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Arthurs Transit.


Arthur Foxhake

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  • 2 weeks later...

Lucky escape! Always check above where you are welding kids!

 

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Yikes! (pic is sideways for some reason?)

Haven't had much time on it recently but some filler, sanding and a bit of primer has occurred.

I'm getting towards needing it done so have to make more time for it.

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Yeah, that's the same as I bought. The wing looks like OEM quality, but the rest?

Not as thick as original and the inner wing is nothing like the original.

I've never done anything this involved before and wish I could have bought an original inner wing, would have saved a lot of ballache.

Won't be chopping as much off the other side. It's a bit less rusty so I'll use what I need and leave as much original as possible.

Did I say original enough?

Original.

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Great thread. These old Transits are worth putting time, money and Waxoyl into now. With maintenance they're just about unbreakable.

 

We had two of these back in the 1980's/90's. First was a D reg Transit 100 (2.0 Pinto, short wheelbase low top, one piece rear door). White, three years old and rusty bonnet. Replaced that, resprayed it and eventually rebuilt the engine as a regular 100 bhp unit with 10:1 compression, 32/36 Weber etc. D612EHY iirc.

 

Number two was bought from Blackbushe auctions in 1991. Its was a 1990 G reg Transit 80, 1600 Pinto, factory black and super clean. Absolutely stole it as all the traders wanted a diesel, think it was £2500 plus VAT. Gearbox (MT75) was fucked on 3rd gear but bought a Ford exchange unit. I fired a gallon of Waxoyl into it, mixed with paraffin. Inside the bonnet, front and back doors, the whole underside, into the front arches from under the bonnet. I saw it in a breakers about 10 years ago. Battered to buggery but completely unrusty. The 1600 went well too, surprisingly.

 

When you hear of modern shite such as a Renault Tragic that's shat itself..........

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My mate had a battered mk3 1600 petrol, low top swb. Like you say, the 1600 pez went ok, amazingly. Think it ended up seized and crushed for no insurance or something.

Another mate had a mk3 2.0 petrol. LWB, hi-top. he bought it unseen from eBay and when he collected it he found it was absolutely mint. No rust anywhere, one owner from new too. He sold it to some guy even though I had "first refusal"- gutted.

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Later ones had the DOHC I4 twin cam of death, to be avoided. Unladen, our tweaked 2.0 went like the wind. It was the fastest Transit around and you could race Astramax vans with it. Ideally it needed the diff from a 1600 to get the best from it. It did about 20 mpg though.  :shock:

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I know someone who dropped a straight 6, 2.5 24v BMW lump into his smiley face transit, flatbed recovery truck, it took some modification to do, but it was something else once he finished it & on the motorway it was awesome, We cruised up alongside a relativity new at the time, transit mk6 van that was doing around 70MPH, looked over at the driver of the mk6, Then Stewart sunk the pedal & we were off.... & i mean this thing shifted.... :-D  :-D  :mrgreen:

 

I often wonder what the driver of the newer transit thought as the old smiley left him for dead & the sound of a BMW straight 6 in a ford transit is also bizarre, but wicked, wicked fun. Stewart also used to slide the rear out on roundabouts etc...peoples faces were a picture.

 

This was at least 15 years ago now.

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I know someone who dropped a straight 6, 2.5 24v BMW lump into his smiley face transit, flatbed recovery truck, it took some modification to do, but it was something else once he finished it & on the motorway it was awesome, We cruised up alongside a relativity new at the time, transit mk6 van that was doing around 70MPH, looked over at the driver of the mk6, Then Stewart sunk the pedal & we were off.... & i mean this thing shifted.... :-D:-D:mrgreen:

 

I often wonder what the driver of the newer transit thought as the old smiley left him for dead & the sound of a BMW straight 6 in a ford transit is also bizarre, but wicked, wicked fun. Stewart also used to slide the rear out on roundabouts etc...peoples faces were a picture.

 

This was at least 15 years ago now.

Father DodgeRover fitted a bigblock V8 from a Jensen into a new transit recovery they built with a new ford shell, even with a car on suspended tow it would still light up the twin rear wheels. Sadly 6 mpg wasn't affordable.

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That arch is finally done.

Only three more to go.

If I learned anything from doing it, it was to remove as little as possible, without leaving any rust.

I cut away too much and left myself with next to no reference to put it back right. If the inner wings were the same as the old ones I don't think it would have been so hard.

Luck was on my side and it tuned out OK in the end.

 

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Need to drill a hole in the new inner wing panel to attach the bumper and put the drivers seat back in and that side is done on the front.

Opposite side front next.

Working my way up to the back one that is the worst, panels available so shouldn't be too hard.

I hope.

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Thought I'd make a start on the back arch on the same side as it doesn't look as bad as the others.

 

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Is that a spot of rust I see on the chassis?

Let's give it a tap and clean it up a bit.

 

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Oh dear, I wasn't expecting that.

 

 

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Or that.

 

No matter, found it now so need to deal with it.

Luckily it's two thinner sections that were not to bad to sort.

 

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That's all for today, plenty more to come.

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Nice job with this AF. Well worth doing and pumping the thing fat with wax afterwards, these old Transits piss all over any modern van.

 

I did this on one of my old ones and a mates camper, on his camper there was a big sponge type thing inside the wing/arch. Presumably sound deadening or something but it soaked up water and was just sat there against the metal inside rotting it all out.

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Thanks.

Yeah I spotted those, when i was cutting it apart they were full of ice it was that cold. They won't be going back on.

I do intend to spray all sorts of anti rust concoctions in all the crevices and folds (!).

 

The vehicle i miss most of all I ever owned was my last MK5. I should have done this to it but I had no welder or idea how to use one at the time.

I went everywhere in it. It had about 260'000 miles odd when all the suspension went wonky and the mounts were FUBAR. 

I'm keeping this one.

I want to take my motocross bike out again and don't like trailering it, it's an advert to be followed home by land pirates and have it stolen.

The sooner I get it done, the sooner I can go out on my bike. Ive only ridden this bike three times since I replaced my last one do to various reasons but i'm itching to go out on it now. Im also itching to be driving a tidy MK5 van with a turbo.

 

Oh wait, did I mention the turbo yet?

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