CF Bedford Van

[Holden202T]

ok so I bought a $55 delivered VT-VY booster and master ... and it arrived today

managed to get the pushrod shaft out without damaging the internals (only a small chip off the edge of the rear section of the Bakelite!)

so I will be able to get it shortened and turned down to allow me to thread it without too many hassles now, then I can put it back in with the retaining clip slotting back into place properly so very happy there.

I've also had a bit of a fiddle this evening with mounting it to the firewall!

P1120519.JPG

it needs to be lower as it just hits on the bonnet on the front of the reservoir ... even tried the VS one which angles down at the front and still hits!

so going to look into lowering it a bit, and see how it all goes!

[TdracerTd]

Funny, in the photo it looks like it would fit. might be parallax error, or is there something on the inside of the bonnet that touches?

[Holden202T]

hahaha yeah its not far .... so above the headlight on the front guard, there is a little crease, that follows along the bonnet, and with the bonnet sitting on its almost 1 inch above that line ....

and where the guard rolls around to go up towards the bonnet that's where it hits, the front most of the black lid....

the bonnet even has a cut out in the frame for the front of the master cylinder to clear! .... this setup is within a few mm's of the original length, but the reservoir is further forward and high than the Bedford one.....

but also the mounting holes in the VT booster means its actually sitting 1/2 to 1 inch higher than it would normally be ... so I need to weld up all the old holes and drill some new ones which will end up somewhere about halfway through the welded holes and that should just about get it done .... failing that I can always put the VS reservoir one which is lower at the front (designed to have the booster/master on a 10-15 degree angle down at the rear) which should give me a bit more clearance if needs be.

theres also the option of remotely mounting a fluid bottle if I have to go that far

[Holden202T]

trying to find a good picture that has the original brake booster/master in it .... I don't have a lot, lol! looks like this is the best I can find

brake booster.jpg

the main difference is the VT-VY booster is longer, and as you can see the front of the stock reservoir is chamfered to suit the room available!

[jenko]

Why don't you run some remote resevoirs and mount them on the firewall

[Holden202T]

yeah that is certainly an option, but the main issue at the moment is that the original 4 holes on the Bedford booster are 95 x 95 or something like that, but the VT-VY booster is 65 x 85 or something .... so the booster is currently in the top two holes and the bottom two i drilled to suit, so if I move the booster down so its either in the middle of all the holes, or located with the bottom holes it should almost give me the clearance I need on the bonnet, and also it looks like with it being lower will align the pushrod with the hole in the brake pedal better .....

one way or another I will make it fit and work

[vlad01]

Why don't you run some remote resevoirs and mount them on the firewall

VW were like that, so it does work well.

[Holden202T]

i'm not doubting weather it would work or not, its more that its just another cost and more work plus if I start customising it all too much it means getting off the shelf parts is not as easy .... I'd prefer to put some more work into the location of it if it means I can then simply un-bolt a standard commodore master cylinder and replace it with an off the shelf one ..... that's my primary principal for all these things, modify the part of the conversion that should never fail or wear out, so then consumable parts are just like walking into a shop for servicing a commodore etc

[TdracerTd]

i'm not doubting weather it would work or not, its more that its just another cost and more work plus if I start customising it all too much it means getting off the shelf parts is not as easy .... I'd prefer to put some more work into the location of it if it means I can then simply un-bolt a standard commodore master cylinder and replace it with an off the shelf one ..... that's my primary principal for all these things, modify the part of the conversion that should never fail or wear out, so then consumable parts are just like walking into a shop for servicing a commodore etc

Good plan.

[Charlescrown]

Van is looking great. Just need to drop on a VR body and it will be perfect. Seriously it's turning out to be a real professional job with lots of thought before action. I had a friend who's son decided to but a brand new VS ute body, put a 350 chev in it and then get it registered. Guess what happened. Scrapped after spending thousands trying without success to get it registered because it had no VIN number. Apparently that's how a body shell comes. There were options suggested to him like purchasing a right off body and swapping the number over but he didn't like that idea. Keep up the good work and putting up the updates.