Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

lots of 'Wahey!' moments me thinks! Great for one's enthusiasm (sadly lacking with my own endeavours, can't really be arsed with it!).

Seems strange the way the wiring and Gas Supply have been treated on what's obviously still a valuable vehicle, almost as if someone had planned to rip the electrics out entirely but had a change of heart. Interior lighting looks nice by the way.

[Zelandeth]

I get the impression that they'd planned a pretty wholesale interior facelift but realised just slightly too late that they'd got in over their head. On the plus side it's all pretty simple stuff to reinstall.

The only thing (bar some pipework) that I seem to actually be missing at this stage is the fresh water tank, though being honest that's not necessarily a bad thing at this age as it's probably not as sanitary as it once was. They grey water tank is present and currently stuffed in the locker over the cab - all its lines also crudely chopped off. Seriously, they're held on with hose clips, why not just undo them?!? I assume there would originally have been something there to hold the gas bottle in place too, that also seems to have vanished - though there are some bits I've yet to identify in the big box of stuff in the bathroom.

I can see me taking out the worktop they've changed and redoing it, as it's not flat and is wedged under the rear window surround - that's going to bug my OCD.

[Zelandeth]

The interior lighting is pretty good for the time period. The Lab Craft fittings sadly don't drive the tubes very well so tend to munch through them quite rapidly - you also have to dismantle the entire fitting to change them which is a bit daft. So I may well see if I can track down some better drivers.

At the very least the colour 535 tubes need to disappear and be replaced with some 827 ones - the very "flat" white clashes violently with the otherwise uniformly warm decor.

I'll probably add some warm white LED tape under the cabinets too as it will help brighten things up a lot for near zero power use (and will be installed so as to be essentially invisible).

Lighting is kind of my special subject, so whatever gets done it will be done right, effectively, but sympathetically.


We did have a bit of excitement today.

Had to go to pick Abby up from the train station. Xantia was boxed in, and having been out once today in the Lada (it is driving *so* much nicer now I've sorted the throttle linkage) declared it to be too warm for that nonsense - it's by far the worst car I've had for holding heat in the cabin, even with all the windows wide open. So picked the van.

Abby called me "ridiculous" for my choice of what to fight through rush hour in... I've no idea what she's on about. Seriously... it's no harder to drive than any car as far as I'm concerned, has way better visibility...and even the usually cut throat taxis are afraid of it. Also has enough width I can strategically occupy two lanes at times to help the buses get through a couple of awkward junctions. They somehow seem far less surprised by my doing that in this as well - guessing they assume someone driving something this size this old knows what it's like to be where they are?

I parked up to wait for her to appear, put the hazards on to make it clear I was waiting for a few minutes (15 minute parking zone), and noticed they weren't flashing. Nor clicking. Wait, why is there smoke drifting serenely from the general vicinity of the indicator stalk?

Quick dive to the fuse box revealed the fuse for the hazards blown. Signalling left seemed fine (based on the reflection in the back of the car in front - still haven't fixed the dash light), the moment I went for right though the revs dropped very noticeably. That will be a short then. I took the fuse out for that circuit so nothing would meltdown while driving, and made the half mile trip home just pretending to be your typical Audi driver. Well not true...I used hand signals. Not that I reckon anyone could see them.

Now stuff like this isn't entirely unexpected given how little use she's had lately. I reckon she's travelled further in the last five days than the last five years, there are bound to be a few gremlins.

I had a hunch though on this one.

This siliconed and taped up repeater hasn't worked since I picked the van up.

I already actually have a nice new one on the way as I knew it needed changing.

Cover off...

Um. There should be both a lamp holder and a bulb here...neither are in evidence. In fact there's zero evidence of the supply side wiring at all...

Let's look under the bonnet. Oh that access is just great...because van.

After a bit of blind groping around in the general vicinity of the indicator I happened across a single wire that felt like it wasn't attached to anything. Extracting my hand from the bowels of the inner wing was harder than getting the wire out...

Oh look at that... it's the positive spring contact from the wing repeater.

Reinstating the fuse for the indicators and tentatively signalling right...revealed everything to be working just fine (obviously apart from that particular light)...so it had obviously just managed to find something to ground itself on. I've safely terminated it for now and will sort it when the new lamp housing arrives.

That drama concluded I decided to finish off what I started yesterday. Well, part I of it anyway. The aux battery harness is safe and isn't causing any problems so that will be Part II. However the now reconnected cooker hood/DC control panel had nearly slid off the worktop several times.

Solution of course was to refit it back where it belonged.

Much better.

Even if it does need a good clean. The wiring sitting on the lamp diffuser will be resolved with a couple of cable ties in due course.

Tomorrow both the Lada and Activa will be at the Festival of the Unexceptional. Sadly I've not had a chance to clean the Activa, so she'll be in her "working clothes" so to speak.

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

Thank goodness they stopped with the makeover; its always going to be a 1990 Camper and anything new & modern probably wouldn’t look right, no matter how much money you chuck at it.

I see what you mean about the Worktop, though had to have a good look at the pic to identify it; yeah, that’d bug me too. I’ve not got OCD, but I do like things to be ‘right’, or at least ‘as right as I can manage to get them’ within my skills & finances.

Labcraft fittings driving the Tubes, does that relate to Starters? My leccy knowledge is scant. The 827’s won’t be unacceptably bright will they in what is by ‘Domestic Room’ standards a very small space?

Not wishing to upset Abby, one of my fave names and that of our much loved Musical Director as was; I’m with you re ‘it's no harder to drive than any car as far as I'm concerned, etc’ and the sense of taking it. My 405 was absolutely horrid to drive last weekend after a day in the sun.

A year or so back I had daughter on the phone, with the same indicator stalk issue with her 106, funny enough was up your way at the time; so she was towed home. Bit surprised that the Breakdown driver didn’t have the common to simply remove the fuse and send her on her way, which is what I did when I saw it; while I sourced a replacement. It was barely a wisp, but she was understandably concerned, and in fairness to her, had the savvy to disconnect the Battery.

Fair enough with the various small faults after the extended period of near-dormancy, the important thing is that nothing major breaks. Am sure parts will be a doddle to come by, but if the more obscure bits of bracketry for the Gas Bottle or Water Tank turn out to be absent from the box of bits, feel free to shout if you want something welded.

Shame I didn’t get to the Festival of the Unexceptional, I thought I’d better crack on with the welding and due to a major event locally there are significant delays getting in & out of our locality at the moment; hope you had a lovely day there, maybe we’ll see some pix?

[Zelandeth]

If I'm right, Auto Trail are still about. I'm going to try to get in touch to see if they can provide any info on how the kitchen and bathroom would originally have looked. Bathroom in particular has been pretty much gutted, so any information they can give me will be useful.

Hoping they will be happy to see their handiwork still going strong rather than taking the angle of "it's out of warranty, we're not interested."

Regarding the lighting, the big issues are twofold with the Lab Craft made fittings here. Firstly is that there are no starters. They simply start the tubes by brute force by sticking a very high voltage across the terminals. This means the tubes are started without any cathode heating, causing a lot more wear than on a conventional fitting each time it's switched on. Not a massive issue in a setting like this though as it's not getting turned on and off multiple times every day every week. The biggest issue though is that they don't tend to drive the tubes at their full design power. This is bad for fluorescent tubes and causes vastly accelerated wear. The 535 Vs 827 numbers relate to the phosphor in the tube. 535 is a halophosphate tube in essentially "plain" white with a colour temperature of 3500K. This is what you used to see in virtually all offices etc. It's a very unflattering light. 827 relates to a more modern and more efficient triphosphor mix (so you get more light out for the same power in), with a colour temperature of 2700K, essentially a colour match reasonably close to incandescent light.

It's worth remembering that to achieve a "comfortable" lighting condition, you need more light the higher the colour temperature is. That's why so many places using "daylight matching" coloured lamps often look terrible, it's not that the idea is poor, it's just that you need a LOT more light to make a room lit with 6500K light comfortable to work in than a yellower light. A properly done daylight simulation though with something like the older Northlight tubes is something to behold.

For the van though, warmer light is better. Given the power saving I *might* consider swapping out the innards of the lights for LED panels. Low voltage stuff like this is one place where LED technology really makes sense, and is vastly more efficient than old school DC fluorescent kit like this. It's also more tolerant of vibration etc...and could be dimmed if desired. I'd keep the external appearance of the fittings unchanged and ensure the kids were reversible obviously. When looking at working from a battery with a finite capacity though, saving 50% on my lighting load (and getting more light!) is worth considering. Probably save me a bit of weight too!

We did have both the Activa and Lada out at the FotU today, both of which were well received.

Afterwards I caught up with some folks, deciding to take the van over after a brief stop at home to rehydrate.

This went well right up to the point when I caught the accelerator while climbing in and it went *clonk* straight to the floor. Oh oh.

Whipping off the engine cowling (three clips) quickly revealed the issue. The throttle cable passes through a little plastic bushing in the arm on the fuel pump. This had disintegrated, allowing the cable to pop through it.

This was my "making the gap smaller" mod to tide me over until I can find a new bush.

It's very much not pretty, but should do the job. I may just make something if one isn't readily available.

Access is actually pretty decent with the cowling off - even if getting it back on is a bit of a faff because the carpet gets in the way. Will definitely make changing the fuel filter a lot easier! That was looking like a "dismantle the whole inlet tract" job before.

[Zelandeth]

The main task for this morning was to empty the bathroom in the van. It was more or less completely full of stuff.

Actually quite a bit bigger than I thought.

There's obviously been a damp issue in there at some point, but it looks to mostly have come from the bathroom rather than the outside, probably down to poor ventilation. An extractor fan may get added at some point.

Buried under the stuff (mainly tinware from around the cooker, several massive polystyrene insulation sheets and the hob), was a box full of random bits. Among other things this contained all the taps, the shower, loads of bits of trim that were missing and the reflectors off the rear bumper (which had been bugging me).

[Zelandeth]

Brief moment of excitement today.

Having driven out to Buckingham to go to the supermarket (yes, I know...did I mention that I'm having far, far, far too much fun driving the Merc?) was wandering back and had dropped to fourth to just give a bit of a speed boost to get me the last few hundred yards to the top of the hill.

Now this is a typical old van. There are various whines, whistles and warbling noises that come from the gearbox and such, which also then interact with harmonics from the engine, cooling fan etc, and quite a lot of things rattle. So higher rev running is always quite noisy. There's something in particular that rattles around at what I reckon is about 2750 rpm... current guesses are exhaust or gear linkage.

However on the occasion when "that" point in the rev range was reached, all hell broke loose it seemed like. Massive vibration and sharp knocking noise, sounding like it was coming from under the passenger seat from where I was. Based on prior failures I'd experienced, first guess was that one of the prop shaft universal joints had exploded. Immediate reaction was clutch in, and start looking for somewhere to pull over.

I realised after about a second though that the noise had stopped. Very tentatively I let the clutch back out to see if I still had drive. I did. Gingerly (we were in the middle of some S bends at this point, so very much not a good place to stop!) I picked the speed back up a bit...no vibration, no nasty noises...engine sounds happy, gearbox making what to me sound like happy gearbox noises, rear axle silent... everything seems fine.

I decided to stick to 50mph (she will quite happily bound along at 60+ now) for the remainder of the journey, and pulled into a garage forecourt a mile or so along the road.

Given it hadn't happened again and obviously hadn't been the drive system self destructing, my main theory at that point was that the rattly exhaust had decided to part company with the van and had dropped into the propshaft (it runs over the top from offside to nearside just behind the gearbox, with the two silencers flanking it).

Peering underneath at the garage however revealed nothing. Exhaust was still all present and secure (and still leaking in a truly comical number of places), and the only thing amiss I could find was a slight leak from the return line to the fuel tank (one drop in the ten minutes or so I was there). Now given the violence with which "it" had happened, I was really expecting to find evidence of whatever little event had just happened. Clear evidence at that.

Nothing...

Not even any oil. Seriously, when did you last see a van with both engine and box this dry?

Scratching my head, I climbed back aboard, walked a few circuits inside while casting accusing glances at all manner of things that clearly had nothing to do with the problem...then continued home. Setting myself a 2500rpm and 50mph limit until I worked out what the fluff was going on.

I've had another poke around now home, and I'm no closer to figuring it out.

Only thing vaguely resembling a theory is that a bit of rusty metalwork (the under-wing splash guards to name a few, are knackered) has managed to get itself sucked into and shredded by the cooling fan. It's a viscous fan, so would probably have been going great guns at the time of the incident. Can't see any damage to the fan, though that means nothing.

I'll pop the cowling off tomorrow to see if I can see anything amiss.

Anyone got any idea what on earth it was that scared me half to death earlier?

Oh...and in other news, the cabin lighting is sooooo much nicer with just the new tubes in the overhead lights...

The fridge is currently in the house. Pulled it out yesterday for a thorough clean and test (it was too darn hot in the van!), with the thermostat set halfway and ambient temperature being 25-30C, it's got the fridge down to a stable 6.5C, and the freezer to a healthy -26.7C. That's working away quite happily then. Have to admit that I still find absorption fridges fascinating in how they work. I've nicked the gas bottle from the barbecue and will give it a test run (outside) on gas soon as well to confirm that works as well. To be honest though, it's a well made little thing and while it's obvious got some hours on it, I see no reason for it not to work.

The various cooling assemblies will get a clean up and fresh coat of Matt black paint before it gets reinstalled though. Reckon the occasional bit of rain probably gets in through the vent, hence they're covered in quite a bit of surface rust.

Just because I can't get enough of that classic outline, here's a snap from yesterday when I took it out, demonstrating it's perfectly suitable and practical for running errands!

Still haven't managed to get the indicator warning light on the dash working either. Need to get my meter out and test to see if there's voltage to that pin on the flasher unit. I'm hoping the answer is no, as replacing that will be a heck of a lot easier than chasing a wiring fault right the way across to the far side of the van and behind the instrument panel...

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

haven't a scooby about the noise, but boy it is indeed ridiculously clean under there.

Any possibility a piece of road debris simply got caught up in the wheel / wheelarch momentarily. Probably a good idea out of caution to ensure that the Brake Calipers, Suspension etc are all tight; just to be safe.

I see you can manage to park a good sized Motorhome a lot better than others' can park a Hatchback or (perish the thought) SUV in the Supermarket car park!

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

...after-thought. Perished engine mount not coping with the additional load at higher revs?

[Zelandeth]

Engine mount or similar was one of my theories - I'll need to take a closer look at them all. Being a van there are a couple of stabilisers as well as the normal stuff you'd see in a car. The fact that there's no judder or movement through the gear lever when moving off does tend to suggest otherwise though.

I didn't feel anything through the steering when the event happened, though as you say, it would be wise to have a thorough check over anything.

I did take it out for a quick run today in an attempt to recreate the incident - totally without success. Not sure whether this is indeed because it was something I'd picked up, or something that was falling off has now *fallen* off...or that there's a fault there somewhere that's just waiting to reappear.

The fact that it *seemed* engine speed rather than road speed related does seem to suggest something getting shredded by the fan. Not sure where the alternator is actually, do wonder if it might have got something caught against its fan...


Next van related task for this afternoon was to replace the offside indicator repeater.

Can you tell which one is the new one and old one here?

Now, this should have been a two minute job. However it was made somewhat more difficult thanks to the fact that someone in the past had managed to pull the positive connection clean out of the light housing entirely, so it was floating around in the engine bay. So I needed to get things into a position that would allow me to get the wire back to the hole in the wing.

As such it was necessary to remove a few things to get sufficient access...

Thankfully despite looking like they were from the Titanic all the fasteners unscrewed without protest. Given the general state of the front of the van, that was a pleasant surprise.

It was at this point that I discovered that the prime reason that access was so ridiculously tight was that the windscreen washer bottle was sitting in completely the wrong place. It was able to be pushed a good six inches or so back. This then allowed me to get a spanner in to unbolt the indicator lens, allowing me to get it out and to get a proper look at the wiring to it.

For some reason, the rubber boot that should have been keeping water from getting into the indicator was folded in on itself several inches up the wire, which was making it incredibly awkward to route things properly. The spade terminals were also really loose. Rectifying both of these problems made it far easier to route the cabling properly and to get the indicator itself to behave reliably. Having the indicator itself out also meant that I had sufficient access to get my hand in to route the wiring to the repeater.

Finally!

That only took about an hour longer than I'd expected. It does however mean that I've now got a full compliment of fully working indicators. Well...save for the one on the dash anyway.

[Zelandeth]

Today's plans contained three main tasks.

Firstly, spend some more time figuring out what on earth happened halfway back from Buckingham a couple of days ago. Aside from anything else, until such point as I found the culprit there was no way that I was going to trust the van not to do it again - or suffer some spectacular failure leaving me stranded at the side of the road.

After a good crawl around underneath, I think I've figured it out. Didn't spot it initially as when I first looked it was from the passenger side, meaning that the large main exhaust silencer was in the way - plus I was looking for something obviously smashed to pieces based on the violence that was observed from within the cab.

I draw your attention to exhibit A: The front sliding joint on the propshaft. A joint which is conspicuously missing 99% of its protective rubber boot.

Okay, so it shredded the boot...Wouldn't have expected that to make too huge a din though, surely? Note the thing directly above it however - the handbrake cable. What I reckon has happened is that the boot has let go, flailed around for a bit before departing the vehicle. While flailing around it's whacked the handbrake cable on each revolution, translating into a horrific racket in the cab - as I observed immediately to my left - right where the handbrake is. I reckon that being "twanged" a few times a second could make quite a spectacular racket.

Not sure how much of a headache replacing that is likely to be, or whether it would just be easier to get a garage to do it. At least the thing has commercial vehicle levels of ground clearance so there's plenty of room underneath without having to mess around jacking it up.

While I was crawling around in that general area I had a closer look to see if I could see where the slow fuel leak I'd observed was coming from - didn't take long. Seems to be weeping out of this joint.

Given this is an extremely slow leak at this point (you're talking one drip every few minutes) I'm somewhat reluctant to disturb it in case it will no longer seal at all until I've got a replacement on hand. I guess if all else fails I could just stick a bit of normal fuel hose between the two rigid pipes couldn't I? In fact, I'm pretty tempted to suggest that's exactly what has been done on the other fuel line visible there.

Second task for the day: Figure out and see if I could do anything about the horrific rattle from the exhaust. Seriously, at idle I reckon it's making more noise than the engine!

This was located using the age old method of crawling around and poking various bits of it with a screwdriver to see what effect it had on things. Pretty quickly was traced to the first box in the system (a smallish, I assume expansion box, with both pipes going into the front face), which has broken away from is hanger. As such it's vibrating so much at idle that it's essentially a blur if you try to look at it. Given that the second box is also in poor condition, it may well just be time for a whole new exhaust system, rather than trying to faff about repairing this one. Unless a new system is available silly cheap I'll probably look at getting something made up in stainless (or just order in standard bits and see if I can make it myself given the usual torturous path needed on most cars isn't an issue here) as I'd prefer to get it venting out the side rather than right by the whacking great air vent in the rear panel.

Task number three: Try to do something about the state of the front end.

First up, hit it with the polycarbide mop on the grinder...

I was quite surprised how solid the panel was to be honest, though I do have a sneaking suspicion that if I went after the blister to the nearside at the bottom that I'd quickly wind up with a hole to repair.

Next up, throw some paint at it (after going over it with a degreasing cloth). We're really only aiming for a "presentable from ten paces" job at this stage, mainly for the sake of our neighbours. I did initially try to mask off the graphics, but lost interest in that after about five minutes when the tape kept tearing while I was trying to get it off the roll.

Still rough as a pair of old boots if you look too closely...

...But is a million times better from a few paces away!

The paint is a surprisingly close match (where it's not rust stained anyway), despite being "gloss appliance white" rather than any actual automotive colour!

Finally, as I promised, here's a quick little video recorded today. Sorry about the odd shaky nonsense. The camera was rigidly attached to the dashboard and I think the vibration has caused the anti-shake algorithm in the camera software to have a complete nervous breakdown. Not much I can do about it aside from re-shoot the video, which I will do at some point.

Microphone isn't the best and I've only heard it through laptop speakers so far, but hopefully has done a halfway reasonable job of capturing the old school diesel soundtrack. Far nicer than the tinny rattle that comes with most diesels these days I reckon...



At least there's somewhere convenient to stick the camera in this vehicle, unlike most of my fleet!

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

Quite like the sound of that, never really intrusive, and the paint too, plenty sufficient. Guessing that's MK, fabulous place to drive around, albeit ideally with a bit more poke than the Merc or my 405.

Not sure about the propshaft boot job, glad its turned out be so minor; and can understand how the remains of the Gaiter thrashing about could've made such a racket. Never done one; but if its anything like as easy as a FWD CV Boot, would seem like a no-brainer to do it oneself. Is there a way of separating it somewhere close by?

I know that when Wagons are recovered the prop is disconnected to avoid damage to the 'box while towing, which appears to be a swift job. Maybe this is similar in style and similarly quick.

Congrats on the full complement of indicators!

For anyone watching my welding blog, some progress today, but nothing really worth reporting, so update another time.

PS: did you have to jack it up to get underneath, or is there sufficient clearance to simply slide under?
.

[Zelandeth]

It's really not too bad. The exhaust is a bit on the boomy side at the moment as there's a ruddy great hole in the side of the main silencer, so that won't be helping anything.

Haven't had a massive amount of time today, but decided that it was time to give the interior a bit of a clean out again. There were bits of trimmed wire and flecks of timber everywhere from me digging through stuff and it was bugging me.

While I was at it, I noticed something rolled up in the back of one of the lockers under a seat, which turned out to be this...

An additional seatbelt equipped seat - that will be really handy if someone wants to sit back here to keep the dog company on a longer run. It's also proven that the kit needed to mount a seatbelt back here does exist (a very substantial riser that's bolted onto a chassis outrigger), so it should in theory be possible to add one at the other side too. Not something we'll need very often, but just being able to carry the whole family in a pinch would be handy.

While I was standing on my head in the offside corner of the engine bay a couple of days ago, I noticed that the rubber gaiter that should be covering the universal joint going into the steering box was turned inside out rather than attached to the box. Rubber things which are meant to be keeping the outside world out being turned inside out seem to be a running theme with this van. That's been the case with both front indicators as well so far.

This clearly wasn't doing much useful.

It's clearly been this way for some time given the amount of green slime that was growing where the upturned edge had been collecting water. Someone has also poked a hole in it with a screwdriver it appears trying to get it on or off. Thanks for that if it was you...

Some grease was applied (quite a bit more actually after this photo was taken...)

...and the boot was slipped back into its correct location. It looks a bit odd, but this just seems to be how it fits.

I've rotated it such that the hole is at the lowest possible location. It will be better than nothing for now at least. Given that the boot doesn't actually move, a blob of Tigerseal or similar will probably do a fine job of sealing it.

While I was rolling around on the ground making sure that the rear edge of the boot was seated properly, let's look up shall we...

Mmm...Crispy cab...

To be fair, not in any way surprising given the MOT history and the fact that it is indeed a 28 year old Merc T1. It will be receiving some attention from a body shop in the not too distant future anyway, so anything else like this that needs properly sorting will be dealt with.

Also will need at the very least a new dust cap for this ball joint...Something tells me that this has been like this longer than since the last MOT...

At least I shouldn't have to worry about oil leaks.

The only one I've found so far seems to be from the rocker cover (no surprises there then), and is pretty minor. May well get a gasket set in and change it anyway.

EDIT: The new wallpaper for the bathroom has arrived too.

This should fit better with the existing decor in the kitchen area I think than the pink flowers currently in there.

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

Certainly handy to be able to carry the family legally and in safety.

Rubber Gaiters inside out thing on this is proper weird isn't it. When I saw it I felt that possibly you cut off the lower part of it and make use of the reams of Concertina'd rubber to pull it down, though actually getting it on could be a complete PITA with no easy way of using a cone, so if its satisfactory as is, probably best not bother.

Useful tip: in sunny weather, when taking an engine area pic upwards, simply shutting the bonnet can be really helpful. I found this in the course of struggling to photograph my exhaust manifold, just recently.

I saw that Tigerseal in the course of buying some Seam Sealer on eBay, looks like its popular, is it good? and does it 'keep' once opened? I felt likely not the right thing for my welding work so bought a tin of stuff, but worth knowing of if its good stuff.

Beware of that welding work 'growing' and becoming expensive and do get along to take some pix for the Van's History file in the course of the Body shop's work (and to ensure you don't end up with a Dunlop Patch, unless that's your preference). Maybe see how you go with getting the nearby Brake Pipe unions to budge too.

[Zelandeth]

Yeah, if I'd really been thinking about getting the photo I'd have closed the bonnet first - this was very much a "while I was there" job though.

Good call on the brake pipe unions, probably something it would be worthwhile just getting in so I have them in stock anyway as I've already got the pipe and flaring tool in the garage anyhow. They must have been off pretty recently though I think when that area under the brake servo was done.

While the patches there are messy as anything, they are at least actually metal and made the right noises when I battered them with a screwdriver so they do at least appear to be attached - not like the last car I saw with this sort of patchwork where they'd just tacked a couple of places on each one then covered it in underseal!

As far as I'm aware Tigerseal is basically the stuff that's used to hold bonded car windscreens in. In my experience anyway once it's set it's pretty much immovable other than cutting or scraping it off with a sharp blade. No idea how long it remains workable once the tube is open though I'm afraid.

I'm well aware of the tendency for welding jobs to snowball completely out of control. Been there, done that, got the burned fingers and welding spatter in my shoes to prove it. Not as bad as the bit that landed in my ear though. I'm not kidding myself that the cab is going to be cheap to sort out. This area in comparison to some of the others shouldn't be too hard to deal with (even though having to remove stuff to get to it will be a bit of a pain), it's a relatively simple section to fabricate a repair for though - especially given it's not visible unless you're crawling around under the wheel arch.

The windscreen scuttle/heater intakes is going to be far more of a pain. First off, it's visible on the front of the van, so needs to be done to a cosmetically high standard. Secondly the intake grill is part of the pressed panel, so I'll realistically need to find a donor part cut from a scrap shell (that will be fun as they always go there), then there's the fact that the "box" that forms the heater intake has gone on both sides of the bulkhead. Most likely we'll find that the rot has spread into that itself as well when we start digging. It will be "fun" I'm sure! Given the way the values of these seem to be going though, I reckon that I should be able to get this all done (and done well) and still not have wasted a massive amount of money given what I paid for it.

As for the gaiter on the steering box, I'm hoping I can just patch it. Replacing it will inevitably mean separating the steering column from it, and every vehicle I've had to do that on has put up a biblical fight...so it's one I'm not eager to repeat. If water persists in getting in once I've patched it, I'll probably throw it at a garage to do. Really need to take a look at the propshaft today and see how difficult it will be to separate that slip joint to get a new boot on there too. I'm *hoping* that if I just unbolt the carrier that holds the front support that there will be enough flexibility available that I can just drop it straight down and the splined part will just slide out. Thus allowing me to remove the remains of the old boot that was shredded, replace it, repack things with grease and then have reassembly be reverse of removal.

We all know though that would be far, far too simple though and there's bound to be something encountered to make it far more difficult.