My -79 Transit recovery truck

[fredrik]

Time for another update..
It's been really slow the last weeks in the workshop but now the weather has changed a bit to the worse and I've had some time to actually weld on my truck rather than just cutting it up in pieces.

As you could see in my last update the area around the air intake for the cabin was really rusted so I've cut out a piece from the -82 bus and fitted it into my truck.

Sadly when I began to cut of the front end of the frame ( with the bumper part) I found a lot of more problems, it seems to have been "fixed" sometime by a not-so-handy-with-the-welder-type-of-guy.

This will probably result in the need of quite a big piece of new frame in the front.
No pictures of this yet but it will come.
I've had about all I can take of this piece of sh*t and if someone just offers me a few hundred £ I will probably sell it.



The cover for the air intake has been removed to be able to cut out the rusted part of the cabin



The damaged part removed



Almost ready, more pictures will be taken tomorrow

[100ps_drw_hicube]

dont give up mate it will be worth it in the end your doing great

[AndyG]

You make welding look sooooooooo easy

[rover]

Stay with it fredrik, you are doing a fantastic job mate

It must be disheartening but you have done so much already, dont give up!

Rover.

[madmark]

as rover says you are dooing a great job most people would of scrapped the motor by now but you have come this far , the vehicle will be rot free when you have finished your welding is superb and i like to see your work its very very good so keep on my frend!

[transitgeoff]

quality work, i like to see it, keep it up you must be on the home straight now??

[transitgeoff]

oh and if you feel frustrated or pissed off, get that CR out and wring its neck

[fredrik]

Stay with it fredrik, you are doing a fantastic job mate

It must be disheartening but you have done so much already, dont give up!

Rover.

That's the only reason I haven't given up. I've spent like three months or something on the back end of the frame.
I have asked a friend of mine who has a -82 160 Transit pickup if he would like to buy my truck. If he offers me a relatively good deal I might sell it an try to buy a newer Transit 190 instead..

[fredrik]

quality work, i like to see it, keep it up you must be on the home straight now??

I'm quite far from the home straight, it feels like i'm just half way on this project.

[fredrik]

Thank's all for your kind words I will try not to give up.
If the weather is OK tomorrow I might cut out the frameparts needed from the -82 bus and try to fix the frame on my truck

Here is a few more pictures, taken tonight.



Air intake cover is reattached to the cabin



Here is the damaged part (or not so well repaired). Will probably have to change a piece of the frame back to the engine mounts.



The front bumper wasn't very good either..

[tranny van man]

THATS A TOP JOB MATE, I WOULD HAVE GIVE UP BY NOW,KEEP UP THE EXELENT WORK!

[fredrik]

Update:
The last few weeks has been intensive in my workshop, I've been building a frame for positioning the back frame from the recovery truck with the new cabin from my 120 pickup.

Here is the link for the 120 pickuphttp://www.fordtransit.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8361.

The cabin has been cut of from the back frame on both my recovery and the 120 pickup.

Next step will be to match the frames to fit and move the reinforcement cross-section from the recovery truck onto the cabin of the 120 pickup.

I have also found out that the cross section of the frames is'nt the same on a 190 dual wheeler ( my recovery) and a 120 pickup. The top section is the same on both, approx. 50 mm high, but the bottom section is 90 mm on the 120 pickup and about 125 mm on the recovery..

This will cause som more job for me.

Updates will hopefully be more frequent in the future, the work will be accelerating now and hopefully the cabin and the back frame will be welded together in a near future. Stay tuned..

Well, anyhow, here's some pictures.





This is the framework for positioning the two parts



The 120 pickup has been cut off, and two transit jacks, a few wheels and some steel pipes has been welded together to make it possible to move around






The cabin is cut off



The reinforcement under the floor of the recovery



The reinforcement removed

That's all for now, more pictures will come soon

[FredTransit]

Keep it up mate! Nearly there!

[UK_ANDY]

Some project youve got there most would have given up long ago you must be a real patient man and highley skilled to boot .I take my hat off to you Would be a shame to sell in though after you have done what many would have said was an imposible task cant wait to see the end product of all your hard work .

[Luke]

this is one of my favorite threads superb work and keep the pics coming