The start of my van's body build

[Ivor Hawkins]

I presume you mean 280,000 miles!

[Steve Bryant]

Yep.
Stephen

[Steve Bryant]

On Saturday I sorted through the boxes of screws my dad had collected in the 50's to find some suitable screws to install the reinforcing plates to the B pillar. These were bronze slotted countersunk items of 3/4" length. All went according to plan. The door frames were brought home to be sanded and slotted for the hinges.

Otherwise not much else to report.
Stephen

[Steve Bryant]

BUDGET LOCKS.
As part of the door assemblies John Heath included Budget Locks and handles that are to be installed in the wooden door frames. The handles are sand cast brass and require finishing which is no problem. On the other hand the locks are a problem. The springs in the lock are so strong that it takes both thumbs to depressed the latch when held in ones hands. This would destroy the B pillar where they are supposed to latch on to because you'd have to really slam the door hard to get the latches to work. I suppose one could always close the door and twist the handle while doing so but it just doesn't seem to be the way I think things are supposed to work.
   
So I took one of the locks apart and examined the mechanism. All very simple but the springs are WAY to stiff and strong for the purpose.
   
The basic mechanism is very simple and should work well for its intended purpose. You can see the very stiff springs to the right of the lock. 
   
I decided that I needed to find some soft springs to replace the stiff ones and found four of them in a selection of springs I had on hand. They are very soft and allow the latch to move with little resistance. I have laid them out side by side here for comparison.
   
I will have to machine a depression in the latch to locate the springs and keep them in position which won't require much work.
   
I tested the latch with these soft springs and was very pleased with the way that it worked. Very little pressure is required to make the latch move into the housing which was the aim of this exercise.
I can only imagine how much damage would be caused to the wooden B pillar and frame if I used them as made.
Cheers,
Stephen

[Steve Bryant]

Still working on door hinges and various items related to the doors and their surrounding framework. I've been spending hours finishing the rough sand cast brass door handles so that they are smooth and have a high shine, The tapered portion of the external shaft posed some head scratching as to how to hold them in the lathe. This was solved by soft soldering a chucking stub to the top of the handle so it could be held by the chuck at one end and by the tail stock at the other after turning the chucking stub to be in line with the handle shaft. This worked a treat.

The rest of the job was hours of hand finishing with files and fine abrasive paper before polishing. Sorry to say I didn't get pictures of the process. 

Progress is progressing at a snails pace, and I'll be glad when the doors are hung.
Cheers,
Stephen

[Steve Bryant]

Hello all. I'm happy to report that I have finally managed to install the first set of hinges on the drivers door after a lot of fiddling about in order to insure that things were in line and correctly positioned according to dimensions from a known source. 

I developed a method which seems to work which is shown in the photos.

I had to slot the door edge as the hinge locations were not done. John Heath had slotted the A pillar locations already.
   

The issue I was dealing with was the the hinge's pivot axis is vertical but the body curves inward from the top to the bottom. How to keep them in line? i ended up making a rod that went through both and had friction fit collars on it to hold the hinges at the right height for positioning on and of the car as required.
   

The doors also had to be kept proud of the body opening by the amount required for the skin attachment. I made wood offset blocks to keep the door clamped for this.
   

All this allowed me to scribe the outside edge of each hinge so that the mounting holes could be drilled in the correct location. Once this was done I could located the screw holes and drilled pilot holes into the wood then drilled and countersunk the hinges for mounting.
   

Number 9 brass slotted screws were used to install the hinges and doors to the car. 

It all worked out well. Now for the other three doors.
Cheers, Stephen