Anniversary shenanigans.
One year ago today I woke up in Wellington with the van I had nursed back over two and a half days and 900+kilometers and the ocean.
(http://vernacularity.livejournal.com/226958.html)
Since then I have spent a mammoth amount of time turning this van from a rusted and worn out piece of shit into something not only legally functional but also decorative, improved, and almost a pleasure to drive. Definitely a pleasure to own, as this is getting to be a rare sort of deal especially in the LWB delivery van form, the 4WD Mitsubishi Delica L300 Express 2500cc Diesel Turdo (Non-Turbo).
This was intended as a project, and a deliberate commitment of time to sticking my fist up the arse of the guy I bought it from. Basically the whole town of Invercargill would have been laying bets as to how far I got North before a wheel came off or the gearbox shit itself and I plunged off the road into the sea.
I saw it as a form of performance art, devoting almost all my non-working and non-sleeping time to transforming this under the most difficult conditions: much of the work was done outside, in Winter, on a sloping cobbled driveway, at night, and frequently it would be drizzling wet. I have not done this before. I have done a lot of various mechanical work, but never an entire vehicle, and much of this was new to me.
I learned the habit of just putting on a jersey and a raincoat and getting cleaned up afterwards. I learned to not give a shit about whether I had dinner or had clean clothes, or on weekends whether I even showered from Friday until Monday morning. Sometimes I slept in the same outfit I was wearing, all weekend. Kind of like camping, which was echoed in the feeling of lying down on the dirt at the side of the driveway, with the smells of damp leaves and at constant risk of wetas. This was a peaceful feeling, surrounded by scrap vehicle parts and containers of waste fluids, outside the house and breathing the fresh damp night air.
It was kind of a let down getting the WoF a couple of months ago, March 21st, as I had started to rush it and had been trying to salvage my relationship which was deteriorating in part due to my basic abandonment of anything except The Van. Thus I ended up treating it as the mechanical equivalent of slapping layers of paper over holes in a house wall so it could be painted on time. It looked good, but was not good enough.
Since my successful but admittedly not very impressive use of it to haul away a pile of waste greenery, I haven't been documenting the many little jobs and improvements, as writing seems like such a time-suck when something in life has to give.
There have been plenty of events. Last up, I had put on a bullbar.
At the other end of the chassis I removed the towbar, spent several days loosening and undoing the bolts holding on the removable tongue, stripped everything, painted the towbar with nice cold-galv, and the tongue with black zinc, bollted it all back on. Similarly, got the OTHER spare-tyre rack, the one which will fit a FIFTEEN inch wheel/tyre, cleaned and painted and fitted it up.
Nice!
I noticed strange noises under certain downhill cornering situations, and a definite repeatable clunk going from forward to backwards and vice-versa, and eventually decided there was play in the front diff, evidence being play in the mainshaft rotation. Took it off one night after work.
Got into it next night.
There's nothing wrong with that. Finally tracked it down to the fucking manual-locking hubs: they were engaged, even though the van was in 2WD (so there was no driving force going to the front diffs) and there is a small amountof play in their engagement cog, which was magnified by the differential gearing to look like heaps at the input shaft end of things. Cheapshit hubs. The clunk was the diff engaging to be driven the other way by the wheels at change of vehicle direction, as the hub re-contacted the axle shaft ends.
Not a complete waste of time as I did get to count the teeth on the wheel andpinion, to confirm for sure what ratio this diff is- 39:8 ie 4.875, as expected. Good.
So there was also maybe some bearing noise, and what the hell I replaced all the front wheel bearings, driving out the shells and pressing the replacements in with a hammer and the old shells and a block of wood.
I measured up the interior for constructing an arrangement of butchered furniture as my statement on practical design of a van for camping purposes. You can make awesome things be functional.
Here's the Internet's measurements:
max floor length: SWB 2,34m LWB 2,74m
max width : 1,53m ( between the wheelarches 1,06m )
max height : low roof 1,26m , high roof 1,36m
LWB
SWB
Here's mine.
This single bed had high header and footer, so we scribe a mark at bed platform height.
We make a straight guide mark, and chop it.
We cut the legs off a couple of desks, to make them the same height.
We stuff some newspaper into the bed legs.
Ta-dah! When camping or vanning, stable drink holders are always in terribly short supply.
When not in use,safety first!
So with a bit of ply, the bed and the desks can fit a queen foam mattress like so.
There was a quick tune-up of the valve clearances, which smoothed out the running no end.
There was driving off without having solutioned the rubber stopper into the rear of the valve cover.
Reattached the side step, without cosmetics, to make things a bit less flashy, but also the front and the rear mudguards which took a day.
I call it nice.
Today, attached some cheapo speaker boxes, self-drilling-and-tapping screwed to the pillars.
Heatshrink, it is your friend.
Now that's classy!
So the one desk makes an excellent step and also footstool, for sitting in the back with fish and chips, elbow leant on the other one, watching the full moon over the airport.
Can't forget the stylistic appropriateness of REPCO's cheapest seat covers. Even came with two free branded whiskey glasses!
Of course there is more to do, such as sorting out the occasional noise in the steering, but I have freshened up the correct steering rack this time, the one without play in one end bushing.
Wile I'm at it, there are a few tie rod ends and ball joints and maybe brake shoes just to make things all brand spanking new like. More ball joints and another tie rod end to come, so I'll do it all in one job.
And that's my little go-anywhere palace.
(http://vernacularity.livejournal.com/226958.html)
Since then I have spent a mammoth amount of time turning this van from a rusted and worn out piece of shit into something not only legally functional but also decorative, improved, and almost a pleasure to drive. Definitely a pleasure to own, as this is getting to be a rare sort of deal especially in the LWB delivery van form, the 4WD Mitsubishi Delica L300 Express 2500cc Diesel Turdo (Non-Turbo).
This was intended as a project, and a deliberate commitment of time to sticking my fist up the arse of the guy I bought it from. Basically the whole town of Invercargill would have been laying bets as to how far I got North before a wheel came off or the gearbox shit itself and I plunged off the road into the sea.
I saw it as a form of performance art, devoting almost all my non-working and non-sleeping time to transforming this under the most difficult conditions: much of the work was done outside, in Winter, on a sloping cobbled driveway, at night, and frequently it would be drizzling wet. I have not done this before. I have done a lot of various mechanical work, but never an entire vehicle, and much of this was new to me.
I learned the habit of just putting on a jersey and a raincoat and getting cleaned up afterwards. I learned to not give a shit about whether I had dinner or had clean clothes, or on weekends whether I even showered from Friday until Monday morning. Sometimes I slept in the same outfit I was wearing, all weekend. Kind of like camping, which was echoed in the feeling of lying down on the dirt at the side of the driveway, with the smells of damp leaves and at constant risk of wetas. This was a peaceful feeling, surrounded by scrap vehicle parts and containers of waste fluids, outside the house and breathing the fresh damp night air.
It was kind of a let down getting the WoF a couple of months ago, March 21st, as I had started to rush it and had been trying to salvage my relationship which was deteriorating in part due to my basic abandonment of anything except The Van. Thus I ended up treating it as the mechanical equivalent of slapping layers of paper over holes in a house wall so it could be painted on time. It looked good, but was not good enough.
Since my successful but admittedly not very impressive use of it to haul away a pile of waste greenery, I haven't been documenting the many little jobs and improvements, as writing seems like such a time-suck when something in life has to give.
There have been plenty of events. Last up, I had put on a bullbar.
At the other end of the chassis I removed the towbar, spent several days loosening and undoing the bolts holding on the removable tongue, stripped everything, painted the towbar with nice cold-galv, and the tongue with black zinc, bollted it all back on. Similarly, got the OTHER spare-tyre rack, the one which will fit a FIFTEEN inch wheel/tyre, cleaned and painted and fitted it up.
Nice!
I noticed strange noises under certain downhill cornering situations, and a definite repeatable clunk going from forward to backwards and vice-versa, and eventually decided there was play in the front diff, evidence being play in the mainshaft rotation. Took it off one night after work.
Got into it next night.
There's nothing wrong with that. Finally tracked it down to the fucking manual-locking hubs: they were engaged, even though the van was in 2WD (so there was no driving force going to the front diffs) and there is a small amountof play in their engagement cog, which was magnified by the differential gearing to look like heaps at the input shaft end of things. Cheapshit hubs. The clunk was the diff engaging to be driven the other way by the wheels at change of vehicle direction, as the hub re-contacted the axle shaft ends.
Not a complete waste of time as I did get to count the teeth on the wheel andpinion, to confirm for sure what ratio this diff is- 39:8 ie 4.875, as expected. Good.
So there was also maybe some bearing noise, and what the hell I replaced all the front wheel bearings, driving out the shells and pressing the replacements in with a hammer and the old shells and a block of wood.
I measured up the interior for constructing an arrangement of butchered furniture as my statement on practical design of a van for camping purposes. You can make awesome things be functional.
Here's the Internet's measurements:
max floor length: SWB 2,34m LWB 2,74m
max width : 1,53m ( between the wheelarches 1,06m )
max height : low roof 1,26m , high roof 1,36m
LWB
SWB
Here's mine.
This single bed had high header and footer, so we scribe a mark at bed platform height.
We make a straight guide mark, and chop it.
We cut the legs off a couple of desks, to make them the same height.
We stuff some newspaper into the bed legs.
Ta-dah! When camping or vanning, stable drink holders are always in terribly short supply.
When not in use,safety first!
So with a bit of ply, the bed and the desks can fit a queen foam mattress like so.
There was a quick tune-up of the valve clearances, which smoothed out the running no end.
There was driving off without having solutioned the rubber stopper into the rear of the valve cover.
Reattached the side step, without cosmetics, to make things a bit less flashy, but also the front and the rear mudguards which took a day.
I call it nice.
Today, attached some cheapo speaker boxes, self-drilling-and-tapping screwed to the pillars.
Heatshrink, it is your friend.
Now that's classy!
So the one desk makes an excellent step and also footstool, for sitting in the back with fish and chips, elbow leant on the other one, watching the full moon over the airport.
Can't forget the stylistic appropriateness of REPCO's cheapest seat covers. Even came with two free branded whiskey glasses!
Of course there is more to do, such as sorting out the occasional noise in the steering, but I have freshened up the correct steering rack this time, the one without play in one end bushing.
Wile I'm at it, there are a few tie rod ends and ball joints and maybe brake shoes just to make things all brand spanking new like. More ball joints and another tie rod end to come, so I'll do it all in one job.
And that's my little go-anywhere palace.