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All the work I have done until the TuV-approval and registration I have described already on seperat pages. This page here is for a collection of all the steps we finished independend from that start process and in the time afterwards. Often it is only a small thing, that even was not noticecd on the to-do-list and doesn't need a special documentation, but every step is a success.
Having in mind what a heap of work is to do for the restauration and alteration of our Volvo C303 "Crossie" such an motivating review is absolutely neccessary. Even if it is a work which will become obsolete later or will be replaced by a better an longer lasting solution.
The newest changes will appear on top.
It is nice cold now - at this temperatures the door locks do not close if I slam the door, becaus the mechanism is slow by old greas. The right weather to fix it. With a little gas blowlamp from the kitchen I heated the mechanism inside the doors shortly and afther that I inserted Caramba/WD40, also around the lock cylinders to make them sliding. Now everything snaps in easily, even in the cold winter.
The brake power was going down more and more. I decided to go to rijo and bleed the brake lines heavily. At this time the two wheel cylinders on the left front wheel could be changed - on the right front one was nearly new when I got the car and the other was changed by me afterwards - now the axle is complete new as it should. That was a good idea, just on this drive one wheel cylinder became leaky and brake oil was burning in the drum - that stinks. After exchanging the cylinders and 6(1) rounds of bleeding it brakes nearly like new.
The Solar-Batterie is dead for the second time. Not safe for deep cycle! This time I changed it against a 95 AH starter batterie. I hope that will last longer.
The back axle has got now the nearly new spare tyre and another nearly new GoodYear-tyre. The wone mostly run down of the old tyres is in my cellar now, the other one is now on the spare wheel.
Caused by bad contact at the central distribution pint at the starter motor the generator is broken. I have built one like new from three broken ones - it works.
The old rubber and foam isolation under the hood between the front seats was nearly rotten away. I removed it and put in a piece of carpet with SikaFlex and a layer of closed cell foam pads. From the top a thin layer of plastic foam and gray artificial leather looks good and helps against the heat, too.
Behind the roof-panels and in the front doors I inserted pieces or old Tretford carpet, which are pasted with Sikaflex. The damping effect is enormous. The top panels of the doors are new, because the old ones were too small and did fall out from alone.
End August 2008 I killed the starter motor on the way back form Melle. A broken collector. Today I mounted a used exchange starter. To reach the mount points the gear shifting mechanic had to be removed from the gearbox, but it was easy.
In the front of the left side bench a box of 59 x 45 x 39 cm is mounted, in which with a sliding mechanism a 25L-compressor-cooler dissapears. In the direction to the middle of the hold there is left a space of 9 cm in the side of the box, in that place one of the tool-boxes fits perfectly. This box is fixed to the frame at the originaly prepared holes as well.
In the front of the right side bench a box of 46 x 38 x 39 cm is mounted, in which two 20L jerry cans are fixed with two lashing straps each. With the correct screws left from the original seat bench the box is fixed to the original treaded holes in the fram - additional to the screwd down to the bench.
On the spare wheel and the back axle the better set of replace tyres has been mounted. But the old Viskafors on the back axle where not as loud as the GoodYear and they looked better - my opinion...
By the way, after half a year of parking Crossie did start after pumping petrol for 20 seconds with no problems at all.
After a relatively short time the Solar-Battery was dead. May be one cell broken inside.
After checking for being a closed circuit the cooling water is exchanged with a new frost save mixture. On the fuel filler a little pipe is glued in the little hole on the backside and a rubber hose for breathing is fitted up to the spare can holder as I saw it in Koblenz Schmittenhöhe. Now no more fuel is dripping on the mudflap...
The edges of the floor panels and the side benches are sealed and fixed with smal aluminium profiles. The jerry can for water is mounted on the back.
The aluminium imitation coting for the floor panels is pasted and the 4 panels inserted. Everything fits very exactly, only some mm left for moving the panels into position. The sound damping of the multiplex floor on isolation and the carpet panels under the ceiling is impressing, from backwards nearly no sound is entering the cabin.
The space inside of the side benches is covered with Extreem-isolator, after that the wooden flaps become integrated.
The aluminium imitation coating for the side benches and the floor panels are cut along the wooden construction parts. The side benches are mounted together and fixed at the mount points for the old seats.
The wooden construction parts for the side benches are cut. It is difficult to get it exactely into the original frame and to have the right space for the screews in the back corners.
The wooden floor is covered with 4 panels of mulitplex, the jerry can for water and the holder is painted in green.
The sidewalls in the hold get some white breadborads. Nice and bright. The box for the sound system on the backdoor is reduced in deepth and painted in silver-gray.
The cabin from inside is painted in silver-gray, new horn fitted outside. The Extrem-Isolator for the floor is prepared, all parts of the frame and the backdoor of the hold are painted in silver-gray.
The rounded edge of the roof in the hold is isolated by carpet panels just by exact measurement and slumming. The heating for the hold is removed and the water hoses connected with each other directly.
The side walls of the hold are damped by exactly cut pieces or old Tretford carpet panels, which are pasted with Sikaflex. The damping effect is enormous.
The cooling circuit is cleaned and a new thermostat with 87°C fitted.
At the ceiling of the hold exactly cut pieces or old Tretford carpet panels are pasted with Sikaflex. The damping effect is enormous.
To get from the hold up to the roof and into the bed easily I constructed a small ladder from aluminium profiles.
The old and damaged reflectors on the bumpers are exchanged by new ones I got from Smolne. These are pasted with Sikaflex and than riveted.
The hold is cleard from all paneling and isolation - except the doors. All parts of the frame are painted silver-grey.
the second 12V-circuit is connected to a double outlet, one standard format and one in the size for a cigarrette-lighter. These are mounted together in an aluminium casing with 3 m supply. Various chargers, soldering iron etc. can be connected with a converter for 230 Volt AC with 150 Watt.
for the rear speakers I added a storage compartment on the backdor. The cables can be disconnected with a hi-fi-plug.
in the front-roof-console on one 12V-circuit the tuner with CD/MP3 and remote control is installed.
12V-harness up to the cabin roof with a separate fuse box for 6 single switchable circuits. Additional am emergency switch for the 16²mm-supply.
under the roof of the cabin a console for the tuner and the front speakers is isntalled with an antenna cable for the tuner. On the right an left hand side of the tuner are two little lidded compartments of 30 x 20 x 6 cm for CDs and maps.
24V/12V-charging converter is installed above the battery box, connected to the D+ of the standard charging regulator with two seperating relais, additional third battery with 110 Ah is mounted in the battery box. The connection to D+ can be switched, therfore the regulator and swich are monted in a sperarate housing placed in the position of the regulator.
If the fuel tank is nearly full sometimes some drops of fuel float out of the filler and run down on the mud flaps. Because the mudflaps have a distance now to the rear bumpter the traces of these drops can be recognized. To stop that I took a 4mm plate of rubber and cut by hand a new seal, 10,5 cm outer and 6,7 cm inner diameter. The old seal was only about 3,75 mm thick.
The NATO-plugin is moved some cm upward and towards the engine cover just below the main crossmember. On the left is space enough for the 20A-24/12Volt charging converter placed on two massive supports.
The rear window gets a line of polymer all around. Now it is sealed and it looks from behind nearly like the original rubber seal. The holes from the wooden protectors along the sides are sealed with screws, washers and polymer.
The mounting supports on the inner side get the nuts brazed on and are painted after cooling down. After that they are mounted with a lot of polymer to seal them. That should keep the water outside, because sometimes a drop crawled along the threads.
Preparing for the 12-Volt house battery. If the inner isolation is cut a little bit thinner it is enough room for 3 batteries under the original cover.
brake drums successfully removed, derusted and painted with heat-proof silver alloy color - naturally not the braking area on the inside! Mounted with copper paste on the wheel hub and the rim.
Cleaned and painted the front portals, the last parts of the front axle that had to be painted.
After removing the brake drums derusting and painting the brake support plate from the inside and the wheel hub from the outside in silver-grey.
hitch and parts painted in silver-grey and mounted with new screws. Added a new volvo-badge on the right side of the rear bumper.
The crashed holder is buckled now and derusted, then painted with rust protection.
As far as it was reachable I derusted and painted the grid after removal in silver grey. Looks good.
One of the brake cylinders on the front right wheel was stuck. First time I noticed some malfunction on the drive from sweden to my home - on the test drive before buying everything has been ok. I ordered the Landrover-sparepart 600201 made by Britpart in england and mounted it. No leaks, brake function is ok, I can adjust the brake fine now.
For the upper part of the doors I took equivalent sealings from a scrapyard. The sealings from Mercedes G and from the Mitsubishi L300 sliding doors fit well. The doors are sealed now!
Some mounting brackets for the rooftop tent had to be adjusted. The tent is now fixed fine with 8 mounting brackets. The big tent on top of the car looks very smal and may be it produces a goot aerodynamic effect.
After the painting the rooftop tent is put on the roof and fixed somehow, because it started to rain.
The original mirrors on Crossie are changed against some from a Simson Duo which have twice the size. A real safety update! The mounting brackets are painted in silver gray
All sealing mouldings of the window are removed before painting exept the frame of the movable front window. They are cleaned and polished with rubber care product. Be carefull, these parts are extremly expensive. To insert the little side windows was a hard work, but now the sealing mouldings are used in the right direction. Every glas was cleaned from old green paint.
The rims are painted in the same green, from the inside in silver gray.
All side doors can be removed easily. The were cleaned and painted in parts with the same green like the body.
The complete body is cleaned, grinded, some dents cleared and then painted with Hammerite green. By painting with a roller the color will be not so shiny. Depending on the light the car looks something between dark shining green and dark bluegreen.
The rim around the headlights are painted in silver gray like the grill and the front bumper.
The totaly rusty clamps on the exhaust tube and at the silencers are exchanged with new ones, which I got cheap form PitStop.
The outer lower edge of the roof gets a cutout that the side doors can be closed again. The old cutout, which is moved to the back by turning the roof is sealed with polymer.
The batteries and the heater in the hood are removed an the floor up to the inner step is derusted and painted in silvergray.
The rusty clamps around the front axle for holding the brake lines are replaced with new ones. Below this is a layer of rubber from an old bycicle inner tube. The extend is about 31 - 32 cm.
Front axle, springs, shocks and steering were cleaned, derusted and painted silvergray. Only the front wheel housings are not painted freshly becaus I had not enaough time. The switch on the front diff got a new hose.
The frame and crossmembers (vacuum-tanks) were cleaned, derusted and painted in silver-grey. Some parts like the brake lines are hard to fix again.
The roof hatch is turned around for 180° and at the edge of the roof I put some hooks to hold the hatch, if it is open. Now it can stand open without blocking the back door. With a big hammer I hit the edge of the hatch to reduche the opening for about 3 mm. Now the sealing rubber fits nicely all arount on top of the edge. Everything is sealed well.
I took off the roof hatch and removed the rubber around. The slot for the rubber is filled with a lot of rust. The damping plate in the middle of the hatch was removed also. Then the hatch is derusted and painted from inside and outside with Hammerite green. The sealing rubber is inserted in a layer of sealing polymer, which I used also to seal the roof itself. The screws of the 4 clamps are sealed with this polymer, too.
Between the mudflaps and the bumper a lot of dirt will be collected after a while. I inserted three washers from stainless steel on each of the three screws between rubber and bumper. The resulting space of some mm will cause easy removement of the dirt by the next rain.
At the airbox one of the clamps for good closing was missing. I got a replacement from the wrecking yard from Ake send by Hartmut. A well closed airbox is important for the right balance of pressure to get the right reactions from the carburetors.
The rusty clamps around the rear axle for holding the brake lines are replaced with new ones. Below this is a layer of rubber from an old bycicle inner tube. The extend about 31 - 32 cm.
The little holes, where smaler parts have been removed got new screws in M5 (backdoor) und M6 (plate holder), to stop the rain from comming in....
The old mutflaps from rubber were not equal and too small and are renewed: rubber 8 mm thick, 38 cm wide, 65 cm long. 35 cm of that hang below the rear bumper, the rest is on top until the first frame menber under the body of the hold, where the end will stuck automaticly. Upwards the bumper it is 2 cm less wide on the outer side because of the size of the hold. For the filler you need a fitting hole on the right side. The steel parts to hold the rubber against the bumper were rebuild form flat iron 25mmx3mm in 35 cm wide with 3 holes from 10mm.
The new painted front grill got a protective grid behind and the original Volvo-Emblem is fitted to it.
The old hardened fuel hose for degassing and spillway between tank and filler is exchanged with a better one with protectiv layer in it. Diameter is 19 mm, about 70 - 80 cm length is enoug.
Like the frame the axle, suspension, shocks and tank are cleaned and painted, even they where not so rusty.
The frame in the back end is cleande, painted and new body protection under the hold. The front frame down to the front leaf springs is painted as well.
The rear bumper is painted like the frame, the new used bumper in the front as well.
The rear rims and the spare wheel are derusted and painted.
A color for easy maintenance is composed from rust-protective paint for the frame: 3 x black + 1 x aluminium-silver results in a dark silver-gray with a kind of structural effekt - no problems with painting of little wounds later.
The first warm day this year! The edges of the already turned roof are sealed with a new layer of polymer - that was impossible while the temperatures were below 10°C.
Mario comes for a visit from Essen and we turn the roof of the hold for 180°. Dismount 30 screws, lift the roof, turn it around and let it down in the right position. Than fix all screws again. See documentation here, also the resulting problems.
The threaded holes for mounting the machine gun got a sealing screw each. There is no more rain comming in. Also the two twisted clamps for closing the roof hatch have been dismounted and bended on the workbench to the correct direction until the hatch fits perfectly. Sounds trivial, needs about one hour...
Pushing back the activated choke a little bit was followd by the engine running up to maximum rpm. Searching for the error I found that the protruding free end of the push-pull cable opened the throttle valve. The free end of the cable was cut off and the choke could be used normally again.
The new batteries supplied when leaving the store were smaller than the original ones, the battery holder was left unused in the load space. With some stable batten of the right size I filled the space between the batteries and the battery holder. The batteries are fixed nonslip now and the cover ist mounted with a belt.
Two missing fittings have been replaced and the four sockets were adjusted to keep the cover close and tight. The engine is much more quiet now.
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