‘97 Mk3 Astravan, just me and old faithful

It’s the same colour as my dads old one too but a few years newer. D38 CCG was his old motor. Think he kept that car the longest of any he’s had.

Today’s update is all about the excuses

When I bought the Astravan the original plan was to get a van and spend a bit of time sorting any niggles before pressing it into service whilst I sold the VW.
That all went south when the DMF failed on the VW, I bought this maybe a little quickly... not that I regret that at all, it is as DVLA confirmed EPIC!



But I bought it, it was pressed into immediate service, and I concentrated on sorting the VW out and getting that sold. So since I bought it I’ve really just been firefighting the niggles and keeping it running.
I took some photos of the VW and advertised it on the 16th March, sometime mid-afternoon. In hindsight I shouldn’t have bothered! Later that day it all kicked off and now we are in lockdown, so it’s abandoned on my parents driveway (at some point, when I next take some provisions to them, I will plug a battery charger in) and earlier this week I even put it on SORN!
Anyway, on the plus side, I had paid the finance off onto a credit card, which means the borrowing is 0% for a while, so I just need to pay minimum payment until all this blows over and it’ll all be fine

So, you may wonder what is the purpose of all of this blathering....

Well with time now on my hands, I decided I should start to address the niggles that I planned to sort before use... I’ve been checking the fluids (and apart from screenwash everything is staying at same level) so today I had a look at the airfilter......



Eeewwww!!!

And it looks like a bugs life suicide pact in there too.



So I ordered some service bits (I think I was lulled into a false sense of security by the comprehensive service notes and receipts. It’s all ok, oil looks ok and coolant is blue etc. The brakes weren’t old but it’s obviously been sat around and not used much) so when the bits turn up some time in the future I will give it a service, but for now I hoovered the filter and box and refitted

Then I changed the spill pipes, found it leaking the other day and haven’t wanted to use it since



Only one looked to be leaking, down on cylinder 1



Started it up and let it run and leak has stopped, so cleaned off the diesel as best I could and pressure washed it around the engine (where I could safely) and underneath to get rid of the rest of it, even though I stopped driving when I noticed it, it had still leaked enough to be all over the chassis leg and a little bit on the floor





After cleaning, I gave the engine bay a wipe over with some wd40 and there is a rusty oil hard pipe



So I gave that some hydrate80 and will paint it later



Then thought I ought to clean the mess on the drive, which went well, but showed up the rest of the drive, so the rest of the day was spent pressure washing the block paving... tomorrow I now have 3 cars to wash, brush sand around the drive and then I can play with the van again

More information on removing the dents would be helpful, where did you get the tool? I've got some on the rear wing of the MSX3 that need sorting.

Oh! You sound like you think I knew what I was doing

The dents to the single skin panels were just where my box of meters (I think) had slid across the packing boxes I had put in the back.

Though great at helping me to be organised, they also put anything stacked on top of them at the perfect height to slide across and hit the side of the van

So I had got some ‘auto knockdown tools’ as my dents were outy dents
These are what I got





They come with various tips and I’m sure there is a specific one for what I wanted to do.... but I guessed and used a slightly convex one and got Tom to hold a hammer against it on the other side, and then used a pointy-ish one to get the last of it nearly out.

Here are some others, I got them off of eBay for about 5 or 6 quid



There I are some very slight dents visible still, but your eyes aren’t automatically drawn to them anymore... luckily the bit of paint reaction at the top right at the back or the really shiny bits that were under some sign writing are more noticeable... but even they don’t show up in photos

I ran one of these for a few years as a garage works van around '98 / '99.
We picked it up cheap after it had been swamped in a flood whilst driving and had ingested water and bent a rod.
I threw a rod in it and thrashed the knackers of the thing everyday with no problems.
It was painfully slow though, even with the turbo. I think the boss had secretly screwed back the pump to try and curtail some of my daredevil antics with it every time I went to collect parts, many a time I would park it up outside the garage with a smoke haze from the front brakes due to a "spirited" return journey, he would just give me "the look"

Had a callout yesterday to fix a heating fault. When I came home a mate had left this behind the gate



Big tub of filler!
So i made a spray booth



And started working on the wings









And then started painting





And it reacted again

So rubbed it down again



This morning walked Spud past mate Andy’s house and he’d left me some panel wipe outside, so wiped the other panel down and tried again, and that reacted too! Fox Picture!!

So had a stomp, and took all the paint and primer off and started again.





Got cross, so wandered off and painted some windows and fascias, and decided to bludgeon on
So ignored the reaction and carried on, on the basis that’s it contamination I decided to not contaminate more, so just added paint and then lacquer
The end result is this....







They are sort of ok, hopefully I can get a bit of shine on them!

There are a couple of runs and some pinholes





But meh! The colour is ok





So new plan!!!! Try to make them a bit more shiny, and fit them.... then fix the rust on the originals and repair the bottoms where they meet the sills.
Then I can give them to a body shop, they can colour match from the panels, paint them and I’ll refit when I get them back... these can then be spares! If I sort the tailgate for then too, that can get painted at the same time

I did alright on the windows though



And a few photos from through the week when I’ve had work











If anyone has any tips on how to fix my paint, that would be great... thanks

Been out and relacquered the wings.

Had some advice on what I’m doing wrong thanks @grumpynorthener

Just to clarify, I would really like to do a proper job of painting, but every time I realise I haven’t got the right thing I need to order it and wait for delivery... which I struggle with and find demotivating... so I’m happy to have fox picture paint because the bigger picture is that even with dodgey paint they are still better wings than those fitted, and I can move forward (even though I’ll have to do it twice)

So this morning I damped the floor, and tried to clear any dust.... it was a bit like the Mary Whitehouse Experience, where Rob Newman was colouring in.....
Put some gloves on, wiped the panel, shook the can of lacquer and watched dust settle on the panel

And then painted it anyway









Will leave for a while, and have a look later.

I have some bits that I can do, I ordered some exhaust parts... I did a big order from ECP trying to minimise the number of deliveries required. So far I’ve had 4 deliveries from the one order, one bit not included and another wrong! >-)

gtviva has sorted me a gasket for the front pipe... that should be here soon



So I shall take Spud for a walk and then I can change the back box and put penetrating oil on the front pipe fixings and see if they are siezed

I find it doesn’t work But only one way to learn

Thanks, I feel quite sorry for anyone doing deliveries, but I guess the flip side is they are busy I suppose.

I definately need to check I can get the bolts out though first or it’s a whole new can of worms!

Whilst Lucy was asleep I had a look underneath... and then spent a chunk of time cleaning rust and brushing on hydrate80

Started from the rear where I’d finished last time, so cleaned up the beam, and floor sections around there where it steps up

And worked forward, have done most of it now to the bulkhead. It’ll get a cleaning and dinitrolled after this is over, but that may be a while after things get back to normal depending on Frankie and Dave’s workload, and it’s quite therapeutic











A lot of the rusty bits are where the edge of the under seal has lifted a bit, so I’ve just been scraping off the loose underseal and treating. But not sure if I should go back a bit further?



And as a plus, what little hair I have won’t go rusty

Then tried to loosen the downpipe bolts, one came straight out but the other fought. Started coming out but went tight, and couldn’t move it either way
Got it out in the end



So after fighting, I dropped the pipe off and there was no gasket. So I fitted the front pipe for now, and bolted it up. Only had a shouldered m10 bolt so used that and loads of washers for now, but will try to grab a bolt over the next couple of days





And then had a look at the wings, they aren’t terrible, but there are a couple of milky sections in the lacquer and some runs








Stored them in the garage for now, but will need to fit them soon before they get damaged