'95 LWB 150 minibus conversion

[Nadjenka]

You go girl! Get stuck in I have seen that much filler in Transits before, its a real pain as it burns when you weld near it Glad to see you are tackling it all yourself, respect is due

Muttley thanks, the only thing holding me from smashing it into pieces is the fact that I will see you tomorrow! I have tiny little hope inside that you will laugh at it and say that you've seen much worst and this can be tackled. For me - I have never seen anything like this before and if all saints stand next to me right now, I will put the hammer down and wait for some sensible advice. Lucky this forum and people here have bags full of tips. What I'm afraid of is that after seing this, what else is holding on a tin foil??? ...I'm gonna have to read Intys thread again to get some inspiration

[Muttley]

You go girl! Get stuck in I have seen that much filler in Transits before, its a real pain as it burns when you weld near it Glad to see you are tackling it all yourself, respect is due

Muttley thanks, the only thing holding me from smashing it into pieces is the fact that I will see you tomorrow! I have tiny little hope inside that you will laugh at it and say that you've seen much worst and this can be tackled. For me - I have never seen anything like this before and if all saints stand next to me right now, I will put the hammer down and wait for some sensible advice. Lucky this forum and people here have bags full of tips. What I'm afraid of is that after seing this, what else is holding on a tin foil??? ...I'm gonna have to read Intys thread again to get some inspiration

God help us! If inty is inspiration then all is lost

[Nadjenka]

God help us! If inty is inspiration then all is lost

He tackled it for a very looooong time and stuck with it. That's the inspiration I meant...

[MattBlackMinibus]

...I'm gonna have to read Intys thread again to get some inspiration

You're welding will soon be up there with the best
Owning this Transit will help you gain great knowledge and skill
AND you will have a very strong van when you're finished
2 silver linings to this otherwise rusty cloud.

Muttley's right, there IS worse out there.
A mate's Dad once sorted out a Morris Minors rusty box-chassis
by inserting a length of 2X4" timber!!
And you don't want to see any of the body-filling HE'S done in the past!!

You keep at it Nada. You'll make yourself proud,
and you're impressing people here with what you're achieving already

[Nadjenka]

Thanks MattBlack, I'll see how it goes over the weekend. I mean I'm quite happy with my welding, I'm actually very surprised that I am able to weld at all, it's just not on the pretty side yet and I'm scared what panels'll do when welding on a tranny. Will see that tomorrow. I will have to get some ramps so I can go under the bus to see if there is any filler or wood in there Isn't your mate's dad somewhere from Notts by any chance? It certainly seems like he had his fingers on my bus too Oh, I'll just have to get over it. I'm driving Lola to and from work every day (almost) and in this condition, I can't even park her outside our house, because the neighbours will go balistic Gonna have to go and pick up my car if I find more rust or filler to battle. Thanks for the support! Well - you'll see her on Thursday...

[Nadjenka]

Is there anybody with more bad luck???

Me - consider myself as a reasonably good driver, with Lola bus - consider her as a visible green van with multicoloured patches of duct tape and sanded green and darker green, generraly van you would certainly notice and laugh at. Going in the left lane before Iron Bridge, indicating that I'm about to turn left into that industrial area, braking slowly and when in the middle of my turn - bang - tiny little silver car just crushes right into me!!! I mean - I immediately took my foot away from brake pedal (there was nobody else in front of me, so I tried to avoid as much damage to Lola as possible by letting the pedal go) and that **** in that tiny little car PUSHED me further 2 metres!!! Pouring rain out there, she wouldn't even get out of her car. I looked at the damage - it's on that "filler panel" side but somehow she DID NOT crush into that already damaged panel but TO THE PANEL RIGHT NEXT TO IT on the sliding doors How much bad luck can I have???? Oh, I never used so many swear words in my life!! Ok, maybe I have, but I had broken couple of my bones then... She sai SHE COULD NOT SEE ME!!!! I pointed out the indicator (which was still going) and then the whole bus and asked which one of those she actually couldn't see?? Maybe I have used invisible paint or something No offence to anybody, but tiny little woman like that shouldn't be allowed to drive in the rain. She obviously can't see past her steering wheel and rain drops

So now I'm in need of new sliding doors - seeing it as the most simple solution (they ARE damaged above the side line), as if I didn't have enough of panels to search for!!! Jono - I think you were right about the green coulour on vans - maybe it does bring a bad luck...

[Luke]

is she paying for the damage

[Nadjenka]

:( is she paying for the damage

Well she said she is, I made some pictures with my phone of my car, her car, her, her documents etc, but I have no idea how this works. She said she will settle for cash once I let her know the repair costs, but it's a pain because if anything goes wrong, I'll end up paying the bill and waiting for her to send me a cheque... I guess I either have it done by a garage on proper invoice (which will COST) and be safe for legal thingies, in case she doesn't want to pay, OR risk it, replace the doors myself and send her just the amount I'll pay for the doors and stuff related... I don't know... I could certainly do same hammering right now...

[Luke]

i'd get the cash off her 1st and as soon as possable post a pic of the damage and we can advise how much to bill her

if she will pay cash thats best way dont mention it to your insurance company - they will only use it against you

[Nadjenka]

i'd get the cash off her 1st and as soon as possable post a pic of the damage and we can advise how much to bill her

if she will pay cash thats best way dont mention it to your insurance company - they will only use it against you

Yes, I wouldn't want to drag it thru my insurance, as I don't want to loose my no claims - I haven't had an accident and I'm proud of it, but still paying quite a lot of money on my van insurance as it's my first van... wouldn't want to pay more. She was the one who said she doesn't want to do it via insurance, and I agreed. Let's see, here are some pictures. It needs new doors, pictured doesn't show it well, but as she damaged the bottom side, the top of the doors is now 2 cm away from the frame at the corner (in this rain - wonderful!!!)



These pictures are not good, I don't have the cable for my good pictures phone on me, but gives you an idea... The inside pillars are slightly bent too, would be probably more expensive to try and repair it then getting a new doors... What do you think?

[MinorMatt]

I would get Jono or Muttley to have a look... its very difficult to tell from those pics...

Hope the other driver didnt get away lightly

[Luke]

yeah difficult to tell - most bodyshops will give you a free quote i'd take it to a couple - they will give you a daft quote probly around a grand but at least you can show it the woman she will realise what it would have cost and that you are not ripping her off

has the passangers door been touched

[Nadjenka]

:shock:

I would get Jono or Muttley to have a look... its very difficult to tell from those pics...

Hope the other driver didnt get away lightly

No, I think she is much worse than me, bumper damaged, light cracked, indicator gone completely, front wheel arch all the way to the bonnet was cut and pushed in and a little bit on her side doors (scratch). What still amazes me is how did she even manage to crash into mmy sliding doors? She must have had very bad tyres on and slid in the rain as braking going thru the side walk... I can't see any other explanation as I was almost gone from the main road already. When she pushed me and we finally stopped, Those two metres she pushed me put us both off the main road, so she must have been going thru the sidewalk. Lucky there was noone walking on it... Tiny little wauxhall, I didn't even see her in my mirrors when we stopped... Oh, if I didn't let go of the brakes, I would probably had her radiator thru the doors right inside... Still can only think of one word for drivers like that

[Nadjenka]

yeah difficult to tell - most bodyshops will give you a free quote i'd take it to a couple - they will give you a daft quote probly around a grand but at least you can show it the woman she will realise what it would have cost and that you are not ripping her off

has the passangers door been touched

No, nothing but the sliding doors. There is a bit on the panel next to it, like tiny scratch, but given the state of that panel (the one I abused with hammer just three days ago) that scratch is nothing... That's what gets to me the most - why didn't she smashed up that damaged panel?? I would have taken £20 off her and be done with it... It's not the bodywork, there is a cut thru the panel on sliding doors, bump next to the door handle (I don't understand how she managed that!) and from the impact, the top corner of the doors is bent outwards. So as she pushed the bottom in bending the door structural pillar, the top came out a bit. I can open the doors, but you can put your hand thru the hole at the top (where the corner is bent away from the frame). Fred did some "welding on a roll" for me on the side panel and arch on Wednesday with duct tape - the tape is not even touched! All there!!! She obviously aimed for the good panels...

[MinorMatt]

Unfortunately it sounds like there could be something major...

Get a bodyshop, or Muttley to have a good look at it....