Right, now i have pics sorted and the site mods have moved my original post to this section and changed the title for me (thanks guys) i can now begin the story of my Mk3 twin wheel truck (1990 2.0 ltr pinto 64,000 hard worked miles)
I bought it on ebay just over a year ago for £475 from a tree surgeon in corby northants it had tax and 4 or 5 months test so me and my mate drove down to pick it up having taken the seller's word that it would do the 200 mile trip back up to the north east (which it did)
when we got there it was getting dark but i had a quick look around it and it seemed ok for that sort of money (at the time i couldnt find a transit truck any age or miles with a bit of t+t for less than a grand up here) so i paid the man (a very big man an ex squaddie that loved all things green lol) and set off for home with paul (my mate) following in his car, i headed straight for the motorway via the first petrol station i saw and had a pretty uneventful drive back home doing a steady 60mph all the way stopping only once at wetherby for a quick visit and a costa
it was toward the end of the journey i began to hear the noise from the engine (that very familiar tapping from the top end of a pinto) thought oh well so it'll probably need a cam kit no great shakes they all do every 50k anyway
it was cheap so I expected to inject a few quid into it
So a couple of days later took it upto the farm got it inside the big shed to give it a good goin over and thats where its been ever since
first thing i did was take the cam/rocker cover off and thats where it ALL started
the camshaft was shagged
i've never seen a worse one
when i opened up the airfilter housing the filter was blacker than a black thing and now i'm beginning to understand why it took 10 gallons of fuel to get back (approx 19mpg)
so i thought sod it pull it out and go the whole hog, rebuild the engine and be done with it
Then i began stripping the front end to facilitate removal of the engine, grill,rad, slam panel etc, all was going to plan nothing seized no clips broken and then when i pulled the rad out i noticed a not too healthy crossmember further investigation uncovered loads of fibre glass bridging compound covered in copious amounts of underseal and once i hacked it all out there was nothing much of the original crossmember left
wasnt really too bothered as recent to this time got a crossmember and front cover off ebay from a guy in the shetland isles new and unused described as "for a smiley face transit" when it turned up it was for a Mk3 but wasnt goin to get upset i won it for 99p plus £20 delivery
I set to removing the remains of the offending member when i noticed the front spring hangers didnt look too good either so after a cuppa and a fag to relax my teeth i cut them out too
and ended up with this
this was the pile of rust i removed
Iended up cutting out the top of the chassis because when i cut out the spring hanger on the driver's side i noticed that the top of the chssis leg was almost non existent under the steering box bracket
.........TO BE CONTINUED