97 SWB 80 project cheap skate

[familybanger]

Hi everybody,

This is the second time I,ve owned this Transit bought it 5 years ago for £800 which is still the most money I,ve ever spent on a 4 wheeled vehicle. My hand was kinda forced in that my bike broke down on the m4 on the way to view it and the fella selling came to my rescue with a 'if you like it I'll help you lift your bike in' sales pitch, needless to say the deal was done and I ran it as my family daily/ bike hauler/ holiday home for 3 years till the arrival of a second child and mrs not wanting to have it as her first car (meh) forced the sale. So I sold it to a friend of a friend for £700 who sold it to another pal for £600 6 months later when he realised he could not live without the luxurys of his previous cars. That pal had it for the last year or so running it hard until it ran out of ticket with a bit of work / money needed to re-test it. I'd always asked for first refusal as never did want to sell and was offered this beauty for mates rates - £150 bargain, deal was done again, this time till death do us part



Don't have any as purchased pics but here she is getting some love, brush on red oxide after much removing of rusty bits, the plan is to stop it returning to nature and make it look semi decent for use as a family vehicle once again. Did start doing some filler work but found I would be putting alot of extra weight on the van and to be honest am not too bothered by the odd dent quite like that war torn look, one day I'll sort it but not today I've got other fish to fry.

So, was liking the patchy paint work but it was not endering itself to the mrs and therefore needed a pro paint job. This as you may have guessed by the thread title was not going to happen especially as in the cupboard I found half a tin of metalwork undercoat, some blue hammerite and plenty of rollers and trays and brushes. This lot mixed with the left over red oxide came up pink which I was not too happy with so went searching in the garage and came up with the dregs of a tin of black hammerite, couple of tea spoons full and I got a kinda light purple, that got thinned down with some white spirit and on it went.



Sorry 'bout the rubbish night time pics, it's always dark by the time I've finished working on it and it shows if you see it in the metal



Doh seems to have fallen over, my computer skills suck

I'll add some more pics soon, still got to do the roof and have a link for banding the steels Update soon

[ginsambo]

Project Cheap Skate! Family Banger! Keep it coming you make me laugh!

[ginsambo]

What's it like underneath? Doesn't look too bad apart from the arches etc.

[familybanger]

Not bad on the underside to be fair, allthough there was a hole in the back where the zorst runs up over the axel. I say was as last time I lifted the ply was abot 4 years ago, I,m guessing it's still there . Seems sound where it counts but maybe I should take another closer look, or should I. Fingers crossed hey, if it just needs a plate welding in the back I'll be well happy then should slap on some underseal but that stuff costs££££££££££££££££ so more than likly it will get painted with old oil, (messy but effective).

Jobs before MOT are;

rear brakes apart - they are seizing on - new shoes sir?, never been looked at in the last 5 years

1 x new (scrap yard) tire 1 rear is bald as, I,ve got a spare with a hole in it, if I can make this hold then I'm on a winner as it will go on for the MOT

Burt Monroe the front tire, you know rub boot polish in the cracks - good enough for him, more than good enough for me.

Random jobs;

Oil change - I did this every 10,000 miles when I had it last but last change was 15,000 ago, poor girl use's a bit, well wastes it as most seems to leak from the sump gaskit.

Re-fit various bits of trim, some which have been carefully removed, some not so carefully and some which just plain fell off.

Get a radio fitted, my old one got junked in favour of a cd player which had to go back to its real owner when I bought the van, inconsiderate git.

Fit side windows

Camper it up, oh yes the grand plan. Project cheapskate family camper. Need some swival seats, may have to spend money there so will be keeping a eye out at the scrappies. Also will need money spending on some wood for various beds and stuff for the soon to be luxury interior but one step at a time methinks.

Can't think of any more jobs at the mo but am sure I've missed some, gotta get it MOTed and insured before the bees wax runs out in Feb, but sooner the better. Pulling finger out...........................................now

[familybanger]

Update time

Now legal - insured and tested

Had to do some bits pre mot that were obvious fails such as fit passenger door handle(£4 at breakers) and sort some bulbs (from stock in the garage) then the big spend - tires. Searched round the yards and found 185 - 14 for the front for £15 fitted (more sensible than boot polish) but had to look far and wide for the 195 for the back and payed a whooping £20 but it came with a wheel + centre cap so cant complain.

Changed the oil and filter (had oil already and filter was kicking about in the front), was feeling lucky so took the plunge....................

Test day, had a bike to test too so slung that in the back and went on my merry way. Bike passsed no probs, (vey low milage cub 90 anyone?) but had to wait for the van test which was next door. This gave plenty of time to A. watch the tester being very vigorous with a modern eurobox and B. find out that my hazards did not work Of course the tester saw me fannying about with the switch which got me more nervous and then he came over to ask when the cam belt was last done, I started to wonder how many pages the fail sheet would be and what sort of cost implications would be involved.
Test time came and many fags were smoked as the tranny filled the shed with its veg oil fumes making me quite hungry in the process. Proper job test which was both reasuring and nerv racking. All came good in the end though only prob was hole in the exhaust but he had no one else booked in so the now in my books decent chap let me use his ramp to sort it (Lucky Halfords is close by) and then did the re-test after carfull application of what looked like a curry tin, jubilee clip and some concrete toothpaste = bodgetastic.

Stands me so far;
Van 150
tires + wheel 35
door handle 4
curry tin, jubilee clip and some concrete toothpaste 5.50!!!!!
mot 54 - seemed steep but it passed so I don't care
stereo 9.99 bid pending on eeeeeeeeeeeebay

Total = not a lot, work it out if your bothered, I'm tired and poor at even basic math

da da da-da daaa I'm lovin' it

[familybanger]

Day time pic time now with added window



And the other slightly more battered side sans window



Still need to check them back drums, but they are not sticking any more and passed the roller test.

[trigger]

Did you run out of paint to do the roof?

[familybanger]

Yep, had only a quater of a tin after the first of 2 coats Needed to add plenty of thinners to finish the second roll which was tricky, as you might imagine. What do reckon on the chances of a color match?
Think I may go cream or white gloss on the roof but painting outside is getting a bit dicy what with the weather. Smooth Hamerite would be my choice but it costs a bomb.

[austinmaxi555]

looking
It reminds me of the milka chocolate model transit lol

Kindest regards Martin

[Nadjenka]

It reminds me of the milka chocolate model transit lol

Thaaaat's it I was wondering why I have an urge to get a chocolate every time I read this brilliant, funny, day-brightening thread

Excellent read, what's going to happen with it next familybanger?

[familybanger]

Hi all thanks for the comments

Firstly aplogies for the vanishing photos, I'm truely untypable with computors and appear to have muffed it up. I,m led to believe that they will re appear at the start of the month if not i'll sort it out somehow Anyway I'm not upgrading to 'pro' but have opened a fresh account

Merge progress includes; other side window chopped in and ply lining chopped out to aid vision through said windows, which is nice. Wooden bulk head removed and tow ball bolted on. Thats about it really, plenty of miles clocked shifting bikes/ kids/ tat about the place and much Tokyo drift style fun had in the snow (felt like a rally hero giving it full lock and plenty beans, closed road of course).

Future plans are to increase the seating plus 1 to match the size of the family and to make it campervan like, more so than the chucking a mattress in the back which has surficed for me and biking pals to date but the family is wanting of more luxury. We shall see. Would love to get my hands on at least one swival chair for the drivers side as this is falling apart and the doulbe seat unbolts to swival easy enough, need to search them scrap yards.

Anyway enough rambling, have some picks.
Went to see the old man up the hospital parking was a mare as ever but just managed to find a space


There, that will do.

Came back out to this







Jeez, took 2 hours to travel the mile and half home and had to dump the van at the bottom of the hill as abandoned cars stopped me getting a good run at it laughable really.

[geminivehicles]

nice parking

[trigger]

nice parking

Should have been an X5 parking like that

[familybanger]

nice parking

Met me mum at the hospital who got a proper space 'cos she has a disabled badge, I did ask if I could borrow it 'cos my parking was far more diabled In all seriousness parking is always a mare at the QE hospital and this was the only avalible. It was doulble yellows too but they'd of run out of tickets before they got to me

Put the tow bar to good use today dragging a couple of bikes to Catford and back, need to wire up the lights for full legal begal status and I,ve got a couple of thick bits of plate to weld on as a step too.

[transitandy]

good thread m8