Ollies mk1 van

[ollied]

Well on impulse i put a deposit on this lurvely mk1 van..................mainly because i have never even seen another one one the road but also because i went to retro show up santapod a few weekends before lol

Collecting it tomorrow after work

Its a very tidy state considering its age and how well vauxhalls rot lol. Defo needs some welding underneath and the strut tops up front are starting to show a bit of orange also a new fuel tank as the current diesel one is leaking. But is farrrr from a lost cause as most of the front panels have been replaced along with some work on the arches

The plan................at the moment is to tidy her up, do any remedial work eg welding underneath etc........paint matt black, slam it on its arse and decide on an engine. I was leaning towards another v6 but perhaps an ecowreck or similar for the time being as i dont want it to turn into another money pit.

A few pics shamelessly stolen from the retrorides sale thread:D

[ollied]

Cheers for all the interest and comments guys, will try not to dissapoint

Right, got her home today. Got a company called windmill towing to trailer it back, cost me £60 which i was more than happy to pay as would have cost me more like £90 if i had towed it myself.

Would defo reccomend them to others, turned up loaded it onto the trailer and everything for me and did the same at the other end.............completely hassle free:cool:

Right got it into the unit barn and proceded to have a mince and a bit of a poke around managed to drop my fuking digicam though and the screen is smashed, ohwell got these pics before i dropped it













The work done on the front panel


Found this in the boot...............



fukin oldskool:cool:

Was amazed when i found out this isnt a crossflow engine not sure why as lots of diesels arent lol


Quite a nasty hole in the sparewheel well.



Mocked up the front end then called it a day as it was getting quite dark


More to come at the weekend.

[ollied]

Sorry most of that was cut and paste from mig, just spent ages uploading all the pics and that, couldnt face doing it again lol

[ollied]

Had a play after work today as i finished at just after 1 lol.

Was mainly investigation work and also stripping the interior out completely, including the sound deadning. So i can repair anything inside that needs doing then wire wheel it all down and paint it. then put some carpet back in decided to go with a few layers of sub box carpet or similar to compensate for the lack of soundproofing.

Also planning to flock/carpet the dash while its out.


Had a few surprises up front rust wise but nothing tooo unexpected.
Pictures for all

Started by taking all this stuff out.


Whoever decided this ****e was a good idea at vauxhall needs shooting, actually managed to wring some moisture from it!




Previous repair work




If only it were still that cheap haha


Blatantly been round atleast once lol


My investigating involved a hammer and small chisel...........which lead to finding all this


Like this the other side too








Under where the wash bottle was and also the other side where the coolant bottle was have clearly had a very bad bodged repair at some point, involving decorating caulk, some galv tin sheet and stuffing the void with what appears to be brillo pads!











Inside i started by twatting all the drain hole plugs out.


Pulled the comedy engine loom back through the firewall.


Which left the inside like so


Destripped one side, will do the other tomorrow




More to come tomorrow:cool:

[ollied]

Just a quick update not many pics as i forgot my camera today so was using my phone for the most part.


Did a lot more digging, and there is a lot of rot in the front . Also the sills and arches are far worse than i thought, seems the more i dug today the more rot i found lmao

Got most of the tar ****e off inside and began cutting **** metal out on the drivers side.

The plan for tomorrow is to get the engine out, and begin replacing the metal removed from the drivers side and begin repairing the floorpan as thats in a very bad way.

Couple of pics

Due to the bodged repair, going to replace each side with box section steel as its far easier and beefier than ****ing about making the panel, its all hidden by the wing anyway so doesnt need to look stock.

[ollied]

Got cracking with more today, just kept finding rot everywhere, i eventually decided that i wasnt happy with the floorpan the way it was as the drivers seat mounting point was stupdily rotten and the repairs although solid when they where done they left most of the rotten metal in and plated over the top.

so lopped the floor out and started again..................looks like this will turn into a pretty labour intensive project haha.





Pic doesnt show it too well but there is a gaping hole into the wishbone mounting point










Flinstones van










Did manage to begin welding in part of the new panel but i kept messing it up as i forgot the welder was set higher than usual and it kept blowing holes lol as a result i got pissed off and went home lmao

[ollied]

Welllllll today has seen a few developments.

Due to this being waved under my nose for the last few weeks i could resist it nolonger..................................im building another blue 3.0 astravanlmaolmao

only this one weighs as much as a fart in a crisp packet so should hopefully go like fook

The donor patient


Got cracking with finishing off the prep to pull the old engine out of the van

Few pics