My Old Van.

[Moving molecules .]

Let me introduce you to my old van ....a rare 1969 Morris Minor GPO postal engineering van ..... 55 made and the last one left from the Batch , it was found in somebody’s garden in 2010 and it is in a very poor state!!!! So over the years I have been collecting the parts and history and rebuilding each panel for this historic car.
which will eventually be given to the London postal museum where it deserves to be.
at the moment I am rebuilding the back of the Van and are remaking the vans inner load floors which you can buy for normal van but not for GPO van..... And also they are very poor quality !.
The picture below is for the pressing in the load floor which needs remaking.

Will pre stretch with the English wheel around the edges and then will use the Baileigh bead roller to create the pressing.... I have tried using fibreglass moulds before and then hammer forming which is successful but quite time-consuming so we will see if this works out okay.
height of pressing is 1/4 inch so will slowly use the bead roller 1/16th for each pass which obviously equals four passes....
wish me luck.

cheers Matt UK.

[Moving molecules .]

No flexible shape patterns were used lol.... just paper.

[Chazza]

Nice one Matt! My second car was a Minor van – dear little thing,

Cheers Charlie

[neilb]

i was involved in a crash in the back of a minor van! me, my sister and 2 cousins were in the back when it rolled on its side (low speed 20-25mph) back in the mid to late 70's that would be, my aunt'y was driving when she turned a corner and clipped the small embankment on the left and rolled it. it was a negative camber corner as it's half way down a hill, good times

[neilb]

i made a press frame and some dies to make the lower door frame panel for the porsche, i got a 10mm rise without pre-stretching. 3 5ton bottle jacks were placed about 100mm apart. just thinking having steel plate laser cut to make some dies could yield the results you want?

just a thought

[Moving molecules .]

Great stuff Neil you say the 70,s are you older than me .... 22/5/71....?? , my Grandad worked for the GPO as a mechanic then a Foreman after serving in the airforce on the Catalina flying boat as a Gunner, he has worked on many Morris Z vans and later Minor vans.... he got to 96....💪
Have you any pic to share of the door?.

Some pressings can be very challenging and this is a fairly fiddly pressing ! I did not want to replace this pressing but it’s toooo thin .

will post some pics next week to see if my ideas worked....then if this fails will make a female die from fibreglass and hammer form the shape ....

cheers Matt.

[neilb]

obviously the part to be replaced


makeshift press and dies made

not the nicest dies ever made but worked for me



yes i am just a little older, may 1970

[Moving molecules .]

Very neat ... Did it Pull much at the edges??
Did you start off with a very big sheet of metal or a very small piece.

[neilb]

i cut the piece 25mm wider than i needed, pressed it, then put the folded edge on then trimmed off to make a straight edge, did this on both edges, worked a treat

[Moving molecules .]

Today’s First run .... will adjust the Top tipping die down for each pass. .... creeping up on this quarter inch deep pressing design.

[Moving molecules .]

Baileigh... NOTE... please design a usable tipping Die without the Fixing bolt.🤔

[Moving molecules .]

Today’s pic,s of my Van,s rear load floor slowly coming together.

All panels OEM accurate.

[skintkarter]

Super impressive Matt!

[123pugsy]

Very nice.

[Moving molecules .]

Cheers Gents, the van was rusting away in somebody’s back garden!!! It had been they since 1986.😉

[Moving molecules .]

On Saturday mornings l,ve been slowly making process on my old Van , restoring the old Quarter panels.

[Chazza]

Nice work and nice to see the red paint. Will you restore it to Royal Mail livery?

Cheers Charlie