Austin K2 Restoration...Pictures Needed

The brakes were the 1st major expense, but well worth it to have them stripped and resleeve in stainless by Ian at Power Brakes.

When we bought the truck we were assured that the 3.5ltr engine ran, but over 5 years ago, so instead of taking chances we sent it to another Frank at API Lonsdale, as he specialises in the older strip and rebuilds. Like the cab, it wont be cheap though, but its been stripped to the bare block and every internal nut, bolt and split pin has been removed.

Some folk say that I should just have filled the bores with kerosene and left it for a few days before turning it over, but thankfully I chose the more technical option with an expert at the helm, because once he had stripped and acid bathed the head, he found that it was split horizontally across the water blanket on 3 cylinders.
I had already bought another spare 4ltr engine, which was for sale locally, but after splitting the head off that and cleaning it up, we found that it also had a crack across the top of 2 cylinders.

Another eBay purchase saw me buy a donor Loadstar with another "running" 4ltr engine, but thanks to the kindness of bel in lending me 2 old heads to try, which were collected by my towie at the same time he collected the Loadstar, one of them was in good condition and is now forming part of the rebuild.

We were going to change the cast pistons to alloy, but the ones supplied by auto surplus, from old stock turned out to be the wrong size and I it would cost $1200 to have a new set of 6 cast, which wasn't an option.
So we then decided to refurbish the cast pistons and resleeve the cylinders with new rings instead. Probably works out just as expensive as the off-the-shelf pistons would have cost, but it should be a new engine by the time its finished and last another 70 years.


A few emails to the UK Bedford commercial club (as they don't have an Austin commercial but welcome other members) I was advised that I should spend as much as I can afford on keeping the 3.5ltr in the truck, as its a rarer engine and keeps the truck genuine.

Pictures to follow when the engine is completed

The cab was acid dipped by Frank at Minus Paint Adelaide and he did a real good job, although make sure you have deep pockets
I went down that line as the rust in the cab was mainly in the overhead inner rain channel, bottom of door sills and pinholes in centre of roof, so all my research on the best options Bead blasting, soda blasting, acid dipping and plain wire wheel) showed that for the older truck with thinner metals, the acid dip was by far the most sympathetic to achieve best end results.

I've stripped all the leaf springs right down, as I had gone to such an expense and trouble with the rest of the truck that I didn't want to leave ANY rust lurching between the springs.
Again, I was told that a good wire brushing over the outside and the a good thick layer of paint would hide all the sins, but I wasn't prepared to cut corners at now that I was committed to a full refurbishment.

Anyway, the new year will hopefully see the return of the engine and cab in a few weeks, then all the fun begins again

If anyone is new to this game, I'll give you one major tip that I tried to do myself, but forgot :blush:
Each day you do any work on the strip down, take photos before you remove arts and the create a diary or journal entry detailing what and how you did it.
I took the pictures ok, but forgot to do the journal, so I purely relying on what my pictures show :oops:

Next update to follow soon hopefully

bugger me there aint no turning back now


Paul

Frame was going to be too big a job for me to do during the SA winter months, especially as my shed was too small, so I caved in and sent it to be sandblasted and powder coated by Heather at AAA

When we removed the engine, we found a patch of steel grey paint like new, so we chose to repaint it in that colour rather than black