A 20+ year love affair with a worthless old modified Vauxhall van

[vaughant]

Love this van and the thread 🙏🏻🙏🏻

[Brigsy]

Great updates. Decent job on repairing the arches too.

[24vdiamond]

Excellent job 👍 so many of these have gone now

Thanks for the plug, happy I could help with the fuel sender 😁

[High Jetter]

Top work!

[AltheJazzman]

9 hours ago, 24vdiamond said:

Excellent job 👍 so many of these have gone now

Thanks for the plug, happy I could help with the fuel sender 😁

I didn't expect to find you on here! Do you drive an old Vauxhall too?

[24vdiamond]

2 hours ago, AltheJazzman said:

I didn't expect to find you on here! Do you drive an old Vauxhall too?

I might have the odd 1 or 6 hanging about 😁

[AltheJazzman]

1 hour ago, 24vdiamond said:

I might have the odd 1 or 6 hanging about 😁

I didn't see any project threads on those. You'll have to start one!

[24vdiamond]

3 hours ago, AltheJazzman said:

I didn't see any project threads on those. You'll have to start one!

I have on the "not a restoration" Carlton on other forums, the Viva GT is running so not much to show and the others are projects for laters! 

[JMotor]

5 hours ago, 24vdiamond said:

I have on the "not a restoration" Carlton on other forums, the Viva GT is running so not much to show and the others are projects for laters! 

I've read that "Not a Restoration" thread on the MIG welding forum. 

That definitely wasn't just a throw a patch on and away you go job! 😆 

That's some really tidy work done on that car. 

@AltheJazzman

Sorry for the thread drift. 

Some work done on that Combo! Been quietly enjoying reading the updates 😎.

[stuboy]

ive did like the few we had as patrol vehicles

[AltheJazzman]

May 2024 - Cold Air Intake?

Apart from being a fun daily driver, the mission with all the mods on this van has been to take it to a track day, but I seem to have found years of excuses to put me off. Obviously a slipping clutch wouldn't do, but having reached an engine power level that is hard to improve upon, the drivetrain is complete. With that extra power and big lump of iron under the bonnet, heat is the next issue. On a spirited drive in summer, 5-10 seconds of full acceleration at 28psi of boost is enough to send the temperature gauge alarmingly close to the red. It soon cools down, and I fitted a fan override switch ages ago which helps, but only when in slow or standing traffic. Annoyingly lots of people have told me to run the fan when driving to help with cooling, but in my experience a fan can't compete at all with the air flow rushing in through the grille if the car is moving above 30mph.

So the complicated and elegant solution to heat is to fit an external oil cooler. The engine already has an oil / water heat exchanger on the back of the cylinder head where the oil filter attaches. I did some research and found some confusing and conflicting information about sandwich plates, oil thermostats, thread sizes, and clearances. I parked this one in the "too hard" section, and made a plan B - cold air intake. Currently the cone filter sticks up into a corner of the engine bay on top of the wheel arch. I thought if I could get this to suck in outside air instead of sharing it with the heat coming off the engine it would reduce intake temperatures. Right?

For comparison, here's a reminder of the 2020 setup:

And the 2024 setup, complete with speaker grille and flowerpot surround screwed into a blunt hole in the corner of the bumper:

Was I proud of that? Not really, but I hoped it would help. It didn't. I ignored it until I realised 2 years later that the bumper was in such a state due to repeated modification holes that I should just buy a new one and reverse this intake mod. I did in the meantime find a plan C that I wasn't previously aware of - an all aluminium radiator:

May 2025 - Aluminium Radiator upgrade

This should also have been simple, except there was only one company I could find online making a suitable radiator for this engine, and they had managed to make it about 5% too small in every dimension. This meant the mounts didn't line up on one side. I don't care about a slightly wonky radiator, and the upper mount was solved by drilling a new hole for the bracket, but I was more annoyed at the poor finish on the fan switch, so much so that it leaked immediately. I fixed this with a miracle black instant gasket product that a mate had, made by Porsche for sealing Boxster engines!

While I was in there I had read about a secondary thermostat on the back of the head that could be removed for extra coolant flow. It fought me as it had welded itself into the housing, but it's free, and in the bin now.

The wonky radiator came back to haunt me though a few weeks later as took my van to Download festival. @inconsistant was with us and some grumpy old blokes he pretends to like. Well one of them noticed the empty coolant bottle when I was showing off the engine at the campsite. I topped it up before leaving but didn't get very far before the temperature shot up. I managed to get a video of the problem where the alternator pulley had cut a neat slotted hole in the lower hose! I assumed it was my poor fitting, so I managed to limp it home after stopping at a garage, buying zip ties and PVC tape, and filling up all my water bottles.

I bought a new genuine lower radiator hose, fitted and assumed "job done". Nope! Two weeks later, the same leak.  Now I worked it it must have been because the radiator was jutting out into the engine bay on that side or the outlet pipe was too long. So I bought another new hose (that eBay seller must have thought I had a strange fetish), cut it slightly shorter for a closer fit, and put a sleeve over the hose to protect it.

[AltheJazzman]

July 2025 - torque!

Jumping forward a bit because it's related to the above, I may have found the other reason why the alternator pulley was able to move far enough forward to cut the radiator hose. This my friends, is the physical consequence of an engine producing double the torque it was designed with. The rear engine mount had started tearing itself out of the chassis, allowing for excess twist in the engine under heavy acceleration! Secretly I'm quite impressed in a stupid way. 🤡

Not a job I was going to take on myself, I left my local garage to come up with a solution and they welded in this strengthening plate and I supplied them with a new engine mount. As I was to discover a year later when removing the gearbox, the mount would instead bend so much I couldn't get to the bolt!

 

[AltheJazzman]

October 2024 - My First Welder and about bloody time.

After a good wash one sunny day I decided to attack some paint bubbling. I didn't expect it to look pretty, but I thought I could at least sand it back, treat the rust, and cover it with Hammerite or similar. An hour later with the wire wheel and I had alarmingly made rather a large hole at the bottom of the B-pillar. This of course received the ever popular "temporary" solution of duct tape. I was disappointed not to have any body-matched colour.

I made some other unexpected holes as well but at least one of these was non structural.

Probably a year later I discovered a new-found joy in using body filler and colour-matched spray paint, but there's little documented proof of those hacks.

I realised if there was any hope to long term continued ownership of this cheaply built but lovable rogue I would have to go more DIY and learn to weld. If I start on something not very visible I would less bothered if it looked shit. Having asked around I was lucky to find my friend Kristyon who had a few weeks off work and simultaneously owned a cheap Mig welder that he was happy to sell me, and teach me to use. I just had to pay him in food and beer. It's only 105A but I understood this was enough for thin sheet metal.

First job - upgrade the welder. The torch had been worn down and was permanently fitted so we bought a Euro-torch kit and bodged it into the little welder:

Next job: make the hole worse to find clean metal to weld to:

Kristyon did some CAD, and I did my first bit of metal pigeon-poo, listening for that sizzling-bacon sound. Just remember: "A grinder and paint makes me the welder I ain't":

Slowly it began to take shape. If I show the pictures too big you might realise how bad the repair follows the original shape, but it's solid metal with some rust protection, and nearly the correct colour paint, and it cost me very little!

But I suppose I'll show the finished result!

 

 

 

[AltheJazzman]

April 2025 - more rust

In Vauxhall's inimitable design choice, they decided the best way to turn a Corsa B into a larger van was to put a box on the back and cover the space between the cab and the cargo area with this curved storage pod. They also chose to make it out of thinner metal, and use wind tunnel data to ensure it received more stone chips than the bonnet, and put a nice big rubber seal around the bottom lip to catch all the rain to help it rust faster. While these vans were still in production, and even shortly afterwards, there was a reasonably good supply of fibreglass aftermarket roof pods, but now as these ancient vans have dwindled to less than 200 on the UK roads, supply has virtually dried up, and the Facebook group gets moist when someone says they've found a New Old Stock fibreglass or steel pod. They then hoard it forever with the promise of making moulds that never happen, or it ends up on eBay for £400. Sadly I missed the latter as the bank account was empty, but I knew mine needed attention. When I bought the van the original pod was full of holes, but it was still possible to find good used replacements on eBay back then, which I did, spray painted black because that was easier than matching the blue, and then a few years later had a professional vinyl wrap it for a tidier finish.

The vinyl wrap never lasted though, despite having it re-applied. Either the black colour or the location on the vehicle made it so hot the vinyl just dried up and cracked, so I tore it off to inspect the quality beneath. Out again came the wire wheel and I made some holes, and inspected inside the seal:

Seeing the rust inside the seal I knew I had to remove the entire pod. It bolts in, but is also sealed as it's definitely not a perfect fit! 

The underside revealed horrors, but I've honestly seen much worse.

For now the only option was to scrape out the rust, re-fit it, and protect the paint and metal that still remained. Out came the Hammerite.

Sadly it now leaks where it didn't before, but I tightened up the bolts and now it leaks less but my interior is getting damaged and if I'm not careful it'll be the electronics too. I need a new roof pod. The next one that comes up on eBay or Facebook is going on the credit card.

[AltheJazzman]

January 2026 - track day prep

Still with the intention of taking it on track, I set myself the target of getting the van ready during winter so the cold weather would help any extra engine cooling I might need! I did the boring stuff of replacing brakes front and rear, but using fancy high temp brake fluid and the best performance pads I could find. I also replaced all the front end bushes that had worn out. Cosmetically I was fed up with that scruffy bumper, the cold air intake hadn't helped, and I couldn't access the air filter for cleaning without jacking up the front end!

I found a pattern part bumper easily enough and formed a new plan for better cooling. (Is this plan D now? I've still managed to avoid the oil cooler option). More air flow = better cooling and the biggest thing obstructing air flow into the intercooler and radiator was the number plate. This isn't needed on track so I gave the new bumper to my favourite body shop with instructions to cut a letter box behind the number plate, and cut out the webbing in the grille. I also wanted the body-matched look that most of the Corsas were given, instead of the bare grey plastic poverty-spec van look.

Here is the new bumper as delivered:

and after modifications, and in track mode with number plate removed:

Finally, before and after:

With the summer tyres fitted in winter which felt odd, I was track-day ready so I booked Brands Hatch for the last track day in February while the short days kept the sessions cheaper. I could never have anticipated the drama that unfolded next!