Its finally in etch prime! Woohoo

[damienengland]

Thanks Innuendo, yeah me too. Hopefully van body will be getting some paint soon, just keeping up the work on the chassis so i'm not holding up things when the time comes.

Cheers

[damienengland]

Mocked up the A/C compressor today. Fits really tight but just ok in front of the engine mount and the steering connection seems to have enough room to come through, but its going to hit the steering rack after all (dammit), so some adjustments will be needed. Looking at it, i think the rack needs to drop down a bit or the engine needs to be raised up...or a bit of both.

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[damienengland]

Been travelling for work a bit so no love for the project in the last couple of weeks. But back in Melbourne now and got a moment today, so snuck off and grabbed a COME Racing blueprinted oil pump. Thought this would be an important addition to the engine, lots of flow they tell me. Also started checking out some dyno options for the engine so hopefully can start looking at some start up ideas soon.

[damienengland]

Got my OCD on and ran in custom length ignition leads, but had to buy a new crimper for this exercise. Must be the sparky coming out, but i'm so happy when running wires...

Pics again!

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[damienengland]

Picked up my new tail shaft and fitted it tonight. I decided to get a new unit made up rather than cut down the original T400 unit i had, and will probably sell the other one along with the T400 cross member. The new unit looks pretty neat and chunky and excited that the engine crankshaft is now connected to the rear wheels!...again!

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[axistr]

Looking good, The van is starting to take shape.

[damienengland]

Thanks axistr. Yeah this one has been around the block a second time after the chassis came up unsatisfactory on the first go. Drive train also went a different way after the first one was completed, so just getting it back to where it should have been a couple of years ago.

The body is all panel beaten and just hanging around on its rollover frame. Couple of current body pics for show and tell...

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[damienengland]

So I decided that if the van is going to make the 2019 Summernats, then i need to open up multiple and parallel work fronts. Did some thought on the interior and figured i can get a move along on obvious bits. Question was, how comfortable do i want to be, driving from Melbourne to Canberra in January? Well, very comfy!

Decided to move ahead with purchasing some Commodore buckets and after trawling the net, I came across an auction for an interior out of a WN Caprice V. Scored the lot yesterday and even got the seller to throw in the instrument cluster for an agreed price. The rear facing multimedia screens could be pretty cool in the van! Very happy with the outcome but looking at things tonight, it looks like I've got a lot of schematics to work through, to get these seats fully operational with every function working.

Good news is that along with the charcoal grey crash pad that's already finished, its kind of set the theme for the interior. I might look to do the roof lining in the same colour as the off white stripe on the seats.

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[Valencia]

Big tick for the seats and trim they are very comfortable seats indeed
you have some work ahead of you keep the pics coming Damo

[Robbo]

This will become an extremely comfortable van for travelling.