1971 Austin Van

[dean36014]

I bought this back in 2007 just before i went into hospital for back surgery. It was a don't look on the dark side, look on the bright side you'll be OK sort of thing. Something to look forward to after hopefully having a successful operation.
I bought it as a pick up, and assumed that was what it was. It looked like this when I bought it.


It was a 10yd car, when i first saw it i thought it looked great, the more you looked at it you realised it was terminally rotten. It needed serious amount of repairs to the cab and chassis, so I bought it for £150, always a sucker for a lost cause .
Had it transported home, and didn't really do that much until I'd recovered from the op.
First job was to get rid of the dexion and rotton wood pick up back. It practically fell off.
Then the cab was unbolted and lifted off revealing a rotten chassis.


Loads of welding needed.

Eventually after a few false starts the chassis looked like this.

While researching the chassis number i discovered that as it started AAVC, it should have been an Austin van, so the serch was on for a van body. in the meantime the repairs of the cab could take place.
Lots of this,


I managed to find a load of second panels that had been poorly fitted, but save me a fortune. These were cut away, repaired and fitted. In total it had complete new inner wings, complete sill structures, new floors, A posts, and bottom of b posts.
Eventually the rust was replaced and the cab was solid again.


A 1956 rear van was purchased needing repairs.

A vast some of money was spent on these

And the inside of the van looked like this.

After fitting new floors wheel arches, and front and rear panels, it was time to tackle the roof.
Removing the roof skin revealed the roof support panels to be rotten.

Repairs where needed on all 4 sides. then the roof gutters where plug welded on, and finally the roof skin replaced.

It doesn't seem much for 2 and a half years work. There are definately things I would do differently, and could have now done alot better as my welding and fabrication skills have improved during the build. Progress is now slow again, due to having an accident at work and damaging my spine in the same place i was operated on . Can only really work on it on the good days now, and they don't come to often at the moment.

[maverick]

Looks great.
Hope you recover soon.

[alanworland]

Coming on fine by the look of it! My old Company (STC) had a fleet of Austin vans, one of which I used to travel through London at rush hour (mind you it's always rush hour in London!) It was desperatley low on petrol and the thought of running out wasn't good - I turned the engine off virtually everytime I stopped! eventually found a garage and all was well.
I seem to remember that it went very well.
Even slow progress is progress (as and when you can)
Get well soon.

[bmcecosse]

Fantastic work - I never cease to be amazed at the projects taken on and brought to completion. I am in total awe. SAnd having had my own share of back problems over the years, I have some idea of what it's like - get well soon!

[dean36014]

Well I've no money as usual, it sucks being off work for twelve weeks on sick pay. So, no money means no shotblasting,however I did find a tin of paint stripper in the garage. I love bubbles ;D

Stripped the roof and the rear doors. no real surprises in either thankfully, just a bit of light filler hiding a dent in one door.


Next job was to sort out the front wings. These are a bit short of metal where they attach to the front panel. Basically if you pull them in and bolt them up, the wings don't fit right to the front valance. So a little steel was added to the edge. Thanks to the MMOC for this tip, just annoying have to modify new panels.

This now results in the edges following the body line on the front valance.

Luckily in the darkest recesses of the garage I found two large tins of body filler, bought in more prosperous times, so let the filling commence. Rough shaping of the first layer.


Its going to take a long time to get it filled right. Matt black paint and whitewall tyres is looking more and more likely
Today I went and picked up some seats I bought of ebay for £13. A set of jaguar XJS leather seats in green. I'm not overly fond of the colour, but that can always be changed, but the style just looks so right for a '70's vehicle.

The great thing abouts these are they have flat runners on the bottom making them easy to fit into any vehicle. I need to add about a 3 inch lift to the runners to get them to the right height, but in my opinion they just look so right trial fitted in the cab on some blocks of wood.

I'm going to swap the seats over so you can reach the tilt mechanism easier as you can't reach them around the B post. Just need some suitable box section or U channel now to make the subframes

[Dean]

Get well soon Dean!!!

The project looks amazing, keep it up and thanks for sharing.

[Jefftav]

Try speaking nicely to a metal fabrication company they will probably have off cuts of box section or U channel that go in the skip but might be OK for your needs. They can only say No but will probably be quite happy to donate offcuts when you explain what you are doing.

Van looks fantastic, hope you get over your health issues soon.

[dean36014]

positions. Bolted the steering column in and tried the seating position.....perfect I'm well chuffed with the way its going to look inside.


I'm using an older moggie steering wheel with the chrome spokes on.Now there's plenty of room for my knees, which there wasn't with the original moggie seats.

[RussLCV]

Looking great now please keep us posted the Minor LCV Register

[Mike Shipman]

"Vantastic!" Dean... it looks really good, Im in awe of you guys who can do bodywork such as this.