This is no longer a Flintstone car

When we first started the project we ripped the floor out of our van with the intention of replacing the whole thing. I soon discovered that no one manufactured a replacement floor for a 1971 model. I had been looking everywhere for a fix for my problem and finally I found http://www.klassicfab.com.













They make this great one-piece replace floor and as you can see it fits very nicely.













I love the days when new parts show up, it like having a birthday in the shop.

We have moose in Alaska!!!!

So looking at the bumper you might be thinking "man that thing is huge". Well, yes it is!! There was a lot of effort that went into the design and construction of this part of the van. It needed to have some style with flowing curves to match the shape of the van. It needed to be more stable than the existing bumper to make our insurance company happy. It also needed to be taller to account for the near 4inch drop that the van is getting. It is well built and a little on the heavy side but I believe that it will create a level of safety that we need from an older vehicle, that way if we do have a car pull out or a moose step out in front of us there will be something between us and it.

Framing the Trunk Lid

You know how some ideas seem really great at first, then they don't seem as good later!!!! Well this one wasn't like that at all, ha. It hasn't been easy working through the whole thing but it really is coming together nicely and the room it gives us has been worth the effort. We been distracted with some other things and I have a new batch of kids with only 1 experienced welder so the welding projects take a little longer because I'm training the kids as we go. When it comes to welding metal stock to sheet metal it can get a little tricky. Jaxon (Junior in high school, wants to be a welder) is practicing a bit before starts some of the finish work on this project. You can see in the picture below the little end caps that Jay made are a great fit but there are some small gaps to fill. Jaxon really wants to be able to tig weld this, but we'll see. You can also see the piece of angle iron that frames the edge of the once jagged opening.



Below you can see the lid itself with the new flange around it it closes nicely and in the end it will get a rubber gasket around the flange to ensure a good seal (no fumes in the cab). In the background you can also see how nice the new rear seat fits (leather, how fancy). The lid isn't quit finished yet, but you can see how nice its turning out. With carpet you wont even know its there.



The lid will be mounted to trunk style hings and attached to linear actuators to hold it up. Makes a lot more room, we love it!!!!!!!

A Little Breathing Room Would Be Nice!!!!

We know from day one that this was a big motor and it would take a lot to get it in, but we had no idea!!!!! As you can see from the image below we couldn't use a traditional engine hoist to bring the engine into place. We ended up using a floor jack and lots of muscle.


Once we got it into position (shown below) we realized that we wouldn't have enough room to work on the top half of the engine. We needed more room!!!!! After much brainstorming and some research on the internet we had a plan. We decided to cut ANOTHER hole in our van (its starting to look like a cheese grater).



So we cut out the WHOLE rear deck. From the fuel tank wall to the back (including the buildt in cross-member), from the right side of the original engine compartment to the left. In the picture it looks crooked, but it is just an illusion. The cuts came out perfect.



You'll notice in the next picture Jay Thompson (8th grade student at the time) built a very nice torsion bar to take the strain that cross-member would have. The new torsion bar can be removed with 8 bolts to make way for the engine and hoist.


When the trunk lid is finished, the torsion bar will be the only thing in the way when we try to work on the engine. We are working on the framing and hinge-work right now but will include more pictures as that finishes.



You'll also notice on the left side we have removed the spare tire compartment. This will be framed in and made into a access panel with a 3x9x24 inch compartment for the ECU, fuse panel and other electrical. This also made room for the air filter, and most likely the inter-cooler.

Emmet grinding the welds to remove spare tire compartment

Thanks to those doing the little stuff!!!!!!

I don't always show all the little things that get done. Not everyone can be grinding, welding, and installing there just isn't always big stuff that is ready. The students are good about finding little things to do and they don't even complain a lot (as long as the music is going). Often the students will ask what to do and I'll have to just give them a section to prep, and sand, an item to clean and grind, degreasing and scrubbing, there is always grunt work to do, so thanks!!!!!!!!

Low Rider! Ok Kinda Low Rider!

Well the Van is starting to look better, I didn't say good. We still have a lot to do, more to do than we have time to do them. But Jay and I did get the front spindles in and there great.
Empty wheel well before new spindles.

Those guys at Wagenswest sure does an nice job.

Makes me want to paint the wheel wells instead of undercoating them.
I'm not liking the paint job on the brake shrouds and I think they are going to chip very easy, so when we get the powder coating equipment going I think this will be one of the first parts to do.

The new rims and tires with the drop spindles. Looks nice!! You can see how the whole thing is tipping forward a little without the rear drop in.

wow, those wheels are going to look nice!

Square Peg into a Round Hole

Well the engine is in the van but this was not an easy task.

First it was very difficult to get the engine balanced at the correct angle to go in, and there wasn't enough room to bring the engine hoist in all the way.




To make things worse there was STILL some oil in some of the return line and stuff and then on the floor, our shoes and our knees. MORE floor dry!!!!



We balanced the whole unit on the floor jack and Paul, Jay, Thor and I muscled it into place. put the 2 bolts at the front of the tranny. Then we put the 2 drive axels in place, this really helped to get things lined up.