What did you do today?

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

Lease, lease, lease. Fuck owning a modern diesel. The 1.6d Trafics are fine. They have a useful eco button on the dash to cut power - get up to cruising speed, press the button and it uses less fuel.

[AutoshiteBoy]

If you want a FIAT, I think I can get you a fairly sizeable discount. Be warned; second generation Trafic and the FIAT equivalent weren't built in Luton, so they're not the van they once were.

I get between 35.5-38.5% discount on the FIAT Trafic. If you know what I mean?

Its 38.5-46% Discount on the FIAT Transit, sorry, Ducato.

[paulplom]

That's a decent discount. Would they take my old van px?

[AutoshiteBoy]

I honestly don't know if I'd fuck about with a part-ex. I'd look at handing the cunt back.

[mercrocker]

Took the T25 out for a run today, trying to convince myself the engine isn't wanked. It ran beautifully until it came to a hill I swore it used to take in third and it asked for second...

The left hand head is deffo leaking now and the coolant is brown rather than pink so I can safely say it is snookered. At least I got the brakes and gearbox warmed up which they haven't for a while so it shouldn't fuck about now when the transport turns up to take it away.

Today was the last day I could realistically have cancelled the engine order so it needed to be done. Going to bring it back home next week from the barn and do some interior tidying while I'm waiting for the workshop booking on 10th May.

[LynehamHerc]

How long do they expect to have it for?
Is it only four bolts?

[mercrocker]

Yeah but two will be seized. About 10 days they reckon, the actual swap is quite straightforward as you would imagine although the water stuff adds a lot of time. A lot of the time (and my money) will be going on carefully matching each useable ancillary to the new unit and testing the cooling system. I've already budgeted for a lot of replacements and have already bought new front-to-rear stainless coolant tubes and I'm getting them to put ethanol-compliant fuel lines in everywhere.

This will not be cheap but I hope it is one-time. I've had 15 years out of somebody else's recon so would fervently hope I can expect similar life-span from what is meant to be a top-quality build.

[LynehamHerc]

I'd forgotten yours was a wasserboxer.

I hope that it goes well, it sounds like you're pretty much future proofing it.

[dean36014]

Stripped the flakey paint of the cab roof of the c15 using a strip it disc in an angle grinder. Brilliant little things, was easier to strip it back to bare metal than try and sand it back. Van body roof to do next. Gave it a coat of epoxy primer until it gets sprayed.

IMG_20210422_135614489_HDR.jpg (299.05 KiB) Viewed 1947 times

IMG_20210422_145505002_HDR.jpg (374.69 KiB) Viewed 1947 times

[mercrocker]

Looking forward to end result....I've a soft spot for wobbly frog vans.