Styled in Italy, built in Britain - The story of the blue Ital Van

[loserone]

Great work Trigs!

[Felly Magic]

Cracking on well with this Triggs. 

[flat4alfa]

You can haz vote in the thread of the year competition.

[oldcars]

Looks spot on. What paint did you end up getting?

[trigger]

I ended up with some cellulose from online company paints4u, the colour match is good but the finish isn't quite as nice but it's good enough. The new log book in my name arrived today too! Woohoo!

[danthecapriman]

Looks great, the match looks much better than last time. I get most of my paints from paints4u, always found them pretty good.

Arches and undersides looking nice and tidy too with fresh underseal.

[oldcars]

I ended up with some cellulose from online company paints4u, the colour match is good but the finish isn't quite as nice but it's good enough. The new log book in my name arrived today too! Woohoo!

They are good. The aerosol heads they use are really good,

[trigger]

A few more little jobs done on this over the last couple of days, fitted all the weather rubbers on the nearside door so hopefully that's water tight now, also greased up the runners whilst the door card was off, I keep thinking about buying a roof rack for it, it must have had one once as there's marks where it's been bolted on and there's wear marks on the roof where the ladder was.

 

 

I found a photo of my dad's old one in 1983 and his had the rack roof that I'm after.

 

 

I like the idea of a old wooden ladder on the top, I did find a roof rack on eBay for £20 but it's in Ely which is about a 2 1/2 hour round trip and with a wife about to drop any minute I couldn't risk driving there to collect it.

 

Mean while I've rubbed all the wheels back down to bare metal with a wire wheel on a drill and got some fresh hammerite paint on them.

 

 

 

 

I love putting that first coat of silver on!

 

 

The last owner wants the two "new" tyres back even though they are over 20 years old and have flat spots so I had to mask them up, the local garage wants £30 each fitted for some "Royal" branded 165/70/13 tyres so I've ordered them up to be fitted in the new year.

 

I was toying with a coachline to break up the side but I'm not sure?.

 

 

And lastly a new stereo for it arrived today, it's a USB, Bluetooth thing and only cost £19.99 of Amazon, it's got good reviews so i thought it's worth the gamble plus being a non CD player means it has a shallow body so it will fit in the glovebox.

 

[Guest Hooli]

I like the coach line.

 

That roof rack you're looking for rings a faint bell as a 'Paddy Hopkirk'?

[Dick Cheeseburger]

It’s looking great, and the wheels will make a massive difference when they’re back on.

As for the coachline, it looks way too posh. It’s the equivalent of pronouncing your surname as ‘Bookay’ when it’s plain old ‘Bucket’.

[Parky]

I like the coach line too - how difficult to get it perfectly straight though?

 

Wheels look good too! Sometimes Hammerite serves a useful purpose

[flat4alfa]

 

[Guest Hooli]

 

 

I was right! Why do I remember such rubbish?

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Fuck roof racks !

I put some cross bars on my modern V70 yesterday to pick up a sheet of mdf, at low speeds I thought the turbo was going and then at higher speeds it sounded like a wheelbearing.

You'll spoil the luxurious, silent ambience that the factory spent millions perfecting, oh hang on...

[Six-cylinder]

I still have mine in the garage, but still need them for my Range Rover Classic.

[trigger]

Those are the ones, a set will come up for sale at some point, I've found one on eBay but he won't post!

[Craig the Princess]

If you need that ladder collected from Ely then it's on my way to work. Can store for a while if necessary.

[Guest Hooli]

Those are the ones, a set will come up for sale at some point, I've found one on eBay but he won't post!

 

Shitely for the ebay ones?

[trigger]

If you need that ladder collected from Ely then it's on my way to work. Can store for a while if necessary.

Thanks for the offer, it was these ones, I'll leave it for now until a set come up a bit closer as I'm in no real rush. Thanks anyway.

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F173000044847

[lincolndanny]

Must be due an update surely? Gettinz wivdrawals

[Timewaster]

I'm sure you have better things to do at the moment Trig, but if you want those relisted roof bars in Ely, I can collect and store for you.

[bezzabsa]

thought he'd be out doing DRIFT YO! in this lovely crisp weather we're having!!

[trigger]

Yes with a new born baby and a almost 2 year old who's now decided this week would be a good week to enter the terrible 2's things have been a bit slow, that and the freezing weather isn't help much either.

 

I have managed to do a few little jobs though, much to my shame I've fiberglassed the inner wings, they aren't pretty but it should buy it some more time before someone does them properly, I've ground them back, treated and painted lots of Zinc 182 plus seal sealer and underseal inside the wing should help.

 

I've also got lucky with a roof rack, the other one I was watching got relisted with a BIN including delivery so I've jumped on that, bonus Maestro van on the box too!

 

 

I've also spent some Xmas money on a SGS engineering 50lt compressor for £120, typically today eBay were doing a 20% all items over £20 so if I waited a day I would have got £22 off it! Sod laws, to be fair it arrived today and is a big improvement on the old one which was a 24lt, annoyingly it's got a air leak though so I need to get that sorted.

 

So things are progressing but slowly!

[nacho man]

What’s that sgs compressor like?

 

There based in Derby about five mins from my house, I popped in not long ago as they custom make gas struts and they was pretty cheap.

 

They must be making some serious dollar as they recently moved into a massive new industrial unit, they also have some nice looking roller cab tool boxes dirt cheap in the showroom , that are ex display.

 

Van looks mega by the way.

[trigger]

So far it seems pretty good, apart from the leaking valve... I also have their 3 ton jack as well and that's a quality piece of kit. I can't knock their service either, the compressor was here in less than 24 hours after ordering it. Thinking about it I also used them for the gas struts on my SD1 and again they came quickly, was miles cheaper than anywhere else and worked perfectly.

 

Back to van news I managed to get a couple of hours in the garage this afternoon so painted the inside of the front wings with underseal (once thats dried i will blast some schutz over it all) and tidied up the bubbling front wing, again it probably could do with a nearside front wing but the last one I saw for sale was £300 so this will have to do for now.

 

 

 

 

[flat4alfa]

£300 for an Ital wing?!  Is stock really that scarce now then

 

Fair dues for saving it, especially as its welded on

[Zelandeth]

Does that paint provider do any types?  I'm going to need some for the Xantia which was originally a three part pearl finish (white base coat, semi-opaque top coat and laquer over that).

[Lankytim]

Hang on, the PO wants a couple of “new” tyres back off it? Did I read that right?

 

Top thread BTW...

[trigger]

No idea if Paints4u do any other types, you'll have to email them.

 

I can't believe he wants the tyre back either! To be fair he is a friend and the tyres are only going to get binned anyway, he bought them back in the 1990s but his brother never paid him for them (technically it was his brothers van) and when I said I was replacing them as they had flat spots he quickly said I'll have them back in that case!

 

Yesterday dad came over and we managed to get the brake master cylinder rebuilt and the brakes bleed and working again, that took ages as there was so much air in it but I'm pleased that's done now and the fuel pipes have all been replaced now too. Next job there will be to borrow a friends big pump and suck the tank dry of the old stale fuel and shit, put some fresh fuel in and try to run it from the tank for the first time.

[purplebargeken]

Cracking work as ever. The van is really taking shape now.

 

Not sure on the coach lines but not my van The roof rack will look fantastic

 

I never buy number plates using the V5C and such shite. Never had an issue in so many years, like forever.