My -79 Transit recovery truck

[fredrik]

Early this year I decided it was time to fix my Transit a bit, it was now very rusty and the engine and drivertrain needend some attention to.

I have had it for about three years now and it has been working fine, the engine is 2 liters 4 cyl and the gearbox is changed to a 5 speed manual from a -86 pickup, the rear axle is from the same -86 transit.

This post will probably be very long, I have been working for 6 months now and I'm no where near getting finished. Meanwhile I have bought a VW LT 31 to use as a temporary recovery truck. Please don't hate me for buying a VW..


Here it has just been parked in my garage



As you can see the frame was in poor condition.







holes and rust everywhere



welded and whole again..



painted with primer


painted with the top coat



the back of the frame was rebuilt, the old end was so bad it wasn't possible to fix it.


painted with primer. I fixed new holders for the rear lights to.





The board (is that what it's called ??) is now painted with primer


That's all for now. More pictures will be posted soon, I have started welding on the cabin and i't very rusted.

Please let me know if I use the wrong words for the parts of the truck, some words that I don't know I use an online dictionary and it seems not to be quite right all the time..

Over and out / Fredrik

[Luke]

wow mate that is a superb job you are doing
that truck is very lucky to have you as its owner hows the cab/cabin coming on

[fredrik]

I've been working on the cabin for about a month now. It's very rusted, I should have started with the cabin because if I hade done so I would have seen that it wouldn't be worth all this work.. But I cant't quit now, the frame and the board (?) is now in very good condition.

will post more pictures from the cabin tomorrow, has to go to bed now.

OK, one apetizer, here it comes..



As you can see, it needs a lot of work..



/ Fredrik

[MrMPuk]

Is there any original metal left?

[fredrik]

Oh yes, middle part of the floor, upper part of the back panel and almost the whole roof.

No seriously I know, it's really to much to fix but I will keep on welding until I find a better cabin. I will cut the frame just behind the back of the cabin and take a better cabin with the front end of the frame and weld them together..

[ovlov]

Bloody ell its worse than your mk1 Luke Still youre doing a good job Fredrik

[Luke]

wow and i thought mine was bad

[fredrik]

I'd say that they are about as bad both mine and yours. You seem to need a whole new wheel house..

Welding does get you a nice tan at least, I won't have time to be on the beach much this summer

[MrMPuk]

Wheel house!

[transitgeoff]

good work mate much better than just sitting on the computor talking about doing it

[fredrik]

Wheel house!

OK, i don't really get it.. Isn't it called wheelhouse ?? I mean the area inside of the outer fender. please help me..

Oh now i get it wheel house, where you steer the boat.. I'm stupid, i translated from swedish, obviously it's called something else..

[MrMPuk]

Sorry couldn't help myself. You're English is far better than my Swedish!

[fredrik]

Sorry couldn't help myself. You're English is far better than my Swedish!

OK, what is it called then ? Did you understand what part i meant?
The area around the wheel inside of the outer fender.
Mudgard perhaps ?
Oh i don't know, these online dictionarys aren't very good..

[Transitwalla]

Maybe your talking about the wheelarch !! Excellent job by the way and nice to see the quality of the work is the same from start to finish . . sometimes people start off the job doing good work then because they get fed up or start rushing to get it finished the quality of the work is getting worse

Restoring vehicles is very often a labour of love those dedicated to the cause produce consistent work and this is reflected in the finished article. When you finish all the work on this recovery truck it will live longer than its owner

[fredrik]

You're quite right, I usuallt get fed up after a few months and frankly I have my moments with the Transit to.
But, as I have bought a temporary recovery truck so this restoration will be done properly until the last screw.

OK, wheelarch may be the word I was looking for.. I thought that was the part of the bodywork closest to the wheel from the outside.
Not a very easy to understand my explination, I will get a technical dictionary.