Indenor POWAH!!!

[wuvvum]

Bought this badass mo' fo' last night.

 

 

It must be one of the last of the Pug-engined Convoys before they went over to Ford Di power. It's ex-Royal Mail so it's a bit battered, but it drives OK - better than I expected, in fact, having never driven a Convoy before. It's not fast, but it's nowhere near as painfully slow as I remember my various 400s being, and it seems better soundproofed too. Power steering is a boon, and everything seems to work on it except the reversing lights - even the original radio/cassette works, although the display backlight has gone. I wouldn't fancy doing too many long runs in it, as it starts to feel a bit gutless above about 55 and the driver's seat is a bit on the thin side, but for running around locally it should be fine - all the roads round my way are single carriageway, so I'm limited to 50 anyway.

 

Only potential issue is that it doesn't have an MoT, and my brief poke around underneath before buying it failed to reveal that, although most of the underside is like new, one of the passenger seat mounts is decidedly tender. I'm going to put it in for a test anyway though - if it does fail on the seat mount it's only a 4"x4" square so I can't see it costing a fortune to get welded up. And the van owes me less than £300 so far, so I can't really whinge.

[AnthonyG]

Keeping the spirit of Pog alive! Looks not bad for £300. Moving house or something?

[Cavcraft]

Kingpins/steering are the common defects on these old clunkers. Poogrot engines weren't known for their top speed as you say but that's not really the point on a van like this. You could always lob a 1.9TD PSA lump into it I expect or better still a Di.

Is this a 1.9 n/a dizzler as it seems very late for the asthmatic 2.5 lump? Anyhow that's a right old win-mobile and will scrap for more than you paid for it.

[dollywobbler]

Is it a Turbo? My ol' 400 would rattle along at 70mph no bother at all with the 2.5 Pugrot blower lump in it. Wasn't that keen on hills to be honest, but pulled well enough. PAS is very necessary though! Nice buy.

[wuvvum]

It's a 2.5 - I think the Convoy was the last vehicle to use that engine, in Europe at least. Not turbo'd, alas, but even the turbo Pug engine wasn't a ball of fire.

 

I'll pump some grease into the kingpins before I take it in for a test if I get a chance, but I haven't noticed any stiffness in the steering (although the PAS would make it less noticeable anyway I suppose) and it's only done 900 miles since its last MoT (where the only advisory was slight wear to front discs) so touch wood they should be OK.

 

Not moving house (not imminently, anyway), but the office where I work is closing down on the 30th and we intend to help ourselves to anything that isn't nailed down, so the van should come in useful for that, as well as for picking up motorbikes etc.

[Cavcraft]

*Nerd mode*

 

Quite a big van for the old Post Office, these were usually reserved for their paramilitary wing aka Farcel Force. Those Pug lumps used to be very well rated in the reliability stakes though not known for top speed capers as you have noticed.

In fact if it dips the MOT hopelessly I expect a farmer would pay a bit of coin for the engine to chuck in a Land-Rover and the carcass would weigh in very nicely.

Anyhow that's bing pessimistic sorry and hopefully it'll cruise the next test.

Bonus points if you open the side loader and three hundred weight of dust and sand falls out.

[155V6]

I work at Parcel Force & a couple of LDVs were wheeled out from somewhere during the Christmas busy period last year.Not sure how old they were though

[Lankytim]

OMG, WATS DAT VOLVO?

[wuvvum]

That's my poor neglected old 164.

[cms206]

Excellent! Work's P-reg 2.5 Puggit powered SherpaRover Convoy is a thoroughly crusty machine but goes like the hammers of fffk when you wind it up. Won me a tenner too, the mechanic wouldn't believe I could see 80mph on the clock on the flat...

[Lankytim]

I used to have a 164- couldnt afford the insurance so let my mum smoke around it in. It was great but little uninsured tosser ran into the back of it, I then donated it to someone in the VOC, this was about 10 years ago, he still has it in his barn but won't sell it me back!

 

Got any pics??

 

EDIT, I just remembered that I actually had a 264 , but it had the same shape rear end and lights! I'd still love to see some pics!

[Station]

Reverse light is the standard screw in plunger on the gearbox that breaks on every car after a while.

[wuvvum]

This old crate passed its MoT today after I reinforced the slightly tender seat mounting with a couple of plates bolted through the floor. It got advisories on slight kingpin play (I couldn't find my grease gun this morning so was unable to grease them up), pitted front discs and handbrake performance, but other than that it was spot on, and passed the smoke test comfortably. So I now have a 3.5-tonne van with a year's test for a grand total of £340 - can't be bad. I even managed to overtake a dithering old coot in a Mondeo on the way to the test, although I did need a bit of a run-up.

[HBR]

Ha ha, great stuff, you dont get much with a years ticket for under £400 these days!

I'll second the ability of the 2.5 N/A Pug 400 doing an indicated 80mph on the flat, I've been there too! To be fair it was a low roof one so would have a bit less to push through the wind.

[ashmicro]

Excellent stuff. A big van is a jolly useful thing indeed. We used the roof of one of these (or similar) for a raft for the "Red Bull Floundering Around In Belfast Docks" Day a few years ago.