db's 1970 DODGE A108 Sportsman van

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Tue Feb 07, 17 11:51 am

Once it's in the container Kingstown will send you a link to track it on a map which is nice! Mine came down the west coast, through the Panama canal, through the Carribean to New York, then Nova Scotia then across to Southampton. Which port is yours coming to?

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Tue Feb 07, 17 1:56 pm

Is there a problem?

db · Post by db » Mon Mar 06, 17 4:12 pm

Sorry for the lack of updates folks!
The ship is the Jakarta Express and it's currently off the coast of North Carolina heading n.e. Due Southampton on 12th. I'm away for a week from 14th so I'll be collecting it on Friday 24th

db · Post by db » Wed Mar 22, 17 8:29 pm

Back from France last night. Van is in the warehouse in Southampton, we're heading down Thursday night to collect 8.30 am Friday

ScottyDave · Post by **ScottyDave** » Wed Mar 22, 17 8:40 pm

Oooo that mean more photos

Blue · Post by **Blue** » Thu Mar 23, 17 7:54 am

Whahey! Are you planning on driving it back or transporting?

db · Post by db » Thu Mar 23, 17 12:00 pm

Yes there will be photos

My mate has a big 4x4 Blue and I've hired a trailer. MOT booked for Monday!

Dave81 · Post by **Dave81** » Thu Mar 23, 17 12:38 pm

Great stuff..........

I'll give you two weeks before you start modding...........

Captain Chaos · Post by **Captain Chaos** » Thu Mar 23, 17 4:47 pm

Looking forward too seeing some picciesðŸ‘

db · Post by db » Thu Mar 23, 17 11:55 pm

Setting off on 5 minutes for Southampton.

Excited much!

db · Post by db » Tue Apr 25, 17 10:17 am

Sorry for the complete failure to update folks...

The Bus (yes I'm calling it the Bus now...) is home, safe and sound.
I spent a few days under it scraping years of crud off the motor and trans- literally half a bucketful, I even weighed it- 8lbs of desert sand mixed with oil, steering & trans fluid!

There is NO rust WHATSOEVER on this Bus. It's bloody amazing! Not even a pinhole anywhere. Inside the wheel arches are still green paint, they aren't even undersealed!
I've scraped the cracked sealant out of the roof gutter and Galvafroided. Once it'Bananarama! with a coat of matt lacquer I'll Tigerseal it too.
Last night I repaired a crack in the front pass door and waxoyled. 5 more doors to go...
Registration arrived yesterday! YAAY! It's 'H' reg.
Dan (Truk's new owner) has designed mounts for the VW van seats I bought. They'll mount on rails so they can easily move front and back or be removed. The front bench will be hinged so it'll make a bed.
The front seatbelts were so filthy it took 2 hours of degreasing then scrubbing in washing powder to turn them back to green!

More to follow...

lough3969 · Post by **lough3969** » Tue Apr 25, 17 8:21 pm

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Tue Apr 25, 17 9:02 pm

Sounds very promising.

The Welsh weather will soon see it off! Culture shock or what??

db · Post by db » Thu Apr 27, 17 1:02 pm

I've at last found a spare hour in work to get some photos on here...

Pic 1- Safely in it's new home. It's actually slightly smaller than the Truk so I can get it on the drive and work on it easily

Pic 2- The motor after days of cleaning. I know it doesn't look it, but it was basically all one colour before- I scraped off half a bucketful of gak, literally. It weighed 8lbs!
I have some chrome rocker covers and an elec dissy to go on at some point.

Pic 3- This is the entire power steering system removed. The drag link (right of centre) is the part that's replaced to convert to manual. The arm from the steering column operates a 2-way valve at the top end, sending fluid to the left or right of the ram (middle of pic). One end of this bolts to the leaf spring shackle, the other is U-bolted to the steering rod. Quite clever in it's own simple way!

Pic 4- The new manual drag link

db · Post by db » Thu Apr 27, 17 1:12 pm

I forgot to say although it starts and runs perfectly, it stalled as soo as it came off fast idle. I stripped, cleaned and rebuilt the carb and it now idles perfectly

Pic 5- Strange cracks in the top of the passenger door, on the inner and outer panels. I did some delicate welding and only lost about 1" square of paint. I'm not painting the Bus so I wanted to do as neat and non-invasive a job as possible.

Pic 6- Once the welding was done I got inside the door, scraped and hovered out the compacted desert dust which is everywhere! and slapped in a load of Waxoyl.

Pic 7- Wren is a big fan, she's been out 'helping' whenever she can, climbing all over the thing and investigating with spanners, etc. As she's toilet training she's even christened it for me

Pic 8- There goes the neighbourhood