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em has been wanting her own van for a while, even though the split was supposed to be hers a kitchen was more important so i sold the bay and now the split has got to go.

to remedy the subject i have aquired her a t25 from a guy i know in crewe. he has had it a while, used it for a year or so then took it off the road to do it up and it has sat on his drive for 4 years (bit like my mk1 )

it is a bit rough, needs a few patches to the roof of all places due to the pop top hinges, the bodywork needs tidying but he has done a bit and it isnt that bad with hardly any seam rash and of course a repaint.

it comes with a new monza exhaust, new seatbelts, new mudflaps etc, it has swivel seats and even an eberspacher heater, oh and no cupboards . still it was muchos cheapos and hopefully will be mot'd in a couple of weeks and painted in 6 if the split sells.

and the most important thing it has is a poptop so she can stand up to put her trousers on

1st pic but will post more of the bad bits tomorrow when she arrives

should have posted this friday but never got chance.
ryan picked the old girl up for me and we got her home:





now the work starts:



when we got her home she had to be pushed into the drive with em doing the steering, this didnt go well as she nearly backed it into her golf, with the usual complaint of "the steerings to heavy".
after we got her parked em paroused the van with a look of "what the fucks he bought now" on her face.
she warmed a little when the roof was raised, which turned to a smile when we found the aladdins cave of parts:



after this she was well chuffed as even i didnt know it had that much in it.
list of new parts is:
2 pairs of mudflaps, 1 zig unit, 1 consumer unit kit, 1 rear seat belt, 8 reimo cupboard catches, 1 reimo sink unit, 1 tent tidy, 2 hubcaps, 1 monza exhaust, 1 fire extingusher, 2 cab step mats, 1 laundry reel, 1 mains tester, 1 dash tidy, set of clothes hooks,4 spark plugs and 1 condensor,
good used parts:
front bumper, louvered side window, 2 fiamma tables and a late grille.

not a bad haul and i found the reciepts totalling £460!!!

saturday afternoon...

thought the first thing to do is try and get her running, she hasnt run for 4 years!!!
started by replacing the vacuum hosing from the dizzy and any other i could see around the engine bay that needed replacing.
with this done i replaced the fuel hose at the pump which was well crispy. i wanted to replce the lot but ran out of hose so this will be done on tuesday.
found ems old golf battery in the garage, primed the carbs (dumped fuel down the carb tops ) and went for the start.
2 winds of the starter, all be it very slowly (batts shagged) and she fired then swiftly died
then the battery went flat so i took the new battery off the golf, removed the carb tops and filled the carbs with fuel and tried again and she fired into life
it sounds like a diesel on a cold winters day, the tappets are hydraulic and were clattering like hell, this will be solved by a run round the block a few times but due to the fact that there is no fuel line from the tank this will have to wait.

she soon cut out when the carbs emptied, then the starter motor gave up the ghost when i tried again, well it is 25 years old.

after this i decided to look at the brakes as they seem to be catching a bit as she was hard to push.
got the rear drums off to be greeted by a set of new shoes and master cylinders on both sides
bit of a clean and adjustment and they were working perfect

fronts are for tomorrow as it started raining.

sunday morn, up bright and early.

1st job was to look at the front brakes, another happy sight greeted me, new discs and pads bit of a clean and they are still binding a bit but a run once she is going to the mot should sort this out or a bit of vigorous braking up and down the drive.

decided to clean out the van then attack the bodywork:



it was a bit of a shit tip inside but is a bit better now:







the body on this side is'nt that bad as dave had had a crack at it when he owned it but it still had issues



the above wheel arch had a bad dent but i have managed to pull it out and skim it.



the bottom of the slider has been skinned inside and out but it isnt a very good job but i'm not going to redo it so i have made the best job out of it i could:



the bottom of the passenger door had another big dent so this has been sorted:



plus the tailgate had 2 good dents on the drivers side:



the body on this side now is nearly done and will be in primer tomorrow hopefully, weather permitting.

started to get the remnants of the old carpet glue off the floor, it will never be mint but you wont see it when she has new carpet fitted:





pretty good day on the whole

only managed half a day today as i needed to keep em happy and go out for a bit, i cant win...

the passenger side is almost there, well i say almost, i'm not taking out the windows as i need to mot it soon so i wont be able to do around the windows until just before she goes to paint.
still got the side in primer and put a bit of the magic snot in:





also started on the front,:



when i started to sand the front passenger side corner this appeared:



seems like it was called an autostrada!!. it was made by a company in wolverhampton but ive not been able to find another one yet, although gavin has just fitted the same roof to his, i'm unable to see how the interior originally was as his was missing/not original to his van.



still hopefully the front will be primer tomorrow as well as the back, yet again weather permitting.

today i did the grand amount of f**k all, as my time was given to my van for a change, bastard thing that it is...

WOW you have been abusy little chap whilst we have been away - I cannot wait to see Em's van - i hope she is pleased with it

Looking good. You are busy.lol What have you primered it with? Spray tins or the proper stuff.

proper stuff, with my cheap ass £50 compressor and a £20 pro spary gun!!!

its not the best and most expensive set up in the world but its good for priming vans though it gets a bit hot as its always going coz it cant keep up. its no good for top coating.