C15 no3 in, C15 no3 out.

[ruffgeezer]

Well Saturday morning, after doing the weekly shop, I got on with making up new swearwords for Japanese cars.

 

The Delica has been a grumpy fat fucker just lately, surging and the like, so I put a new fuel filter on last week which was a marked improvement.

 

Only it wasn't, now it'd cut out as soon as you tried to slow down, I replaced the slightly perished fuel filter pipes, which improved the issue for a while, but it would still occur and it was still a complete bastard to start in the mornings, so I sacked it off in a grump and went back to using the Xsara.

 

The Xsara's mot is very soon and it'll need the front arm bushes doing as they are utterly bollocksd, so I've been back as working on the Delica, in typical Japanese fuel filter style, you have to remove most of the car (oh, ok just the battery) to get it off. I temporarily bypassed the filter with some clear pipe I nicked from a skip outside a pub, beer pipes I think, anyway, once it started, no bubbles were present in the fuel, so as I suspect there is again a problem with either the filter housing or the diaphragm in the filter head.

 

After all that, and some more work in the garage to see Saturday out (I will update that thread one of these days!), Sunday morning's schedule was to an appointment near Alford.

 

As some of you will know, without the Delica and whilst the Xsara is in for repair, I'll be without a family capable vehicle, so with my last few bits of folding in my pocket I went out and bought something thoroughly unsuitable... Say hello to Trev 3!

 

90k on the Clock, XUD non-turbo with Lucas pump:

 

 

 

 

Luckily, it didn't come with all this tat in the back!

 

It runs pretty well even though it had a gallon of Bio Diesel in which it wasn't all that keen on, I'll bung a new filter in it and see if that clears it up, there is a bit of damage to the screen, but it has a towbar and decent tyres which is more than Trev2 has, plans are to get it to work for assessment tomorrow, and on Tuesday, profit? We'll see!

[warren t claim]

Is that a VHS copy of The Abyss?

[ruffgeezer]

Who knows the back of it was stuffed full of them! The seller kept them all thankfully.

[ruffgeezer]

Did you come up to Alford in Aberdeenshire for it?

 

No thankfully, I have updates, not good ones, once I get home.

[ruffgeezer]

Yeah so today's inspection started fairly well, the only major issue being the cracked screen, as an aside, I'm certain this van's last mot saw nothing of the van itself, but that's by the by.

 

The sills on this one look awful compared to Trev2's, but they are actually solid, there is just a lot of water blisters in the under seal.

 

I had a shake on all the vital components and all was looking pretty well, that is until I encountered this:

 

It's the brace plate for the seat belt buckles, and the floor has rotted away around them unfortunately, so I'm not sure if I can save this one, if I can't weld it myself it is not economically viable to farm the work out, as there is very little margin in it anyway, that said if I bridge it, I'll see a return of £140 plus some newer tyres and a towbar for Trev2.

 

Anyone here in the hive fancy offering any advice?

[ruffgeezer]

So today was an important day for this man's van...

 

Here are the pics as she stood this week:

 

When I bought the van, I was hoping to get it on the road and sell my slightly newer one on for reasonable van money, So far the breakdown for each van works out like this:

 

'03 C15

===========

Bought Van: £100

Rear wheel cylinder x2 £14

Bonnet: £50

Mot: £54.85

==========

Total: -£228.85

 

'00 C15

===========

Bought van: £150

==========

Total: -£150

 

Now what I did after I bought the van was take it in to work and have a good prod at it's nether regions as you can see above, to repair the floor would require both seats, the carpets, underlay, handbrake cables and exhaust to be removed. In addition to that, a decent panel would have to be cut out of a donor vehicle.

 

Add this to the fact I'd have to put a fresh screen in the van, and I quickly decided that this one wasn't really worth the hassle, I mean on top it looks clean, but it was properly grotty low down, and I'm far from convinced about the validity of the last MOT.

 

The plan

=======

 

So I'm going to keep the newer van, and I briefly toyed with the idea of stripping and scrapping T3, that was until I fired a chance email to a local Motor Home dealer, I said simply "I have a C15 that I am going to break for spares, if there are any parts you require, please contact me". The next day, I get a call and the owner of the Motor Home dealer wants to take the van whole, how much would I like?

 

I'm a great believer in "you don't ask, you don't get" so I levelled with an opener of £200, he seems happy and we arrange for him to view the van this week, in the meantime, I have saved the 2 nearly new tyres from the front of it, a towbar and a plywood floor. I put the spare from this van, and the one from mine on for the sale and put a worn spare back in, the dealer arrived and was happy with the van for the agreed price, it will be parted out to keep some C15 Romahome campers on the road.

 

All in all, not a bad result!

[skattrd]

Not a bad result sir, £50 profit and a few bits to boot.

[Guest]

Good result - whats the mot story now its gone?

[ruffgeezer]

When the van was on eBay, I got the number from theast mot so I could look up the van's mot history, on it's last pass, there were no advisories at all, that is inspite of the screen which had obviously been damaged for some time.

 

Also for the last 4 years, the van had been to another garage for its test, getting progressively more advisories, weeping shocks, grotty sills, corroded pipes etc, all of which were still original items when I got it... Certainly something awry there.

[blackburied]

When the van was on eBay, I got the number from theast mot so I could look up the van's mot history, on it's last pass, there were no advisories at all, that is inspite of the screen which had obviously been damaged for some time.

 

Also for the last 4 years, the van had been to another garage for its test, getting progressively more advisories, weeping shocks, grotty sills, corroded pipes etc, all of which were still original items when I got it... Certainly something awry there.

 

 

Your not the first to be caught out by that. My current car had a "Clean" Mot last year. Took it to my preferred spanner monkey, That'll be £2000 please.

[ruffgeezer]

Hmm, this has just re-emerged on ebay for the same price I sold it for, it probably isn't worth it, is it?

[holbeck]

You're best placed to ponder that one, although you could just contact him and offer a one-er to take it away.