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Hi all, I’m going to try to keep this updated as a diary of work done on my old Fourtrak. I bought this a few years ago but have only recently got going on it properly, with several other projects on the go, times been scarce. Ill start with the main job, the rear crossmember. When I bought the truck this tube had snapped on the drivers side. This ruptured the brake pipes, and ruined all the already tired suspension bushes. So, out with the crossmember... The original is round tube, the new 3mm wall box section, it actually holds the anti tramp bars. Yes the Fourtrak has a 5 linked rear suspension, and an LSD. Because race car! I didn’t take many pics at this time, so I’m trying to improve this and maybe a thread will motivate me to document it.

Been a serial lurker and occasional poster of nonsense, but have never quite got round to posting some pictures and the ongoing tribulations of being a serial VW licker. First a disclaimer - I like old VWs, partly as I grew up with them and partly because I understand how the work and I can fix* them. I do not like the 'scene' attached to them, it seems to attract too many of a certain type of person I am often allergic to - they bring me out in a shouty rage. First car was a'69 beetle in red, driven flat out everywhere until the rust took it. This was followed by a succession of Mk2 golf , vauxhall omega (vauxhall being close to VW in the sales ads) a free Mk3 golf which was dire and tried to kill me multiple times. I have no photos of any of these as they were pre-camera phone and mostly awful. Then came a T25 camper bought using generous donations from friends and family at our wedding . Bought, and a week later after hovering 15 years of dog hair out of it, we drove it all the way to northern Norway on honeymoon. Used it for a while. Bought a vauxhall astra estate (again, it was almost a VW in the sales section). It sucked. It did a year of commuting then it was scrapped. Was gifted a skoda fabia estate by my dad as a sensible run around. During this time my wife wanted a sensible runaround for her and the kids, so we bought a bright orange 1971 beetle (rusty of course) which was excellent fun. People were openly critical of apparent lack of regard for our offsprings safety. I pointed out it had seat belts. Due to rusting the T25 was sold as a project, the Skoda was sold for being too dull and a T2 purchased. Here is the peak of VW ownership, where the beetle, bay and T25 are all in one place just before sale: So now we had two aircooled vehicles, the newest of which was made in 1973. This lasted for exactly 9 months., during which I did lots of this: to be repeatedly rewarded with this: When the breakdown driver asks how the kids are getting on, you know you've seen him too much.... I also conducted some invisible repairs on the rusty bits of the beetle. I'll point them out if anyone can't see them: A promotion and car allowance then allowed me to purchase a C3 Picasso (best not ask, I hate it). Its purple. I feel like a dick when I drive it. Beetle then had to go due to third child and not enough seats, but it had the good engine, the van did not. A swap occurred. My neighbors love* me and find my antics endearing*. I clearly have no need for a drive or garage. After 1 too many FTPs, I was told van or family. I chose family and the van left. I then went a looked at another T25 minibus (three kids now) and was in much trouble for even considering another van. Two weeks later, after some small* arguments* we were in total agreement* and the van was purchased. Roughly 18 months ago - note lovely laqueer peel, mismatched rear wing and low level tide mark: After some light fiddling I have made a very basic day van affair, and we dragged it with camping gear and the three kids all the way up to the arctic circle in Finland last summer (wife has family in that part of the world). 6 days before departure I noticed the rear suspension had a bit of paint hanging off. I pulled and it showed this below: Trip to machine mart, a google of "mig wleding for numpties" and a youtube video later and I'd made this: and away we went. Here it is in a moody B&W photo in the land of the midnight sun, which really brings out the high quality paint. the rear suspension is still attached though, so winning. That's an epic catch up post really, but will use this space now to document the exciting* repairs and work done on it to keep everything attached .and working....

Right, thought I’d throw together a thread detailing my own piece of automotive shiteness; the wondrous Ford Cougar. A bit of a long one to start off with, and if it’s in the wrong place can a Mod shift it. Ta. My example is a MY99 registered in early 2000 and owned by my in-laws since they acquired it a couple of years later from Lombard Motoring. Having the correct compliment of cylinders in ‘v’ configuration I always wanted it. I had first refusal to purchase, but years came and went with no sign of selling and so I made do with all sorts of things instead (Mazda Tribute anyone?). Eventually I acquired it following a poor MOT fail. Deemed uneconomical to repair with knackered wishbones and an impressive list of broken stuff, its sudden availability coincided with a couple of pals and I signing up for a banger rally to Monaco. Perfect! After all, the three hundred quid budget would get it through an MOT, right? Well it did*. At what I consider great expense I sourced replacement wishbones from Poland, found several impossible to get Ford bolts and after convincing the garage to take it on, we had it back in for a repair and test. Success! We eventually got the rattler down to Sheffield and collected it. What a car! Check out those lines. ? Driving it back was a pig. It wandered all over the place at 70, the blower motor was shagged so it kept misting up and the road noise was… noisy. We spent time replacing various broken or missing parts including servicing. This is the first time I did anything more than top up washer fluid and change the wiper blades, although my mate is far cleverer with his hands and sorted stuff out. Such as the n/s wheel bearing which was borked. Pretending he knows what he's doing. A full dead cow interior was found for £100 over in Carlisle so that went in to replace a truly wrecked driver’s seat. A set of four alloys with decent rubber came from the rather excellent owner’s forum which along with tracking helped with the wandering hilarity and even improved the noise further. The trip down to Monaco nearly ended in fucking disaster. A huge fuel leak outside Brussels made us too late for check in on the first night. Caused by the twat of a little clip breaking off the fuel filter, a bodge inside some recovery yard at midnight got us back on the road after we stole parts from a wrecked C5(?) along with a sneaky use of a kettle and some cable ties. I'll write this bastard thing up another day. Us thinking we were going to get murdered in deepest Brussels. Anyway it performed flawlessly* for the rest of the trip, and by now I had committed myself to keeping the delightful old thing. This is us at Tabac. Of course it’s failed every MOT since. Firstly on shite handbrake efficiency (THADTS) and more recently the dreaded rust in the cill. Oh, and I bought a really wrecked V6 to break for parts too, which has been jolly useful and taught me a lot. Since then it has made its way to a NE meet near Bishop last year, but now has virtually been in a lockup I can’t get access to, although post lockdown I’ll be moving to a new house and then it should fit in my garage to get stuff done. TLDR; Clueless idiot takes a fucked Ford failure to Monaco and decides to keep it. I will upload more pics to bring it up to date.