R is for?

[hairymel]

Recovery Truck!

 

Due to my burgeoning dirt oval racing career/shite car collection, i have developed a need for a better method of transporting my cars than mundano and dodgy trailer.

 

sadly my overdraft cannot be stretched to buy a nice truck

 

or a shite one either 

 

an acquaintance who works out of the same farm/industrial area i work at recently bought a transit which looked ok from a distance. a while later he mentioned it was for sale, due to no longer being needed (or more likely mot due and closer inspection making his ass/wallet pucker lol)

 

i know he paid £1200ish for it and he wanted an unrealistic £1750.

 

initial negotiations started @£800 or up to a hard limit of £1000 if it was ok after closer inspection.

 

a closer look made me adjust the final figure to the lower end of the scale.

 

a price of £850 was agreed, which was more than i wanted to pay but took into account i had given an extensive poke about and it was parked outside my workplace so didn't need 'recovering' itself. 

 

as the day of handover approached i started feeling buyers remorse even before cash had changed hands. the fact that the keys had become lost allowed me to take a breather and reassess the transaction.

 

a bit of renegotiation took the figure down to a more pleasing £700

 

picture after a bit of disassemble

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dean36014]

Should keep you busy welding for a while! Can remember driving a brand new one of that era and being amazed how nice it was to drive compared the Leyland daf 400 it replaced.

looks a bulky winch on the back,is it a decent one?

[Junkman]

R is for Rot.

[hairymel]

a lock set was ordered for the princely sum of £16.40 and the locks duly drilled out for engine runup.

 

happily, for the purpose of this exercise, the immobiliser had already been removed and replaced with scotchlocks and random bits of wire poked into fuseholders, and all seemed good with the rattly old Di banana lump  

 

a mot was booked and a failure sheet produced

 

much rust and a few trifles like non functioning handbrake and no middle passenger seatbelt gave me a starting point for the road ahead.

[hairymel]

R is for Rot.

 

funnily enough Junkman, this brings me on to the next (marathon) stage 

 

i will run through the Rust as i get to it, but for now i will start off with the passenger inner wing/strut top

 

a bit of Removal to aid inspection

 

 

p/s engine bay inner wing

 

 

 

front os p/s inner wing/front panel

 

 

 

p/s step and inner wing

 

 

 

 

previous strut top 'Repairs'

 

 

 

and from the other side

 

 

p/s step/outrigger from underneath

 

 

[Cavcraft]

I bloody love those things but will reserve judgement on value for money when you show us the cab step areas and what's left of the chassis.

 

 

Edit: You just have. Soz, but a little LOL came out.

[hairymel]

looks a bulky winch on the back,is it a decent one?

 

think its a 2.5 tonne but havent really looked closely - it has a chunk knocked out of the housing but it works and apparently has enough oomph to have bent the frame it mounts onto   the cable is a bit scabby but thats the least of my worries lol

[Lankytim]

Rust is no problem as it will be MOT exempt innit.

[hairymel]

 a little LOL came out.

 

in my man maths the (snapped in half) bed, the winch and the engine make up most of the money paid so the rot is practically free 

[Junkman]

in my man maths the (snapped in half) bed, the winch and the engine make up most of the money paid so the rot is practically free 

 

That gives the term 'rot free' a whole new meaning.

[hairymel]

Rust is no problem as it will be MOT exempt innit.

 

if exempt means it hasn't got one then yes 

[dean36014]

Cable should be a priority when it's back in use. I did 13 years moving static caravans winching them on and off the trailer. I had a cable snap whilst standing on the trailer winching a motor home on. Cable looked fine other than a bit of light rust. Feeling the air part as it whistled by my head and hit the back if the tractor unit certainly woke me up. Put a nice dent in the cab too. If its rusty replace it. Not overly expensive to do

[hairymel]

an evening spent with spanners and screwdrivers to allow a bit more access left me looking at this

 

 

 

 

 

all a bit demoralising so i did a bit of angle grinding until the inside of the cab looked a better starting point

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hairymel]

 I had a cable snap 

 

yep - one of the things that give me the upside down stomach feeling when i think about it.

[hairymel]

some time later the strut top is repaired for mot time 

 

 

 

 

 

[hairymel]

passing Mot man was less than positive about this so i tried again

 

 

luckily the tricky bit was saveable

 

 

 

 

much bolting and unbolting of the jig  and hopefully everything is in the right place!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BavarianRetro]

yep - one of the things that give me the upside down stomach feeling when i think about it.

Get a plasma rope for it.

[hairymel]

 

 

 

 hopefully everything is in the right place!

 

 

 

 except it wasn't 

 

first off i couldn't get the strut back in. i felt physically sick - but after taking the topmount off and fitting it first all seemed ok. i am fairly sure the mount is in the right place and it was a bastard to get the strut off in the first place so i am calling it done  .

 

also the A pillar has moved a bit and the door needed some fiddling to get it to shut but shut it is until i chop everything else out.

 

TTFN off out to put up a tent 

[hairymel]

Get a plasma rope for it.

 

ouch expensive! might just extend the winch remote lead 

[Ghosty]

some time later the strut top is repaired for mot time 

 

DSCF2833.JPG

 

DSCF2834.JPG

 

DSCF2835.JPG

 

What the fuck...?!

[Cavcraft]

in my man maths the (snapped in half) bed, the winch and the engine make up most of the money paid so the rot is practically free 

 

To be fair there must be 3 ton in the back and if the winch is good one that'll turn a few quid if it comes to it. What make is the winch by the way?

[danthecapriman]

Even though they do rust like hell, the smiley Transit DI is still by far the best van of ever.

 

Love that jig to hold the strut to together! Like a pice of art! Nice job fixing it properly too and not just slapping a bit of tin over the hole the bird shit welding it on.

[vulgalour]

Wow, you know how to pick 'em!

[RoadworkUK]

Once, in 1997, a team of process analysts was assembled at Ford's Transit production plant in Southampton. They were despatched to perform research on how other busy Ford plants in Europe went about delivering a cost-effective yet efficacious anti-corrosion solution.

 

Unfortunately, they didn't get any further than Valencia and the Ka plant.

[mouseflakes]

 i am calling it done

 

Looks done to me too - nice work!

[Pillock]

I didn't realise it was a jig, I thought you were going to run it like that......

 

That's some cracking grot, so a heroic save

[cobblers]

Hey, that strut top location jig is a good idea and nicely executed!I presume you made it from sweepings up, but theres paint pen on the box section that says TRANSIT as if its been used before?

Either way from where I'm standing that's a real nice job on a nasty repair. Same on the other side?

[hairymel]

To be fair there must be 3 ton in the back and if the winch is good one that'll turn a few quid if it comes to it. What make is the winch by the way?

 

dunno will have a look next time 

 

Even though they do rust like hell, the smiley Transit DI is still by far the best van of ever.

 

Love that jig to hold the strut to together! Like a pice of art! Nice job fixing it properly too and not just slapping a bit of tin over the hole the bird shit welding it on.

 

there were at least 3 layers of rotten 'patches' already otherwise i might have gone down the easy route!

 

Wow, you know how to pick 'em!

 

i like to think they pick me Angyl 

 

Looks done to me too - nice work!

 

cheers - little bit more to do yet though - i can only work on it outside of work hours when there is someone else there, so progress may be a little bit slow.

 

I didn't realise it was a jig, I thought you were going to run it like that......

 

That's some cracking grot, so a heroic save

 

if only it was that easy

 

Hey, that strut top location jig is a good idea and nicely executed!I presume you made it from sweepings up, but theres paint pen on the box section that says TRANSIT as if its been used before?

Either way from where I'm standing that's a real nice job on a nasty repair. Same on the other side?

 

i was parked next to the scrap bin so materials were close at hand   i think it actually says 'transfer at (insert some random place name)'

 

other side might be ok - the top looks ok but i need to give the underneath a bit of a scrape - the inner/and outer wheelarch and step/sill area are toast both sides though

[mercrocker]

Excellent thread and a worthy save.  I do like a vehicle, too, that can hold its own shit when being worked on.....

[anonymous user]

I can imagine that once you have it sorted you will suddenly have loads of new friends (whereabouts are you based?)