1964 Anglia Van - Accident damaged.

[Mick The Cabbie]

For years I've searched on & off for an Anglia van, since seeing a couple of em at the pod back in the early 90's. One with a pinto I think and one with a Fiat twincam.

I did own a black 1600GT powered one for a short while 2 years ago but it was too much of a project at the time. I sold it on to a mate.

This one turned up for sale last week. It is very good in places though but obviously has been welded a fair bit over the years (haven't most of em?!).

It has quite a good spec but lots of filler & “just dry” paint etc. I was really looking for one which had stood the test of time a little more but these are so rare now so I guess beggars cant always be choosers.

Before I had chance to view it, the owner crashed it, causing damage to the o/s wing, wing mounting rail, front panel, the wheel has hit the front inner wheel well and caused the seam to split from the bulkhead. The TCA has pulled out of the x member and the wheel is broken too.

Obviously then the asking price was adjusted accordingly, which made it more appealing. The damage appears for me to be quite easy and not hugely expensive to repair. I think i've already located a front panel. A matching pair of glass wings will be fitted along with new wing mounting rails. I'd like to dig further and open the can of worms that I suspect may lie beneath and do more of a proper resto job but for now, i'll just use it and have some fun!

[devilishdesigner]

cool looking van, looks like you got a bit of welding ahead of you though!

[slater]

At least the doors ok! ;D

[trg1984]

looks a very cool van (without the damage) are panel availble for these??

[zetecvan]

Welcome over here Cossie350Anglia...er I mean Stretch...

Mick is a regular over on OSF and the project has been over there since he got it. Come on Mick, post up all your pictures. 'A little bit of rot' doesn't sum it up!

Oh, and blue anglia vans rock ;D

[Deleted]

Hello matey, get the rest of the pics up. Shock and awe the crowd ;D

[stealthstylz]

I recongise that, doesn't the metal have a nice coulander style surface finish underneath?

Matt

[Mick The Cabbie]

May 18, 2008 9:18:37 GMT trg1984 said:

looks a very cool van (without the damage) are panel availble for these??

Cheers mate! And yep, most panels are still available as you'll see later.

May 18, 2008 10:21:00 GMT zetecvan said:

Welcome over here Cossie350Anglia...er I mean Stretch...

Mick is a regular over on OSF and the project has been over there since he got it. Come on Mick, post up all your pictures. 'A little bit of rot' doesn't sum it up!

Oh, and blue anglia vans rock ;D

May 18, 2008 12:14:17 GMT Jonny69 said:

Hello matey, get the rest of the pics up. Shock and awe the crowd ;D

Mike + Jonny! So you recognised me then, even with my new disguise!
I'm on the case now to get the resto thread up on here for all these peeps to see ;D

[trg1984]

May 18, 2008 18:22:06 GMT Mick The Cabbie said:

May 18, 2008 9:18:37 GMT trg1984 said:

looks a very cool van (without the damage) are panel availble for these??

Cheers mate! And yep, most panels are still available as you'll see later.

i'll keep an eye on it then, i very nearly got an anglia instead of my mini. would still like one now.

[Mick The Cabbie]

Ok then peeps, if you've been paying attention up until now and haven't fallen asleep you'll already be aware that project blue van has been published on another forum. In fact as of the begining of August 2007

What I plan to do now on here is as follows...

Ahem..
Rather then spend hours and hours re-writing it all into a"past tense" fashion, I'm gonna just copy it all on to here in stages pretty much as it was originally written.
Each new post will have a dated heading in order for it all to make sense.
Hopefully it WILL make sense. If it doesn't, I guess you'll just have file a complaint!!!

[Mick The Cabbie]

AUGUST 2nd 2007

Made the crossmember up today. Basically an Escy one wiv Angrybox fixings stitched on. Have given it a lick of black paint too tonight after pic was taken.

[Mick The Cabbie]

AUGUST 5th 2007

The X-member now after a quick lick of black. I would normally have had this blasted first to make it mint but then I would be wanting to make everything else mint and thats how a quick fix ends up as a full on 2 year resto! I'm finding it really difficult to stop myself pulling the van completely apart. I've found some small areas which need attention but generally she looks to be quite strong and solid and actually very good in many places

Whilst I've been digging and prodding, I've been going along trying tidy up some previously done welding. I've found a little rot in the o/s A pillar. Now debating if my repair is good enuff or do i order a new one from expressed panels.. (approx £70 per side. We'll see what the n/s looks like i think then make a decision. Where do you draw the line??? :?

Found some rot by the antiroll bar mount

Got me a front panel too courtesy of fleabay!!!! The panel's rock solid but just needs a little repairing where the headlights go.

[Mick The Cabbie]

AUGUST 7th 2007

Finally got the old girl rolling again today




I managed to dig out some quarter bumpers tonight to use on the back end. I think they came off an ecy van and the brackets are virtually spot on!
Next job is to strip off the rest of the front end.
Also trying to decide on rims. I'm not keen on the three remaining 14" minilights. Not sure weather to go for Lotus rims or some other alloys. Whichever i go for, they'll be on obligatory 175/50-13's

[trg1984]

some retro wheels would look fantastic but for some reason i really like the look of the white one against the colour, I'm not usually keen on modern rims on retros at all but love the look of that

[Mick The Cabbie]

May 18, 2008 19:21:09 GMT trg1984 said:

some retro wheels would look fantastic but for some reason I really like the look of the white one against the colour, I'm not usually keen on modern rims on retros at all but love the look of that

That wheel's borrowed from another motor just to make it roll. It's a modern rally slag wheel and wouldn't really suit the theme of the van.
Since this was originally written, I've actually got some new rims to go on it. I'm keeping shtum about em for now though.. ;D

More updates on the repairs over the next day or so!!

[G4vBr]

Cool van, I've always liked anglias, but never owned one...yet. Looking forward to the rest of the updates.

[Mick The Cabbie]

AUGUST 15th 2007

Well I pondered for many many hours about weather or not to pull off the reasonably pretty looking undamaged n/s wing. It seemed likely that 43 years of road muck had probably taken its toll on this side of the van just as it had on the o/s. Plus however nicely done, I really didn't like the way the seams and panel joins had all been spooned over... I would much rather see the original factory joins.

So out came the angle grinder to see if I could uncover the original joints/gaps.
Firstly after removing lots of nicely done spooning, I was faced with lots of tinworm

The bottom of the wing actually turned out to be the bottom of the rotten A pillar. Then off with the encrusted mud, underseal, shutz, seamsealer, fibreglassing and other poo from the underwing area revealed more tinworm.

The o/s is a similar story but not so bad however the repairs required will be the same.

[Mick The Cabbie]

AUGUST 20th 2007

Well i ain't now gonna be waiting ages for repair panels after all thanks to the huge kindness of a fellow forum member who contacted me and offered to sell me some of his panels which were't gonna get used for a while.

So today with fingers crossed i set about with the grinder and began cutting out the offending bits. This type of surgery is a first for me. In the past i've done various small repairs + a few mods and bits of fabrication including modified bulkhead and big gearbox tunnel etc etc but never anything quite as invasive as this.

[Mick The Cabbie]

JANUARY 18th 2008

Not updated this for a while so here goes!
I ain't been taking loads of step by step pics. These should give you an idea of what I've been up to tho.

First job to do after I'd cut away half of the van was to remake the flange where the flitch panel joins to the bulkhead.



You'll see that I initially also made a repair section for the front of the inner sill. This was soon cut out again when the desicion was made to do the job properly and replace the whole of the inner, middle and outer sills on both sides.




Engine out


Next job to do whilst I was waiting for new panels etc was to begin repairing the crusty looking lower part of the o/s inner wing and front chassis section. I also took the opportunity to remove an ugly looking plate which for some reason had been welded over the area where the battery tray once lived.




At this point, all I was finding was 40 years worth of rotten plates over rotten plates over more rotten plates. These obviously being old MOT patches. So I decided as with the sills, to cut out the whole lot and start afresh rather than just re-patch over the weak areas.
First, the shell was well braced and lots of measurements etc taken. Then the whole length along the top of the front chassis rail and a part of the underside was cut out..


followed by the whole bottom 1/3 of the inner wing and about 5 inches of the radiator support panel which had rotted out.



Then I shaped and welded new metal into the chassis leg.


Next I fabricated a new inner wing repair section from sheet steel.



This was clamped into place and all measurements checked and tripple checked to ensure everything was aligned and as it should be.



Then the two new sections were spot/plug welded together.


Another section of the chassis that I wasn't happy with, adjacent to the steering column was cut out and replaced.
The lower front part of the inner wing was then formed into the correct shape and the section of the radiator support panel was re fabricated and let in.


A new section for the lower part of the strut tower was made and spot/plug welded in place.


That was all done quite a while ago then I didn't go near it much after that.
Last week I ventured into the garage again to begin work on the door pillar and sill areas. I've spent a lot of hours aligning, clamping and screwing the new panels together. It's been looking almost like a van again. The doors been hung in place with a ratchet strap and the wing clamped on. I'm happy to report that everything lined up 100% perfectly. No pics of any of that though at the mo...

Yesterday and today, I've been welding on the new wing mounting rails.




..and the inner sill was finally welded in place this afternoon.



Tonight, I made up a new section where the top of the flitch panel joins the bulkhead as it had seen better days.




Thats it for now. Back in the garage tomorrow to do some more.

[Mick The Cabbie]

JANUARY 18th 2008

Done some more today.
The pics show the vane sill welded on. I made this meself due to van ones not being available. Also had a mate shot blast the door pillar. Tomorrows job is to restore that. Probably gonna be more of a pain to repair that than any other area due to its complex shape.





...and a pic of my current caotic workspace.