Bedford CF-UK Message Board > CF Blog Spot

	[Private Message] [Register] [Profile] [Member list] [Log-in]
	[Home] [Search] [FAQ]
	Bedford CF-UK Message Board > CF Blog Spot > Tim's personal notepad

Who's Online:

There are 0 member(s), and 1 guest(s) online.

This thread has 9 pages (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9)

[Printable Version] [Post Reply]

Author	Message
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Wow! Big plans for your van Tim - impressed Where when and how are all these changes being done? Let me know if you would like a turn on my car lift! I have more projects than I care to mention at the moment (new drag car purchase!), plus the bedford welding to do but I am sure if you needed to I could make room!!
Thu 20 Sep 2012 @ 09:20
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Drag car? DRAG CAR???? I have to come and see it Alena. When will you be racing it? Can I come? I collected my engine (and transmission) this morning from Heathrow. So technically....technically... I have a five litre van with 10 cylinders, although 3 litres and six of the cylinders are strapped to a palette in the back so not providing much power. As for getting the engine in Alena... I don't know for sure yet. I've made a few enquiries and have a few options at various prices. Before I go any further Im going to have the engine thoroughly inspected, get the timing set replaced, get all the nobs and knockers working etc etc, then I'll take it from there. Probably going to take me the next six months to get it all sorted. Probably don't have call for a car lift to be honest but thatnks for the offer. I did think about seeing if you were interested in installing the engine for a handsome cash bonus, but I figured you'd probably got enough on your plate as it is... and that's before I learned you'd bought a drag car. What is it by the way? Please don't say its a 56 Chevy two door in primer. I'll cry. I will really cry. My all time dream car. ----------------------
Sat 22 Sep 2012 @ 18:36
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Spookytim wrote: Please don't say its a 56 Chevy two door in primer. I'll cry. I will really cry. No Tim, it's a 55 Chevy two door in primer; no need to cry. Congratulations on becoming an Essex boy. Two Lane Blacktop, fantastic film. Rae & Ann ----------------------
Sat 22 Sep 2012 @ 19:38
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Hello Tim, Here's another great film where grey primer seems to be the chosen finish coat. A bit corny at times but some excellent footage of drag racing. Hot Rod Nobody Beats a Hemy Willys Rae & Ann ----------------------
Sat 22 Sep 2012 @ 20:58
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	One of the options I'm considering for the engine swap in my van is Retroengines in Somerset. I've been talking to the main man there for the last few weeks about doing the swap. He's a long way away, but my father in law lives very local so it wouldn't be too bad. He's the more expensive option, but he's properly set up to do it. Big place. Has a stock of Essex engines and components on the shelf. Does this stuff for classics, hot rods, kit cars and restorations. The other end of the scale is a mechanic with a workshop in Brighton who does general car stuff. He has a ramp, car lift, pit... all the gear needed, but its a small space and he's a one man show. He would do it when he could between other jobs, so it would take longer. Also he doesn't 'specialise' in doing what I want to do, whereas RetroEngines do. He's cheaper, but he comes with no guarantees. In between those two extremes there a couple of other options which are basically just car garages who 'say' they can do the work. I'm tempted by Retro because they know their stuff and specialise in the Essex. Its going to cost a lot more for the assurance of knowing its likely to be done right and on time though. Anyone got any experience with this kind of stuff? Would you go cheap and local or commit to a rebuild by a specialist? My concern about investing in the most expensive option.... My van is a knacker, and I'm not looking to have a pristine, fully rebuilt showcase engine under the hood. No point. I just want a bit more power and a functioning van at the end of this. If the engine bay looks like hell, then it will match the van. The engine bay looks like hell now and that's fine with me... my van might only have another five years before rust eats the chassis through. Retro have a degree of pride in their work that might make it hard/impossible for them to switch off from aesthetic and performance excellence and just put a fully functioning, basic Essex v6 engine in that hasn't been stripped, cleaned, rebuilt, and dressed with topflight showcase ancilliaries. So unsure how to proceed. Any thoughts welcome. ----------------------
Tue 25 Sep 2012 @ 21:46
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Hello Tim, There are loads of rat rods out there; engines you can eat your dinner off and shells that, on a quiet night, you can hear them rusting away. It all depends on how much money you've got to spend. You obviously haven't got garage area and, by the sounds of it, time now you're working in London. I have always preferred to get my work done by the best that I can afford, in the long term, it normally saves money. Rae & Ann ----------------------
Tue 25 Sep 2012 @ 22:30
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Well, nothing much has been happening with my van. It has sat unloved outside for about three weeks without so much as a start up. I've come to curse the engine and gearbox in the back of it, and the fact that my job in London means I never get to drive my van any more. But anyway, I decided to crack on and get the engine swap arranged. Emailed the bloke Retroengines in Martock Somerset, and asked if I could drive it down and leave it with him next weekend. Frankly if it winters in his cosy warehouse away from the weather and the salty sea air, it will be in better shape next spring than if it stays here gently rotting. So I got up this morning full of unrealistic hope that after three weeks it would start, no problem. I intended to give a good two hours gently cruising up and down the A23/A27 to shake the cobwebs off. Got in, turned the key, click click, whirble whirrerreerrr, click click....click....click, whiiirrrrrrr click click... dead as a dodo. Parked in an impossible start for jump leads, so I had to go and buy a battery charger from Halfords and I'll have to wait until next weekend now to see if it will work. No use charging it before then as it wont go back in until next Saturday anyway. With regards to the engine swap. Retroengines recommend ditching the auto box and using a type 9. They feel it will be much less hassle reshaping a dogleg gear stick (if necessary, to compensate for the box possibly sitting further back) than it would be to change the pedal box and have the auto. I'm happy with that anyway.... I didn't fancy an auto. Seems to defeat the object of doing it really. Part of me still wonders whether, due to the appalling condition of my van I should just have it done cheap and cheerful locally by grease monkeys than paying a fortune to have it done by a specialist 200 miles away. Another part of me wonders whether I should just buy an old Transit in better nick and stisk the Essex in that, then sell my Beddie. Sad to confess it, but its true. My van is a total knackerbox. = ( ----------------------
Sun 14 Oct 2012 @ 21:07
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Spookytim wrote: I should just buy an old Transit in better nick and stisk the Essex in that, Hello Tim, I think you've answered your own question. Not too sure about the Essex though, have you been on the Ford Transit Forum? Lots of interesting swaps going on at the moment. I think there's a few boys your side of the water that are sticking Pinto engines in place of di's; maybe worth giving them a tinkle. Rae & Ann ----------------------
Sun 14 Oct 2012 @ 21:36
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Ah screw it. Moment of self doubt. I'm taking the van next weekend and doing it. You only live once. If I do this it will just ensure I keep my van in roadworthy condition rather than it rotting to pieces. Its going in. If the van falls apart in the process, so be it. ----------------------
Sun 14 Oct 2012 @ 22:55
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Well done Tim. I've been messing about with mine today; bolted on a set of engine mountings, lifted up the engine and put the crossmember under it. A lot easier doing it on the floor and not on the van. Hopefully when it comes to doing the real thing I should have it all worked out. Having said that, I don't like taking the van off the road so at the moment I'm just collecting all the bits up that I need and, belief me, when you start adding the bits up it's quite a few pounds. Rae & Ann ----------------------
Sun 14 Oct 2012 @ 23:27
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Sorry for constantly posting about this. I realise its of little to no use or interest to anyone else, but this blog thread serves as my personal diary of my Bedford ownership. So in that sense its useful to me. Its finally booked in. Tomorrow morning I'm getting up at 6am, sticking my recharged battery back in my Beddie, and with luck on my side, heading off to Somerset to hand my van over to RetroEngines for the winter. When I get it back, it will, I hope, be rumbling its Essex V6 under the hood. Its going to take a long time though. This is for the simple reason that I can't afford to pay for it quickly, so its going to be a three-stage commission: Engine build first, then van prep, then completion. Retroengines apparently have a massive place and storage isn't a problem, so the double bonus for me and Ripley is that she wont endure a full winter outdoors for once. Can't say I'm not nervous about this. The known fees are more than I should be accommodating if I was being sensible, and the unknown fees ... well I daren't look to be really honest. I have no idea if I have to get it tested via something more than an MOT, and I have no idea if DVLA charge for changing the vehicle description. At the moment, ignorance is bliss. So on the one hand I feel nervous and irresponsible. I have a family and kids and this money could be put to better use. On the other hand, I'm 42, I have a well paid job, and I work hard for it. Life only goes one way, and I just want to do it while my van is still useable and I'm interested in going to car meets and stuff. Its a modest conversion, but the Essex gives me that ability in the future to have it enhanced and tuned up, where as the 2CIH is wheezy and lackluster and there's absolutely nothing you can do with it at all. So I'm just going to plunge ahead. To hell with the cost. Insurance only goes up by just twenty quid, amazingly (Thanks Adrian Flux) so that's great, although I do have to make the back end look reasonably enough like its a camper conversion as they wont insure it unless its a camper. I have six months to do the conversion. Apparently 'camper' is defined as "two cupboards, a six foot bed, curtains and a sink"... so they'll be blue-tacked in the back in some form or another between now and next March when the window for conversion work comes to a close. It will be the worst camper in the world, I have no doubt about that. So my van makes its last journey as a 2 litre tomorrow, and I will bid it a fond farewell, and probably get a bit choked up as I walk away. = ( = ) ----------------------
Fri 19 Oct 2012 @ 23:58
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	In the name of nostalgia I just went to check out the very first I ever made here at the start of this thread. Almost two years to the week, and I intended to do the engine swap all the way back when I very first bought the van. ----------------------
Sat 20 Oct 2012 @ 00:16
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Van went in at 10am this morning. ----------------------
Sat 20 Oct 2012 @ 21:54
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Spookytim wrote: Van went in at 10am this morning. Hello Tim, Do you have a time scale on how long they are going to take to do the conversion? I look forward to seeing the finished result: loads of pictures would be appreciated and hopefully when you get it back a smile so broad that your head falls in half. Rae & Ann ----------------------
Mon 22 Oct 2012 @ 23:09
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Hi Tim, Your conversion will need a table,a bed ,storage cupboards a cooker and a water container, it will have to be changed to motor caravan via dvlc. see link below. Dave http://www.caravanwise.co.uk/motor/diycamper.html ----------------------
Tue 23 Oct 2012 @ 08:36
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Hello Dave, Thanks for the link. Most camper van insurers were saying that to me, but Adrian Flux were able to offer me insurance on the vehicle as a camping vehicle without the official certification of it being properly fitted out as a camper van with gas and water and safety certificates etc. I don't how they were uniquely able to offer me that, but they did, and stipulated that as long as it had a six foot bed, cupboards, somewhere to sit with a table, curtains and a sink (which doesn't have to be plumbed in, just a fixed bowl for washing).. and could therefore demonstrate its primary purpose was a leisure vehicle not a working van, then it can be insured as a vehicle for camping. ----------------------
Tue 23 Oct 2012 @ 23:07
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Sorry Dave, I just read your post again properly and yes, it will need to have the ticket amended, but that's pretty standard, and free, so that's alright with me! I assumed when I first read it you were saying it was a much bigger job than it is. ----------------------
Tue 23 Oct 2012 @ 23:11
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Hello Rae, I didn't see your post up there. Timescale... I've told them I'm in no rush and if they need to side line it to deal with other things that's fine by me. The van gets to spend the winter indoors a long way from the salty sea air, and if it stays there until spring I'm quite happy about that. With regard to pics... he did say they'll post pics of progress, but its not something I would be expecting them to do. I'm rubbish at taking pics of stuff myself, so I don't ever expect anyone to be any better than me about stopping work to fire off a few frames for prosperity. Part of me still thinks this is lunacy. Its a £350.00 van getting a very expensive upgrade. It seems ludicrous, stupid, pointless, and it also feels like I might just be on the cusp of not really having the desire to cruise around Brighton in an old beater with a nice rumble and twin exhausts. But then I think to myself that I'm only this age once, and if the only thing this achieves is that it cures me of my obsessive desire to have a ratty beater with a bigger engine than standard in it, then that alone will save me a lot of hours of thinking, planning, investigating, making notes, designing possible liveries and modifications in photoshop etc etc. I don't know. What am I doing. What AM I doing? Its a midlife crisis, that's what it is. Its not even a very impressive one. Just a knackered old V6 going into an even more knackered old van. test mid-life crisis ever! ----------------------
Tue 23 Oct 2012 @ 23:39
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Heh, I wrote 'test' and the little censor thing blocked it out so now its says 'test'. ----------------------
Tue 23 Oct 2012 @ 23:50
Anon Deleted Posts : Location : Status : Offline	Spookytim wrote: Heh, I wrote 'sh1ttest' and the little censor thing blocked it out so now its says 'sh1ttest'. Hello Tim, That's terrible using language like that Rae & Ann ----------------------
Tue 23 Oct 2012 @ 23:58
Time in GMT

[Post Reply]	This thread has 9 pages (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9)
New posts since your last visit	Administrative Functions: Open/Close/Delete Thread / Move Thread
Old post

Forum Jump:

Back to the CF-UK Homepage ][ Email CF-UK