Resto update

[Miss Piggy]

Hi Guys,

Just a quick one on the resto of Miss Piggy
I've removed engine and gearbox
the previous engine fitted was a holden 6cyl and they lengthened the
rear of the fire wall and extened the lid to suit and did a really bad job of it .

Then someone fitted a Nissan L20B 2lt motor with a 3 speed auto

But it was mounted to far back so i decided to move it 6 inches foward and weld up a new rear fire wall as the old one was just held together with bitumen tape.

So was to fit a Mitsubishi L300 auto shifter and cable on the front firewall panel for easyer access as old T bar shifter was fitted way down low on the floor where the old manual shifter originaly was.

Now thats done i'm thinking changing over the running gear to something more modern, maybe holden commodore rear end and front disc setup? as the nissan motor should push her along quite well.

Well till next update all you can do is have FUN.

Frank Healey

 

[Panky]

By the look of it your van started out life as a Maidstone
You're doing a fine job[^]

Summer's Coming

 

[Aussie Commer]

Great job on the welding!!![8D]

Think different
www.commervanoztour.blogspot.com

 

[thomo]

You say your are going to fit disc,s to the front ,Hopper stoppers from Hopper Crossing Victoria made me a set up useing late ford disc,s and calipiers ,they made a custom hub for my stub axle ,which widened the track about 2 inches . This is a great mod as the van feels far safer at speed on bends .I did have to remove the body flange to get full lock with my 15/6 inch wheels. They may still have the drawing for the job .I use a vh44 behind the grill , which only works on the front set up ,I use a toyota dual master cylinder.

 

[Miss Piggy]

just checked through some old threads and found an Aussie commer how used a nissan navara rear end and i'm thinking
i will investergate going down that road as it sounds like it's just a diff swap basically and maybe same with the front disc.

Frank Healey

 

[jimberlake]

Never considered just getting a hub made up as impossible to find the right car in the UK to do a conversion...sorry to be nosey but was that expensive to get them made?

Cheers

Jim

Hasta la supervista baby

 

[commeracer]

Excellent stuff well done [8D]

"You,re only supposed to blow the bloody SLIDING doors off"

 

[thomo]

It was about 5 years ago I think it was about 600 ,but they do have a web site ,you could ask direct.It realy made the van more stable going down hill corners .You would be surprised how many people come up to me on my travels and tell storys about their work van tripping over .

 

[thomo]

Ishould have said that 600 was for the whole conversion

 

[jimberlake]

600 Aussie $ I guess. That used to be cheap . Still thats a great price to get a good modernish set of disks. Ill check out the site and see if they would sell the drawings if theyve got em. might be a bit expensive to ship over the hubs themselves. Thanks for the info Thomo, there s a next Winter project for me.

Hasta la supervista baby

 

[Miss Piggy]

A friend of mine turned up today in his 94 toyota hiace and i whipped out the old tape measure and checked out the rear diff from center of tread to the other center of tread which was 1420mm the same width as the commer, so one could very easily replace the hole rear end
drive shaft, diff, wheels and tyres, shocks,and springs. I've yet to measure the bolt spacings for the disc calipers to compair to the hiace front disc fingers crossed.
Today pulled out all the windows and found a couple of rust holes and have started repairs to them, the bottom of the rear doors need rebuilding and some panel beating here and there not to bad really


Frank Healey

 

[Suinnyboy]

Hi Frank

That's my van with the Navara diff fitted the link is http://66.129.69.181/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4472&SearchTerms=the,new,project, have a spare Navara diff in the back yard, didn't use it as it has a 4.8/1 diff ratio. Was lucky enough to pick up 2 for a song and used the other, a 4.3/1 ratio for the conversion. The big bonus is the Navara's have a LSD centre, though the down side has been the 6 stud wheels, but I talk about that in my posts.

I too have been slaving away at the front disc brake issue, most of which is posted here, http://66.129.69.181/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6055&SearchTerms=disc,brakes this might give you some ideas and save you some time and effort investigating some of the dead ends that I hit.

Haven't had much time to get things done on the van and pretty much still as my last posts. was planning to get onto it again, but have now the added set back of having no tools or equipment as someone decided 3 days ago they needed them more than I did, clearing out my shed in the middle of the night. It's a strange feeling walking into the shed and coming to grip with the fact that most of the tools and equipment that have taken me 35 years to collect can be gone in one evening. Yes I'm insured but I am yet to finish putting together the inventory of what has been taken. Seem to find something else missing each time I go in there. Insurance company asks for receipts as proof, which is a little hard for the Hilti & Ramset Masonary drills, angle grinders drills and hand tools etc etc that were purchased 30 years ago not to mention the more recent buys like a nice pair of 40mm Webers and my 2 trolley jacks. Much of this equipment managed to travelled with me for 20 years over many hundreds of thousands of kilometers across NSW & Qld with me when doing site installation with never a problem.

Just a message to all, with the simplicity of digital photography these days go out to your shed, garage or workshop and photograph each tool and save the serial number as the file's name, regardles of how good or bad the tool is. Wish I had been given that advise as I am sure it would make my insurance claim much easier.

Regarding your van, mine is going to be manual and have the gear selector mechanism from a Nissan Nomad which I plan to mount in a similar way you have done with the auto shift. Not proud to say but I recently retired my trusty Datsun Sunny Wagon and bought a 93 Mitsubishi L300 van, 2 litre 5 speed. Lets say the price was right and it does the job, but every man and his dog seems to have one and the others are owned by "Wicked" and full of back packers doing the "Leyland Brothers" thing, you'll know what I mean, for the rest of you google it.

If you have any queries re the work I have done so far, just ask, that's what a forum should be and with no tools I won't be doing much in the near future on my van so it would be nice to be helpful to others out there.

Cheers and keep up the good work
Stephen

 

[THE ICEMAN]

Oh no that sucks. Can only hope those bas1ards get what they deserve. Even all theinsurance in the world cant make up for the stuff we spend decades carefully collecting. Hope it all works out.

I just need a good rootes...

 

[Miss Piggy]

Mate sorry to here that for some time to come you'll be looking for something else and realise oh my god the mungrels took that as well.
I'll check out your links in the days to come when ive got more time so thanks for that and start looking on Ebay for your tools to turn up.

Such is Life

 

[Panky]

That's awful[V] These toe rags have no comprehension of how much misery they cause[!] (if they even care)

Summer's Coming

 

[Miss Piggy]

Did a bit more over the weekend repaired some rust under the windows
and panel beated some of the the bottem skirts.

Such is Life