Sammy's CF Bedford Van

[Sammy]

yeah I know from other cars that the electric is the go, i'll have to see what the davies craig thermos are and hopefully fit two of them in there or something! .... the benefit of them too is that the centre of the motor is where its the longest (water pump)and the twin will have the motors off centre so should work a lot better!

[Marishka]

Anyone ever thought of adding another radiator
Under the van somewhere and have 2 radiators?
Maybe opposite side to the fuel tank  with some sorta air scoop to direct air
In and up through it, and a few thermo fans above it.
Possibly might be able to remove the front one if the back one was big enough n worked well.
Just a thought.

[Sammy]

I see no reason why you couldn't do it, there's definitely enough room under a Bedford to fit it!! but I think I'd prefer to run a mechanical fan than to go to the effort of a second radiator!

on the radiator subject, I've finally decided on a radiator support and location, few bits to finish off but you get the general idea of how its going to go!

I've got to get some more info on ford mondeo twin thermos, apparently these are narrower than the AU ones and fit this radiator perfectly with some minor trimming, but im not sure on the thickness of them either, heres hoping!!

[Marishka]

Hey Sammy , How far back from the standard position did the
engine mounts have to go?
And did you cut the orig ones off and just reposition them?
Or fabricate up new ones?
Cheers marty

[Sammy]

its bang on 2 inches back ... it must have been luck hehe, I just mounted the gearbox in the middle of the cross-member (slots running front to back for the two holes) and that's where the mounts ended up for the engine.

the mounts are the originals cut from the cross-member and welded back on, I had to slightly grind the front outer corners down a bit to suit the curve in the cross-member where they ended up, but other than that straight on really ... I am also going to adjust the rear bit that angles back as it slightly hangs over the rear of the cross-member so i'll just cut a slot in the piece that runs from front to rear and get it into the right angle (hard to explain)

funnily enough the original holden 6 bottom radiator hose will fit on the V8 for the rear, its just slightly too long, and the top one is something random I had left over from some project!

also got the crank and water pump pulleys my mate had spare today, they are HQ and now I just need to find a alternator support to suit the pulley offset then im done in that area! (didn't get all the pulleys and brackets with the motor)

[SkippyThBushKangeroo]

hey groovers.... i ran a thermo fan on ol futile ..n found out  bout year later the thermo fan was ac tually pullin the radiator cores outta their  tank joins , started weeping ... core joins that is (an me) :-):-)  .. went back to mechanical as easier than tryin to fit a shrouded fan mount   without gin through cares again .. cheers :-)

[Marishka]

Sounds good Sammy,
Cheers for the info

[Sammy]

so got mondeo twin thermos ... roughly trimmed to fit on the radiator, f***ing lovely, 1 inch on the dot happy days!

the gap may be slightly less as i have to space the top of the radiator off the main support a bit, but will be like 5mm difference! very happy with the radiator and fans now!! my new favourite for conversions i reckon!!

[Sammy]

did another session out at the brothers place to rape and pillage some more bits of the donor VS Commodore!

So as you can see my little Holden Cruze is become quite the work horse hehehehe. One seat, upper section of the dash, most of the wiring loom, steering column, and some other odds and ends

so once I got home I just HADDDDDD to see if these bits were going to fit .... at all ....

first was the dash, just sat it in place, will need some massaging, but I reckon it shouldn't be too hard to get it a lot closer to the windscreen and sitting nicely!

Next was to see how the steering column would mount and line up for the rack .... surprisingly good

so I am reckoning, make a few custom mounts to suit the bolt holes for the column and one or two support bars and it will be sweet as, then at the bottom, if I machine two flat sides into the rack shaft I reckon it will drop into place kinda like it was meant to be there

[BusyKiwi]

I put the VN steering column in my standard CF, used the VN steering cuplink but turned it upside down with no modifications to fit the CF steering rack.
The VS one looks slightly different