So once again I hit another hurdle last week. When I went to machine the end of the rack so I could turn the end around I pulled it apart to find the whole rack HOLLOW
Its very lucky that I didnt buy the whole front end for the rack it was just a bonus (bought it for the rad support and blank column for my xy sedan) but still, its very lucky I didnt just connect it to my car.

So I was stumped again, but I had a feeling that it was very similar to a camira rack. So on sat I took a trip to the wreckers to see what I could find. Seems there were Camira everywhere haha so i found the one with the lowest k's and got it off.

$110 later and I had it back at home. putting them next to each other they both looked very similar


top ones the old hollow one, bottom ones the camira one

I undid all of the brackets for the old one and with a tiny bit of work the camira rack bolted straight in. It actually fits better then the other one because the lines for the fluid go in the end so they wont hit my starter motor. I need to get some rubber made up because the camira rack is a bit skinnier then the other rack but its going to work which has shown some light at the end of this damn long tunnel again haha





before I put it in I think im going to get some dimensions from the brackets because if it drives good my brother wants one for both his xr and xw wagon and my father wants one for his xt haha

Well done!
Make sure you get ALL of the dimensions for the mounting brackets, as well as the steering arms, etc. I'm sure there is a few people who would like to get that info....

I KNEW there must have been SOME reason they made Camira's - hadn't seen a useful reason for them to exist before now... but yeh I'd be very interested to see final dimensions too...

Got a little bit more done to the body of the van lately. My mate who owns the shed where its at has had some spare time so has been getting stuck into it for me.

Grabbed the front guards and got them both nice and straight and ready for painting.

first one was easy he said and we rolled the lip right up so i can have some decent rubber under there and not ruin the paint by catching it on the wheel


the second was not so nice and was found to be FULL of bog


but after getting rid of the bog and a bit of bending, heating and banging the living ***** out of it its come up good and should be filed up and primed by tomorrow




Then we decided to go onto the rear of the van

as you can see from these pics the rear of the van was pretty nasty when I got it so we've been concentrating on that recently.

this is it when i got it







So we got stuck into the passanger side first, and got a patch in there


then switched it over to the drivers side because theres more room on this side of the shed haha

we got rid of the tow hook cutouts and gave it that bit smoother look. also got rid of the holes for the bumperettes. I am a fan of the smooth look at the back so for starters im going to see what it looks like when its done with none. I have some bumperettes there for it that need rechroming so if I dont like it ill whack them on but for now its staying without them





drivers side getting there

also cleaned out the joints around the van, they were showing a slight rust through the paint which had me a little worried but when cleaned out they came up brilliant


and thats how she is at the moment, hopefully going to get into filling the windows this weekend and finishing off the passanger side.

Very nice work there DRM ON
this is going to be a great build!

Nice work, keep the pics rollin

Liking the work done on that steering rack
have you got the sizes

wow been a long time since ive been on here.

had a fair bit done on the van lately but still a long way off really haha.

got all the bottom half of the thing sorted out and repaired. shes nice and straight now




and then started on the windows








and finished them off







also had to brace the insides up. as you can imagine van windowless braces are extremely rare so we made some up out of xy roof braces. came up good and looks factory now



and thats how she is at the moment, hopefully not to far from paint and then I can get it home and concentrate on hooking in to get it driving.

cheers
Brad

im also having trouble with sorting out a shifter. the au shifter is a bit ugly and out of place in the rest of the van so if anyone can help me out that would be great.

theres a thread here about it

gearbox-suspension-brake-driveline-f4/will-this-work-au-s1-xr8-auto-gearbox-t107319.html

Good work on the body, looks neat.
Have you looked at an XG or XH column shift set up? That way you could keep the bench seat....

Or look at a TCI / Hurst / B&M shifter, but it too may look out of place.

Keep up the good work.

Yeh the bodywork is going great guns now, sort of lost interest for a while but now getting stuck back into it again.

I did look into the xg column but was told I wouldnt be able to run the stock xy steering wheel (i have a gt wheel for it so that is a necessity haha) does this sound right?

I also looked into the cable type shifters but noone makes them for this box so apparently I am going to have to make up a bracket to connect to the box that then connects to the cable on the b&m shifter and was told I would have to bracket up all the cables because otherwise they would be loose and it wouldnt change properly. Thats when I found that other one and thought it might connect straight up.