Recent Posts

I am happy to take some measurements for you. Bear with me and I’ll do what I can.

As for weights, the confusion comes with a change in conventions. Back in the 1950s, when these were designed, it was customary to refer to lorries by their nominal payloads. Thus, some of the prototypes of these vans were built on “3-ton” chassis, and some on “5-ton” ones; which refers to 3 tons of payload (about seven tons gross weight) or 5 tons of payload (about 9 tons gross weight). From what I understand, the 3-ton versions had 6.00-20 tyres, 6-stud hubs, four cylinder engines of 3.9 litres and generally all round dimensions slightly smaller, although there appears to be no survivors at all, and it’s hard to get a proper idea from the odd picture. The bigger 5-ton chassis had 7.50-20 tyres on 8-stud hubs, bigger brakes, and a 5.1 litre six-cylinder engine. It was found that the versions on the heavier chassis performed much better, and as far as I know, all the actual production run of 2800 odd vehicles from 1958 through to 1976 were built on 5-ton chassis.

As HGV driver licensing was introduced in the 60s, with its bandings according to gross weight and axle configuration, as well as vehicle taxation moving to gross weights, it became increasingly common to refer to vehicles by their gross weights rather than by their payloads. So, although my lorry was designated a VAK100, with the 100 referring to 100cwt (5 tons) payload, it is in modern parlance a 9-ton truck.



The above is a 3-ton chassis which, as I say, would have been around seven tons gross. You can make out the six stud axles, and the whole thing is a scaled down version of the bigger vans.



This one is a 5-ton chassis, and you can see that everything is bigger.



And this picture shows the two basic variants of the 5-ton chassis next to each other, with the front one being a high roof and longer bodied version, like mine, and the rear one being the more common low roof short type.

Hope that clears things up for you. In short, the vast majority of these vans were built on chassis’ which were 9-ton gross weight, with a 5-ton payload. Of those, probably more than 80% of them were low roof, short bodies, designed for urban delivery work. The rest were high roof long bodied ones like mine.

It’s worth noting that they are much bigger, physically, than they look like in pictures. Modern lorries of this size have smaller wheels and different proportions that we’re subconsciously used to, and that kind of fools your eye when you look at these pictures. The big wheels seem to make the rest of the bodywork look small, and it’s not until you stand next to one that you realise just how big they actually are. Here’s a picture of an Austin wheel next to the 7.5 ton DAF that I broke for its engine to give you an idea what I mean. 

Leave it. 

Then it will sit at the back of your mind niggling away, and you can pull the whole car apart later and entertain us all with how many times you whack your head on stuff and cake. 

😉

You want to hire a plate compactor for a couple of days.

Can you not swap the current sump for one with its well in a different place? Or modify the existing one?

Got this delivered the other day. 



Which is an ignition switch for a Peugeot 205. I picked this out from the many similar Valeo alternatives simply because it had the longest leads. Plugs are different, but the functions are the same. I should be able to swap the plugs onto it from the original switch. 

👍

There are a couple of different wheelboxes and several alternative crank gears, to give quite a big variation in wiper arcs. You can combine different ones to give a greater sweep one side than the other. Once you’ve got yourself back on the road, you can play around with the variations and see if you can get that triangle of doom a bit smaller. 🤣

It’s a wonder they lasted as long as they did, when you see how they were put together. Doing away with that beading will probably be a major step towards it lasting better this time.

Excellent progress.

I think, if I have the right car turn up once the Austin issue is resolved, then another Trabant is definitely going to be on the cards. I have always wanted a Kombi estate version, and the idea of some tuning mods really appeals. Possibly even fitting a Wartburg engine to end up with a “Wabant”…

Ah, that’s clearer. 😃👍

I think I would look at the potential for reshaping the top of the door, or the body, rather than dropping it down on the hinges. If you start mucking around with where the hinge sits, you could well be into loads of potential aggro getting it to shut properly.

But, and it’s a big but, you’re the one sat looking at it. I’m on the other side of the world, guessing from the comfort of my armchair. 😃