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bpirie1000 wrote:How is the progress Liam?

Hope your getting time on it..

Hi progress in the van is a little further than photos show but iam having a break off the cars for a few months our first home is taking priority for abit. hopefully 2/3 months time i will be back on with it but im not in a rush to complete it was aiming for imm next year bt think we will take my clubby estate instead

Liam

Hi everyone progress on the van has been slow due to many things plodding on with our house getting it ready for moving in, but mainly getting our other minis sorted out my mk1 is still not back on the road. I cant get the twin carbs i have rebuilt for the 2nd time right, so ill probably be looking for another set or going on a hs4 for now. Although on a better note my girlfriends 89 john cooper converted mini rose won 2nd at l2b show and shine after a long winter job list of tidying up jobs. Anyway back to the van. it has now got a solid driver side rear arch, rear quarter, new floor and panel fitted back into the side to replace the glass. Last week I tacked the passenger floor in place so need to get a heal board ordered next so i can get abit more done. Yomorrow iam also collecting another mini van. This time a 1979 in white that i should have bought this last year. I found it in a garage when collecting my cooper but at the time i wasnt too fussed about it and i passed the details on to my girlfriends brother, but after just under a year at it he has come to the conclusion its too much work for him. Anyway enough from me here are afew pics























tomorrows collection dont look like this any more but the only picture ive got of it complete



my girlfriends rose, main reason why progress has been slow but was worth it in the end.



Liam

Hi all, been long time since I have updated this thread. what a funny and crap year this year has been, ended up selling off my daft daily car and buying a more sensible 4x4 due to new family addition a newfoundland. lockdown projects have been sorting our house out and sorting out a good friends of mines pickup so progress on the van has been slow until the last few weeks. anyway back to the van 95% of the welding is now finished frontend is on all rear half is finished just requires the front panel finishing off and radiator cowling fitting now. hoping that between Christmas and the new year I can finally get it back on 4 wheels.

heres afew pictures of how its looking now



























Liam

Great to hear (and see) that you are still making good progress Liam. An early Mini Van is such a rare thing now. Keep up the good work .

Great to have you back again!

That is super progress! Not far off all the welding being finished.

Hi everyone

thanks for the kind comments makes it all worth while, im glad to actually be back on with what i want to do and not sorting other peoples bodge work out. anyway back on the van had another morning on the van today got the ends of the front panel converted and fitted inner wing cowling. next job is alter the number plate brackets and then its final grind up of the welding and paint prep time. hopefully be rolling before Christmas if all goes to plan but no doubt it wont . anyway here's a few pics of today progress

Did the early vans not have the strengthening inside the rear sides or are they yet to go on?

GraemeC wrote: ↑Fri Dec 04, 2020 9:02 pm Did the early vans not have the strengthening inside the rear sides or are they yet to go on?

Hi yes they did im not fitting these until is has been painted inside. I was going to weld them in but would make it very hard to prep the window panels and where the rear quarters have been replaced so I think bonding them in will be a better option can put the foam back in place between the panel too.

Liam

Ah! Sounds sensible. I didn’t know if they were something they added later in production as an improvement.

The early stiffeners are slightly different to the later ones the 78 van they are spot welded into the roof seem this one originally was brazed to side panel. on comparison of the 2 there are loads of little differences i never even knew about.

Liam

Hi everyone, been on with he van again over the last week got most of the welds tidied up and sealed up. the under side is now painted in raptor, needs afew bits going over again as not happy with a few parts. im going to get the sub frames off for blasting in the new year then i can get it back rolling again. anyway heres afew pics of progress





















Liam

Looks great Liam, nice work.

Getting towards the nice part now ..

Andrew1967 wrote: ↑Thu Dec 24, 2020 9:37 am Looks great Liam, nice work.

Getting towards the nice part now ..

Thanks Andrew getting there now.

Just a little update in the week I repainted the floor again as wasn't happy with how afew bits looked, I ordered what should be most of the stuff to get it rolling last night. I'm stripping the subframes fully this weekend to send for blasting on Monday so its all go again finally. Hoping to have it painted by mid feb/early March depending on how everything goes.

Liam

Hi everyone little update I got the sub frames off to the blasters this morning they should be ready by the weekend (thats if there open still) ive got the brake pipe made and fuel pipe fitted. the van is now off the spit and nearly ready for paint prep. im going to reskin the doors before getting some more paint on the shell. heres afew pics of the progress

















Liam