My Project car in Bolivia

Started by Richard1, February 22, 2011, 05:37:45 PM

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Richard1

Finally got back to Tarija for a few days to start on the engine. Need to figure out what to order to rebuild in next month. Parts need to go from the UK to the US for me to bring to Bolivia when I go.

After soaking everything with diesel, I pressure washed the engine, then started stripping it and cleaning up the parts.


Manifolds before and after



Someone did not believe in using coolant



This is the hard part. So far I'm bending extractors trying to get the converter off the crandshaft


Since the new front has adjusta rides, I bought some for the back and put them on


Removal of the exterior corrosion on the aluminum thermostat housing, filter housing, etc.




Top half of the injector body cleaned up. Need to rig a soda blaster for the lower part.


94touring

Wish I had that rear subby ready to go on my truck.

Richard1

All disassembled and measured. I'll be replacing the timing chain with a double one and tensioner, plus a complete set of rings and bearings from Mini Sport. 





The body shop has the windshield posts welded and is welding the floor. He is having fun with making the pieces fit together.





Richard1

Moving right along, the front clip is now firmly in place and we are patching panels









I painted most of the engine parts to prepare them




Richard1

I don't know if anyone has ever done this, but I decided I wanted Stainless Steel trim on the rocker panel seams between the wheel wells, so I commissioned the guy who built my BBQ to make me two pieces 1.5 meters long. Obviously the jaws of his machinery weren't great, but it sanded out fine. Now when I get to Tarija I'll give them the final buffing.



To avoid having more rust forming on the new tailgate, this one goes together with an anti-rust coating.

Richard1

Progressing a bit now, taking an afternoon off to assemble the engine





Also polished my trim pieces for the rocker


Body guy got busy and formed the cabin to the new door shape, cutting it and moving the frame over to the door.






Tested the seat positions, and will put them 3 cm lower than this position.



Tested the windshield and rear window in their new frames. (still have to make the new windshield)



94touring

I like the door conversion, the way you moved the frame looks relatively easy.

Richard1

Getting a little closer, fabbing the fender flares and straightening panels


towjoe

Hello Richard,
That is really fine metal work. Your body man is very good!
Keep up the photos. We all enjoy them and look forward to your progress.
Regards
Joe
AKA towjoe         


Richard1

In the weekend I just spent in Tarija I got a few things done.

First put the rear wheels with 3/4" spacers on. From there we could see what needed to happen to finish the design of the flares, bringing the rear in closer to the wheel well and narrowing it a bit so it just passes the tire position. What you see here is the final design (except it is missing a little tail piece in the front.

Then the front discs. They will set the track 6 cm wider in front than the rears with the spacers, so the flares needed to be 3 cm wider than the rears on each side.

So a little forming, welding, forming, etc. In these pics the front one still needs some rounding, plus forming of the ends. But you get the idea. Then we will add the inner liner, welded to the inner wheel well.


Final design







heating to bend to wheel well




Mudhen

I love seeing these pics.   4.gif

Richard1

After finishing thereat of the fenders






This week I've stolen a few hours away from work to get into details, as we approach the painting stage. Putting in the seats I found that the steering wheel is too far inboard to center on the ones I bought with the arm rests, so I went to the used auto parts store and picked up a couple of u-joints, relocating the steering column a few inches to the outside.



Also decided that the little chain and pin on the tailgate were not of the quality I wanted on the finished truck, so I bought some plastic coated stainless cable and a couple of stainless bolts, chopped off the threads, inserted the cable, etc.


And painted all the little parts that would need it. Here is the brake booster.


Finally I got the wooden dash from MiniSport out and modified it to receive the dash cluster from the 94 Rover, adding a tach, oil temp, and oil pressure gauges.




Richard1

The sub frame that came with my engine and front clip turned out to be for a manual transmission car, while my motor is automatic.

Now I have to borrow a Mini with an automatic to modify mine.

Richard1

yesterday I found a Mini with an automatic and got all the measurements I need to cut the manual frame down and make an automatic frame, so back to action again.

94touring

Every time I look at this thread it makes me want to convert my doors over. 

Richard1

I've taken some criticism for it since it will no longer be "original" but I've done various other things that take it out of the stock class as well. I remember the sliding windows I had on my Bugeye, and had been trying to invent a better way long before coming up with the idea of replacing the doors with ones that had roll up windows.

It was a little more work than originally thought, since the lower part is wider and the upper part is narrower, but you can see that it is possible, and I'm very glad I did it.

Richard1

Body shop is caught up and back to work on my pickup. Hopefully business will be slow for the next week or two.






Richard1

Getting closer. Mirror holes in fenders and doors, plus light rust in doors are filled, cowl is fixed, and windshield frame now has final touches.





sparetimetoys

Wow this inspires me to work on ours. Just the difference in working conditions amazes me.
Home of Global Warmer Racing. Saving the smog one car at a time.

Richard1

I had taken the subframe to Santa Cruz where with a friend we measured what we could and modified the manual subframe to fit the automatic. It took cutting a little out of the sides and about 2 cm from the front. When I tried to put the engine in, it still needed a little grinding on the transmission control side, and it turned out the auto transmission is about 1 cm wider, so we heated and hammered a half cm on each side, and things fit together.



94touring

Glad you were able to get that sorted.

Richard1

Finally got my body guy working again, and went to spend some time in Tarija. Stopped by the shop 4 to 6 times a day keeping on top of things, got several details worked out, and finally progressed on to the paint, although I had to come back to Santa Cruz for the weekend.
First was installing the seat belts that he had forgotten. These came with a delivery van I bought 18 months ago, but had no use for in the rear, so he made steel boxes and welded them into the side panels.





While he was doing that I took off the padded dash pieces and took them to an upholsterer to recover.


Then we sealed the bed to the fenders with foam I got in Santa Cruz


and finally the paint, Sikkens poliester. 2 liters of base, two liters of top, and two liters of clear. Rover/Austin/Morris Color: COF, sometimes called BLVC 818, called (from what I can determine) "Signal Red" from 69 to 77, "Flame Red" from 88 to 99, and in some models "Modena Red" in 88 and 89.

Base coat


Final (not yet polished)


jeff10049

This is way cool I have been following this build for about three years now.

Thank you for taking the time to post.


Jeff

Richard1

Yes, Jeff, I wasn't in a hurry to do it, but it has taken a lot longer than planned. In the end it will be a better car (truck).

Earlier this month I stole away to Tarija for a week to work on it. Got to tackle a lot of the little things that shouldn't take long, but do.

Here is the final paint on the load bed.


Then I tackled the brakes, installing the braided hoses and the steel lines, but having to modify them and make an adapter to metric, since the 90 body and brake system is metric while all the other parts are inches. Also had to make a bar to activate the brake booster on the right-hand side of the car.



I was also missing an alternator bracket, and the radiator bracket was for the wrong engine, so I modified it and made one for the alternator





And then the adapter plate for the in-tank fuel pump.

94touring