Buying a Mk1

[Luke]

Some of the areas to check body wise:-
wings around headlight bowls
check the bulkhead behind the servo
underneith along the chassis rails!
also around the steering box thats an mot failure point

can anyone else add to this!!

[madmark]

how about cab floor and wheel arches inside , steps inside, also check the rear axle most are noisy they will stay like that for ever! gearbox is normaly strong, now the v4 ,you need to rev it up and check for blue smoke ,then play with the throtle of the engine to see if you can here any grumbling from the bigends ,these engines are well known for crank problems also if the engine had done over 60-70k and is in good helth it will be needing a oil pump driveshaft soon ,these ware over time and go without any warning as soon as the oil light comes on its more or less to late!
head gaskets were a problem also ,so take the oil cap off and check for sludge (whitey creamy mixture) and pull the dipstick and make shure its only got oil on it! not sludge!
they are a easy engine within reason to keep and most jobs can be done with the engine in the van! alot of poeple hated them but if you had a good one and looked after it regular oil changes etc they were great ! well i never had that much problems with them anyway! .mark

[FredTransit]

On the panel van, also check the rear quarter panels and the little strip sills at the bottom of the body shell. If there is no seam between them, it's a sure sign that there is a lot of filler. On the up & over rear door, check that there are no cracks under the window, it's a heavy door, and that's a stress point. On the subject of doors, they often rust at the very bottom, or around where the window winder mechanism is tack welded to the outside skin.

V4. If you have a lumpy engine, check the dizzy is in the right position, the securing screw is in such a silly position I think that you either need a special tool from Ford to tighten it, or be from the Planet Zog with double jointed fingers so you can tighten it up! For this reason many are not secured, and move to slightly the wrong position.

[transitgeoff]

Hi as ive learnt(buying off ebay) always check the roof as they rot around the gutter big time,i had to put a roof on mine!!

[madmark]

its a funny thing that geoff, i wonder just how many of us get up and check the roof i bet not many, i am just as giulty as i never checked mine! but was lucky!