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Red Ven

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Red Ven

Postby DG-Unit » Sun Aug 23, 2020 11:25 pm

Here I am again. Suckered into paying too much for a vehicle I took a liking to for no sane and balanced reason. Once it was a Nissan with a geriatric racing stripe on the rear quarter. Another time a Volvo with disintegrating door handles. An now, a ven.

It’s rubbish and seems to have spent most of its recent life moving rubbish. A ex-Royal Mail van in poverty spec with flintstones foot wells and a gearbox made of beach stones. Despite a brave attempt to fix it with a 5p the radio doesn’t work. Most of the door locks have been admired by a passing trader and his screwdriver. The words “He liked to take care of it” were uttered during the sale. It’s since become clear that means developing a new engineering innovation known as ‘welding with expanding foam’.

Just like those other banger boxes I am going to need to lean heavily on the experience, wisdom and warnings of the excellent people of the internet. Coronavirus has given a stay of execution on the MOT it would certainly fail so first step is to make it seaworthy. An excellent time to actually use that marketplace MIG welder I also paid too much for.

Despite the sizeable problems I’m actually pretty excited about all the space for activities and the huge rack. Activities such as transporting little electric racing cars, carting around bicycles, cheap weekend adventure accommodation and picking up those Facebook bargains (stop me/don’t stop me). Not to mention all the spare time I’ll have when I’m not sawing up sheets in the Wickes car park to scratch along the never big enough estate wagon seats. I’m already enjoying being able to see over double parked taxis at junctions and not having the acceleration to care about speed cameras.

Now it’s day 4 of ven ownership. Day 1 was spent unsuccessfully haggling more off after it was clear the side door had run out of steam. Day 2 was a steep learning curve when I discovered the right indicator doesn’t work and the back doors would prefer not to stay shut anymore (when driving up a hill delivering charity veg boxes). Day 3 was spent absorbing TFR and wire brush bristles while trying to clean an ecosystem out of the cargo bay. Anyway here’s some pictures and please help me:
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Re: Red Ven

Postby DG-Unit » Sun Aug 23, 2020 11:29 pm

Contd...
2F9981F3-D8E5-4E42-8B26-FF6E9E9BD0C3.jpeg

E675D1FF-3636-4126-8449-676140786B46.jpeg
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Re: Red Ven

Postby DG-Unit » Mon Aug 24, 2020 8:49 pm

Day 5... New locks, new strikers, new catches, detailed cabin, discovered more ecosystem, diagnosed a rattle (thanks to this forum), discovered the power of jet washing seats and the headliner, also discovered how quickly damp seats soak through clothes, central locking arrived, sheet steel arrived, ditched the cabin mats, heard a new noise from the power steering. need some sound proofing, happy rust isn’t going under the seats.
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Re: Red Ven

Postby Noctule » Mon Aug 24, 2020 9:15 pm

Yuck, I'm not sure which is worse, the infestations or the repairs (or indeed the person who made the repairs.)

All can be sorted with a little patience.

And a big hammer.

The 'what's this' is the battery vent hose, don't forget to reattach it.
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Re: Red Ven

Postby DG-Unit » Thu Aug 27, 2020 7:42 pm

Noctule wrote:Yuck, I'm not sure which is worse, the infestations or the repairs (or indeed the person who made the repairs.)

All can be sorted with a little patience.

And a big hammer.

The 'what's this' is the battery vent hose, don't forget to reattach it.


Attach it to what? :shock:

Strangely a hammer is the only tool I haven’t had to use on this so far but that just means I’m not deep enough it it yet.

So day 8 of transit ownership and I’ve fixed a horrible noise which also dealt with my worries about the clutch https://fordtransit.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=201432&c=1(super happy about this one), found a slow oil/fluid leak of some sort (pictured - any ideas?) fitted new pedal rubbers, took out the dials to add a white vinyl kit (black one was too dark at night - also need up brighten the backlights), topped up steering fluid, removed drivers seat arm rest so I can squeeze into the back a bit easier and fitted a new harness plug for the rear light cluster that was causing an intermittent indicator fault (due to previous bodge work). Thought I was going to be able to fund all this with the debit card I found behind the dials but it expired in 2015. So far the only valid currency I’ve found is two rusty pound coins which cover the cost of one of the new pedal rubbers I also fitted :)
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Re: Red Ven

Postby DG-Unit » Sun Aug 30, 2020 8:51 pm

Day 9... Steep steep learning curve with welding. Worn out my grinder trying to hide the bad stuff. Not sure it’s much better than the expanding foam. Surface rust everywhere those damn floor mats! They’re never going back in. At least the floor is solid now. So much more to do tomorrow :roll:
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Re: Red Ven

Postby Jay2018 » Thu Sep 03, 2020 10:52 pm

The sarcasm makes for a great read! :lol:

The battery has a vent on the side, it's tiny, a circle with a 5mm diameter. It should have a tiny hard plastic piece sticking out (that's probably fallen out given the condition of the van) that allows for the little hose to attach to.

The welding you have done for the floor there, looks good. There are people on this forum who have had a lot worse than what you have here and they have turned them into minters so... KEEP GOING!

Also that stereo, great if you want to keep it classic, but you will be better off getting a single din stereo and sticking that in. The fucntionality/practicality of changing to a regular stereo can't be beaten. Although if you want you can get one of those Android double din HUs (recommeneded brand:Pumpkin).
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Re: Red Ven

Postby DG-Unit » Thu Sep 10, 2020 9:53 am

Jay2018 wrote:The sarcasm makes for a great read! :lol:

The battery has a vent on the side, it's tiny, a circle with a 5mm diameter. It should have a tiny hard plastic piece sticking out (that's probably fallen out given the condition of the van) that allows for the little hose to attach to.

The welding you have done for the floor there, looks good. There are people on this forum who have had a lot worse than what you have here and they have turned them into minters so... KEEP GOING!

Also that stereo, great if you want to keep it classic, but you will be better off getting a single din stereo and sticking that in. The fucntionality/practicality of changing to a regular stereo can't be beaten. Although if you want you can get one of those Android double din HUs (recommeneded brand:Pumpkin).


Thanks Jay. You’re right it was missing a little 90 degree bend for the battery vent - now fitted. Just taking some time out to get the paint out of my hair and plan what I’m going to do about the wobbly front doors :?
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Re: Red Ven

Postby lew280 » Mon Oct 05, 2020 8:36 am

second pic down from the top looks like a skull on the edge of the wheel arch :wink:
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Re: Red Ven

Postby hetman » Mon Oct 05, 2020 9:02 am

Welcome and I see I'm not the only one to buy a Transit in much worse condition than advertised. :D Mine was done "honestly" but with an inch of body filler along the lower panels, attached directly to rust, hiding major collision damage and repair panels stuck together with bathroom silicon and more body filler, my van is honestly the worst vehicle I've ever tackled. Carry on, soldier! :lol: 8) :P
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Re: Red Ven

Postby DG-Unit » Wed Oct 14, 2020 10:43 am

hetman wrote:Welcome and I see I'm not the only one to buy a Transit in much worse condition than advertised. :D Mine was done "honestly" but with an inch of body filler along the lower panels, attached directly to rust, hiding major collision damage and repair panels stuck together with bathroom silicon and more body filler, my van is honestly the worst vehicle I've ever tackled. Carry on, soldier! :lol: 8) :P


Thanks Mike. Depending on local Covid restrictions I might setup a Trashed Van Support Group with biscuits, tea, tissues to cry into and a padded wall to take in turns to bang heads against while everyone else claps.
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Re: Red Ven

Postby DG-Unit » Wed Oct 14, 2020 3:18 pm

Right so had a busy spell with work but back to the important task of weatherproofing the ven... It seems the rusty footwells were actually caused by air gaps at the top of the driver and passenger doors letting in rain water. It's running down the wheel arches onto the floor. There's no carpet of mats right now so it's got a chance to dry before causing damage but obviously want to make sure I don't get flooded by a light bit of rain and would be nice to have less wind noise so you can talk to passengers above 30mph.

The advice I'm after is: Can this be fixed with the current doors and some new parts (hinges) or is it better to replace the doors?

The drivers door has signs of opening too far in the wind (see awful welding) and on both doors the upper hinge has play in it. Both doors also have a gap at the top that I'm not sure how to bend back without further damaging the hinges and if this will just happen again? As you can see from photos and video links its a pretty sizeable gap. And as per photos there's some cracks in the metal that will need reinforcing with a bit of MIG welding.

https://youtu.be/q2QDrgVG1AU
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Re: Red Ven

Postby hetman » Fri Oct 16, 2020 7:38 am

DG-Unit wrote:
hetman wrote:Welcome and I see I'm not the only one to buy a Transit in much worse condition than advertised. :D Mine was done "honestly" but with an inch of body filler along the lower panels, attached directly to rust, hiding major collision damage and repair panels stuck together with bathroom silicon and more body filler, my van is honestly the worst vehicle I've ever tackled. Carry on, soldier! :lol: 8) :P


Thanks Mike. Depending on local Covid restrictions I might setup a Trashed Van Support Group with biscuits, tea, tissues to cry into and a padded wall to take in turns to bang heads against while everyone else claps.


Sounds like a capital idea, mate! Good luck with yours. I'm rushing to beat winter to get mine back on the road after 6 months of rust repair. At least the covid lock-down measures haven't gone to waste. LOL
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Re: Red Ven

Postby Nordic Blue » Fri Oct 16, 2020 11:24 am

DG-Unit wrote:Depending on local Covid restrictions I might setup a Trashed Van Support Group with biscuits, tea, tissues to cry into and a padded wall to take in turns to bang heads against while everyone else claps.


As a fellow (West) Sussex resident I would be more than happy to join your group. Perhaps we could sit in a circle all pouring money into a fire pit while our tears douse the flames.

I haven't dared lift the mats on mine yet but I really hope it is not like that underneath!
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Re: Red Ven

Postby DG-Unit » Fri Oct 16, 2020 7:05 pm

Well today I decided to have a look at the hole I'll be pouring money into and got a good view of what's pouring out of it...

PAS leaking
IMG_2464 2.jpg

Mystery leak
IMG_2472.jpg

IMG_2505.jpg

Possible driveshaft seal leak?
IMG_2469.jpg


With the driveshaft I'm wondering if this could be related to issues selecting second and reverse gear if the gearbox is low on oil (crunches sometimes unless held into the gear and gearstick can push down like some cars do to select reverse but this doesn't need to press down for reverse)? There's also this strange sort of bodge job to the floor around the gear selector that I've got no idea why it's been done like this. Selection issues could also be a worn linkage. With a planned Mk7 dash upgrade and relocating the gear stick with it I'm wondering if this all points to a new gearbox and if a 6 speed is a doable upgrade?
IMG_3084.JPG
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