Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

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Fred
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Re: Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

Post by Fred »

Fred wrote:TODO for tomorrow:
  • Extract A-frame from back of garage behind hotel
Tomorrow??? Tonight!!! As the clock is about to strike midnight, I return from a mission to the garage having successfully lifted it along beside the hotel with minimal to no damage to anything/anyone. To do this I hung precariously out through hotel windows until I had it within reach of a standing spot. Poor hotel. I miss that car. Being in it was a reminder of the glorious 80s interior and general awesomeness of it. Must resurrect. Must cross post. Must sleep.
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Re: Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

Post by Fred »

Pics from today:

https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 6967694338
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 3612837889
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 4463258624
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 2061542400
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 0721328128
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 8136384512
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 4265222145
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 5963177989
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 7543231488
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 4060568576
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 5120557057
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 9078067201
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 2798415872
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 2386995201
NSFPeopleWithWeakStomachs: Wounded: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 3357993984
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 8888386562

And a revised TODO list.
  • Mock up the A-frame in place
Done! Will be bolted through the floor with some backing plates to make it strong enough.

TODO tomorrow:
  • Bolt the hinge points to the floor with plates for support
  • Make two brackets to hold the weight at the middle of the A-frame and on the firewall at the edges of the trans tunnel
  • Weld on two pieces of box section to bolt the jockey wheel to
  • Remove anything else I can, such as aircon/blower/steering column out of the dash, upper part of back seat, passenger seat belt, drivers mirror, etc
  • Lower the whole thing off of all the blocks and move it out of the way
  • Clean the driveway properly with the caravan moved out of the way
  • Clean parts and remove as many parts from the property as I can, ASAP
  • Figure out the tail light/headlight wiring and put a trailer plug on that.
Also, get rid of all the parts before I get in trouble for having them here!
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Re: Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

Post by Fred »

Found the hinge brackets, measured up the other ones on the ute, documented that in the A-frame thread.

Mocked up the A-frame better than before and figured out where I want to bolt it on.

Need the brackets drilled and fasteners in hand before I can actually align it and drill into the car floor. Might need some pieces of plate steel cut to make it strong and safe. They'll go on the inside and extend back past the welded-on cross member just forward of the gas tank. I'll bolt them through the floor back there, too.

Volvo rubbish in the Suzuki: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 5532517377

I measured one of the halves at 21.2kg, the other would have been about the same, plus the radiator support, plus the cross member, plus the bumper absorbers, = roughly 50kg of steel out of the front = roughly 5 dollars in scrap! :-D

Initial mock up: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 8618816512

More detailed mock up: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 0828106752

Approximate mounting position for hinge brackets: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 7592059904

I was heading head-long for disaster with my jockey wheel plan, it wasn't going to work at all. Good thing I realised up front. I need to mount it so that it hinges forward and backward instead of left and right. Otherwise I can't mount it low enough to give the lift I want/need without it fouling the draw bar. So:

The way I need to build the front structure is:
  • A piece of box welded onto the leftovers of the frame rails and spanning the entire gap at the right height
  • A piece of flat bar across between the two halves of the A-frame with holes close to each side
  • Two tabs coming down from the box cross member with holes drilled for bolting to the flat bar
  • A chunky piece of box welded to the firewall gently and extending down into the middle of the trans tunnel
  • A chunky piece of angle that the jockey wheel can be bolted to in order to swing forward and backward between the A-frame beams
  • Another piece of box spanning the trans tunnel from firewall to firewall and supporting the lower end of the jockey wheel vertical box
So therefore I need to measure up and buy the following pieces:
  • 50x6 flat bar long enough to span the A-frame in the right place with beveled ends. Possible reuse as jockey box brace.
  • 50x6 flat bar 100 long, 2 of, for bolting to the above piece and welding to the cross member box
  • 50x50x3 box long enough to cut into the frame rails in the right place and weld the above pieces to
  • 100x100x3 box long enough to extend down into the trans tunnel and be welded at the top (may have this?)
  • 100x100x6 angle ~200 long, or whatever the jockey wheel bracket is
  • 50x50x3 box for jockey box brace
I might use 50x25x3 box instead, as I have some of this laying around. I also have some 50x25x3.5 channel I could use and I could use this for the verticals instead of flat bar, too. And possibly the A-frame cross bar instead of flat bar, too.

The A-frame cross bar needs to be multi purpose:
  • Support tongue weight of caravan
  • Support weight of "precision" flat work table
  • Mounting point (quick install/remove) for pneumatic castor wheel for when in use as an A-frame
Can't see much of this getting done this week. Need to buy shoes and suit for wedding, move Volvo bits to storage, take scrap to scrap dealer, visit a VTNZ about changing vehicle usage class, try to buy Suzuki bushes, find documents for immigration officer, clear up garage in anticipation of getting the hotel out and putting the Starlet in, etc.

But we'll see, it'd be nice to have it functional, and legal, ASAP.

Fred.
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Re: Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

Post by Fred »

Some in-thread photos, because I feel like it's worthy enough:

Image

Image


Pretty sweet! :-D

Fred.
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Re: Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

Post by Fred »

Compare the above with my high-tech art from the first post:

Image



I got the draw bar length utterly wrong, and cut the front off a bit to short, but aside from that, it wasn't far off :-D

Fred.
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Re: Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

Post by Fred »

It's easy to imagine how it'll look behind the 240 when looking at this photo:

Image



I'd photo chop them together, but I'll be doing it for real in the next week or two... :-)

Fred.
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Re: Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

Post by Fred »

Unloaded the Suzuki full of metal, 60 bucks for the Millenia cat, 5.70 for the 57kg of Swedish Volvo steel, 6.75 for the 9kg Suzuki dead battery, 72.50 all up :-D

Then I:
  • Three ECUs out: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 9713780738
  • Accel pedal out
  • Brake pedal and box out
  • handbrake cover and centre storage unit out
  • handbrake adjusted (was fine, but found the mechanism so wanted to play with it) now super sharp
  • stalks and plastic/metal from around steering removed
  • attempted to remove entire steering column and bracket, but it was actually removing the entire dash, oops. put that back how it was.
Need to slot the head-less m8 screws that hold the ignition barrel to the steering column bracket and then use an impact driver to get them started, I think. Not sure how to slot them without butchering surrounding steel bracket. Need a new type of tool for my die grinder, I think. Some sort of saw-like burr.
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Re: Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

Post by Fred »

Drilled A-frame hinge brackets that won't be rotating like usual: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 9672390656

Fasteners ready to roll! https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 5747529728

I might try to get some spacers in there so I can crank the bolts up properly tight to eliminate play.

Fastener shop tomorrow, maybe some progress at home in the evening, but maybe not, big day at work tomorrow.
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Re: Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

Post by Fred »

Hinge and A-frame details updated/added: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2558&p=41398#p41398

In summary, I need:

2 pieces of 3 or 4mm plate approx 100x150 to 150x200 size.
4 dome headed cap screws m12x1.5, normal strong nuts and nylock nuts to suit, 4 of each, too
6-6 73MS Monel rivets, enough for every 50mm of edge, so max of 28 for 2 plates, length on the longer side to deal with irregularities in floor shape
washers to go over the bulge end and ensure a non-pull-through scenario
big thick washers with 16mm hole to stack up to 30mm total times two for locking the hinge end hard

Manyana mas!
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Re: Volvo 940 GLE Caravan Project - Underway!

Post by Fred »

Have all of the above now, bar the washers for the rivets. I got wide headed rivets instead and will put the wide side on the bottom of the floor pan and the bumpy bit on top of the 3mm plate.

One hinge worth of fasteners: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 8745962496

Two hinges worth of fasteners and the plates: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 0587358208

Might get a little time to do some work on this tomorrow, or not. Tomorrow will be another wretched day, though, so who knows.

At least I have it in hand for the next time I have a spare minute, though.

Fred.
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