All About FLER

[MinorMatt]

Brief History

FLER is a '95 190 Mid Roof Smiley Van in Garnet Red. She was originally boought by Imperial College Union and was converted in to a 16 seat minibus. She has a full length mesh roof rack, with a heavy duty rear bumper and towbar.

I bought her from ICU in Feb last year with 6 months test, 7 months tax and a full tank derv for the princly sum of £175. I almost immediately sold the rear seats for £165 on ebay, so all in all she was a very very cheap van. I was using her as daily transport until a couple of weeks ago when I got my morris minor back on the road, and I must admit I have neglected her. (All I have done is black out the windows and fit some new lock barrels)

I am yet to investigate the chassis in any detail, but i know some welding is needed on the section above one of the rear springs. The MoT man didn't find that or anything else in September.

She's rotting away in all the normal places and im going to repair, replace the rear windows with metal (if I can find a scrapper to cut it out of!) and respray her, probably in a 2 tone scheme. I am also going to convert her in to a camper van

Today I have put electric windows and mirrors in, and work will progress as soon as possible (not easy after work in the dark, and im often away at weekends)

Piccies will follow... I have a few of the rear end when loading a mini but thats all

[MinorMatt]

Today I have replaced the cambelt, welded up the alternator adjustor bracket (was broken...), put a blank in the pipe from the manifold to the egr valve and removed the butterfly.

I accidently managed to brake the adjustor on the drivers headlight and put a hole in the passenger side plastic backing bit, as well as making a hole in the thermostat housing

Thermostat housing was easy... spare in stock, but I didn't have an O ring, so guess what it leaks like a sieve!

Also the heads of both the bolts holding the derv filter to the manifold decided to break, so I found the filter sitting somewhat lower than it should (havent fixed yet because I dont have any bolts the right size)

Following the cambelt change and blanking the EGR she doesn't seem to be any fastewr (i have done the pump tweak) but she is less smokey and seems quiter, which is good!

[MinorMatt]

Ok... all the problems above were resolved fairly quickly. The O tring wasnt at fault, the stat housing itself was broken :'( and the derv filter is back in place.

I have given FLER a good wash with a jet wash both on top and underneath. I was expecting too find all sorts or horrors, but all I have found so far (I need to investigate further when she is dry underneath) is a hole the size of my fist on the front x member, a few smallish hole on the rear X member and the bit I mentioned above the bumpstop, however looking at it it doesn't seem corroded through, it looks more like the bumpstop has been hit VERY hard and caused the chassis to deform slightly. (and then theres all the bpdywork up top to do too :s)

Some pics to follow shortly, my camera decided to run out of battery

[Luke]

yeah we like pics

[MinorMatt]

Got some pics now the battery has some charge...

First of all this is FLER



I forgot to take a piccy of the front as a whole but its totally standard

I was fiddling the other day and fitted an extra ash tray and ciggy lighter socket



Its from a Saab 9000 and required a tiny amount of plastic shaving away from the hole.

Now here are the "fun bits"

Rear X Member and Front X member




So welder out tomorrow and sort those 2 bits out

Here is the problem area above the bumpstop



Its not a wonderful pic, I initially thought it was a great big split, however having been jetwashed it looks like it might just be bent outwards, I will investigate with the wire brush and angle grinder tomorrow

I have taken piccies of every bit of rust and accident damage I have found (except for the seams on the roof) and put them here

http://s201.photobucket.com/albums/aa14 ... mview=link

I must say I have been pleasantly suprised by the lack of holes underneath!

Any advice on good techniques to repair these areas would be appreciated, I can weld well and have done a lot of structural work on my Moggy Minor recently (completely replaced sills, spring hangers and half the floor) so it shouldn't be beyond me!

Overall I dont think she's too bad for a van that only cost £17 But i have replaced the lock barrels and put in electric mirrors and windows since then (she already had central locking)

[Luke]

£17 is my kinda price crossmembers are typical lack of underseal from new! but ive seen alot worse

[MinorMatt]

So have I... I can't see any previous welding underneath Theres a fair amount up top due to all the accident damage though! (this was a student union minibus, and in the 3 years I was involved with looking after them this bus was scraped along the sides at least 3 times and a rear wheel fell off too!

Oh the £17 included a full tank of derv, 6 months tax and 7 months test

[MinorMatt]

Im a long way from repairing this, but has anyone got any ideas on the best way to sort it? There is something similar but not as bad on the other side

[intransit89]

what happend to your old blue lwb?

[MinorMatt]

I think you are thinking of someone else... I have never had any other Van/minibus transit or otherwise

Actually apart from my mini every vehicle I have ever owned has been red (or pink )! :s

[MinorMatt]

I had forgotten how much harder it is welding upside down... im contimplating giving the cross members to my local garage to weld up!

[MinorMatt]

Decided against that after a few seconds!

After wire brushing the rear X member...



I tried putting a patch over the top (after cutting a bit more out to make patch fabrication easier). Trying to weld that whilst lying on my back was an absolute disaster, so I decided to start again, and I noticed a bit more rot at the bottom of the hole the bumper iron goes through so I took the bumper off... what an absolute pain in the bum! Only 6 bolts but they were all bloody stiff and I ended up using the bolt croppers on 2 of them (the grinder wouldn't get up to them easily).

So with the bumper off I cut the rot out of the rear panel, and removed a bit more to get better access...



At that point I had welded up the bottom and the front of the X member

I cut the excess off using the grinder, and welded the piece I cut had for access back



Then I replaced the part that had rotted out



Then I ground the welds back



I have put a thin skim of filler over the top and roughly sanded with some filler and top coat over it. I have put the bumper back so I can go to work tomorrow, but its going to have to come off again soon to fix the bumper and remove the rest off the rust on the backl!

Heres the rear viewed from underneath after being primed



What do you gus think?

[intransit89]

not bad wish my gas would come so i can start mine

[MinorMatt]

I will need to get some more before I try anything else... my 2ft bottles dont last that long (I think my brother uses them with the gas on absolutely full whack)

[intransit89]

I will need to get some more before I try anything else... my 2ft bottles dont last that long (I think my brother uses them with the gas on absolutely full whack)

mine will be a 6ft one for about 70.00 delived to door just got to make something to stand it on