My Mk1 Transit's Restoration Project

[malta transit]

Hey guys i solved the problem, well actually Karmnu my friend solved it for me. Today i went to his place and told him my problem and he laughed as he had met this problem before. The secret is to cut an line with the chasser and then weld the upper part to the angled lip as below.................





Then when i got the upper part of the step welded, whilst I was at Karmnu's yard I took some measurments of the inside height which i measured all Karmnu's vans and these were all in the region of 56" inches. Back at my van i got 56"1/4 on the other side, so [ this is a secret ] i got my wife's broom and cut excactly 56"1/4 out of the handle and placed it between the step and the top, this is brilliant as it's atight fit. Then scribed the missing metal and welded it flush in place,as you can see below. This took me 2hrs but I'm satisfied for today.

[malta transit]

Since a month has passed, i have done very little progress as the parts i have tackled took long to do and very time consuming. So I have finished the step and bottom of step outrigger.

The Step.





From beneath.



The front outrigger.



Now i started tackling the side, and cut the rust at the back of the horizontal side were it meets the wheel arch.



From the inside i realized i could not work proparely, So I jacked the van higher to remove the 4 seckels[bolts] which hold the springs,so i can remove the back defferation complete with springs and wheels. 3 of them came out sweetly but the 4th one was a nightmare. I spent this week trying to remove this bolt,but invane.



Yesterday i WD40 it,and left it over night, but today i tried again useless. The inside of the bolt seized with the inner sleve of the rubber bushes.
Can any one help me what to do to realese this bolt?



I tried hammering it,invane, as the strike ain't strong enough because of limited space.

[Ucof]

Oddly enough, I asked almost the same thing last week (how to remove a bolt with a stripped head).

Though I don't know if you can drill out a bolt that size.

[malta transit]

I think,i could chase off the head of the bolt, and strike a few hard blows from the insde as i would have more space,or chase bought head and bottom of bolt and push down spring.

Still open to better ideas, Tks.

[redeemer]

No chassing and cuting maltatransit
The only thing you should do is heat up the bolt (preferibaly I have acityelene kit) until it gets red hot , and then spray cold water on it using a shampoo bottle so the material of the bolt expands by heat and then contracts suddnley by cooling effect. If you do this for say 2-3 times it should get out with the hammer(mazza )
or if ou don't have the right equipment to heat up, can you use 2 G clamps and a piece of angle iron or somting and you tight the bolt with the chasis structure ?
For this to be done preferibaly you shold be assisted by someone else or the claps keep falling

[rover]

The easy option is to get a new bush and bolt (your friend got any?) Then simply cut/grind the head and threads off the bolt, the spring will then come out, if you still cant get the remains of the bolt out after that you will have to burn or drill down the collar to release the tension and remove the bush.

Rover.

[redeemer]

Maltransit you can do what rover said and if the bush don't come out of the spring don't worry, then some day we will meet some time, get here and I have the acitelene kit to heat it even Karmnu got that when you go for the bolt or some other part..

[malta transit]

Thanks redeemer and rover, I liked both ideas. I liked this first But i do not have an acitelene kit. Second option is rover's cut tread and bolt head and as rover said our friend Karmnu,has many spare bolts.

By the way Redeemer I heard tommorrow, sunday there's going to be a Fords day, if you r going ,take a camera and grab some photos of transits, as i m working ,

[redeemer]

Oh I lost it ! I m still going with exams
By the way if you cut the bolt and need to heat the spring, Your welcome to come and treat it with the burner

[malta transit]

Thanks mate, I start doing something tomorrow. Good Luck with your exams

[dob077]

on reading this post for the first time with great interest,it gives my self and no doubt other readers and transit lovers great enthusiam to try and achieve what you have done.take a breath,have a look back and pat your self on the back.great stuff...ken

[malta transit]

Hi all, these last 2 weeks I have done nothing, because i couldn't get the bolt off . The guy who had to bring the acciteleen was to busy ,so i cut off the head of the bolt with a saw and after several hard sweating minites i sawn the bolt's head off . This gave me more space to hammer the bolt from the inside. After several days of WD40 it and hammer all was in vain, the bolt seized solid with sleeve. So must wait for the burner. And my enthusiam has droped down in level.

[malta transit]

As i forgot to say, I had tried working on the outer panel to make the part of the rear wheel arch. I welded 2 new metal pieces together and when i patterened the 3rd bit, the outer lip, i could not get the original shape. Here below are 2 pictures of the progress;





As you have seen from the above picture , in the middle were i welded the middle part went in a bit, so that made my day, and left everything and gone away.
The next day, I went to Karmnu to get a spare bolt, to replace the one i'v sawn. He gave me 2 with different treads and gave me a valuable part [ blue ] cut from a front mud guard, to weld in the missing gap at the back, as the front lip arch is the same as the back { Geniuis } As i was there he offered me 2 new genuine lenses at the original price of Lm2.50 each [ 5.50euros each ] whom i could not refuse.



And as i was there i bought of this panel for the driver's side as one day [ 35 years ago ]it had an accident when it was still in england and always looked rough. Needs triming around, not bad for 25 euros.

[redeemer]

Hello maltaTransit , how are you ?? ANy progress on the van, don't give up man , it will be a one unique van in Malta , especialy that V4 engine

Can you Pm me the phone number of the man who blasted yours, just to take an estimate parhaps in the future ,I will blast the chasis and underneat, but first of all I must have more TIME.
I will also be dimantling the remaing parts of that cream coloured transit (ta CAli ta l Imqabba)
and If the dash switches are still functioning just take for free.

[Luke]

great to see this van too
some good work gone has into it too and it will be worth it in the end