Pete's 203 Panelvan

Steven King

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or, Having Suggested A Thread Was In Order - Only To Be Told To Do It Myself :
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We met in Castlemaine (when i think it was brother Dave's) in the late 70's, before they moved to northern new south. Subject ended up languishing, until very recently - the following shows the 'body-off' restoration now underway ...
 
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Some work done twenty years ago, just not enough to get back on the road again ..
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Nice looking van, keep the progress reports coming please,

how about starting a thread on 203 commercials ? might flush a few out of the shed

Only learnt recently that some vans had 3 stud wheels , not sure how they mounted the leaf springs on sedan tubes ?
 
Hi Colin
The vans you refer to are the U4 series, of which 3,699 were made from September 1952 until July 1954. Fitted with sedan three stud hubs and a sedan rear axle they were rated to carry 400kg rather that the 600kg of the U6 series. The rear axle had leaf springs carried on rubber lined swinging trunnions clamped around
the tubes - see attached for parts 5152.10/11 and 5153.02.

Tony
 

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Thanks Tony
we learn something new every day!!
one wonders why they went to the trouble to mount a sedan axle?
 
(now I have to check all my photos for three stud commercials!)
for those interested, some more of the van when work resumed:
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efforts to date:

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[FONT=&quot]"...big day ..." today "... welding day))) the front end is off & the motor is on the shed floor ..."
but no new photos so here are some more of previous works;
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THAT is serious stripping. I can see it wearing full body side Sandman 70s surf psychedelic Thor airbrush art work on a blue glitter base and 5 spoke mags and selling in California for mammoth mulla! Fur interior? Lower the front? Flare the guards? whack a 350 n it? skull shift with hang five pedals?

I'm joking.
 
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- fortunately, Pete self-identifies as a purist.
From yesterday;IMG_3023_Fotor.jpgIMG_3019_Fotor.jpg
 
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quite a sound shell for an early van,

must have gone thru quite a number of clean discs with all those sharp edges !! nice and clean now

one wonders on the final colour?
 
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previous question now moot - Pete's ordered Raptor.
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resuming the process, researching brake cylinders - if someone has a lead on any - all are required.
(from france is ... not cheap)
 
The master cylinders I have sourced from Europe have been of poor quality and have not lasted. Go with stainless steel re-sleeving. Be careful with lining material, the linings generally stocked by brake services are intended for power boosted systems and require high pedal pressures.
 
Unsure what the situation is, I’ve suggested there are local options; that I recall reading here recently
reference to this sort of thing being local content in the day, so maybe Rare Spares, PBR (if they still exist) or even EBC ... looking for inches not mm in this case
 
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