‘97 Mk3 Astravan, just me and old faithful

I used teak oil on the old bumpers with eczema, and that seemed to work quite well...

As said, I hot air gunned these ones and have used meguires rubber and plastic stuff on them and they seem to be holding there colour quite well. I have done the same with the bump strips will see how they go


I tried peanut butter on an old van, but a few days later whilst on site and having forgotten my snap bag I was out there licking the bumpers

made I laff - ta

Been quiet because not really much to update...

Stuff has been going on but it’s all been ‘prep work’ for today

To set the scene, last year I fitted some light fittings for someone from the forum, to repay the favour he (now we start to narrow it down ) was going to repair a dent on my VW before I put it up for sale, then due to personal issues that didn’t happen, he had more important things going on, so I got the van fixed and put the van up for sale. Unfortunately the day I advertised the VW was the day that we got locked down... so the Van hung around a bit longer than anticipated,

but when the dust cleared we chatted again and a new plan formed... I had a bit of time sort of booked in to fix the VW and having seen my pitiful attempt at bodywork Chris was so offended that he had to fix it before it gave him a migraine @grumpynorthener offered to blow in the sides of the van and the tailgate in for me, admittedly this was a bit of mission creep, but would certainly tidy up my bodywork repairs, it would just be a bit of a shame that the bonnet and roof would let the rest of it down and since blowing in scruffy old vans isn’t really his thing anyway it wasn’t really much of a leap to the van getting painted properly

So today I dropped the van off and helped by removing bits to prepare it for painting. It is very strange working around people, I do it on site so am getting used to it... but still strange, and not being able to shake his hand when he eventually got rid of me was strange too

Been following this with interest, Love the fact its your work van, wish more people would do it! Always remember my dad test driving a bottle green hatchback one must be back in 1998 or so, he's a driving instructor and was looking at it for work, we also test drove a fiat sceicento, Always loved the design of the astra.

Cant wait to see it in some fresh paint!

That nice person over the lane will love that but it can be called a classic?

And quite right too.

Nice

So johnthesparky's Astra van



TBH its quite a tidy & solid little van - most have been well truly overworked by this age



They tend to also be rot boxes by 20 + years old - has does every van - but this example has been daubed in various underbody wax treatments & cavity wax which is probably why its lasted and presents this well



John has already replaced the front wings and undertaken some welded panel repairs to the rear wings / inner arches



Tailgate has been replaced at some stage with a used one (probably for accident damage has there is dent just under the tailgate in the rear lower valance (that I have already dressed back) - however this replacement tailgate is dead with rot



Fortunately John had already sourced a new old stock original tailgate at a very fair price



Originally I had agreed with John to go down both sides and paint the tailgate



However the bonnet is dull



Carries a load of stone chips on the front edge



And the paint finish is way past it's sell by date



And the roof is in the same state - rather than the van become a patchwork or John take a load of ribbing that he was too tight to get the bonnet & roof done at the same time - I'll just paint the entire van



John hung about to drop the parts off the van like the bumpers / lights / tailgate etc



Overspray is a sure sign of lazy cant be bothered vehicle painter - personally I find its just has easy to mask everything up from the start



Equally I like to remove anything that can be feasibly removed and paint behind it rather than mask it up



There is the odd minor rust scab but these are few & far between



Several minor dents here & there but nothing major



Worse area is on the offside rear wing where John has let a new panel in - he's made a good job of letting the panel in too for a first attempt - but it needs the profiles truing up if its having fresh paint on it - profiling is skill in itself and not something that you pick up & perfect in a weekend



Rear window on the old tailgate is bonded so that need to come out



Bonded glass cutting tool



Works like so



However the rear window had been amateur fitted which resulted in far too much bonding material retaining the window - I had to resort the old trick of drawing a wire through the bonding to release the glass



Tailgate is certainly dead



I got stuck in with the sander but unfortunately the sander has decided that its going into retirement - well its going in the bin - bloody thing - it just keeps cutting out - I cant find the fault - Never liked the dam thing anyway - another of these high end power tool brands that think they are better than every other brand and price accordingly - wont be purchasing anything 'Festool' again - I have ordered a new Mirka CEROS - but it wont be here until Wednesday which means I loose a day (I can always find things to do but I had planned on getting this into paint this week)



I managed to get the offside wing knocked back before it gave up the ghost



Which has since been trued up and the initial skim applied

Mission creep at it's best

It's paint now is in better nick than my Carlton