1968 Citroen HY Van/Rust Bucket

[philmcrakin]

I'm sure you have all seen hanger18's story with his Citroen H van conversion. I was inspired by his sterling work and decided to do the same thing with my food truck. However I'm going for the classic Rover 3.5 ltr V8 to UN1 transaxle gearbox conversion.

I bought my van in June last year 2018 and very quickly realized that if I did not act quickly I would loose the van to rot over the winter. so set about removing the cancer in the van and as it had been brush painted yellow I knew I have a big job ahead. I spent a couple of weeks just going over the entire van and grinding and sanding down any patch of paint that was bubble up or looked like it might be hiding rust.

Below is a link to some pictures of the van when I first got it and the original add on ebay.

photos.app.goo.gl/gdaikYfr3BcPWcQM9

[philmcrakin]

Rust, rust, rust and more rust. The van really had been unloved before I bought it, it had been used at various festivals since 2003 and when not in festivals had been stored outside. the rust in the rear subframe was extensive and I ended up cutting the entire rear cross member out and rebuild it from scratch. I rolled around under the van tapping it with a hammer and cut out anything I found that was rotten, replaced the floors on the left hand side behind the driver too.



Then set about removing all the body filler filled repairs on the van and replaced with a mix of new metal and fibreglass. I was more interested in making it structurally sound and treating and preventing the rust from consuming the whole van over winter.

So here is a collection of the pics of the van rusty and rotting on the outside. From Yellow to Grey wit ha white roof.


photos.app.goo.gl/UQVp8tSyGiXqNGL39

[discostew38]

All ways liked these vans but I'm not brave enough to take one on as a project

[hanger18]

Hi watching with interest.. Thanks for the plug.
Still loving every minute with my H van. Most fun vehicle I’ve built to date.
Best of luck with the rust issues.. I spent a fortune on sealers, wax’s, stone chip ect ect. And still the damn rust comes through. Several of my friends have H vans and there all suffering the same fate.
Now have plans to build another H … Dave. (hanger18)

[philmcrakin]

Dave,

I've gone down the route of treating the van like a vehicle a relic should be. Modern products are made for modern metal with a low ferrous content, I'm repairing and replacing rot and then using the very old school technique of hot lead to seal and protect the metal. To top this off I have been able to get hold of a 40 year old drum of under body seal (full suits, respirators to apply this stuff), combined with paints that contain Volatile non organic compounds (yes you can still get them) and mixing the primers with galvanized which is a sacrificial zinc based paint (used on battleships and bridges). Modern products just don't offer the same protection to a old vehicle made from metal that was made using old smelting techniques in impure environments with impure melts. It means it does cost more but does mean the van will never rot. I'll post up some more pics soon.

[hanger18]

I lead loaded my van.. it just rusted around the lead. ha ha. I am going down a route with my new van that i thought i would NEVER take….. Fibreglass.. A mate of mine is all so building a second H van and the fibre glass panels he is using are the best I have ever seen..My cab will be steel but the rear half will be glass. Hope to start building around Christmas.Look forward to your photos.

[philmcrakin]

Right back to updating on the van. This last year has been full of family, work and van times but thought as it is quiet at work I would use the time to post some pics. these are all of the respray and the welding. All of this was done outside as at the time of starting this I had no garage or workshop not even a driveway to park it on. I ended up strike a deal with the chap who did the body work and respray to rent a corner of his workshop and a parking space outside. So lots of cold wet days outside under a van lying on gravel welding.....




Painting done mostly at this point all rust treated some parts were leaded too. I then went to work looking at all the rust on the inside and underneath.

[lmr]

Love these vans!

[jonsey]

Cool van

[retrotoe]

cool van love your determernation get it done.

[philmcrakin]

Dec 22, 2019 5:41:59 GMT retrotoe said:

cool van love your determernation get it done.

Thank you it has been a long road full of many challenges.

[philmcrakin]

So onto the welding and rust removal. I paid some one else to replace the rear cross member but I thought why can't I do this? How hard can it be? Well it turns out fabrication and welding are difficult, time consuming and complex jobs to do. My learning curve has been steep and it's been a year of challenges. But thanks to forums like this one and youtube and the library I have been able to get curse word done.

I bought a sealy "professional" gasless mig 130 (professional my ) so some of the early welding I did was pigeon curse word and I had to do a lot of grinding. It was made harder due to the van being made of flimsy thin rusting metal, I have since revisited some of the work I did and have re-worked a lot of the early welds.

[philmcrakin]

There is a gutter that runs the length of the van and where it had been damaged water had pooled rotted the roof and poured down the the pillars into the vans chassis and into the interior of the van. I also noticed some bubbling in the roof bulkhead and so once I had repaired the pillars I set to work on this. Had to cut most of it out and then fabricate a curved section to fit. The roof of the cab and the roof of the van are only folded and glued together along the roof seam it would seem. So I have welded this seam now so stronger and water proof.

[philmcrakin]

Once I had made the structure of the van a bit more rigged with these repairs (it no longer flexed side to side) I decide to attack the chassis bulkheads. This van has a clever trick up it's sleeve, the front clip/chassis unbolts and the engine gearbox and front clip can be removed. So I purchased a seesaw jack and got to work.

[philmcrakin]

Once I had the clearance and the engine was out, I actually had a dry and sheltered space to work. So although I was still outside I was kind of inside..the van. Both support arms had rotted away and there was nothing left at all, the outriggers were toast on both sides and both the back and bottom of the central bulkhead were blown out. Being an amateur I didn't know quiet how to approach all this and did it in smaller sections. I wish not that I had just made up larger panels to make the work a bit easier but you live and learn. I spent a lot of time cleaning and treating the rust, Kurust seems to do the trick I then leaded some places and coated it all with a sacrificial paint called galvafroid. It is used to paint road bridges and has a high metal content so it will rust before the metal underneath does. So the insides of all the bulk heads where possible have been coated and sealed inside.



















I made these outriggers straight bottomed but realised later that the steering box actuall stits under them and they should have a recess and curve up over the space.


















Rusty metal would pour out of ever whole I cut in the chassis.







Somebody had jacked the van up on this side and collapsed the chassis in. I had to cut to whole thing out but the bit was to mangled to even work out what was there before.
So I just made it up.































Yes I know the welds don't look great but they are strong.



Galvafroided the whole thing some of my repairs where over older repairs done years ago. This is where experience comes in I should really have replaced larger sections of the the van at a time instead of over patching. Hindsight! 




















Once the bulk head was ridge again I then had to tackle another issue of my own making. I have had the bright idea to put a Rover 3.5 V8 and Renault UN1 trans-axle gearbox into the van.
So would need more space and the bulkhead would need to be moved. So I went to work with the grinder, welder and a dose of stupidity tempered with a splash of well stupidity.

[philmcrakin]

It was at this time I went off and bought a Renault UN1 gearbox and a 3.5 V8, I drove to Manchester to pick it up. The whole thing had been in a Lamborghini Countach replica and been sitting in a garage for 14 years. Gearbox was good came with adaptor plate but missing the crucial extended input shaft to reach the V8.

[philmcrakin]

Stripped the engine only to find one of the pistons was rusted into the barrel.

[philmcrakin]

Removed the Indenor diesel engine and ironically I sold it to a chap in france.

[simes]

Such a. Iconic vehicle, I love the way the engine is designed to come of these.

[philmcrakin]

Dec 22, 2019 15:08:43 GMT simes said:

Such a. Iconic vehicle, I love the way the engine is designed to come of these.

It is awesome easier to do if you have a two post lift. I'll post up some pics of the new gearbox mounts I designed them so they guide the body down onto the chassis and line the holes up correctly.