1964 Citroen HY Van (part 2)

[hanger18]

Bit of an update…
Dents dents and more dents…..
Before

After


Damage.

Repaired,


My latest e-bay purchase……..Carlos fandango tail pipe……init…..lol


Also decided to put a hinged panel in the one side for viewing purposes at the beach ha ha


And now the good news….. The mechanical side of this project is about to start. (and about time) Bought a lowish…. mileage Audi A4 1.9TDI. After measuring the engine and box it should fit in with minimum of cutting.



I have been told there is a company in the Birmingham area banding steel wheels anyone have any details…. Thanks
Dave

[atomman]

If it helps I had my wheels banded by www.bandedsteelwheels.co.uk/

Damian was great to deal with and the turn round was very quick, picked up on monday and back in my house on friday !


Came back from spain last thursday from Bilbo and there were 3 H vans on the ferry all with british plates one slammed, looked real good,

[darrenh]

carlos fandango showing your age there

[frazzly]

Message ends

[jeth]

Looking good, but i would install engine from a Citroen Plenty of good diesels in them.

[hanger18]

Aug 21, 2013 11:41:43 GMT jeth said:

Looking good, but I would install engine from a Citroen Plenty of good diesels in them.

Been looking for an engine for an hy for 2 years. Ive measure hundreds, as I'm a mechanic and get all makes through my workshop and the garage next door.. The Audi A4/Passat 1.9TDI will go straight in with hardly any cutting and very little modding. The HY drive shafts will fit the Audi box with 2 small adapters. It’s also a proven bomb proof engine. Believe me I did my homework before I started this project or purchased anything. My days of 2 to 5 year builds are over… 6 months now is the way I'm going….. Also as a mechanic I don’t like modern Citroens. Sorry…………..

[hanger18]

Needing a break from bodywork, I decided to start on the mechanicals. Having no work booked in on Friday I decided to strip the Audi. With help from my 13year old son we decided to strip out the wiring loom first. Every thing was carefully removed and labelled from front to rear. Passed through the bulk head and piled up on top of the engine. Next the engine and box was removed and it was still only mid afternoon. A quick call to the local scrappy and within the hour the body was taken away. Not a bad days work. Thanks Will.. x x x
Saturday I set about the wiring, stripping of all the binding. And laying it out on the floor behind the engine.


What followed was a horrendous few days of slowly going through every single wire in the loom. Cutting out everything but engine management. As I am no electrician I can honestly say this was the worst and most confusing job I have ever undertaken as a mechanic…
This is what I removed.


Next I had to decide where in the van I was going to put the engine management.
The passenger foot well was decided upon. A piece of wood was cut to that shape and mounted on a pole. Every thing was then squeezed onto this board


So today after another nervous/confusing few hours the final wire was trimmed and soldered into place. The engine was strapped down to the trolley, everything checked, double checked and checked again. The key was turned and………… No one was more surprised than me.. The engine burst into life.

Inspired by the mornings success I decided to move on to the van..
All the floor around the engine and box is removable. The photo below shows how much access this gives.


The front chassis is held in with these 4 long threaded tubes.


Remove these, jack the body up and wheel the whole thing out. Suspension, steering rack. Engine, box, Clutch and brake pedals. All in one unit.



Damn clever those Frenchies…….

[Kev]

This thread is bloody amazing! Love this van, can't wait for more updates

[hanger18]

At the start of the week I tried the new engine in the chassis.
Unfortunately the turbo had to be removed, Steering pump mount cut off, fuel filter unbolted and Oil filter removed, to get the motor in.


Next the engine was blocked up and checked for square in the chassis


Then 4 engine mounts were fabricated.




With the engine mounted. I had to figure out how to refit the components that had to be removed. First the alternator was relocated under the engine.


The alternator is not as low as it looks in this photo. Its well above the scrub line.

Next the turbo This would not fit anywhere near it original position. Only cutting the chassis completely away would facilitate this. So this was relocated to the front of the engine. If I had the time I would have fabricated a tubular exhaust manifold but with only limited build time (6 weeks) a quick fix was needed. A turbo mount was made.


Turbo mounted and connecting pipe made up.


That’s it for another week… Only 5 weeks left now…..HELP ! ! ! !

Sunday morning…. Snuck out for a few hours this morning and removed the EGR valve.


Back home for family time………Ha Ha…

See ya soon..
Dave..


P.S. nearly forgot.
also made up 2 drive shaft adaptors (forgot photo’s)

[koenkadett]

what an awesome project!

good luck with the engine swap

[hanger18]

Thanks for your comments boys.
As you can see from my posts, I'm a man of few words.
I tend to let my hands and imagination do the talking……
Dave…..x

[johnnyizegem]

I'm following this closely, have an H-van waiting to get some love after I finish our house...

great work!

[bstardchild]

Sept 17, 2013 16:28:04 GMT hanger18 said:

Thanks for your comments boys.
As you can see from my posts, I'm a man of few words.
I tend to let my hands and imagination do the talking……
Dave…..x

A picture is worth a 1000 words - a few words to explain whats going on in the picture make for great threads that everyone can learn from so thank you from someone who is following the thread (bookmarked since end of page 1) and enjoying it as well as finding it educational for my own projects

[matttt3222]

great thread
almost bought a HY a few times but the few ive seen were all wrecks
What are they like to drive with a standard engine? as I wouldnt have the time or skill to fit a Audi one like yours
I guess it cant be any slower than my AMi

[xbo11ox]

Holy cow, this is seriosly brilliant. I would have felt like THE DADDY if I had managed to start up that engine first try with it sat on a pallet. Mega impressive work.

[hanger18]

Sept 21, 2013 8:28:47 GMT matttt3222 said:

great thread
almost bought a HY a few times but the few ive seen were all wrecks
What are they like to drive with a standard engine? as I wouldnt have the time or skill to fit a Audi one like yours
I guess it cant be any slower than my AMi

Hi.
I used the van as parts fetcher for 2 months and it was fun. But as a daily driver, I think it would soon become a bind. Top end speed, mpg, brakes, noise, etc etc. Hence, I'm changing the engine/box and improving the brakes, the other eccentricities associated with owning a classic vehicle I can live with.
Dave

[Siert]

This is a great project, good job on improving it!

[hanger18]

Hi All.
With the engine more or less sorted I made a start on the front brakes. With no kit available (to my knowledge) I had to design and build my own set up. I must say a big thank you to Bromsgrove Motor Factors for once again giving me free access to there ware house. This allows me to search there entire stock for the appropriate components.
It took 2 days to find the discs I used……………………..
It then took me a further 6 days of head scratching and machining to come up with my set up.. All done with just my old Lathe, Pillar drill and hand grinders.


Then stripped the chassis cleaned it up and gave it a lick of paint.
Suspension arms and torsion bars where striped, cleaned and freed up in some cases, greased and re fitted. Oh nearly forgot, lowered the suspension by about 3”. Can now readjust suspension ride height in about 5 minutes per side.


Discs, hubs and callipers where then assembled for the final time and mounted to the chassis.

That’s it for today.
Drive shaft rebuild tomorrow.
Dave……..

[simes]

Excellent Project - I've wanted a "corrugated van" HY for years.
My dad has a 1958 2CV - the metal is really thin - difficult to weld!

[joostvdw]

Great progress! I really like your ideas and engineering. Does the HY originally have inboard brakes just like the DS? I assumed you would've used the audi arms and hubs? And what exactly did you change with the brakes, larger rotors? It's going to be a great car when it's done, keep at it!