Austin 7cwt van resurrection

[Mat.T]

Evening all, I have been tasked with resurrecting my works Austin 7cwt van, (marina in other words!) I figured it would be of some interest on here it's even the same colour as the forum! 
I work at a Rolls Royce and Bentley specialist. My boss ran various marina vans over the years when they were still current. Most got scrapped when the body's gave out but he hung on to this van mostly due to it being a early one and good thing he did!
Last on the road in 2003, it's pretty solid bit will need welding. There are quite a few NOS parts in the back from various BL/rover dealers when they were offloading old stock. My boss used to buy job lots whilst they were cheap.

I've had it running already, although not from its own fuel surply. And we haven't found the keys yet so I've had to temporarily hot wire it!
 

[Mat.T]

Use only genuine unipart filters on your BL chod!

[spartacus]

Ace! Tell us you've done it all already and you're going to upload the rest of the recommissioning over the next ten minutes?

[Mat.T]

No I only started last week, I manage to get a couple of hours a week to escape from doing customers vehicles. 

I have been busy hunting part numbers. I've sourced all 6 wheel cylinders and the 3 brake flexis all from the local motorfactors.

Currently got the brake servo on my bench which looks serviceable. The master cylinder definitely doesn't though.

Also 5 tyres source from demon tweeks of all places 155/80/13 2018 date stamped toyos for £20.49 +vat!! Each

[DSdriver]

I hope you're counting the hours, we set a high bench mark

This could be another epic thread.

[chodweaver]

That looks like Harvest Gold in the pics and the grill suggests the 1.3 engine.

Eagerly anticipating its recommissionerising.

Sent from my BV6000 using Tapatalk

[trigger]

This is going to be great! It's potentially the oldest Marina van in the UK now going by the chassis number, it's definitely in the first 600 made.

[adw1977]

This looks like a very interesting project. 

7cwt means 1100 engine? 

[trigger]

7cwt just means lightweight, would be a 440 in later vans so Marina axle and wheels, a 10cwt is the heavyweight which is the 575 in later vans (which mine is) and has larger wheels with spacers and a MGB rear axle.

[adw1977]

4 minutes ago, trigger said:

7cwt just means lightweight, would be a 440 in later vans so Marina axle and wheels, a 10cwt is the heavyweight which is the 575 in later vans (which mine is) and has larger wheels with spacers and a MGB rear axle.

Looking at my brochures (which are later, 1977 and 1979) it seems that although the 10cwt / 550 was always 1275cc, the 7cwt or 440 came with either the 1098cc or 1275cc engine, so I guess this one could be either.  DVLA say 0 cc!

[telf]

my uncle had a 1.3 marina back in the late 70s couple of times he had it to 100mph along the A69 with me in it, NUTTER.

[SiC]

Tell us more about your red Toledo that's in the background!

[brownnova]

This looks awesome!!! Keep us posted! 

[taxi paul]

Top tinkering. Good man. 

[Mat.T]

I'm glad it's of some interest! Could be a slow project but I'm looking forward to it.

The van was originally a 1100cc but has gained a 1275cc from another van at some stage. The V5 shows it as a 1275cc.

As it's an early van it's got the smaller diameter front and rear wheel cylinders. Combined with the 1100 engine this was certainly not a performance machine. Apparently it was occasional used to tow a plant trailer full of rolls parts!

Today's haul I've been hunting in the stores at work and found a couple more NOS panels. Door skin with BL sticker and rear panel with Austin rover sticker!

As for the Toledo, it has been in my ownership since 2005, I was 18 when I got it, I'm the second owner.

A friend resprayed it a few years ago. I did some front wing welding repairs but other than that it's very rust free.

Mostly standard bar the period slotmags. Triumph tune lowering springs and Dolomite sprint roll bars. Still a 1300 single carb

Just hit 51k miles. Doesn't get used as much as it deserves!!

 

[Amishtat]

Whereabouts are you? Trying to figure out whether I've seen your lovely Toledo around.. 

[trigger]

I'd be surprised if you haven't seen it about!

[Mat.T]

I'm on the Essex/Suffolk border

[Amishtat]

Me too! That explains it 

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 7/25/2019 at 11:03 PM, chodweaver said:

That looks like Harvest Gold in the pics and the grill suggests the 1.3 engine.
 

marauda vans all had 1300 grille ?

[chodweaver]

Ohhhhh.....

Sent from my BV6000 using Tapatalk

[Mat.T]

So far, brake master cylinder, clutch master and clutch slave all resealed. I've found 3 brake servos in the back of the van so cleaned up the most serviceable one and gave it a lick of paint.

I guess it's an advantage the van was in good shape when it was laid up, all the cylinder bores were perfect even the old brake fluid was nice and clean. So I won't be sending anything off to past parts this time!

Wheel cylinders all readily available from Essex motorfactors after a bit of head scratching with part numbers.

Brake adjusters were all seized so I found it easier to remove the front back plates and sort them in the work shop. Plus give them a clean up and some paint.

I ordered the seal kits from Rimmer bros who seemed as cheap as any where else.

Plus I had to get these:

 

[barrett]

Please tell me this is going to go through the company's paint shop? Next stop, Pebble Beach!

[New POD]

7 hours ago, barrett said:

Please tell me this is going to go through the company's paint shop? Next stop, Pebble Beach!

Tell me you are going to fit Ital front discs.  And a Toyota 5 speed gearbox.  It's basically a Morris minor/ mg midget really isn't so any upgrades to more modern spec might be chased via the usual minor / mg specialists. 

I love it. 

[Mat.T]

It's definitely going in a paint shop! Probably not Pebble beach some of those cars don't even run, I need to put this van to work!

There are lots of upgrades that could be done but for now we are going for the full shite 70s van experience and keeping the drums all round!

[ETCHY]

Cool van & a great 1970's colour. It's crazy how many of these you used to see but now they've just disappeared - well done for saving it .

It always puzzled me that they put a different dashboard in these (with that wacking great speedo) compared to the saloons, why would they not just have kept the saloon dash as presumably it would fit & would be cheaper to just bung in?  Another example of BL weirdness I suppose.

 

[Mat.T]

Finally managed to get some progress on this. Rear brakes finished and adjusted. New flexis fitted, Brakes bled. 

Fitted a temporary fuel supply (5litre petrol can) and the van moved from its parking space for the fist time since 2003!

A short trip down the track and the van is now. Safe and sound in the back of the workshop

Next job get the van to run from its own petrol supply and replace the fuel lines.

Up on axle stands and out with the tank which looks pretty sound.

The exhaust at this moment decided to completely disintegrate. Thankfully they are some exhaust bits in the van. I think the larger bore pipe must be for the 1.8?

[Mat.T]

Petrol tank derusted. Actually it's in pretty good nick. I put some old diesel/petrol mix in it and it didn't leak. So filled it will some tank cleaning stuff we had left over from another job. I Had a look down the filler neck with an endoscope and I was surprised to find the inside rust free. Even the filter on the end of the pickup was clear.

Derusted and painted

I Remade all the fuel lines in kunifer, re fitted the tank and fitted the new exhaust. The van now runs from its own fuel supply!

[Mat.T]

So with the van running from its own petrol supply ment I could run it longer and get it up to temperature. As the anti freeze was nice and green I figured the cooling system wouldn't be too bad, I was wrong! After about 10 mins running it started puking out coolant from the expansion over flow!

Took the rad out and gave it a power flush

I removed the thermostat and found the housing had corroded and was full of holes.

I found a spare one on the spare engine we have in the workshop and it's gold! So either it's a goldseal engine or someone liked gold paint a bit to much.

Took the coolant hoses off and found the reason for over heating.

Water pump is completely blocked with white gunk

[eddyramrod]

As a lifelong van licker I'm following this!  A water pump should be easy to get, but see if you can clear the passages in the block before you fit it.  My Cyprus A40 had the same thing.  In fact everything you might need for that engine should be pretty easy to get hold of.  If you have the time you might as well strip it, prep the head for unleaded, open up the ports a bit...