then i made the other angle bit to fill in the last space.


Everything all tacked up and ready to weld.


Everything all welded up. It never looks pretty just welded eh.
I had to make two small dished areas that sit infront of where the sun visors go. Its to make access for the mechanism that sits inside the channel. I just cut 2 rectangles out and bashed them until they dished then welded them in place.







That looks prettier. This front part of the roof channel was the most challenging for me to do so far. I was really worried i would distort the structure of it. I was also worrying too much about trying to make everything perfect, sometimes you have to just grow a set and actually get on with the job rather than procrastinating and getting frustrated with your self.


FEET!

I feel like i have something i can check of my list now

- Fix upper roof channel , Done!

Tune in next time where I will mostly be trying to figure out how i will make and attach the gutter.

ps, Consul is on Ebay
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330604252223

WOW!!.....WOW!!! Outstanding work. This defines the term "labor of love" Keep the pictures coming!!

That's looking great. It looks like your welding is getting better. It's almost a shame to cover that job up with the roof skin.

Duane in Tennessee

Staying tuned in indeed. Kevbarlas, again you have done a great job. Always enjoy the craftsmenship your putting in to this ride. Always look forward to the next photo's.

Can't wait until it is done!!

September 2011

The Consul finally got picked up. I managed to get £1800 which is pretty good, £800 profit. I feel quite sad to let it go. I said to my dad that the only way I could compare it was like having a girlfriend that you love, but things haven't been working out for a while and you know the best thing is to let them go. The guy who bought it seems decent enough, him and his son are going to restore it together he says so hopefully it will be back as good as new and another it gets another generation interested in old cars. I would love to buy it back in the future but we'll have to see eh.

Back to the van, using the profits from the Consul I bought myself a new toy.



Its a 160amp Tig welder. The brand is R-tech which seem to have not too bad reviews. Its a British company that sources the parts from Germany and Asia. They use there own schematics and everything is covered by a 2 year guarantee. Im really happy with it. Its been about 3 years since I last used a tig, and that was for welding 50mm tubing at 3mm thick. Its a bit trickier on 1.2mm sheet. The reason I got it is to save time and get a better weld. It does take longer welding than the mig but a hell of a lot quicker and neater to grind/sand the welds up afterwards.

I have been trying to recreate the guttering myself, I cut 10 metres worth of 50x1.2 strips using the guillotine at my old work. The idea was to also use there sheet metal folder. The only problem was when I got there I remembered just how crap there folder was. Im sure in its day it was great but after about 60 years of use it wouldn't give me the crisp fold I wanted. I was able to fold the safety edge though, as that was going to be pressed against its self anyway . I bent a 5mm lip as far as it would go, about 120 degrees then seeing as I never had a press I thought I could hammer the lip flat. It didn't quite work out as I hoped. As I hammered the lip there was bits that I squashed and nipped more than others so I never got a good straight line, doh!, oh and eh, I done that to all 10 metres, bigger doh!. I managed to straighten the edge out a bit by sanding and filing it. Seeing as the max length my folder would hold is 600mm I cut the strips to 500mm.



You can see the hammer marks but as this was going to be the inside it never really mattered, the outside was still smooth.

I tried it out on my folder but I just wasn't happy with it. To fold a bit of 1.2mm 500mm long doesn't sound like much but you would surprised by the amount of force it takes. As it was bending the blade was lifting ever so slightly in the centre at the weakest point so I would get a nice crisp fold on the sides but the centre was more rounded and because of that the bowed slightly too. I tried it out on two of them and welded them together to see how it would look.





Crap is how they looked. At this stage I could have spent time trying to straighten and mess about but I decided to cut my losses and got hold of a fabrication shop (pentland precsision engineering) and they said they could 10 metres for £150.... Or if I supply the metal cut into strips they would fold it for £85, much better. For a 2200mm x 1250mm sheet of 1.2mm its £48 so I bought another sheet and cut 8 strips at 50mm by 1250mm for them to fold, saving £17 and leaving me with a sheet 1250mm x 1800mm, What would you choose?. There's a tip for anyone looking to get some metal work done, provide the metal yourself and save a fortune.

Whilst im waiting on the guttering to be done I decided to clean the light surface rust and spray a weld through Zinc primer on the upper body.









Once I had done that I made a start on the drivers side , where the window panel meets the lower half of the van. I wanted to try and stay focused on one bit of the van at a time but as I have nothing else to do regarding the roof until the guttering is made up I decided to make an exception. I mentioned this part before as one of those bits I never realised was bad until I stripped the van.




(quoted from earlier in my thread)

This side is also the worst around the swage line for rust, here's a close up from the outside.



And the same area inside



It doesn't look too bad outside but the inside is all completely rotten. Here's a crappy mspaint cross section to show you how they look.



(end quote)



Looking back at it again you can see it doesn't look too bad form the underneath or outside.





Unfortunately its another story inside

.

It seems that water has been lying in that channel inside and then eventually rusting its way through the spotwelds.

Lets get this started.



I decided to replace the whole length of the van in 280mm sections. The body bows out slightly in the middle so using shorter sections can account for that. I made up a repair section, the bottom lip will be 12mm and the upper 15mm with a joggled edge taking the lip that you see down to 10mm. So I cut a strip at 27mm x 280mm.



My folder managed to get an even fold on the shorter piece.



Then used the joggler.



A little bit of tweaking and tapping I got a nice repair section waiting to be fitted.





I forgot to mention that once I had cut the rusty section out I drilled 4 holes for spot welding the lower lip and I also painted the rust converter/primer inside. I also sprayed more weld through primer on the repair section.
I used the mig to tack it into place for convenience.



I still need a lot more practise with the tig but you can see here that it leaves a lot less weld to dress up.



Couple of minutes with the grinder and job done, well, 1/8 of it anyway.



Next piece, same as before.





*grind, grind*



I done another 3 sections when I started to wonder if it would actually look OK with filler on it. I didn't want to jump ahead a stage but just before I left for the night I thought I would put a quick skim on filler on a little piece as a sample of how it may look when finished, just to reassure myself.





Not too bad, remember this was only a quick 5 minute test piece, I will be sand-blocking this section much better when it comes to that stage but I felt quite happy about it.



This is as far as I got with the repair sections this weekend. There will be about 4 more sections to make then its a curved section at the back which I will hopefully have a proper shrinker/strecher by that time to help me with.

Stay tuned.....

Congrats on the new Tig welder. I'd like to have one myself. Grinding Mig welds bites.

Duane in Tennessee.

Looks great so far. Congrats.

Just wish I had 1/10 of your welding skills. As always great work

Great looking repair panels. And taking metal to someone who has the tools to make what you need may cost a bit more but it's done to your satisfaction with a lot less stress. Keep up the excellent work. And as always it's nice to get new tools. Great looking Tig.

kevbarlas wrote:

You wanna explain this one?

Is that the same Lee Iacocca of Ford and Chrysler
fame????

At least there's no hair in it...

.. I thought there was something kinda fishy about that butter....

I cannot wait until it is done!! What is the euro = to american dollars?? cause i know fixing up mine was expensive... I can just imagine......

Well, i dont know about euro to dollar, but the pound to dollar is £1 to $1.58 right now . Im doing this as cheap as i can, thats not to say im skimping on the quality, just that im doing as much of it myself. I think so far, i may have spent, including the cost of the van about £1200.

October 2011

This month has been not bad. I have been busy with other things other than the van but i have managed to get a bit more done on the van. I waited 17 days for the gutters to be made, i was told 4 days but that never happened. Which is why i hate having to out-source work. If its not in my control i get annoyed, but anyway, i did get them back and to be honest, they look great.



The one i made is the one in front and the engineering shop one is at the back. You can see that having the proper machinery beats the hand folded one.

Before i started with the guttering I thought I should finish the patching of the drivers side waist-line. No point working on two areas at once.





I kept working my way along in 280mm sections. As the van tapers to the rear the curve becomes more defined. That calls for some serious shrinking and stretching. I have practiced it manually like I've said in the thread already but it is tricky. So, i bought myself another new toy with the money from the Consul.



Its a Metz shrinker/stretcher. I got it from EBay, there is a guy who sells them new through his site for £250 but also puts them on eBay at £10 starting bids. I bid and won it for £117 plus P+P. I think he puts them on his site at that price so that when you do see them on eBay you think your getting a huge bargain and more likely to bid. I wasn't too sure about how good it would be but im very impressed. I never used one before but i find it quite easy to get the hang of, you just put the metal in and pull the lever down and it does the work for you. When stretching, the teeth on the jaws grip the metal and pull it apart, thus creating a curve on the angled lip. When shrinking it grips the metal and 'nips' it together. The only hard part now is to work out where on the metal you need to stretch/shrink. I forgot to take a pic of my practice piece.







It did get some use at the end of this repair section.

This was the tricky one that really tested the shrinker/stretcher for me.



The rear corner, I done the usual and marked out a 15mm strip to cut out. Again, i forgot to take pics (aaaarrgh) I cut the repair patch out, folded the lip over then joggled the edge. I made a template out on paper by tracing around the top edge of the area on the van i cut out then used the shrinker/stretcher to get the panel to that shape. It wasn't too difficult, i did over shrink a bit but i just swapped the jaws over and re-stretched the area.



You can see the repair section matches up quite well, i was happy with it anyway. I tig'd it all the way round.



Little bit of a clean up and thats the waist-line on this side finished. I don't think i will need to do the same to the passengers side. It seems that when it was laid up in the field, the van leaned more on the drivers side and the rain collected on that side as the passenger side wont need completely replacing.

With that done i decided to make a start on the guttering, at last!
I started on the front. There is a guy (forum name sidspop) who has restored a pick up cab version of the Thames and he had to replace the guttering also, I liked how he managed to get the guttering to curve so I decided to try the same. First thing i needed to do was make a template of the curve of the front. I had some off-cuts of Perspex so i was able to hold that in the windscreen aperture and using a marker pen, scribe the curve. I then cut it out to leave me with a nice fitting template.





Then i traced that onto a bit of strong wood used for flooring.



I put a slit into the strip of guttering every 50mm, just enough to be able to bend it. Then i put a screw into each section to hold it in place on the wood so it wouldn't distort when welding back up. I used the Tig again so it would be a nice clean weld and not so much to grind away. When welding i was starting to get a bit of contamination when welding the flats. Im assuming it was the fumes and smoke from the wood burning away. I decided just to do the vertical parts whilst screw down and Il come up with another way of doing the rest of the flat parts. I wanted to put the gutter in place on the van so i brought out yet another new toy i got.


Clecos! , There used more in the aero industry to hold down sheet metal on the fuselage/wings etc.. but there really handy for the auto restorer too. There basically re-usable rivets. You drill a 3.5mm hole through both pieces you want to join, use the pliers to push the prongs down, put it through and release. They grip with 18lbs of pressure and hold the panel your working on in place.







Looks not too bad, the gutter does need more work done to it before i attach it to the body but this gave me an idea of how it would look.

Im going back to the garage tomorrow plus i have Thursday and Friday of this week which should make for a more filling update next time. Although i am moving house this week so we'll see how much i can (or allowed ) Get to the garage.

More feet!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This part isn't to do with the van but i thought id mention it here all the same. My dad got his VW engined trike started for the first time just recently and i put a video of it up on YouTube. You can see it here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OIiwtk7e8Q . The engine hadn't ran in over 20 years!

If anyone is wondering where i get the ambition to do something like this then I'd have to say its my dad. His latest project is a VW trike. Its a project thats been going on for a few years now, almost ten years to be precise. It has been built under completely different circumstances to me. Its only recently really that he moved from working on it outside to inside a shed he built.

My dad said he had ideas for a VW trike from years ago, back in the 80's i think but he never had the money or time to do it. It wasn't until my brother, Ross, started a job for a motorbike dealership as a mechanic and managed to snaffle a few bits for my dad to make a start on. I say a few bits, what he got was 3 Harley frames, a fat boy petrol tank, a twin seat, Front forks, and other misc. parts so that got the ball rolling.

It was a while ago so i don't remember how my dad ended up with the rear half of a beetle chassis and engine. His vision of a VW trike is a low slung affair with long forks and a good rake. My dad is very old-skool, everything you see has been cut by hand, i don't mean using a grinder but literally a hacksaw and lots of filling.



This is the earliest photo i have on my trike of the build. At this point he had welded the frame to the beetle engine/gearbox mount and he even made the wheelie bar at this point.











The last pic you can see a nice bit of engineering detail. The hand brake for example, You see infront of the hand brake lever there are two pulleys, well, you pull the hand brake lever, a cable runs underneath those two pulleys where there is a lever which pulls the pulleys forward which puts the hand brake on. The panel just behind those pulleys is form a washing machine which just so happened to look good on the trike. Those foot pedal levers are another hand cut and bent item.

The next photos were from about 2-3 years ago, He had the engine painted and detailed by this point.








My old bike project in the background


Bonus picture of my crotch!

These pics were taking last year i think. My dad put the tank and seat on to see how it would look.











These pics were taking a few weeks ago when he got the engine running.

















Its not far from being on the road now. I cant wait to see it driving down the road and maybe getting a few shots aswell. I love this trike, to me its all in the detail, its like engineering art. My dad has an image in his head of how it will look and thats exactly how it will look. There has been a lot of parts that have been a complete ball-ache for my dad that no one, not one person will ever see or appreciate the full extent of effort thats been put into this. The indicators for example, The original Harley switches were designed to be on-off , that is, you have to keep your finger on the switch to keep the indicator on. Not very good when you have to use your hand to change gear at the same time. So instead of scrapping the Harley switches, my dad got switches designed for table lamps and made his own copper switch mounts inside the casing so it would work as he needed it to. Even the main ignition switch has been totally stripped inside and had new internals made by my dad. This trike is a real one off, its art.

The trike isn't the first thing my dad has done. I have some pictures of him and my mum back in the day, i think late 60's early 70's.



This was his first project car i believe, a proper rear oval window beetle, way back when they were just seen as a cheap old car. Thats my mum standing beside it. The idea for the beetle was a street buggy and my mum chose the colour.



Check out the flares! Great photo of my dad.



The engine guard was made from old gas pipe i believe.

After that, The next big thing was a custom morris minor. Started in the late 70's, to me this is the car that epitomes my dad. I have such a strong link with this car and my childhood that i wish i knew where it was today.



This is what he started with, he bought it off his brother for £5 i think.



As usual, a lot of the work was done outside at the back of his old home in cramond. The wheels have been reversed and banded. I can remember what the rear axle was from, the front was a Wolsley i think.



The engine is a V4 from a Ford Corsair, i remember it sounded beautiful, really loud.



After a while he managed to move it into his work.



The rear bumper was from a Renault 5 and the huge spoiler was a truck roof spoiler. The wheel arches were from a ford Mexico.



It was painted Miami blue and silver.





This was it finished and my dad took some shots of it next to a standard morris to compare.



It even won a few car shows.



At the same time he managed to build a trailer to go with it.



And a buggy to keep my brothers entertained.

Unfortunately a few years after it was complete, someone braked hard infront of my dad during a bit of road rage and the car was heavily damaged. I think my dad was going through a bad time and couldn't afford the garage rent so it had to go. It was sold to a guy near gilmerton i think and i only ever saw it once again driving past me. I would do anything to know where it is now.

After a while my dad decided to build a motorbike for me. I remember being young, about 8 or 9 and feeling so excited seeing this motorbike being built.



The engine was from a Yamaha passel, the forks were from an old monkey bike and the rest my dad made himself.





My dad has some amazing creations.



I had so much fun with this bike. It taught me a lot for my future of riding bikes on the road and it was the best way to spend a Saturday. When i think back to my childhood i always think of going out on the bike as being the happiest time of my life. No job worries, no money trouble or stress, just get on the bike and have fun.

Theres tons of other stuff hes made but these are some of his best. He self-taught himself everything and i respect that so much. I have followed his lead and taught myself a lot too. seeing the amazing stuff my dad can do gives me the confidence that i can do the same. If somethings broke, Il try to fix it. If something needs made, Il make it. When i was younger i guess i was always trying to emulate my dad. Its what got me into working with metal, fixing cars and having a keen interest in anything mechanical or engineering.

My dad is pretty much the reason i can do what i can. I like my dads attitude of "I could make that" rather than "i could buy that". I try to follow that also, i don't want to pay someone to do something that im pretty sure i can do.

Is really cool to see how you have progressed with this project and to see you skills improve as you do. You are really making some headway. The rain gutters look great.

I also admire your connection to your dad. He reminds me of my dad. He could build anything out of nothing. We spent a lot of time in his old two car garage working on anything we could. I lost him when I was 16 and still miss him today 34 years latter. It would be great to have his input on my projects today.

Keep up the great work!!

Duane in Tennessee

econopoor wrote:Is really cool to see how you have progressed with this project and to see you skills improve as you do. You are really making some headway. The rain gutters look great.

I also admire your connection to your dad. He reminds me of my dad. He could build anything out of nothing. We spent a lot of time in his old two car garage working on anything we could. I lost him when I was 16 and still miss him today 34 years latter. It would be great to have his input on my projects today.

Keep up the great work!!

Duane in Tennessee

Thats a shame buddy. I do feel very lucky to have my dad around.

12/11/2011

I've been concentrating on the guttering since the last update. The last time i wrote i had just tacked the front gutter in place. Continuing from the front i went along the passengers side.



I've tried to keep the gutter sticking out 10mm from underneath. I'm not being too critical, +/- a couple of mm wont hurt and probably keep it more authentic looking.





You can see that i actually had to cut the back angle off the guttering. It turns out that I should have had 2 different angles of guttering made up but , well, i had already spent £85 on this stuff so lets not waste it eh. It wont affect the strength or anything. It just meant i had to be more careful about the angle it laid at.



The bits above the doors were a little more awkward. The roof and guttering curve yet the door is actually flat. So at the widest point you actually see about 18mm of guttering. I couldn't fit the doors as i have the braces welded in place. I drilled 2 screws into the body of the van and tied a bit of string taught so had a straight edge to substitute for the door frame.





I then decided to make a curved piece to join the front and side together. It went easier than i thought and it was another good use of the shrinker/stretcher i bought.







Like i said earlier, i had to cut the back edge of the guttering. To help with making sure it would stay at the right angle now i tacked a piece of 12mm Square bar to the body and clamped the gutter to it. That way i could tack it and know it wouldn't distort.



I made my way to the rear. The rear gutter will actually stick out 15mm from the doors. Which isn't stock but i think it looks ok none the less.





Another corner piece.







Then the last piece to join the side to the rear.









Another corner piece shrunk to shape.



If you were wondering how i managed to get the curved sections this is what i done.



First i got a piece of thin card (tesco sell them in the art section quite cheaply) and traced the curve and cut it out to match.



Then i measured 10mm outwards and drew the curve. Ikea is a good source of free pencils



Cut a small section of guttering.



Use the shrinking jaws to make the curve.



Then check it everynow and then with the template until you get it near enough bang-on.



After a little tweak, adjusting and cutting you end up with a corner piece ready to be tacked on.





Its been a little tricky trying to join the sections together to make it look like on piece without kinks.



Last few section to tack on the drivers side.



And were done. The whole guttering tacked into place, yey!




Looking slightly different to how it was when i bought it. I like looking through my old photos to see how far ive came along.












Now i get to start another tedious task of welding up the slits i made to make the guttering more flexible. I cut every 50mm on the gutter and there is roughly 10 metres of guttering so that is nearly 200 slits to now weld up, not so yey.

This is how I am planning to do it without making more work for myself and to hopefully not distort the guttering much.

Using the old copper plate trick again i experimented on a little bit. I cut a piece of polished copper and clamped it into place underneath a slit.



Then used the Tig welder to fill in the gap.



As the mild steel doesn't stick to the copper it leaves it flush underneath, the bit that everyone will see. this is exactly how it looked once i took the copper off, doesn't even need ground down. The good thing about the copper is it acts a bit like a heat sink too so it should hopefully help to keep the distortion down.



I continued on for about another foot. Stitch welding the gutter to the body as well



After a little tidy up with the grinder and a light coat of etch primer i got this, not bad. It added a lot of strength back into the gutter too.






It had moved slightly but il wait until its all welded in place before i mess around neating it up with the hammer and dollys. Hopefully it wont take me too long to get through the welding then i can make a start on the roof panel.

Very nice work on the gutters. You have certainly come along way, keep up the most excellent work.

WOW YOUR WORK IS VERY IMPRESSIVE.