Got my 63 Merc "Grimstone"

That's a very good question!

Playing the steelpan, invented in the country of Trinidad and Tobago, the only musical instrument invented in the 20th century (not a redesign or electronified... invented from scratch). This music is the biggest connection I have to my Trini culture! When you imagine the music, think "Caribbean cruise ship", and then imagine that I play all the kinds of music that is popular in Canada and the US, just adding my tropical flavour to the songs!

Other than Traditional music from Trinidad and Jamaica (calypso and reggae), I have enjoyed performing Eagles, Jimmy Buffett, James Taylor, Kool & the Gang, Paul Simon, Elton John, Black Eyed Peas, Maroon 5, Temptations, B.B. King, Shania Twain, Lonestar, Frank Sinatra, Disney... even thrown some polka in there! There are too many artists and songs to list over the years. But I'll take it, stir it up in a Caribbean chili pot, and see what comes out... usually songs everybody will recognize, but they will be much spicier when they're done!

Thanks for asking!

somewhere i've got some cool videos from Tobago, from my visit there in 2005, i have to find them and get them into my computer. got some cool filming of steelpanmusic. very nice country, very nice music and very nice rum

how about some fernandes corey?

malle wrote:somewhere i've got some cool videos from Tobago, from my visit there in 2005, i have to find them and get them into my computer. got some cool filming of steelpanmusic. very nice country, very nice music and very nice rum

how about some fernandes corey?

Yes... Vat 19... make mine a double!

consider it done

cheers!

Now I need to learn how to post my trucks and vans here. I too have a nearly rust free Merc. Van. Sadly someone cut the frames cross members for a V8 conversion and hit a ditch which accordian the frame. You cannot see the damage in the picture. But in person I can show you what to look for.
Like the other van for Sasktrini. When we first arrived it look great, when we got closer I saw the teltel damage that says frame damage and I was right . I explained and showed Sasktrini. So that van is going to be converted to another type of project he has planned.

A little progress...

New rad cap and temp sender has me feeling good about the van's readiness for long highway driving... couldn't force it to overheat in the driveway!

I have most everything cleaned out of the van now... carpet is last to go... Look closely at the cardbord "underlay"



Under that, the floor looks great!



Need a little welding in the rear corners





Also worked on my damaged roof! Remembered I had a spot-weld cutter, and got these rails removed for re-straightening! Basically worked them over a 2X4, and am happy with the shape I got them back in to. I will install them with screws so I can remove them for cleaning at repaint time!









More to come: Gas tank swap, exhaust swap, brake bleed, rocker arm adjustment, lock cyls! Gotta get busy to be ready for my trek to Waterton!

welcome demondog! and i've always wondered what corey was up to in that avatar picture as well!

i'm diggin' grimstone, lots of potential there!

Didn't get the pics outta my camera, but last night I pulled the exhaust and gas tank out of the 64, and swapped the gas tank into the Merc. That tank was a brick! Plus the rubber lengths for the fuel outlet and the vent were rotten. The donor looks great, and I'm looking forward to no longer needlessly losing fuel! That was between 6 and 11:30 last night! The old exhaust manifold appears to be cracked in two, not just simply leaking... but I didn't have releasing fluid last night... that's tonight's battle! At the same time, I'm hoping my brother comes by to help with the rocker arm adjustment and brake bleeding. I accomplished a lot yesterday!

I am planning to bring my pans with me to Waterton this weekend... think I'm going to get my hands on a little practice amp for my bass guitar too! I hope someone brings an acoustic guitar for the campfire... we can jam!

Anyway, more progress and pics tonight!

Thats some serious effort. Good luck on gettin her road ready.

The brick I removed and the surprisingly good donor:



Nice floor from underneath:



Well, the header bolts are seized... first bolt head broke off easily. I'm on hold with that one... not sure if I want to take the chance of being unable to remove the studs with releasing fluid and vise grips and not getting the donor manifold on before Waterton... should I wait?

Also when bleeding the brakes, I found a tear in the front passenger side. Didn't have small enough wrenches, so I borrowed some for today and will deal with it after work. At least all the bleeder valves are good and my vacuum tool is working marvelously! So I'll transplant a brake line and re-bleed, and I'll be able to stop too!

Vacation starts at 5pm, so I'll have all day tomorrow to button it up for my Friday trip to Waterton!!! More pics tonight!

Well, I'm at the point of no return on the exhaust... as I was letting the van warm up, I could see just how much exhaust was escaping around the manifold... my brother did not want me driving like that, so the ice cubes and ratchet came out! I think three bolts worked, three snapped, and two are apparently obstructed by the previous owner's attempt to weld the manifold while installed on the engine! Why not remove it, clean it us, weld it, and reinstall? You'll see the carnage later.

I finished with the brakes!!! One donor hose off the 64!

But I found the van's rust-outs... passenger floor is practically dirt


Anyway, I have to do some grinding to get the last tewo bolts and exhaust manifold removed, then several studs soaked and removed. Lots to do today. Good thing I'm off work today!

you can do it sasktrini! your 'hurricane' van build is awesome, and we all like pictures, too!

Okay... It's 3pm on Friday, and I could not leave Saskatoon yet!

I have to swap heads from my donor van so I can drive.

I've phoned the campground to let them know, and yet to still expect your arrival. When I get there Saturday, I'll straighten out what I owe them. Waiting for their call. If when you get there you want to call me, the campground has my phone number.

Have a good time tonight all! See you real soon.

Corey

Stereo and speakers mess is gone.

Here's a pic of the carnage (why my brother didn't want me taking a long trip in the van breathing the air in there... ) and a comparison shot of the donor out of my 64!





Well I moved on to the brake lights... now I did test the brake light switch, found it has a 12 volt supply, and got to the point where I would check the turn signal switch for problems... to my "joy", the custom steering wheel is WELDED to the steering shaft! AARGH! No easy way to fix that! I'm so mad! Still don't feel good even driving around in the city! I'm working on it...



So after my deadline passed, I did a few odds n ends... installed a working passenger side vent, heater with a temp knob, and visors. Also have to adjust my locks... they aren't working right...

I finally got that steering wheel off today, but messed up the steering shaft a little... not so much that the stock steering wheel wouldn't work... all went back together nicely, and all signal / brake lights are working properly!!! Almost ready to drive!

Finished bolting down the doghouse and fixed my locks... the rear door linkage was worn, so the key couldn't move the lock in to position! So swapped that out and "good to go"! Really, all I have left to do is reinstall the belly pan!

Good thing... I have a gig on Saturday morning about an hour out of town!

Man you got a lot done.sorry not able to come and help you there the last week. I been busy building new dog kennel and fencing on my acreage. Took me nearly 2 weeks to be almost finish it. I still never got to do other things needed doing around here on my 3 weeks holidays.
Good thing your replacing that exhaust manifold. That sucks about the steering wheel. They welded it on. Man what were they thinking. Thjat sounds like a transplant from the 64,
You got a lot one in that week. keep up the work there.

One thing at a time and soon or later the list gets small. Getting it drivable is a big step

Well he is doing a very fine job. I only wish I could get at mine also. But lots of non van work needs to be done here.

Thanks for stopping over demondog! Nice surprise!

Yup... dealt with the details, and ready to drive! Soon, I'll park it for all the body repairs!

Okay... never got ready to drive... my test drives failed miserably! Catastrophic oil leak has left evidence all over the driveway! So I made the decision to swap in the engine from my Ford.

Got some pics... I took a couple evenings preparing to pull the motor out of Grimstone.

New 2ton hoist, made in China, but I'm pretty sure 2tons is the same there... it did the job!


Grimy 170 on new engine dolly


hmmm... maybe I should take some time and prep / undercoat while the motor and tranny are out...


grime has covered everything back from the engine... here's a before pic of the grimy tranny... the bellhousing was worse.


after scraping and mineral spirits...


after washing and clean rags... Ooh... shiny!


Started cleaning the grease off the tranny, but then I might just stack it to the side and do the chassis cleaning / painting...

Here's the broken down rims, still hoping to get them sandblasted soon: 4 13X5.5, 1 13X4.5 (the 4.5" is shiny clean). Once they are blasted, I can straighten the rims out and paint them! The sealing surfaces look like they have rusty bits left over from the old tires themselves... I may attack them with the grinder to see if I can clean them better. Still, there's old paint in the corners that I can't reach well...






Still stripping parts... off the Ford for donations, off the Merc to prepare for bodywork. Slowly it moves along.

I'm preturbed though... the weather is not cold here yet, but as I am under the van working with a spotlight, I see a mouse crawling along the wall a couple feet away from me! I'm a big baby with that stuff! So I have to get some traps and build up my courage to go and lay on the floor again!

Basically, I'm stripping out everything underneath the Merc (pedals and linkage, steering left). My gf will get the gas I drain out of the tank so I can drop it too, as well as that big weight above it! I started brushing accessible areas of the underbody, and will have a little banging and pulling to tend to some dings. I'll have to fix the rear bumper mounts inside the frame, as three bolts broke. Couple small holes to weld up in the floor. With that done, I have major work on the front passenger floor before I can paint the undercarriage.

With the Ford, I'm stuck on the steering, but don't think it will be a problem when I go to pull the motor.

Have to remove the "chin" below the grille, but not sure how to get at all the spotwelds. This one is bashed up pretty good, and I can't unbolt the grille. Any deconstruction tips? Also don't want to ruin my donor panel.






Rear roll pan hiding a rusty mess too, but it looks more straight forward to remove for repairs.







Would like to be able to access entire underbody for repairs and paint from bumper-to-bumper... gas tank is almost empty enough to drop, so I'm close there! I think I can have the underside clean over the weekend, to be ready for beating, cutting and welding!

sask, i gotta ask, you fixed that column and wheel, did you replace your turn signal cam? i picked up that '64 econo and mine wags around!

copenhagenfiend wrote:sask, i gotta ask, you fixed that column and wheel, did you replace your turn signal cam? i picked up that '64 econo and mine wags around!

Well, I used the donor switch from the 64, but it's self-cancelling tabs are broken. The wiring works though, and it secured properly... two screws from the backside. So if you have the two screws and it still wags around, you'll need a new one. I think I should scoop a NOS one up when I get the chance anyway, but in a pinch to fix the brake lights...

Oh, to get at it...
1) disconnect battery
2) horn button is one of those press and turn to unlock jobbies like a rad cap
3) now it's easy... remove steering nut and pull the wheel, may take releasing fluid.

You should find an answer why your switch is wobbling around, and hopefully it's just a stripped screw or something.

My latest progress... removed gas tank and axle weight, fuel lines, park brake cables/levers and clutch linkage. Just have brake lines, MC, pedals and steering gear left to remove before brushing the undercarriage clean. Then it's on to welding some patches. Also going to look at some 63 Mercury Comet steel rims tonight... demondog thinks the narrow rims I'm looking for were used on the cars, so hopefully these are the ones that will give the front suspension that gasser look!

Been a while since I updated this thread...

Trying out my friends air compressor rig for sandblasting and wrenching... like it alot, but his rig was too small. Hopefully today I'll be able to pick up my Sears Craftsman 20 gal vert compressor (was not in stock last week)... $100 off for $250, also impact wrench / ratchet / hammer / hose kit $100 for $80! Wrenching with air feels like I'm cheating!



So the Grimstone van is almost torn down! Still, I couldn't remove the pitman arm bolt from the donor van, so I'm stuck there...

Learning how to sandblast and trying out some of those non-acid rust-eating baths... work okay, but I found the solution doesn't have much life to it... couldn't clean many parts.



Wookie weighed in on this on Vannin.com, and I decided to copy my post below...

Decided it was time to get into spotweld cutting, and remove that beat-up grille once and for all. I hoped to be able to remove the whole front skin on the front roll pan. Got all the visible spots from underneath, none seem to be wrapping around the side...



The panel wiggled around enough to get a vise grip in there to hold the grille nuts, and the impact wrench did the rest! Now I'm left with a beat-up chin that I still can't decide how the skin is welded. It still seems to have welds hiding behind the signal light panels, but it's all enclosed! So any ideas how to cleanly remove this panel? I may need to repair this one rather than get a donor...





I'm hoping that maybe some of you that have cut out your floors or signal light corners OR have gotten this front roll pan out can give me some clues how to remove this without completely disassembling the whole van! I'd like to not have to bring out a cutting disc, but if I must would like to know the best places to cut so I am able to put it all back together when it's straight or replaced...

Thanks,