Meet Flintstone, our 1992 1.9 Petrol Caravelle Syncro
Posted: 27 Aug 2011, 14:24
Some of you may recall me looking for a good T25 since joining the forums, and with the great advice, and help from fellow members here I was able to track down the perfect T25 to suit my needs.
Flintstone (My wife named her already
) is a 1992 Caravelle C Syncro with 181k kilometers on the clock. She is very solid apart from the right hand side rear arch, which has been cut off ready for the new replacement arch (Supplied in the sale), and the front panel is holed, but the bumper iron is rock solid.
After finding her on nettiauto.fi I was in communications with the seller who at first was very wary of my business due to a current trend of scammers on nettiauto, all of which English surprisingly enough, but once the seller was convinced, I arranged to go check her out, Flintstone, not the seller lol. 5 hours on the train down to the south of Finland, and the seller met me at the train station, and took me to see Flintstone. I had prepared prior to my trip and took a backpack with me with several tools etc.
When I first saw her in the flesh I was taken back a bit by the sheer size of her, its the very first T25 Syncro I have seen in the flesh let along drive.
I carried out all the various checks as suggested, and advised to do by great fellow 80-90 members here, and after I was happy with things, I made an offer lower than the asking price. This was due to a mix up. The seller advertised Flintstone as a Caravelle GL, which I was expecting to have a 5 speed gearbox, captain seats up front, and a rev counter.
Sadly, Flintstone only has 4 forward gears, no rev counter, and no captain front seats hence my offing the seller 1350 Euros, which after some thought, the seller agreed.
The seller also not only covered my train fare down to his place, the day insurance, and legal permission to drive her back home, there was also a full tank of fuel to boot. The fuel gauge is not working correctly though, it only registers just over full even though the fuel tank was full to the brim.
I drove Flintstone back home to Kuopio, which was just under 600km, and she didn't miss a beat, I was grinning from ear to ear.
Once home, I couldn't stop smiling lol.
The following day I inspected the van further, and made a note of things needed, and started to put a shopping list together. She didn't need much to be honest, so my first shopping trip I got the following. I remember forgetting a fire extinguisher, so that was a priority.
Plus, oil, ht leads, spark plugs, new coil, air freshener, jump leads, oil filter, oil filter wrench, air filter, boot containers to store stuff neatly, brake fluid, anti-freeze, fuses, bulbs, and much much more.
Today I changed the plugs, leads, and coil, and am so happy, she runs, and purs like a cat now. Whilst I was doing that my wife was busy cleaning the interior, windows, and boot carpet, oh and hovering. Oh, I fitted the fire extinguisher today too. I was going to change the oil, and oil filter today, but forgot to get the sump plug copper washer, so will get that then do the oil change. Went to the 15-40 diesel oil as also recommended here as it helps quiten the engine further.
Ordering 4 new tyres, booking her in for welding arch on, and ordering a metal cooling system pipe which is leaking, once these are done, happy days, however, Im still a happy fellow
I cannot thank you all enough for all your T25/T3 help, knowledge, experience, and advice since joining these great forums, THANK YOU!!!
Flintstone (My wife named her already
) is a 1992 Caravelle C Syncro with 181k kilometers on the clock. She is very solid apart from the right hand side rear arch, which has been cut off ready for the new replacement arch (Supplied in the sale), and the front panel is holed, but the bumper iron is rock solid.After finding her on nettiauto.fi I was in communications with the seller who at first was very wary of my business due to a current trend of scammers on nettiauto, all of which English surprisingly enough, but once the seller was convinced, I arranged to go check her out, Flintstone, not the seller lol. 5 hours on the train down to the south of Finland, and the seller met me at the train station, and took me to see Flintstone. I had prepared prior to my trip and took a backpack with me with several tools etc.
When I first saw her in the flesh I was taken back a bit by the sheer size of her, its the very first T25 Syncro I have seen in the flesh let along drive.
I carried out all the various checks as suggested, and advised to do by great fellow 80-90 members here, and after I was happy with things, I made an offer lower than the asking price. This was due to a mix up. The seller advertised Flintstone as a Caravelle GL, which I was expecting to have a 5 speed gearbox, captain seats up front, and a rev counter.
Sadly, Flintstone only has 4 forward gears, no rev counter, and no captain front seats hence my offing the seller 1350 Euros, which after some thought, the seller agreed.
The seller also not only covered my train fare down to his place, the day insurance, and legal permission to drive her back home, there was also a full tank of fuel to boot. The fuel gauge is not working correctly though, it only registers just over full even though the fuel tank was full to the brim.
I drove Flintstone back home to Kuopio, which was just under 600km, and she didn't miss a beat, I was grinning from ear to ear.
Once home, I couldn't stop smiling lol.
The following day I inspected the van further, and made a note of things needed, and started to put a shopping list together. She didn't need much to be honest, so my first shopping trip I got the following. I remember forgetting a fire extinguisher, so that was a priority.
Plus, oil, ht leads, spark plugs, new coil, air freshener, jump leads, oil filter, oil filter wrench, air filter, boot containers to store stuff neatly, brake fluid, anti-freeze, fuses, bulbs, and much much more.
Today I changed the plugs, leads, and coil, and am so happy, she runs, and purs like a cat now. Whilst I was doing that my wife was busy cleaning the interior, windows, and boot carpet, oh and hovering. Oh, I fitted the fire extinguisher today too. I was going to change the oil, and oil filter today, but forgot to get the sump plug copper washer, so will get that then do the oil change. Went to the 15-40 diesel oil as also recommended here as it helps quiten the engine further.
Ordering 4 new tyres, booking her in for welding arch on, and ordering a metal cooling system pipe which is leaking, once these are done, happy days, however, Im still a happy fellow
I cannot thank you all enough for all your T25/T3 help, knowledge, experience, and advice since joining these great forums, THANK YOU!!!
