Gubbings

 Van part II

What started out looking like a jigsaw puzzle with pictures on both sides, gradually resolved itself into a working van. Bro seemed to know what he was about after Hussein finished painting the new steel on the front. I was assigned to sand the back door which had been relieved of a few of its worst blemishes (had been backed into trailer draw bars) and also needed repainting. Meanwhile drains were installed below the windscreen. We spent nearly half a day reinstalling windscreen wiper mechanism after discovering that the threads holding one on had been stripped. The saving grace in all this 'grief' was that there was a donor van in the wrecks pile out the back. It had sound windscreen wiper fittings. 

Front lights came out. I got a crash course in spraypainting odd bits of metal matt black.  Lights went back on.  Dashboard went in, in stages. Top first. My task throughout was to clean everything of its accummulated debris before it was reattached - and reach my smaller hands into inaccessible places to manipulate nuts and bolts. 

Windscreen went back in. Bro advised cheerfully he'd never done this before but had seen it done once - put seal onto windscreen, brush the seal with tyre lube, push a skinny rope in there all round, lift the whole thing into place and hold it there with a ratchet strap.  I leaned on the outside while Bro pulled the skinny rope on the inside and made the seal pop over the steel. A bit of jiggery pokery later and 'Bob's Your Uncle', windscreen in place.

Back door got spray painted (twice - more sanding). I got the lesson in masking the bits where paint doesn't go and had been left to it. Bro did the painting.

Seats went in, seats came out - "bit worn and torn" said Bro. Slightly better seats were recovered from donor van, lovely 'green velour' ones until I scrubbed them revealing matching grey plastic upholstery. Seats parts were swapped around and I spent another half day stitching up rips, gluing vinyl patches over the stitching and making a new fitted cover. 

My attempt to restore shape to the exploded drivers seat. It looks like Frankensteins monster, which is strangely appropriate for this van. 

Repairs hidden under a tailored cover.

Door cards came out. 

More covering. 

Door cards went back in.  Bro is messing about with batteries, air filters, wiring. I got sent out to donor van for an airfilter hose, and door hinges. Managed to cut myself on an exposed rusty edge. Not serious. More a graze than a cut. 

Door hinges changed. Door seals reattached.

Oils, brake fluids, other stuff got topped up. Seats went back in. I'm sent round to paint chipped bits with rust converter and we found rusted-through holes under the floor coverings right at the back. Bro axed that out (compressed air power tools are amazing) and extracted the same shaped piece out of donor van and welded it into place.

Lots of grinding and bitumen and paint and stuff later, and floor is a good 'un. I scavenged various vinyl coverings from donor van and patched up the worst of the wear in 'my' van. (This van is mechanically sound - has a bombproof 2.8 litre Toyota Hillux Diesel engine in it - but has been knocked about carrying machinery around all its life.  It's also 4 wheel drive. The donor van is in better body condition having hardly done a day of serious work as a nursery van, but a former employee managed to blow up its engine. And there it sat for many years... long story with many twists.)

Myriad small jobs and lots of cleaning later, fixing trims, getting doors to slide properly, scrubbing a carpet, and removing a sound system that could only have been installed by a teenager, it was finally ready for 'warrant of fitness' testing. That revealed a need to replace a rear brake cylinder (Bro replaced both) and it passed the retest.  A bike ride into town to do paperwork to change ownership, register it,  buy some miles (we don't pay excise on Diesel here, instead there is a road tax on miles travelled which you have to pay in advance), and arrange insurance, and now the ugly duckling is my responsibility. 

Fortunately Bro has given me a money-back guarantee on it.😁 Seriously though... it is a 1994 van with over 275,000km on the clock. I have been told to make sure I use only oil that has zinc salts in it and change the oil regularly and the engine will outlast me. (I'm not so sure about the rest of its gubbings.🤔)

In any event I know a mechanic with a well equipped workshop and an account at a parts supplier (and on friendly terms with the local car wreckers/recyclers).

(My van had belonged to a late friend of Bro. A 'small engines' repair bloke; ride-on lawn mowers, chain saws, motor bikes, ...  When it failed its roadworthiness test for rusted through around the windscreen, his teenage son couldn't face scrapping it, so Bro bought it off him.)