Oh so nearly....

[mungo1973]

Evening all,

Just a quick update.
After purchasing our T25 in November last year in a bit of a state we are very very nearly ready to go on our Easter hols this Friday , MOT "should" be done tomorrow

We paid £1500 for a scabby left hooker 1.9 Df. Ran well, had a smidging of MOT, lots of stickers, lots of rust but not a bad starting point...ho ho ho or so we thought...

December had me; fitting rear belts for the kids (brickwerks 3 point + lap), Welding up seat belt mounts in the front, Sorting out the normal bad earth issue's, lights, bad starting and so forth, oh and 2 full days of sticker removals...
January had me; fitting new pads, more rewiring (starter motor and solenoid) fixing carb autochoke, fridge and cooker overhaul, fitting stereo, fixing cupboards, you know, the normal day to day fun of owning a 28 year old vehicle!
these are the pics from the eBay add from last year.





Come end of January we made the decision to hand the van over to a top chap locally for a bit of bodywork work, mainly as my welding is not quite up to bodywork standard that and I also had spotted a major hole in my N/side rear arm and didn't fancy the job of hacking out the rear arm with the potential of leaving the with a van stranded on the drive if the rear trailing arm mounts disintegrated...!

To cut a long story short ( and to save you from the 40 odd pictures of rusty panels, welding primer n paint ) the few odd bits of body work morphed into a four new wings, 2 new steps, 1 new NS sill, repairs to front valance / windscreen surround / rear apron / B posts, new window seals, two second hand near side windows as one was perspex and the other knackered, new CV boots, SH rear N/S trailing arm, new brake lines new rear shoes, and a full paint job ... all in just shy of £1800.

Now it looks like this, not a show winner but at least it looks a little bit more respectable





It failed MOT last week on, Split steering rack boot, no fog light, and rear wheel bearing all of which have now been done and in for re-test tomorrow!

I will hopefully have some more pleasing "beach holiday" type photos next week, fingers crossed...
Jamie

[markhale10]

Sounds like you've had quite an adventure. I genuinely wish you luck tomorrow and look forward to some photos.
Fingers crossed for you

[kev savage]

Looks very nice .

[Fin]

Looks tidy now though - good work, all that work for £1800 bargain I say - mine came to £4000

Good vibes for the MOT re-test

[evilnoodle]

Wow...looking very good indeed

[ghost123uk]

Hi Jamie,
That's a great transformation from almost a wreck to very nice, and all for a good price, looking very good

I hope your MOT guy knows about the slight lateral play that is considered normal with T25 (rear) wheel bearings

Beach holiday pics in 2 weeks you say, where do you live, Jamaica

[MattBW]

Looking good, and I am sure its worth it, looks great.

I paid close to 3k for my van and I am tempted to start sorting those bubbles and such, but I am a little scared of what it might uncover.

Longer I have her the more I get attached and want to fix the little annoyances and make her look as good as she can. Just worry what I will find when I do it.

[mungo1973]

Wohoo MOT done at last

Cheers for the kind comments folks, im pleased with how its turned out for the money I've spent on it...

And the funniest thing is ghost123uk, I do have a advisory about slight play in rear wheel bearings.. ha ha ha

Beach pics to follow, albeit cold wets beaches no doubt !

And Matt, I was in the same situation as you, I started hesitantly scraping bubbles and thats when the many holes started to appear, mainly around the rear windows and rear arches and thought oh no what have I started, but glad I did in the end...... well, now its all done I am

Holidays here we come ( and the no doubt the T25 epics that will go along with that )

Jamie

[ghost123uk]

Very pleased for Ya

And the funniest thing is ghost123uk, I do have a advisory about slight play in rear wheel bearings.. ha ha ha

It's normal, but could you imagine trying to explain that to an MOT inspector who is about to fail your van even though you just fitted new bearings You can just hear it, "Sorry mate, they must be faulty ones from new"

[California Dreamin]

Looks like we might have another candidate to attend this years Pikey weekends? (Barrow on Soar) near Loughborough, the kids will love it Jamie.

Martin

[mungo1973]

Cheers Martin,
If we make it back from Dorset next week we could be on for it mate
Jamie

[daz1973]

Looking good there kidda , just gotta get mine back from garage and we can have a mini meet at work with euroboy .
Have a nice holiday mate .

[mungo1973]

Cheers Daz,
Will do mate, oh and I sorted out the knocking noise .... Not wheel bearings, oh no... It was a loose damper, lower mount bolt needed nipping up, now sorted
See u next week, in your van all being well !
Jamie

[mungo1973]

Not so much oh so nearly anymore


250 miles, no probs 25 mpg, holidays started

[ghost123uk]

That's great

It almost looks warm too in that pic

It's just occurred to me whilst I was thinking how good it looks in that pic, one of the reasons is that cool looking roof.
It's nowhere near as big (and ugly imho) as your usual Leisure drive etc type. It helps maintain the cool T25 lines
Wonder what it is ?