I'm finally getting on with my Mk1!

[oldskooler]

having fitted a 2.9 cosworth bob into a mk2 van, which was a bit of a challenge to do nicely, i can only imagine you would have to mod the mk1 a nice bit and i cant honestly see it working out without a bullnose front....

the pinto sounds like the best all round solution, and as said with an overdrive box, it would leave it all looking nice and original looking inside too...

[Ollie]

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Moving forwards again slowly, I visited the depths of the fens a few weeks ago and bought a Complete Bullnose bonnet and front panels from Lee Batchelor and whilst talking to his dad have seen what a proper Bullnose looks like, so I've drilled out the spot welds on my V4 front crossmember and removed it in one piece in case its ever needed again.
They're not held in by much 10 spot welds at best, and my front valance had very few spot welds in it courtesy of the Met police.....
I've made a very heavy bolt in front crossmember and took care that the bolt holes go through in the same places as there are cut-outs in the front legs anyway so nobody is going to say I've reduced the structural integrity.

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[Ollie]

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So I've fitted the BOB 24v again, and cut the floor for the gearlever, its all a bit tight but there's definitely enough room for the box and the engine, but the big BUT is the intake for the BOB engine, in short there's no way it'll fit properly without modding the bulkhead, or messing with the brake servo, so the dilemmas continue - I could buy a set of Jenvey throttle bodies and manifolds for £2000.... ouch. OR I stick the 12v in and have an easy but still V6 life and when I win the lottery I know I can buy the bodies to stick the BOB back in

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and I've stuck this in to make you jealous, as they're the front stainless pistoned vented front brakes!

[Ollie]

And finally there's the small question of making it look nice, my crossmember will need to be covered up by a valance but the only one I can find appears to be central panels one for £999 on Ebay, so when I get to that stage I suspect I'll be looking to mould or carve a GRP one unless anyone has any better ideas or supplier details?

Ollie

[Ollie]

And were in, freshened up the Granny engine, and it all goes in easy as with the help of my 12 year old! and guess what all the mk3 ambulance egine mountings just work, line up perfectly with just a small spacer adapter needed for the gearbox crossmemember, well chuffed.
Gearbox overhauled by geartech in kidderminster

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And if youre wondering the rocker boxes are also fiord blue, the wrong one - QLH unlike the correct CE code one for mine, so I've got plenty to use up!

my next challenge is going to be the alternator brackest as stupidly i left the transit brackets on the old scrap V6 years ago and of cousre the granny setup will foul the steering box so if anyone has a setup which works they can photgraph that woukld be great!

Ollie

[Altransit]

It's looking good Ollie

[Ollie]

Feels like I haven't done all that much recently, but its not really true - its just tedious stuff
Front brakes are on. The front hub to disc bolts have a lovely little locking tabs ,but in the absence of a part number my son made them all for me by hand

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Have sealed and painted the inside of the roof, including shot blasting a few bits inside the top rail. followed by painting both sides now I've finished the odd bits of side panel welding on the lower edges.

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Prepping all those recesses, sharp edges and hidden return edges for etch primer took a lot of wire wool and those flexi grit decorators pads.
its not perfect but I'm boarding it out anyway so nobody will see it!

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Not sure how I'll fare with the outside prepwork as the vans got a fair old peppering of police spec dents, for the rear corner I ended up welding M10 washers onto the shell to give something solid enough for the slide hammer, took one heck of a lot of thumping...., and the panel behind the passemger doors even worse as its stretched, been welded and very flat in the scheme of car panel work.
the other fun corner was the back right where the lip into the door shut area a nd hinge mounts had rotted out so had to remove the inner closer and weld in the corners by feel as you cant see it - Yay.

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if you end up doing jobs like this buy all the die grinder options avaialble, angled as well as straight, with a good selection of carbide cutters, and then add an air cut-off tools and mini sander to that as well - they really do make life easier.

[Ollie]

Next thing is to finish doing the dash and underneath in the firewall area - another bit of fun access - I've prepped it and primed it and done all the bits that need to be done with an aerosol cos you cant get the angle with a spray gun - no idea how the factory got as much paint on them as they did, bearing in mind we are pre robot.
Going to convince my son he wants to prep the main floor with me, kneeling on all those ridges needs good cushioning
Plan to paint the floor with tintable HB bodies version of U pol raptor, as it gets quite alot of wear in the cab even under a mat.

[Viva_65]

love the build im new to owning a mk1 myself, Is this the LDV brake disks and calipers you have put on?

Mine is a twin wheeler aswell but i cant get around whicth disk to what caliper in need

Do you have the part numbers handy of what you have just put on there?

Thanks allot

[Ollie]

The calipers are a form of LDV / London taxi as far as I can tell, the pads are labelled as LDV 200 ones! the real difference from what I've got on this is the single pot calipers off my other long scraped mk1 used bracketry bolted to the hub carrier, whereas in the twin pot setup the lugs the caliper bolts to are part of the hub carrier itself.
with the discs themselves being the hardest part of all to find.
For part numbers I found the motomobil website the most help, but asuprising aount can be found on autodoc if you're very carefull with year selection.
the numbers ive kept a note of are:
Front hoses LH2323/2
Vented discs BDC3466 QH
BS4550 Optimal
DF1645 Ferodo
NBD030 National
09.2943.10 Brembo
Pads GDB341
LP41

if you just want discs instead of drums i have the complete single pot kit around in the shed, with good disc shields as well!

[Viva_65]

Thankyou for your detailed reply, i will get looking soon. Im already on solid disks but the single pot calipers,


Thanks and best of luck with the engine fit