TwoTee's HZ Resto

[TwoTees]

Thought I would document the restoration of my van here in my Cyber Shed.

I started this project in 2001 when my kids were babies and we had a lot of home time. As they got older our interests moved to other things so the project stalled somewhat for almost 10 years.

Anyway, its back on now and the kids are keen to see it finished.

Back in 2001 The engine came out and had a check over, all new gaskets and seals, a coat of paint. The M21 got a rebuilt with the shifter. The 3.36 LSD diff was toast so a 3.08 single has been installed as a semi temporary measure. Once on the road I am sure I'll get sick of the M21/3.08 combination and rebuild the diff.

The body and all panels were bead blasted and edged in "Jasmine Yellow" because I always wanted a yellow Sandman. The original colour is Atlantis Blue.

Unfortunately I did not take a single picture back then. The van was quite original but in need of fixing and had a different colour front. Here is a few recent pictures of where it got to back then, and then sat for so long.




I have now pulled all the bolt on panels and have a beater in to finish off what I couldn't do my self.


Time to start on the main repair to the left rear tail light section.



In hindsight the rear quarter should have been replaced but it had minimal rust and finding a quarter would have been a job in itself. The edges were beaten and then built up with weld to get the gaps right with out bog. The tailgate and bumper was fitted and removed over and over. Alot of time went into this area.


I had a repo tailgate that I decided to keep in the box where it belonged and repaired the original. The panel beater left his easybeat for me to play with for a few weeks so I spent some time learning how to use this wonderful tool popping out the little dings from the inside of the tailgate.

[TwoTees]

The hinges on the lower tail gate are exposed to the weather and can't be lubricated so they rust out and get sloppy.
I have owned a van before and with this van I don't want the rear to clunk and bang when I drive over bumps so part of this was to re do the lower hinges.

Here is what I did to fix this......

These 2 pictures show how much slop they have.


The pins are welded in so you need to drill out the weld. I ground it a bit and could only guess the center to punch it for the drill.


I started with a smaller drill and worked up to a 14mm. I just happened to have some 14mm bright rod left over from another project but if yours aren't to worn out you could get away with 12mm to get you into fresh steel. Then with a punch just drive the old pin out.




When drilling large or even small holes you can't go past this stuff. It's a bit messy but once you use it you wil never drill a hole with out it.





Excuse the dodgy welding.

Cut off the excess and clean the other side up.


A little bit of dressing with a sander and file and you now have a hinge that will not go bang when you go over a bump.

[TwoTees]

Finally the bare metal is no longer bare.

It took some work to get 10 years of neglect off of the panels.




All masked up ready to paint.




A coat of wash primer over the metal. I think thats just a fancy name for etch primer.



4 coats of Hi-fill primer. I grabbed the gun whenever I could.



Finally done. I'll let it sit for a few weeks to do any shrinking it needs to do and then the rubbing will begin.