1983 Austin Minivan Resto begins.

1983 Austin Minivan Resto begins.

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Westy Pre-Lit

5,087 posts

202 months

Wednesday 10th June 2015
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Not long now bounce

Pixel-Snapper

Original Poster:

5,321 posts

191 months

Thursday 11th June 2015
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Hopefully picking it up this weekend! Got to admit though it's not all been plain sailing or should I say painting.


Pixel-Snapper

Original Poster:

5,321 posts

191 months

Monday 22nd June 2015
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So this happened last weekend.











Looks bloody amazing in the sunshine.

benters

1,459 posts

133 months

Monday 22nd June 2015
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I wish I could paint that well. top job

Westy Pre-Lit

5,087 posts

202 months

Monday 22nd June 2015
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All that hard work finally paying off, you must be well happy with that.

Pixel-Snapper

Original Poster:

5,321 posts

191 months

Monday 22nd June 2015
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benters said:
I wish I could paint that well. top job
So do I... I paid someone who knew what they where doing instead. 😉

FWDRacer

3,564 posts

223 months

Tuesday 23rd June 2015
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thumbup

Pixel-Snapper

Original Poster:

5,321 posts

191 months

Saturday 11th July 2015
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So update time smile I haven't had much time since the vans been painted as I've been on stag-do's the last 2 weekends.

Wires, wires, wires I'm sick of them already! Took ages to get the loom in this morning even using the string trick it still took some doing getting the rear in.

On to the front headlight loom. I spent sometime looking at my IP 65 connector and I think I've come to the conclusion that it isn't going to work. Due to the fact that the wires are thicker than the spurs on the connector. I'll have a look at it again another day but I think I might have to revert to a lawnmower connector. Also my bracket idea wasn't going to work as I need to split the loom near the subframe as a posed to the brace bar.



Most of it looks to be in the right place but I cannot tell until the engine is in place.

Room with a view.


Then moved onto getting the rear loom in round the door frame. I used the string trick to pull it through, If you don't know it basically tie a nut to the end of a piece of string and feed it through the top of the door, tie the string to the loom and pull it through. Still, its more difficult than it sounds!



The rear of the loom was cut off when I got the van and not labelled very well... I say that... It wasn't labelled at all! I couldn't work out for the life of me where all the wires went. There seemed to be far too many for a pair of brake/tail lights, indicators, fuel sender and number plate lights.



Turns out the van also needs a rear fog light or at least it had one fitted along with a spot lamp.

So I whipped out the haynes plus some help from some chaps on facebook and stripped it all back.



Looking much better now. I'm left with on green brown wire that I cannot seem to trace on the wiring diagram though...?

I've also brought some homework for the week. Cleaning up the rear light brackets, rear door lock, drivers door lock and the washer bottle so that they can have a nice lick of black paint.









Pixel-Snapper

Original Poster:

5,321 posts

191 months

Monday 17th August 2015
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Another milestone on Saturday.

The block went back in!!!! biggrin









spats

838 posts

154 months

Monday 17th August 2015
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Just read through the whole thing, amazing dedication!

I used to own a City E years ago and had to let it go as it needed bodywork which I couldn't do or afford to get done, so its nice to see one being brought back to life!

My Dad owned a van when he was a lad, used to tell me about when he flipped it on its side after a hoon went badly and the worst bit was the fact his fat mate landed on him and couldn't get out until some passers by tipped it over smile

Pixel-Snapper

Original Poster:

5,321 posts

191 months

Monday 17th August 2015
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Cheers Spats...

I'm going to lie it been a labour of love and its seen me through some good times and bad times but I've managed to get hold of it and plodded on.

I really does feel like it's almost coming to an end now.

Then the fun of restoration it will be replaced with the fun of driving it.

Just hope I don't roll it over like your dad did though!

Xpuffin

9,209 posts

204 months

Monday 14th September 2015
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Just read this from start to finish. A thoroughly enjoyable half hour.
Well donesmile
If you could rewind, what would you have done differently?

Pixel-Snapper

Original Poster:

5,321 posts

191 months

Tuesday 15th September 2015
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Cheers Xpuffin

Probably just learning to weld from the start really. That would have saved me time and a load of money.

I've been away and playing around welding landrovers over the last few weeks while I build up another minispares order.

So hopefully I can get back to it soon.




bungz

1,960 posts

119 months

Monday 9th November 2015
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Amazing dedication, 99 times out of 100 this would be in the scrapper, so much rust!

The amount of pattern panels that went into this made me chuckle, must be 90% a new car by now!

Looks great in the sun, well done beer

Pixel-Snapper

Original Poster:

5,321 posts

191 months

Monday 9th November 2015
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Cheers Bungz but it could have gone a lot... lot... further with the panel replacement.

Any here's a few more pictures over the last few weeks.































Xpuffin

9,209 posts

204 months

Friday 13th November 2015
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Looking good, but don't cut from that template. Starting a drill hole on the horizontal is very tricky. Use a piece of thin flat metal, transfer your switch centres to that then drill a pilot hole through. Tape that to the dash and drill through the pilot holes using the same drillbit. To avoid distortion as the hole size is quite large re the cutout consider using a cone cutter.

Pixel-Snapper

Original Poster:

5,321 posts

191 months

Monday 25th January 2016
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Well im back with somewhat of an update.

After christmas and what not I didn't get as much time as I thought to tinker. Not much has happened as it must have took about 3 weekends and 6-8 hours of faffing with the bleeding tank to get it to fit back in. It's still not perfect but it will do for the time being while I get the fuel lines in.

How it looked at the start.



Where it is now. I had to cut the rubber so it looks messy. Although I've now found that you can get a thinner rubber which I'll try next.



I've done a few other bits but not really worth a picture.

I did have some part arrive though over christmas.





I really thought that I would have it at least running by now... I've reset the goal post to London 2 Brighton as I managed to get a ticket! biggrin

Hopefully anyway.

Richspec

159 posts

249 months

Tuesday 26th January 2016
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You can use the Mpi tank seal, We had the same issue with my brothers clubman estate, nothing lined up and the screws in all the fitting kits arent right either. First time we tried a proper tank seal as you have it took a while to fit and getting the cap on was nigh on impossible. Fitting the mpi one took me all of five minutes...

timelord

316 posts

282 months

Wednesday 27th January 2016
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Had the same problem with ours after I changed the tank, very hard to get cap on or off, at least that was the wife's excuse for making me fill up every time!biggrin

Pixel-Snapper

Original Poster:

5,321 posts

191 months

Wednesday 27th January 2016
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Richspec said:
You can use the Mpi tank seal, We had the same issue with my brothers clubman estate, nothing lined up and the screws in all the fitting kits arent right either. First time we tried a proper tank seal as you have it took a while to fit and getting the cap on was nigh on impossible. Fitting the mpi one took me all of five minutes...
Your right Rich.

I only recently found that later cars had a thinner grommets.

I've got one on order from minispares.

wink