The Restoration of Austin Champ 1824

[mazungumagic]

Both diffs are out ! They are relatively simple to extract, once you understand the design and identify all the important bolts.

 

 

That, together with the removal of sundry attachments which were still on the vehicle such as the rusted up brake/clutch bracket, took all day. So, I think next week we'll be starting on the removal/replacement of the rusty sheet metal. A fair bit of scope for pictures there !

 

There are a couple of cracks in the two front wings welded to the chassis, which may have been caused by some cross country manoeuvres, but they'll be welded up along with the bodywork.

 

Last weekend, we attended a classic car show and one of our members brought along his cutaway Champ. Here it is being off loaded.

 

 

It was a hit with the spectators who seemed quite taken with the opportunity to look inside a Champ, more or less.

[simondema]

Hey Jack

Love the photos of the cutaway Champ! And I especially like the way they have attached the lifting straps..

Ironically your engine number is 3097 and mine is 3079. Looks like your restoration is coming along really well, mate. Keep up the good work and the photos.

Cheers

 

Simon

[mazungumagic]

Did a little bit of bodywork on the Champ yesterday - and have got a lot more to do !

 

We started on the RH side just forward of the rear mudguard where the rust was evident (in the corner).

 

 

Removed that spotwelded panel or most of it.

 

 

and welded in a new piece

 

 

That done we moved onto the rusted RH edge of the floor - you can see the prepared angle we will use along the outer edge, on the bottom right.

 

 

It needs a fair bit of work and time only allowed us to get the first piece welded in.

 

 

 

We anticipate finishing off the RH side next week, then it's onto replacing the battery box floor - fairly usual for Champs, I guess.

[mazungumagic]

I wasn't at the workshop yesterday - I had to spend a little quality time with my ophthalmologist, getting a piece of steel out of an eye. I wear safety glasses almost religiously, but the buggers still manage to get in and leave their mark !

 

Anyway the remainder of the crew set to work without me and apart from a little bit of welding, concentrated on the stripping down the engine.

 

On the bench with most of the LH side accessories removed -

 

 

Tappet cover off -

 

 

The block - pistons look good and apart from a carbon line, there is little evidence of any ridge at the top of the cylinders -

 

 

.... and finally, the head -

 

 

As it is with the majority of these engines, this one doesn't seem to have done much work. Hopefully we can verify that next week, with a look at the bottom end and then re-assemble.

 

Once again, the comment was made about bolts being universally easy to undo. A lot of "Never Seize" or copper grease or its 1950s equivalent, must have been used !

[mazungumagic]

Carried on with the rust work yesterday and finished off the RH side of the chassis -

 

 

The last bit we did on the RH side at the rear -

 

 

The LH side involves the same work but a little bit more of it, as the battery box floor is non existent -

 

 

Battery box floor -

 

 

We also managed to get the sump off the engine and plasti gauge #2 big end and main bearings. The readout was .001" for the big end and between .002" and .003" for the main bearing. I think that's OK - the shells showed absolutely no sign of wear, so that's encouraging. Also checked the piston ring gap which came out at .025" so that needs a bit of thought ! I had a quick look through the Tech Manual and the three additional parts of the "workshop manual" (ie Field, Unit and Base) but couldn't find any specifications, so I'll do a little research.

 

Finally, I have attached below a picture of the Qualcast water pump, which has the grease nipple tapping on the LH side rather than in the middle. When I attempted to fit the V shaped lifting bracket onto the motor, I found this button head grease nipple, fouled the bracket and therefore had to be removed to allow me to bolt on the lifting bracket. It's the only water pump I've seen to date with this issue - all the other ones I've seen, have the grease nipple fitting at the top centre of the water pump, where it doesn't interfere with the lifting bracket.

 

 

Edited May 17, 2012 by mazungumagic

[mazungumagic]

Didn't get much done at all this week - we were otherwise committed to providing WW2 vehicles (Chev 8cwt, Bren Carrier and a 25 pdr), for a film production detailing some reminiscences of the few remaining Rats of Tobruk. Ignoring the portable dunny on the LH side, here's an example -

 

 

Nonetheless, I managed to get to the workshop for half a day and began cutting out the extensive rust on the LH side of the chassis. Made up some replacement sheet metal which we'll weld it in next week.

 

When we removed the gearbox from the engine, it became very apparent that a previous owner had installed the clutch driven plate the wrong way round, with the result that the spigot bearing housing had been badly gouged by the centre clutch plate spline and although you can't see it in this picture, the spigot bearing is broken as a result of the force applied. It must have been very noisy !

 

 

The second picture shows the remains of the driven plate - I've never seen one quite this bad till now. Interesting that there are no springs in the driven plate.

 

[Tony B]

NICE!!! A 25lb Mk1, now that's attention to deatail! :-D

[mazungumagic]

We started work on the LH side of the Champ floor yesterday.

 

This is what we started with -

 

 

....and we began by renewing the side rail which is probably the first building block. We left as much of the floor as possible to give good reference points for the new metal - but I don't think there will be much of the original floor remaining when we've finished this side. The floor is hanging by a thread in this photo, but was soon persuaded to let go -

 

 

... after that we cut out most of the horizontal floor back almost to the rear wheel arch and then fabricated and welded in, the outside section of the battery box.

 

 

The battery box floor is completely knackered, so we'll have to fashion a replacement, probably next week along with the front and rear vertical sections of the box itself. Amongst other things it will be just a trifle difficult to create the lipped holes in the floor, for the large torsion bar adjusting rods - we'll see. Then comes the task of aligning and welding in, all the captive nuts and connecting bits, under the floor.

 

We've also renewed the jacking points on both sides now, though I would be very reluctant to use these - it seems too much to expect the vehicle to remain intact with all the weight at either end and jacking in the middle !

[antar]

We started work on the LH side of the Champ floor yesterday.

 

This is what we started with -

 

 

....and we began by renewing the side rail which is probably the first building block. We left as much of the floor as possible to give good reference points for the new metal - but I don't think there will be much of the original floor remaining when we've finished this side. The floor is hanging by a thread in this photo, but was soon persuaded to let go -

 

 

... after that we cut out most of the horizontal floor back almost to the rear wheel arch and then fabricated and welded in, the outside section of the battery box.

 

 

The battery box floor is completely knackered, so we'll have to fashion a replacement, probably next week along with the front and rear vertical sections of the box itself. Amongst other things it will be just a trifle difficult to create the lipped holes in the floor, for the large torsion bar adjusting rods - we'll see. Then comes the task of aligning and welding in, all the captive nuts and connecting bits, under the floor.

 

We've also renewed the jacking points on both sides now, though I would be very reluctant to use these - it seems too much to expect the vehicle to remain intact with all the weight at either end and jacking in the middle !

 

Malcolm Scott can supply exact replica floor pans, makes the job a whole lot easier !

[mazungumagic]

Thanks, John - I'm sure a replacement floor panel would be easier to use than making up the various pieces to replace the rusty floor bits, but - and call me perverse if you wish - we've got the sheet metal and the time and reckon we can make almost as good a job of it, as the real thing.

 

One of the considerations for me, is the cost of restoration. At least in Oz, these vehicles are not worth a great deal in comparison to your average Jeep or WC, so at around 250 GBP for each floor panel (so says the Champ Spares catalogue) when we can produce a similar product for a dollar or two, I am conscious of effects of over capitalisation. Obviously money has to be sent on some parts such as tracta joint boots, engine mountings etc that can't be fabricated, but where we can do it, we will.

 

We have the usual problem with rusty sills on the body shell, but have a couple of other body shells, from which I think we can cut out some side panels and graft them onto the shell to be used. That's a job for the not too distant future, but I'm quite sure it will produce an acceptable result and be far cheaper than knocking on Champ Spares door.

 

 

Jack

[mazungumagic]

Back into it yesterday with the removal of the rusty LH floor and the cutting out of a replacement, complete with hole for the diished drain area under the batteries -

 

 

After making sure that the replacement matched the panel already cut out, we fashioned the dished area to be welded into the cutout hole -

 

 

That was a bit of a struggle - the new sheetmetal is thicker than the original, at around 18ga - but once it was done, we welded it into the hole and as the Chinese say "voila" -

 

 

That was as far as we got, which may not seem much, but there were a few distractions during the day. The owner of the workshop had just purchased another WW2 Ford Jeep which he took it out for a run, only to blow out a core plug. After his rescue from down the road and sundry other repair work, that completed our day.

 

Next week we will be looking at fixing on the myriad of captive nuts and brackets, under this repair panel - it's where the exhaust is fixed - then fashioning the lipped holes for the torsion bar adjusters to poke up through the floor and welding the lot into the original floor. Probably another couple of weeks work (at one day per week) there.

 

Must make Corporal soon !

[rampant rivet]

Great Work there, it'll be worth it in the end at least you have the original panels from which to make pattterns I was lucky that apart from the cills on my champ there was only about a dozen small patches that needed attention it still took a long time cutting out the rot and welding in new patches you have my sympathy

Edited June 15, 2012 by rampant rivet

[mazungumagic]

We're enjoying the challenge of following in the footsteps of the great British designers !

 

Seriously though, everytime I have the opportunity to think about it, I realise that the original Champ design project must have been an extraordinary undertaking. While there is a lot of the WW2 jeep in the basic design, 90% (just a plucked figure) of the vehicle is original thought or at the very least, an improvement on a design feature which might have been plagiarised from the Jeep.

 

The cost of the project to the long suffering British taxpayer, at a time when rationing was still in place, must have been difficult to justify ?

[griff66]

Cost of a champ in the uk is circa 4 k.

[mazungumagic]

Do you mean around 4,000GBP (or $AU6,200) ??

 

Not many come up for sale here, but I would assume a decent one would be worth about the same - perhaps a little less. For some reason, possibly related to the maintenance issues and the general negativity associated with them, they don't seem to have much appeal to buyers here.

 

How about that - just noticed that I went straight from Lance Corporal a few days ago to Sergeant already.

Edited June 16, 2012 by mazungumagic

[mazungumagic]

Didn't seem to get a great deal done this Wednesday, but as anyone who has done a restoration can probably attest, some days are like that.

 

We worked mainly on positioning and fixing the captive nuts under the replacement LH floor and putting in the original rib across the back floor -

 

 

Once that was done, we cut out and bent the two (fore and aft) bottom sections of the battery box, where the previous incumbent had rotted away.

 

 

.... once the floor is welded in, we can then cut these replacements for the two vertical sections (fore and aft) of the battery box, to the correct length, cut out all the half moon shapes at the bottom and weld them to the remaining metal. We will also cut out and lip, the apertures for the torsion bar adjusting brackets which enter from below the floor.

 

Here is an overhead shot of the progress to date -

 

 

We hope to finish this off next Wednesday and go onto the only remaining large chassis rust problem, just above the fuel tank -

 

 

.... a bit of work to do here !

[Willyslancs]

looking good mate .........

[mazungumagic]

I think we can now say that we've finished the LH side floor - might even draw parallels between Rolls Royce and hand made vehicles. The effort involved in crafting up this floor was something I'd never been involved with before, but Tony made it look easy. We cut the two holes in the floor for the torsion bar adjusters and lipped them as per the originals, as well as the drain hole in the rear floor, just behind the battery box. That took a little doing, particularly the torsion bar holes because they are located very close to the edge and there's little metal available to limit distortion. Nevertheless, it was done and the floor is now fully welded into place. We tested the location of the torsion bar adjusters before the floor was fixed in place, but fortunately no adjustment to the holes was required.

 

 

Also took a photo of the work from underneath ....

 

 

That'll all be cleaned off and painted later when we invert the chassis and check if we need to weld some of the joins from the underneath, as well.

 

The centre rear rust area (pintle hook location) has proven to be something of a metallic iceberg, with much more rust under the surface that was at first apparent. We are going to have to do major surgery here, which will include the replacement of the main link between left and right chassis rails as well as all of the three or four skins of metal which seem to meet in this location. Didn't get a shot of this, but we've completely cut out the area around the pintle hook and will rebuild it from next week onwards - it will take a while, I suspect.

 

I'll put another oddity on here, showing one more difference between engines. These two fittings are the oil pressure relief valves found on a 5A and a 2A/4 engine. The same, but different !

 

Edited July 5, 2012 by mazungumagic

[mazungumagic]

Another day - more rust holes and repairs !

 

This is the rear of the front LH wheel arch, which we noticed had a little bit of rust between the two skins. We cut out the affected bit on both sides and welded in replacement panels....

 

 

and ...

 

 

Also found another spot which needed attention on the RH side panel, just to the rear of the wheel arch. That was easily fixed ...

 

 

Then we had a really good look at the central rear rust hole(s) which for simplicity, I'll call the winch box. We have another two Champ bodies stored elsewhere, so it was decided that the rust in the winch box was so bad (see previous photos in this thread), it might just be that one of the other bodies could contribute a better and quicker replacement. And it was so !

 

Cutting the winch box out of the donor Champ's half body. Another complex task to free this up ....

 

 

... and the two winch boxes - the one we will use as a replacement is on top. It will require a fair amount of repair, but we figure it'll be a lot easier to do that than attempt to re-panel the old one in situ. We have all commented on the fact that there is not what we would call adequate metal in the pintle hook area to cater for the weight and stress of a trailer, but obviously it must be stronger than it looks.

 

 

Lastly, another look at more changes that were made during service. In this case it's the starter motors and again we're comparing 2A/4 and 5A motors. The mounting flange holes are different as is the starter pinion. In the RH one, the whole shaft moves forward the engage the flywheel ring gear while in the LH model, only the teeth are propelled forward (no doubt with some kind of rod behind the teeth) into the flywheel ring ...

 

[Snapper]

Just catching up with several restoration threads and wanted to say how interesting this one is. Thanks for posting all your stuff.

[mazungumagic]

Another week with not much done - we were mainly diverted onto other pressing tasks, but some good work was done in preparing the rear winch compartment for its "makeover".

 

We managed to remove the old, rusty and mainly missing, compartment by drilling out the spot welds. The tray itself came out quite cleanly but as usual with the Champ, it is a very interesting design, which required much thought as to where to cut and what would be the effect of each cut. The rear end of the body has little apparent strength, despite housing the pintle hook, as the steel sheeting here is about 1mm thick. It does however have several layers of this sheeting spot welded together and some additional webbing behind the pintle hook attachment, so it clearly must be stronger than it looks !

 

 

You'll also see the "new" compartment waiting its employment, in this pic. If you thought that was the old one, no it isn't - that was much worse !

 

When we extracted the original winch compartment, there was a great deal of rust between it and the chassis rails. Most of it was easily brushed away, but from the look of it (and it's admittedly 60 years down the track), this area received little rust protection from the manufacturers and is only saved from being an area of concern, by the thickness of the chassis rails. I'd say that anyone who hasn't yet examined their rear ends (of the Champ), ought to do so, especially if you're towing anything.

 

We've been talking about how to provide better strength to the pintle hook area and have decided we will weld a strong cross member between the rear ends of the right and left chassis rails. Then we can dress up the exterior so that the differences will all be internal.

 

... and now a shot of the now primed LH floor -

 

 

This week's example in the series of differences between 2A/4 motors and the later 5A, is the Solex carburettor.

 

[mazungumagic]

We were able to get the winch tray into place and welded up yesterday. After a bit of discussion, and reviewing what material we had available, we decided to fabricate the rear part of the tray, ie the pintle hook area, by welding three pieces of thickish C channel together and fixing that laterally between the two chassis members.

 

Once that was done, we repaired a rust area in the tray and then manouevred it into place to marry up with the C channel.

 

A little time spent on spot welding and the result was this -

 

 

...and...

 

 

The rust replacement panel can be seen in this pic, just to the right front of the fuel tank sender hole.

 

We went firm on the position of the pintle hook, drilled the four holes and welded captive nuts into the C channel. All we have to do now is to fabricate the sheet metal which forms the outer covering around the C channel. That shouldn't prove too difficult and will be done next week. Once that is done we'll be able to turn the chassis over and check all the welds, cover the bottom with bitumen paint and prepare for DBG painting.

 

Another difference between 2A/4 and 5A motors is the thermostat housing.

 

[mazungumagic]

We finished off the rear on Wednesday, but it was slow going. Things were clearly going too well, for too long and we experienced a "one step forward and two back" moment. We had to undo some of the good work done the previous week. After welding in the three pieces of C channel, to make a secure towing point, no one thought to check laterally across the vehicle from right to left and when we did today, we found a significant sag had been welded into the work.

 

After much heated discussion about how to fix the problem and the occasional thought about is it all worth the bother, we agreed on a plan which would see the weld between C channels and rear chassis members, cut. We could then put a porta power crossways onto the tops of the chassis rails at the rear. Pushing these out would lift the C channels sufficiently to then reweld the lot, minus the sag.

 

And that's how it turned out. Fortunately !

 

 

This is a view of the now plated, C channels. We used a piece of sheet metal, which required four bends, all done on a vice using a couple of pieces of 3/8" angle iron between which was sandwiched the replacement panel. It was then bent using a large hammer and a spare piece of railway line to spread the impact. Thanks, Brian. To quote a well known phrase - we're not fancy, but we're cheap.

 

Although the picture doesn't show it, there is now no sag - looking left to right across the vehicle rear shows a perfectly straight line. Good eh ?

 

We've drilled the four holes for the pintle hook mounting, as well as the one large hole for the convoy (number plate) light - though it's a bit hard to see all that, in the pic.

 

Thought I might include this picture which is an example (in a very small way) of the extent to which the designers went, to build a well engineered vehicle ....

 

 

Although captive nuts are used extensively in many vehicles, these Champ 5/16" captive nuts, are (I am assuming) one of a kind. They are a brass design and would probably have been specially designed/manufactured to suit the Champ. No doubt the other vehicles in this family, used the same design. The only way these would fail would be if the steel cage rotted.

 

We are now just about at the stage where we can overturn the chassis and repair any of the areas where the weld didn't penetrate from the top. Once that's done we'll proofkote the bottom and entice our painter to provide his contribution.

[mazungumagic]

Very happy to report that a milestone has been reached - we have now finished the chassis. A couple of photos here of the underbody when we turned it over to weld up any unfinished areas left from the top welding. The grey etch paint shows most of the new steel work.

 

From the front ....

 

 

...and from the rear ...

 

 

Using a spirit level, we confirmed that there is a slight twist in the chassis of about 1/4" front to rear, but it's nothing to be concerned about.

 

The underside of the chassis will now get "proofkoted" (bitumen paint) while it's upside down and then we can put this away for a time while we work on the body, which requires the usual attention around the sills both inside and outside. The fabrication of the internal welded sill attachments will prove interesting no doubt, but with the chassis finished, the major task is now behind us.

 

It's all downhill from here.

 

Took the opportunity to blow out the mud/dust in the propshaft tunnel and it was astonishing to see the amount of detritus the vehicle was carrying around with it. Although the propshaft is equipped with a slinger to aid in keeping the mud out, it clearly doesn't cope well. At least now with the tunnel more or less clean, we'll be starting afresh and significantly lighter.

 

Looking for 24mpg and 60mph !

Edited August 2, 2012 by mazungumagic

[mazungumagic]

Added a skin of "Proofkote" or body seal/deadener to the underneath and a couple of the bolt on brackets including the jacking points - not that I'd ever use these to lift the vehicle. Just couldn't bring myself to apply upwards force to the middle of the vehicle when it has two major (ie heavy) components, at the front and rear ends. No doubt it was well designed and capable but if I need to lift the vehicle (and I'm sure I will), I'll do it somewhere around the wheel area.

 

 

We are now preparing to de-rust the body shell and have retrieved some sections of the side panels from the two available donor bodies. We'll use these to replace the lower rusted sill areas (particularly the swaged areas) and add straight sheetmetal to the replacement bits to complete the job. Hope to start that next week. Photos next week, too.

 

This week though we put in a bit of work on the front diff - feeling our way through the dismantling process. The Tech manuals and the three part (Unit, Field, Base) repair sections aren't all that helpful in providing clues, as to which part gets removed, in which sequence and most importantly, how. Nevertheless, we persevered and removed most of it but remain stuck on how to drive out the lower inner wishbone shaft. It is a must to remove, as we can only access the diff itself after the shaft is out. We did a fair but of judicious pounding, but it shows no sign of yielding to superior force. At the end of the day the shaft, which does have significant rust on the visible areas, is still there.

 

 

Does anyone know if it is a simple matter of driving it out, once the grub screw is removed ?