I see you not far from me?

I need a mobile mechanic to fit a cambelt, oil pump and a water pump and tensioner...... Its for an RS turbo. Whats your rates like?

 

Look forward to seeing pictures c

 

hi mark, that would not be a problem at all, ill pm you my number so you can drop me a text

 

so off i went on a 4 hour round trip to royston with my partner and a mate to get the van, upon arrival it basically looked as it did in the photo, small rust hole on the scuttle panel and that was all, although it had previously had abit of welding in places and clearly in need of a respay,

so here she was once loaded to the trailer for her journey home
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once she arrived home she was unloaded from the trailer and parked up next to her big brother,

this is were she stayed for a while as the missus gave strict instructions i could not touch untill my birthday

so whilst waiting i decided to buy a gazebo ready so i could strip her as soon as my birthday came around

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Uploaded with ImageShack.com

 

Nice van mate you don't see many mk4s around now

 

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Yeah sure. im free this friday, depending on quote and money in the bank.

 

door cards

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dash

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almost out

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and out
aswell as seats

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Nice to see another one getting saved �� look forward to your progress

 

next up, as they were all rotten was to remove doors and bonnet, ready for the tip. aswell as the poverty spec bumper, as i would be soon buying 90spec kit

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also the windscreen came out,

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was abit gutted about the little hole in the scuttle panel, once the windscreen was removed and i had a good dig about it was then a very big hole

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Uploaded with ImageShack.com

Uploaded with ImageShack.com


so i think at this point it was safe to say i needed a new scuttle panel

 

soooo the nest stage, was to finish stripping out the interior and remove the old 1.6 dirty diesel engine and loom and give the engine bay a good clean

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Uploaded with ImageShack.com



at this point i had managed to trial fit the spare doors and managed to find a 90spec bumper and rs bonnet which i was super happy about, plus they were local which was awesome

 

the battery tray, again appeared to be ok but once i got the dash out and looked underneath it was clearly rotten

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Uploaded with ImageShack.com

so just like the scuttle panel its evident a new one is needed

 

so i ordered the new scuttle panel, and new battery tray, and i thought whilst i was at it i may as well do the wings as well seeing as they were in poor condition

so here she is looking very sexy with her new body parts

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Uploaded with ImageShack.com

as you can see big improvements looking sooo much fresher

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back home she went, i thought seeing as she was looking soo good i may as well trial fit the bumper to see how good it looked/fitted and her she is

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the whole underside was completely covered in thick underbody seal, so that all had to come off. after spending many hours doing this i hired some help,

heres my little boy having great fun working with daddy

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Cool project matey.i like to see old fords getting restored.

 

it was a nice day so thought i would get the sander out and see what im up against

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as you can see, plenty of dents and filler

 

well after speaking with my buisness partner, we decided to move it over to his garage.

so here she is, we towed her round there as it was only a couple of roads away.

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and here she is tucked up in her new home

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Uploaded with ImageShack.com

 

few days went by, so thought i had better get my arse over there and start doing some work, so i got her out the garage and started to do abit of prep work

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heres the rest of the battery tray welded in

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all the slam panel was painted by hand mutiple times with house paint, so you could imagin how thick it was

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Uploaded with ImageShack.com

Uploaded with ImageShack.com

theres nothing me and my buisness partner hate more than seeing mountains of filler instead of a repair done properly, and here is what we found hiding under the mountains of paint on the drivers side

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next up i spent the day stripping off the rear beam, fuel tank, fuel lines and any brake cables etc

also at this point, my buisness partner mervyn beckett started poking around and finding more rot, so out came the grinder.

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rear beam all removed. ready to be preped and painted, also axle flip and rear disc conversion

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looking more and more stripped everyday

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and here the underneath, ready for merv to get in there and start cutting grinding and welding

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first chop and clean up was this

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here it was with the fuel tank off

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still plenty more underbody seal to remove

also as you can see in the above picture, the inner sill on passenger side didnt look to healthy either so again mervin went chop happy

 

i would just like to say, thank you for all your comments so far. the more comments the better, good or bad, as i like to hear peoples views and opinions

so again thank you and i hope your enjoying the project thread as this is the first one i have ever done.

 

so back to some pictures,
as i said at the start the n/s rear door went to the tip as it was rotten, at that point i didnt realise how hard it was gong to be to find a replacement, also how much.

good pairs were going on ebay for up to Ł200, but then hey presto, i saw a set on ebay so i immediattely asked for about it now.

the price i recieved couldnt be refused Ł50 for two mint doors, so i drove up to essex picked them up was really happy with there condition, when we got them back we had a cheeky trial fit and they looked great


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few days later i thought i would try and get the paint off the slam panel, what a nightmare it was,

we then decided to give the engine bay a sand so it could all be primed at the same time

this took a few days to do.

i then decided rather than putting the bonnet catch, bonnet release, cable, and mechanism etc etc back on after it was all painted, bin it all and buy some aero bonnet catches.

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and here it is pretty much fully prepped

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this is where the realise used to sit

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and here is merv doing abit of welding to smooth it off

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also during this time i had removed all suspension components
subframe, steering rack, brake servo etc etc

and this is the start of the smoothed slam panel

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next up was to get the engine bay and front panel in etch primer

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Uploaded with ImageShack.com

as you can see in this pic, the smooth panel is starting to look good, and its still got to have a few layers of high build primer, then a few layers of base coat plus the lacquer etc

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so thats it in etch primer, next up was high build primer, we decided to just give one coat of high build for now, so then we can give a check over in a few days to make sure there was no reactions or imperfections etc etc,

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looking like its taken shape nicely you dont see very many mk 4 vans about
keep up the good work

 

Glad your all enjoying the thread and thank you for all the positivity

 

so its always nice to put a face to a name,

so here's mervyn, my buisness partner also owner of mj auto styling, specialising in vinyl stickers, alloy refurbishes, and bodywork, plus much more

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and here's me, owner of triple m (maxs mobile mechanics)
specialising in automotive mechanics, sound system instillations, arch rolling and much more

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you can find me (Triple m) on facebook www.facebook.com/triplem.mechanics.5
and mervyn (mj auto styling) www.facebook.com/MjAutoStyling?ref=hl

 

as you can see were both abit mad and loooove a laugh, o and each other

 

quick update,

spent a bit of time on the van this afternoon, prep work and etching, unfortunately not got pics but will have some tomorrow for you.

also me and merv have no bookings tomorrow so we will be spending most of the day on the van so expect pictures and updates tomorrow

one last thing, iv been after some lowering springs, but only found one company that would sell me just the fronts so fingers crossed there OK, there made by pi
if anyone has experience or reviews on these springs please let me know thanks

so here are the springs just need some nice dampers, im thinking of going with bilstein b4

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as promised, a quick few pics and update

i thought i would start removing all the factory sound deadening
to get ready to prep and prime the inside of the van, also to get it out the way whilst welding

so this is the stuff im on about

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and here's me scraping away

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once it was all removed i gave it a good going over woth thinners, to remove any left overs and here is the end result

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just to prep and prime,

in the mean time merv was cracking on with some welding
first up was the hole were we grinded out the rot were the floor pan joins to the inner sill

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and then the bottom section were the arch liner connect to the body, common for rotting away, we welded a new piece in and shaped it to how it would have originally been

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Uploaded with ImageShack.com

and thats about it for today. please keep the comments coming, good or bad.

thanks max and merv

 

Cracking progress, i have just bought one of these. Not sure as to either Mk3 it, or just leave it as a Mk4.

 

cheeRS mrcapriscort, mk3 would look awesome, and there even more rare to see.
i cant believe how badly they suffer from rot. were abouts are you from mate, also if you need to know anything just ask, i may be able to help

 

Lookin good

 

cheeRS mark