Among many other equally stupid cars I had a really nice van that I loved and cherished and put a lot of time and effort into. I sold it a few years ago for no good reason and unsucessfully tried to buy it back. (pictured)
I gave up and managed to find another one, identical spec and colour which was a bonus, felt like I was starting from scratch.
I got it at a good price from a super nice guy who was absolutely great, drove it 70 miles home at 70 before engaging myself in “new car mode” aka deep clean it to death and generally inspect everything to give a baseline of where to progress from. Here it is
Looking funky fresh after a good clean and general tlc
I gave the bay a bloody clean too, interior etc etc.
At this point I started fixing all the problems I could find, the tyres were knackered with 1 having a huge bulge in it so I bought two new ones and used 2 spares from my GTT. Free battery from a scrap car to replace the duff one. Major service, changed the driveshaft, box oil, fresh MOT (flew through, tester said it was mint underneath!) rebuilt the rear brakes and some other stuff I forgot.
Bought a minging door from a scrappie just for the higher spec door card and the door m/window mech spare etc.
Fixed some more excellent previous repairs
I found a few small cracks on the front grill but had a few on the shelf so I replaced it. The replacement fits a bit differently so I had to modify it and some other bits a little bit as you can see.
As per the above photo with the front end swap that’s up to date to today, I painted the NOS wings and (dented) bonnet yesterday morning. I haven’t done any panel gapping on it yet, but the repro wings are really bad even by my standards. The colour match is OK considering it’s fresh paint done by me directly next to 33 year old paint done by Renault.
In between all the above I forgot that I’ve insulated and ply lined it, pressure washed it underneath ready to underseal it and some other stuff. I’ve driven it around a lot and it’s earned it’s keep already but the driving experience needs some refinement.
It runs a bit rough even with almost everything replaced and some carb tuning, I may strip it, clean it and rebuild it to rule it out. The suspension and tyre situation isn’t great, with 155/70’s and standard suspension it handles like a nun carrying a mattress so I will address this.
It pains me that I have complete Clio valver running gear and complete GTT running gear sat here ready to go straight in, but it’s not happening (yet..) as I’ve got all the other cars to build. I probably shouldnt have taken another on but a van is genuinely useful
sourced some ph1 wheels. they are “spare” for my ph1 gt turbo but i thought they’d be good for the van too. as always, quick blowover.
So that brings us non chronologically up to date I think, until today when I blew over the lower half on both sides under the swage line to blank the side plastics off.
also some bonus pics of what the van is slowing me down on
I gave up and managed to find another one, identical spec and colour which was a bonus, felt like I was starting from scratch.
I got it at a good price from a super nice guy who was absolutely great, drove it 70 miles home at 70 before engaging myself in “new car mode” aka deep clean it to death and generally inspect everything to give a baseline of where to progress from. Here it is
Looking funky fresh after a good clean and general tlc
I gave the bay a bloody clean too, interior etc etc.
At this point I started fixing all the problems I could find, the tyres were knackered with 1 having a huge bulge in it so I bought two new ones and used 2 spares from my GTT. Free battery from a scrap car to replace the duff one. Major service, changed the driveshaft, box oil, fresh MOT (flew through, tester said it was mint underneath!) rebuilt the rear brakes and some other stuff I forgot.
Bought a minging door from a scrappie just for the higher spec door card and the door m/window mech spare etc.
Fixed some more excellent previous repairs
I found a few small cracks on the front grill but had a few on the shelf so I replaced it. The replacement fits a bit differently so I had to modify it and some other bits a little bit as you can see.
As per the above photo with the front end swap that’s up to date to today, I painted the NOS wings and (dented) bonnet yesterday morning. I haven’t done any panel gapping on it yet, but the repro wings are really bad even by my standards. The colour match is OK considering it’s fresh paint done by me directly next to 33 year old paint done by Renault.
In between all the above I forgot that I’ve insulated and ply lined it, pressure washed it underneath ready to underseal it and some other stuff. I’ve driven it around a lot and it’s earned it’s keep already but the driving experience needs some refinement.
It runs a bit rough even with almost everything replaced and some carb tuning, I may strip it, clean it and rebuild it to rule it out. The suspension and tyre situation isn’t great, with 155/70’s and standard suspension it handles like a nun carrying a mattress so I will address this.
It pains me that I have complete Clio valver running gear and complete GTT running gear sat here ready to go straight in, but it’s not happening (yet..) as I’ve got all the other cars to build. I probably shouldnt have taken another on but a van is genuinely useful
sourced some ph1 wheels. they are “spare” for my ph1 gt turbo but i thought they’d be good for the van too. as always, quick blowover.
So that brings us non chronologically up to date I think, until today when I blew over the lower half on both sides under the swage line to blank the side plastics off.
also some bonus pics of what the van is slowing me down on
