My Mk1 Transit's Restoration Project

[Richieintransit]

brilliant work, great thread mate, are you from malta as your english is really good or did you move there from the uk with your van!

[MinorMatt]

English is one of the official languages in Malta

[Richieintransit]

hahaha sorry I thought they spoke maltesers!!! lol didnt realise! the only maltese person I know of is tony drago!,,, i'm not great at geography!!

[MinorMatt]

I didn't know until just before I went there earlier this month

[malta transit]

I am from Malta, 100% made in Malta ( Maltese ) LOL
Malta is one of the oldest civilization in the world. We have the oldest templels in the world going back to (neolitic c.3600 - 2500 B.C.)
We have been under several reigns; The Romans ,The Arabs (870 - 1090),The Normans in the Middle Age,The Knights of the Order of St John (1530 - 1798), The French (1798 - 1800) and Finally , Luckily The British in Malta (1800 - 1964). So that's why nearly everybody speaks english and love anything british .

[Richieintransit]

I am from Malta, 100% made in Malta ( Maltese ) LOL
Malta is one of the oldest civilization in the world. We have the oldest templels in the world going back to (neolitic c.3600 - 2500 B.C.)
We have been under several reigns; The Romans ,The Arabs (870 - 1090),The Normans in the Middle Age,The Knights of the Order of St John (1530 - 1798), The French (1798 - 1800) and Finally , Luckily The British in Malta (1800 - 1964). So that's why nearly everybody speaks english and love anything british .

I must come out there then as not many people like the english any more!!

is malta in the commonwealth?

[malta transit]

Yeap Malta is in the commonwealth. A few years ago Cogam was held here and top Brass were al over here, including the Queen.

[malta transit]

Well after some time (ages) i finally decided to go and do a small bit on the van as although i watch other's people progress dailly ,
i was getting lazy, just watching treads on this fourm..... Well, it worked, a small thing to the van made me go and see what has to be done.

Watching from the back of the van, i saw that the left inner floor rear panel needs replacing. I drew some lines with a pencil and got
my chaser and cut off the offending metal





Cut off bad metal;



This view from below shows the extent of the perished rust;



I have already had made a new horizontal beam to go in here;





Starting to clean and Inspect the rear wing i found that it had a thick layer of filler below the petrol filler neck
and i was shocked as i had already had got a front arch wing to go at the back. And this was imposible to fit on.






remembering that my friend Karmnu was goin to break a Mk2 due to lack of space.........................................
....................................................................................................
......................................................................................................................................................



..............................................I phoned him up to save me the rear part.................................................
...............................................................................
................................as mine was beyond salvation................



Hopefully next week i'll try and pattern the missing floor metal and weld it in!!!!!!!!

[malta transit]

This blue part was cut off from a front mk1 wing to go to the back of the van as it has the same curves as the rear originals;



But now i 'm going for a whole wing.....

[mk1van]

great progress on what looked like a good base and am loving the fabrication work....they must be pretty rare over there now as a few of them have ended up in the UK.....keep them pics coming.....

[malta transit]

This evening after returing from work, i went to the garage and drawn a pattern of the part cut last week. I cut it to shape linished the ends were i have to weld and to the matching floor of the van and punched some holes were i have to plug weld and here it is.



I test fitted and it came up quiet well.



Finally i welded it in place. Tomorrow i'll linish it with my grinder.

[malta transit]

Today, I linished the new part i made with the grinder;



And spot welded it from beneath to the wheel well;



Then I took hours to chisel of the rusty outrigger, and i have bruises on my hands to proof it





Don't know what's next yet to do! But i'm happy with my slow progress

[blue meanie]

this is the first time ive read this thread.i am amazed at the level of work involved in restoring your transit.the repairs so far are a true credit to your love of the mighty mk1.keep up the great work and please keep us posted.ta

[malta transit]

this is the first time ive read this thread.i am amazed at the level of work involved in restoring your transit.the repairs so far are a true credit to your love of the mighty mk1.keep up the great work and please keep us posted.ta

Thanks, words like these give me courage to keep going . Today i realize what a mistake i would have done if i have found someone who did the work for me as it would not have been the same results + you get to know your van better when you work yourself and learn alot. As i have never touched a mig welder befor, i can say that everyone can do it that i can make it. Its true that they say '' where there's a will there's a way ''

[malta transit]

Today i decided to tackle the middle panel which i had bought. The part were the passenger's side rear s/door would be.
As you can see it has been cut a few cms from the edges going to be used. This below;









Then i cut with my grinder just the part i need, going round the edges leaving a few mm to trim off.



This is the usable part;





Then i started chiseling the spot welds and take off the extra bits;





This is going to take me some time to clean , so i ll contiue next week.