mk1 bullnose crew cab project

[JustTrying]

Bit of a 'blood bath' but that looks a useful mod. Gives good access into the rear for tools. Was the access between the seats before?
I have a crew cab hilux (4 door) that the rear seats fold up into the rear of the cab giving an open storage area. Nobody has sat on the rear seats. Only ever used for tools and materials.
Are you fitting the window in the door to match the offside?
The side doors can have a buffer fitted to the wing to prevent damage as the doors fold right back against the body.
If you shorten the rear door this buffer would need to be on the passenger door. May need that area strengthening/supporting to avoid a dent.
I am not sure if a door stay is available for the standard side access doors.

[oldskooler]

Bit of a 'blood bath' but that looks a useful mod. Gives good access into the rear for tools. Was the access between the seats before?
I have a crew cab hilux (4 door) that the rear seats fold up into the rear of the cab giving an open storage area. Nobody has sat on the rear seats. Only ever used for tools and materials.
Are you fitting the window in the door to match the offside?
The side doors can have a buffer fitted to the wing to prevent damage as the doors fold right back against the body.
If you shorten the rear door this buffer would need to be on the passenger door. May need that area strengthening/supporting to avoid a dent.
I am not sure if a door stay is available for the standard side access doors.

originally the double passenger seat tilted forward for access to the rear seat same as a 2 door car, but that wasnt going to cut it for me.....

im actually blanking off the window on the drivers side to match the door.....my mates mk2 crew cab is done this way and i like how it looks...

yep, i think ill manage to fit some sort of check strap to the side door rather than fit a buffer outside all going well..

[oldskooler]

Wow that's brave!! looks good though. Be interested to see the detail of fitting the engine you are looking at for it.

yep, it was a case of sticking with it once the first cut was made lol!!

the engine conversion will be straight forward enough, as im using the svo plate, flywheel and exhaust manifolds from a 2.9 mk3 ambulance so i can bolt up the mt75 box to the late bug eye scorpio 2.9 lump with no issues...a mk3 gearbox crossmember will bolt in with a small mod, leaving just a pair of engine mounts to be made up.....i actually have a pair of factory mk3 2.9 engine mounts also, but id need to mod the chassis legs to take mk2/mk3 mount carrier brackets to use them, so id rather keep the mint mk1 diesel carriers and fabricate a pair of mounts to work with them instead i think...

[oldskooler]

ive also been making pretty good progress with the right hand drive conversion....


















ive decided to run a mk2 transit loom so i can have column mounted controls to make it a bit more practical......ive had the column cowlings on along with the switches and they dont look too much out of place....

i upgraded to a blade type fuse box that will mount up on the kick panel and modded the loom to work with the original mk1 dash clocks....got it all laid out on the floor and everything tested ok....

















so thats the loom more or less ready to drop in after the cab is painted....out in the engine bay the headlight looms could do with shortening a bit but that will be easy to do later....

[samedog11]

At this rate it will be ready for next summer. What colour are you thinking of?

Sent from my SM-A127F using Tapatalk

[Chug]

Nice! Are you gonna graft the red side with the window opening you cut out onto the cut down side door?

[oldskooler]

At this rate it will be ready for next summer. What colour are you thinking of?

Sent from my SM-A127F using Tapatalk

yep, im gonna keep the push on through the winter anyway, and who knows, i might get to launch it next summer!!

for a colour, im thinking something period like the dark navy they used to come in, or maybe a green in the old castrol shade, something like that....

[oldskooler]

Nice! Are you gonna graft the red side with the window opening you cut out onto the cut down side door?

the plan is to blank off the window on the right hand side, same as my mates mk2 crew cab which i like the look of...

[oldskooler]

been a while since ive posted an update, but ive been making some progress....

after a lot of sizing up we got the side door narrowed and trial fitted...will need a bit of fettling on the hinges but im happy to say its worked out well...














ive also got another big part of this build sorted in the last week, making the trip to sapcote commercials in birmingham to collect the bespoke beavertail body i had them make for me.......

a mate also needed a body for a mk2 transit he is building so we got a good deal on the two bodies....i have to say im very happy with the look of it and cant wait to get it sized up on the truck so i can figure out the exact amount ill stretch the chassis and locate the axle etc....its also nice and light,....just over 200 kgs

the body is roughly the same overall width as the body on my mk3 truck, but it tapers in at the front so it will be flush with the sides of the mk1 cab....it was great to be able to spec the size i wanted.....












still a long road ahead, but getting there slowly!!

[Luke]

nice and light probably still have more payload than a modern transit would

[oldskooler]

nice and light probably still have more payload than a modern transit would

yep, will deffo be a big improvement on my mk3 truck with the steel body!!

[oldskooler]

ok, so an update on this project is well overdue at this stage......

been cracking on with a good few bits....got the engine and box mounted, along with getting the mk3 pas box mounting plate fitted, so i could get the hybrid steering column made up also...

before fitting the engine while fitting the transit v6 manifolds, i noticed they were badly corroded and out of shape on the flange surfaces where they mated to the heads......i was worried i might have issues with several blows around the flanges, or indeed a flange cracking when tightened up,... so i made up a couple of jigs to hold the manifolds in position so i could take them to a machine shop to have the flanges machined flat with a surface grinder........it was a bit of effort but i was glad i went to the trouble as they went on sweet as a nut with new gaskets, and the guy in the machine said they were almost 2mm out in places!!!

















couple of wee mods to a mk3 gearbox crossmember gave me the mounting position i needed...

[oldskooler]

once i had the engine and box mounted i got the front section of the exhaust system made up.....










i was originally going to run the ecu and loom that came out of the bug eye scorpio donor car, as it has a later management system which uses lambda sensors in the exhausts to control fuelling rather than the air flow meters that the older system uses.....i was hoping to have a bit more room in the mk1 bay without the air flow metres and maybe run the factory air box.......but the air box proved too bulky to fit, so id have to run cone filters in any case....

this along with the fact that the engine and ecu loom from the bug eye were of terrible quality with the insulation cracking everywhere, made me go a different direction for engine management...

i happened to have a factory transit v6 loom and ecu kicking about along with a good pair of air flow metres, so i adapted this setup to fit as nice as it could.....being from a mk3 transit the loom didnt need much modding....











after getting the loom and ecu hooked up, i also got a fuel pump temporarily hooked up with a drum of fuel, i got the engine fired up and all seemed good....its good to know at least the basics are ok for when the engine goes back in after it comes back from paint etc....


i also more or less finished the modding of the mk2 main wiring loom i intend to use.....i had already done everything required inside like mating it up to the mk1 dash clocks etc, but the headlight looms needed shortening on the engine bay side along with a few other bits......again its better to be doing these jobs now rather than working in a freshly painted engine bay at a later stage....














also after doing some sizing up on what alternator and power steering arrangement to run, i ended up mixing and matching a bit.....both the granada and scorpio run the alternator hanging directly underneath the power steering pump...hanging off the same bracket, but this leaves things very congested on the drivers side with the alternator very close to the chassis leg and difficult to gain access to.....so after a look through my factory mk3 transit v6 spares i found a bracket to run the alternator on the passenger side which worked out very sweet.....it also meant i didnt need to run the alternator cables across to the drivers side.....and all the belts can be adjusted very easily from the top.....

[oldskooler]

in other news, after a long time looking into alternative axles with better ratios than the transit, i have fitted an iveco daily axle into my twin wheel mk3 transit panel van....it took a bit of modifying to fit the axle, but so far it has turned out to be a great success, while keeping the original 14 inch wheels......ive gone from a 4.63 ratio with the transit axle to a 4.18 ratio with the iveco unit, giving me about 12 or 13 mph in my gearing which is really sweet with the turbo di engine that im running...

i was keen to test it out in the mk3 van as im now getting close to stretching the chassis and mocking up an axle on the mk1.......so now my plan will be to run a 3.9 or maybe a 3.6 ratio iveco axle which are available ratios, and should go really well with the torque of the v6....

ill start another thread and go into more detail on the work that was involved in getting the iveco axle to fit.....but heres just a couple of pics for the moment......it doesent look that different to a transit axle when you see them side by side!!

more progress soon hopefully.....

[mk2 transit crew]

That engine is fitting in there nicely!!! would be interested in seeing the information regards the axle. i know you are changing for a different ratio but the old axles must be getting rare to find in actually decent working order given the age. I did a rebuild on my diff and axle! managed to get hold of a new original cone crush washer. thinks its rebuilt correctly following the manual etc. but won't truly know till its done some miles. i haven't done anything to mine for months. once the weather turns i will get the paint 100 percent done. its 90 percent there now so just needs a bit more effort to complete. we will get there eventually.......