Phunkie Project Portafold

[phunkie hiboy]

Thanks for that Phil.
It might be worth noting that although I do have my own small workshop with all its facilities, apart from maybe the turning of the fog lamp mounts, all the repairs so far could have been carried out by any of you in the garage beside your house.
Whilst continuing with the storage holes, some times there is amounts of laying up resin over and so as not to waste it I look for other items in need of repair.
The small lower door had been backed into something resulting in a dent/split in it and where the number plate had been bolted on, it had crushed the inner and outer skins together.

So the first thing to do was remove the hinges. As the first securing bolt broke off, making a removal job difficult, I drilled the other three bolts out through the heads which enabled me to get a good “centre” on the bolt.

Small drill to begin with then out to 5mm, this enabled me to tap through into the strengthening steel with a M6 tap.

Unfortunately one of the holes didn’t want to play ball, so it was drilled out to take a M6 Rivnut. This is a threaded sleeve installed just like a pop rivet.

And this is it after installation (sorry about the blurry picture, but you get the idea).

Now onto the fibreglass repairs, couldn’t get into the rear of the dent so it was either separating the skins of the door or cutting a “panel” out on the inside. The latter was chosen and carried out, this will be covered by a fabricated panel, secured by clips and trimmed in matching material to the interior.

Laminated fibreglass was then added to the inside of the repairs. One of the holes for the number plate securing was distorted so badly that over the years it had set in its collapsed position. Some times this can be helped out with some heat from a hot air gun (not too hot though, because this laminate is really thin!!).
As in the other repairs, the damaged areas were sanded back to the new laminate and Fibreglass and resin added as necessary and sanded back when dry. Body filler was then added to fill any dips or pin holes and sanded.

Finally, to protect the “repair” from moisture, hand brushed two pack primer was applied.

This is now ready to sand and prime with a two pack primer when everything else is painted.
Back to the main body, finally managed to finish the storage holes on the righthand side.

Whilst carrying out the repairs on the storage holes I was thinking about the electrics we would be using. There is obviously wiring for the rear lights. We are going to fit a hookup, so that has to be a consideration and we need some lighting, to be run off a leisure battery.
I thought the best way to tackle this would be to use 22mm plastic waste piping and fittings, installed in place of the random pieces of garden hose “laminated” in at the factory.

So measured out and cut to length, it was trial fitted together.

Before the body was turned onto its right hand side, the right side “conduit” was installed using strips of laminated about 150mm long.

That’s about it for the moment, it’s back to repairing holes and corners for a while now.

[Admin]

As we are likely to tow the Portafold with our Peugeot 306, as well as the roadster, the law states that trailers being towed by post 1972 vehicles require the fitment of at least one rear fog lamp.

This raised a legal point that made me think, so I contacted the NTTA (National Trailer & Towing Association) to see what their viewpoint was.

I've had an email back from their Executive Administrator who states that "rear fogs are not mandated for trailers first used before 1980, although I think they are probably a good idea from a safety point of view."

So all of us 'folders are safe from the law. Unless you have one of the very last Ansfolds of course...

[phunkie hiboy]

This raised a legal point that made me think, so I contacted the NTTA (National Trailer & Towing Association) to see what their viewpoint was.

I've had an email back from their Executive Administrator who states that "rear fogs are not mandated for trailers first used before 1980, although I think they are probably a good idea from a safety point of view."

So all of us 'folders are safe from the law. Unless you have some of the very last Ansfolds of course...

Sorry it's been a while,
I have spoken to contacts I have in VOSA (part of my day job) in the Quality and Enforcement department and am waiting for him to come back to me with the relevent information and links to it regarding Construction and Use and Lighting legislation.
I'll keep you posted................

[phunkie hiboy]

Right, back to the holes. All the side ones are now finished. Attention is now on the front centre storage hole. This actually has some quite bad damage (possibly where people have been using the front edge as a step to get onto the “sink unit bunk”).

In view of the damage and the fact that we need to be able to store some larger camping items, that won’t fit through the 15” square holes, we’ve decided to open up the size of this front hole to 19” square.
First a square is cut out around the original hole, then a further 2” removed down both sides and 4” across the front of the remaining hole. Next the original “square” is cut into 4 in the centre of the sides, making 4 corners.
These corners are then fitted into the corners in the main body and then secured.

The underside of the join is then laminated and strengthened by adding electrical conduit to the layup.

The join is then sanded back and laminated as in previous repairs.

It is then shaped, sanded, filled and final sanded before hand priming.

That now finishes all the storage hole repairs. Whilst looking around I did find quite a bad crack in the left hand rear up right post. I’m not sure how “bad” this is but have ground away and laminated it just as a precaution.

So now back to the electrics………………………..
As I said, we’re going to use a hookup when we can, this will be also connected to a leisure battery via a charger (so the battery can be charged when we’re hooked up!).
I’ve managed to source a really slim hookup plug with flap from eBay. It’s going to be installed in the front, above the join seam and it will be hidden by the spare wheel (this will be mounted on a bracket from the front of the chassis.
The hole is marked out and a drill hole is drilled in each corner.

The rest is then cut out with a saw. The round corners help alleviate cracks radiating from the corners of the hole. Securing holes are drilled and the socket trial fitted.

We need some 13amp sockets inside some where, so it was decided there would be one at the front somewhere (to be decided) and one at the rear just inside the door.
The same method is used on this install as carried out on the hookup.

We’ve found some real slim sockets to use, including a lighting switch (all the lights will be 12v) to be installed on the opposite side of the footwell.
Before I installed the lefthand side electrical conduit, I laminated the areas connecting both sides at the rear (under the step). I could see, maybe small items rolling under here and not being able to retrieve them. At this point I also laminated a piece of conduit tube through, from one side to the other, just in case we need to run some wires across.

The excess conduit will be cut down as required.
The conduit for the electrics on the lefthand side is now laminated in, same as the righthand side previously.
The 16amp hookup wire is installed down the right side tube, into the socket box. The 7 core cable, for the rear lights is now prepared, split into 2 circuits left and right).

There are some circuits that need to go down both sides, so wires with the correct corresponding colours are soldered in and sealed with heat shrink.

The 2 lots of wires are now loomed up and installed in to their respective conduits.

Well, that’s it for a while again, but at least the storage holes are finished now!!
If any one needs information on any of the items or suppliers of parts used on this project please drop me a line (PM or eMail).

[vauxhallbitz]

Excellent thread, you really are taking this restoration to a new level, keep the pictures coming!!

Where did you get the hook up flap from?

Regards, Fraser.

[phunkie hiboy]

Thanks for that, Fraser. This will probably end up a lot better than it was when it came out of the factory (thing is they were made to a price) and with some added comforts for us when we're using it. Maybe a sort of "how they could have been made"!!

The hook up socket came from these people on eBay..........................

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MAINS-230V-16 ... 4cef667c2c

[Admin]

I have spoken to contacts I have in VOSA (part of my day job) in the Quality and Enforcement department and am waiting for him to come back to me with the relevent information and links to it regarding Construction and Use and Lighting legislation.
I'll keep you posted................

Actually, talking of VOSA. Paul~3 recently got pulled by VOSA when he was towing one his Portafolds with his Reliant Rialto. They took him into one of their checkpoints and were desperate to find a law he had infringed, as they couldn't believe that a car of that weight was able to legally tow a trailer/caravan of that size. Unfortunately (for them) Paul knows the law, and so, after several of their officers going over the outfit several times all they could tick him off about was his breakaway cable, which wasn't adequate apparently. But Portafolds (and Ansfolds) were all built before the law came in about breakaway cables, so it's not needed anyway!

What none of the officers mentioned was a lack of a fog light on Paul's Portafold...

I think we're all safe.

[phunkie hiboy]

i,ve not heard anything back, from VOSA, on this yet. I have resent the original mail, so we'll see if a reply is forthcoming.

I think we're all safe.

As far as VOSA, the DfT and Europe goes, none of us are "safe"
I'll give you and example......................
There is a portafold "for sale" on this site that does not have a chassis. An easy fix, you may think. Just fabricate a new one and fit it under the old main body. And that's it done..............................
Not quite, as there is no way of offically identifying weather the chassis is an exact copy of an original (just a letter from the owners club won't cut the mustard here), in the future it will have to be have to built and tested to comply with modern specifications.
Here's a link to the proposed legislation on the ACE site. This site also holds alot of legistive information concerning classic cars and what is coming down the road in the way of changes. It's a very informative site, with their finger on the pulse all the time.

http://www.the-ace.org.uk/loss-of-sva-u ... highlight1

[phunkie hiboy]

On with some more electrics then. More wires have been added for interior lighting (This will consist of small spotlights that run 12volt halogen bulbs, to be purchased from B&Q) and a couple of 12volt auxiliary sockets.
All the wiring that is required, from front to back is now installed into the conduit. The ends of the individual wires are cut to length and nipples soldered on.

Expanded nylon sheathing is fitted and held in position with shrink tubing.

Whilst on electrics, we want to be able to use a TV, and need to have some sort of aerial. I didn’t want to put anymore holes in the front area so have incorporated an aerial socket into the hookup box.

Storage of items has been thought about since the start of the project and a couple of items require reasonably secure mountings, the battery and two Camping Gaz bottles.
A couple of small “steps” were fabricated from marine ply and test fitted. The ally angle was used to get both steps to be equally fitted both sides.

These were laminated in place at the front curved area inside. Prior to fitting the left hand one, the “rack” for the gas bottles was constructed. A couple of strips of thin steel were shaped.

A closing strip, with a over centre clip, added and test fitted to the “step” top.

As I say this was done before installing the steps, and now laminated in a 2nd test fit for the bottles and a size test for the “battery”. I won’t be buying a battery until nearer the time to use (over 6 months away) so I made one from cardboard to the correct size to make sure it fits!!

An in between job that needed to be done was to plug the original hinge screw holes for the front and rear sections. This has been done because some of the original holes were drilled crooked and had produced cracked and spiders in the fibreglass inside, that will require repairing. It was just a matter of making some wooded dowels and hammer them home down the original holes. The holes have now been drilled straight.

Back to the storage area, it was decided that it would have to be painted in something to cover up the rusty waterline and other parts.

Having run out of materials, whilst doing the front mountings for battery and bottles, I came across a supplier in the west country who was cheaper with better quality on the resins I required. Looking through their web site I found they did a product called “Top Coat”. This product is like gel coat in looks, but unlike gel coat it has wax added to it so that it hardens off in air. Using gel coat for this leaves a sticky residue.
So we ordered the resins need plus grey top coat.
At this point, I have to say that bare laminated fibre glass is a nasty piece of work. If you are unlucky enough to rub it and suffer with a splinter, it hurts like **** and because it is practically see through, you can’t find it, so difficult to remove. Ask me how I know, got quite a few “T” shirts now. So another reason to use this stuff. Prior to using the fibreglass needs to be sanded, to remove any stray pieces of chopped strand.
It arrived, but what I thought was a nice light grey, it turned out to be dark battleship grey. Anyway, I had to go with it, but after painting both sides and the top inside it became evident that it as going to be too dark.
So onto plan “B”, order white top coat, we’ll need this for the interior sides and back, mix white in with the dark grey that’s left and hey presto, a much nicer colour.
So now the whole of the inside of the storage compartment is now coated with a smooth washable surface. I left the underside of the seating in the dark grey, as it was a pain to do and it doesn’t show, unless you stick your head right through the storage holes!!

More to come soon…………………………

[phunkie hiboy]

So I’m into the boring part now, filling and sanding. This will be by no means a show quality job, a huge amount of hours would be required for that. Just filling all the nicks and pock marked gel coat to a reasonable standard will take long enough.
Inbetween filling and sanding I’ve managed to get some other things done. Firstly the storage hole lids were in a pretty sad condition, with some delaminating and some broken in the same area as the damaged fibreglass edges. Using the old ones as patterns, new ones were cut and shaped to fit.

This included one for the now larger front middle storage.

They just require varnishing now.

As we are only going to use this to sleep and sit in, ie no cooking and washing up etc, I’ve made a largish table that covers the front area in the middle.
Here are the materials ready to assemble.

And now glued together in its intended position.

Now there’s a little trick to this, because I’ve cut an shaped some boards to span from side to side, making a bed.

When not being used they are stored underneath the table.

A tempered glass top will be made for the table, but we’ve not decided yet what will be under the glass.
Here we have all the panels out.

And varnished.

One more thing I’ve managed to do is the corner seal guides. They were all in pretty bad condition, mainly broken.

So we had no alternative but to make some new ones. After some quick measurements, a mould was constructed to make new ones to the old specifications.

So with the old ones and the adhesive removed.

The new ones, shaped to fit were installed using white sikaflex. This is a sealer/adhesive which is paintable.

They were then cleaned up and sanded to shape, ready for primer.
We can now supply, to order, new mouldings to do this job. They can come as just “U” section that requires shaping or roughly shaped pieces requiring finishing. Please note that all four corner pieces are different ( sizes and shapes) so they will require final finishing on the body.
That’s all for now.