1988 Transit MK3 100L Resto

[mk388]

In this thread I'm hoping to document the restoration of my MK3 100L, it will be slow as I'm learning skills as I'm going along so any help or advice would be massively appreciated because I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing

Okay so, I came into this Transit a few years ago and I believe I did post about it when I first got it, but then university and other project cars kicked and 5 years later I've got back round to it

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A bit history its a LWB 88 'F' reg ex-postal van, its a local van having being registered in Leeds. It been parked since about 2004-ish in the mud and a hedge seems to have grown around it so first things first was to dig it out.

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So far the resto has consisted of replacing the starter motor, battery and done a basic service which got the engine running, apart from a blowing exhaust it sounds great although the timing seems to be out just a little bit.

Then came moving it out of the mud, I broke three 1/2 breaker bars tying to remove the wheel nuts so I forked out for a 3/4 meter long bar a bit of scaffolding for leverage and they popped straight off. The brakes were also seized so I whacked the drums to loosen the brake shoes a wee bit which enabled me to move the van out of the mud although after using the brakes once when parking the van in the drive all four corners seem to be stuck on.

Now that its on solid ground I'm hoping to start with the bodywork first as that's where it seems to require the most work. Structurally its sound apart from the front chassis section where the front of the leaf springs attach. That's rusted pretty bad. Most of the areas of rust have replacement panels you can buy which is how I hoping to combat this as I'm currently teaching myself to MIG weld. However both A pillars have gone as has the roof around where the cab section of the roof joins the roof over the load space. I'm assuming these are two different panels from factory to accommodate for different configurations of Transits. The roof has rust issues around the guttering. If I get a chance to take any detailed pictures I will post them.

The aim is to fully restore it and maybe tweak with the engine a bit as the pinto isn't ideal, I have some EFI bits laying around so a pinto turbo might be on the cards but right now I'm focusing on getting it past the MOT stage

[Cider Andy]

I love a rescue like this!

Until the Sierra 2.0iS came out around 1985, Pintos used to have an iron crankshaft, so maximum revs were around 4850RPM, if I remember correctly. The Sierra ahd a steel crank which let it rev up to about 6200RPM. If I was sticking a turbo on it I'd definitely want a steel crank in it.

Ignition timing should be 6°BTDC static (although later engines might be as much as 8°BTDC). Easy enough to do if it has points in the distributor but if it's electronic you can do it at idle with the vacuum advance pipe removed. A better way to do it is to accelerate in a high gear from low revs and retard it until there's no pinking. If it does have points, don't rely on setting the points gap as per Ford's original setting: the distributor cam wears, so the gap you need will be smaller. Best to set it using a dwell meter. Dwell angle from memory is 48-52°

[mk388]

I love a rescue like this!

Until the Sierra 2.0iS came out around 1985, Pintos used to have an iron crankshaft, so maximum revs were around 4850RPM, if I remember correctly. The Sierra ahd a steel crank which let it rev up to about 6200RPM. If I was sticking a turbo on it I'd definitely want a steel crank in it.

Ignition timing should be 6°BTDC static (although later engines might be as much as 8°BTDC). Easy enough to do if it has points in the distributor but if it's electronic you can do it at idle with the vacuum advance pipe removed. A better way to do it is to accelerate in a high gear from low revs and retard it until there's no pinking. If it does have points, don't rely on setting the points gap as per Ford's original setting: the distributor cam wears, so the gap you need will be smaller. Best to set it using a dwell meter. Dwell angle from memory is 48-52°

Thanks man! Yeah its a later engine for sure 205 block, electronic ignition/distributor, the lot. I didn't know about the difference in crankshafts, but then again being born in 1997, these engines predate me by quite a bit so there's alot I don't know about them. The EFI bits I have includes a distributor so I was probably just going to swap that over and run megasquirt management and cossie pistons for a safer and more finely tuned boost. In all honesty I'm more mechanically competent so I'm trying very hard to get the bodywork straight first. No point spending time and money on the engine if the bodywork's too far gone.

Had a few hours spare so made the trek down to try and make some headway with this van. I've decided to start on the right hand side of the van as its the easiest rust to tackle in the sense of the availability of repair panels. So it went from this ...

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To this ...

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I know its not a massive amount of work but today was more a lesson in using an angle grinder than anything else, it was a challenge getting it into corners, the guard kept finding a way to get itself in the way I'm quite proud of how straight I managed to keep some of the cuts tho. Bad news, as the eagle eyed of you may have noticed, the outrigger is shot. So I may need to fabricate one of those before I get to the stage of putting it all back together. Also I'm struggling with the spot welds on the wings, its almost impossible to locate them as either you can't get the grinder into the space or I end up drilling through both panels so I need to have a little think before I re-approach that one.

[Cider Andy]

Have you tried a spot weld hole cutter? Or a finger sander/croc sander on the spot welds?

[Chug]

You can grind the tip of a standard hss drill bit shallower to drill out spot welds (plenty of vids on you tube) or buy a cobalt one already made, or a spot weld cutter

https://www.frost.co.uk/catalogsearch/r ... ld%20Drill

[mk388]

Have you tried a spot weld hole cutter? Or a finger sander/croc sander on the spot welds?

You can grind the tip of a standard hss drill bit shallower to drill out spot welds (plenty of vids on you tube) or buy a cobalt one already made, or a spot weld cutter
<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">https://www.frost.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/?q=%20Cobalt%20Spot%20Weld%20Drill</span>

Thanks guys, wasn't even aware these were a thing

[mk388]

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Quick snap of the outrigger, I think that's what its called. Its a funny one this, not sure if you can tell from the pictures, it rusted on two of the three sides but one side looks pristine, almost new. Need to fabricate one asap so I can start putting some metal back into the van, unless someone knows where I can buy a replacement patch? Because I have no idea how I'm going to replicate the bend.

Hoped to get a bit further with the Transit today but the weather had other plans, as always
Picked up a spot weld cutter from Machine Mart which solved the spotweld removal problem but I still struggled to locate the spot welds. It looks like the wing had been replaced before so they were in some really weird places. I ended up cutting the majority of the wing out and bending the remaining metal with a screwdriver in order to find the spotwelds. Not the most polished method but it got the job done I've ordered a new inner wing from autodoc, although it's in really good condition compared to most I've seen including mk5's.

We started like this ...

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... and finished up with something like this.

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Bad news though, it's not soo clear in the photos but the rot on the bottom of the a pillar has spread behind the wing so that needs attention before I can start to but wing back on. I have no metal fabrication skills whatsoever so that's going to be fun, unless someone is breaking a mk3/4/5 which I can pinch an a pillar from?

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Anyway I'm gunna have a go at finishing the cutting tomorrow and maybe try get a hold of some sheet metal and practice some metal fab. The more I'm working on this van, the more I'm realizing this is too big a job for beginner. I may have definitely bitten off more than I can chew So after this job, I might try and see if I can get someone to do the bodywork for me, or at the very least get some experienced help/supervision.

For the outrigger what thickness would you guys recommend? I was going to try and go with some 2mm mild steel?
After welding what would you guys put on it to protect the weld before filler/primer etc?

[Cider Andy]

You've started out well on what is a big job. You'll pick up skills along the way.

There will be good times and [probably far more] bad times. But if you try to split the job into small areas and concentrate on completing them you WILL get through it, painstakingly, bit by bit. And be very proud of what you achieve.

[Jay2018]

This is a cool project. I'm guessing the rust wasn't as bad as this when you initially parked it up 5 years ago... Nonetheless this will be a lovely project van for sure!