When's a Transit too rusty?

[transitjono]

Just finished pulling the wood lining out of my L reg new gen. work Transit swb to investigate a rust hole that appeared on the inner wheel tubb.Under the wood floor,the whole of the rear is rotten alot caused by the screws from fiiting the lining when the van was new.I checked further to find the front n/s strut mount to be touch and go,coupled with body damaged caused by my driver and all outer arches being being rotten-it's time for a new shell.
All the running gear is excellent being only 79,000 miles old,so i'm on the hunt for a donor shell.If anyone can help please let me know.
I'm sad to see this van go,it's had thousands of pounds of stock in it and towed many many Cortinas'
Sad Jono.

[FredTransit]

When is a transit too rusty? Never. Is the shell straight? If so, you might want to think about the time and money it would take to re-shell, and use that time and money to do the repairs. At the end of the day, those of us with Mk1s and 2s don't have the option, so welding is the only way. I clearly remember our mecahnic refusing to do any more work on one of our B reg lutons, saying the chassis was past repair. She was the one we had for longest, the first used Mk2 we had bought. Getting rid was not an option, we shopped around, found a very good welder very local, and still use him nine years later. The very same B reg is still out and about at work today, legally with a full genuine MOT, but we had to eventually replaice the Luton body, as there are plenty of 10fters around, and the old one needed a new shutter (not much change from £400)

[madmark]

for some reason L reg seems to be a rusty year! you see loads on ebay that need welding!
well they are all getting bad with rusty arches even new shape Y reg,s are starting to rust!
i think alot of it is the miles they do! vans that have done 40-50k dont genaraly be to rusty but the same year van with over 100k on it will have alot more rust! so you need as low miles as you can find!

[Luke]

for some reason L reg seems to be a rusty year!

Its the same with sierras there are years which rust and them that don't Apparantly it was a change in steel supplier! Although due to the low price of a mint sierra most of the sheds have gone!!

[FredTransit]

for some reason L reg seems to be a rusty year! you see loads on ebay that need welding!
well they are all getting bad with rusty arches even new shape Y reg,s are starting to rust!
i think alot of it is the miles they do! vans that have done 40-50k dont genaraly be to rusty but the same year van with over 100k on it will have alot more rust! so you need as low miles as you can find!

Yep, I was told that it was to do with the steel strikes in 1971-2, they had to get steel from the far east or somewhere, and it wasn't good quality. When we were getting parts for our Mk1 in the early 80s, we took so much off the L regs that we might as well changed the plates! or were you talking about late L?

[madmark]

fred you are going to far back mate ! late L 93-94

[FredTransit]

My brain hurts ..........................!