mk6 van - a short project

[bludclot artatack]

had problems getting on the site which i couldn't seem to resolve - so have re-registered.

 

this is my van:

 

http://www.escortevolution.co.uk/forums/in...howtopic=150273

 

and there are some updates to come, so let's hope that this works now!

[bludclot artatack]

here goes!

 

here it is as it was today:

 

http://portchesterpropertymaintenance.co.uk/images/van/today.jpg

 

here's what's happened:

 

I haggled with the paint man and a deal was struck for the roof and bonnet - but I had to prepare them:

 

http://portchesterpropertymaintenance.co.uk/images/van/prep1.jpg

 

http://portchesterpropertymaintenance.co.uk/images/van/prep2.jpg

 

it was truly amazing just how many stone chips and imperfections are found when going over a seemingly good panel carefully.

 

then the paint man did his thing and a good shine is everywhere:

 

http://portchesterpropertymaintenance.co.uk/images/van/roof.jpg

 

after quite a lot of thought and searching a set of 15" small centre cap rs alloy arrived:

 

http://portchesterpropertymaintenance.co.uk/images/van/rs1.jpg

 

despite being advertised as '2 very good tyres and 2 good tyres' all 4 were scrap. the wheels themselves are all pretty true with only minor curbing and tyre change damage. they looked to have been re-painted pretty badly at some point too. seeing as i am working 7 days a week at present i put them in for blasting:

 

http://portchesterpropertymaintenance.co.uk/images/van/rs2.jpg

 

http://portchesterpropertymaintenance.co.uk/images/van/rs3.jpg

 

while there i put my roof cars in too and asked for them to be powder coated black:

 

http://portchesterpropertymaintenance.co.uk/images/van/bars.jpg

 

i also ordered a set of a4 stainless nuts and bolts for them as the previous ones were badly corroded and took much persuasion to come off.

 

other tasks completed but not pictured are:

 

oil and filter changed

exhaust down pipe after manifold changed

new disks and pads (as the old ones put out soooo much dust on to my mint wheels!)

 

 

so that's where it is right now. here's a list of 'issues' that it and i currently have:

 

- central locking doesn't lock the passengers side door - booked in this week for fixing

- drivers side window handle doesn't always move the window up or down:

worrying this one so i leave the window closed. not ideal! to be looked at with the central locking. any thoughts appreciated.

- leaking rain water into foot well on passengers side - only when it rains really hard. do you think removing the trim at the bottom of the screen and clearing all leaves and debris might fix this?

- slight clutch judder first thing in the morning. goes away after the first couple of 'pull aways' so not important unless it worsens.

- centre bore on wheels larger than the 14s currently fitted - do i need locating spigot rings?

 

next task for me is to etch the wheels and start the filling / sanding / priming process. i'm going for a brighter silver this time. the current 5 wheels will be up for sale - with 5 matching tyres, all perfect condition and at least 6mm tread. offers considered. i also have a set of 5 14" pepperpots, 1 bare and the rest with toyo proxes cf1 tyres fitted, all still legal, all in great condition as you can imagine. offers for these? otherwise they'll be on ebay.

 

bludclot

[Zeth]

Hello man, very nice van! looks great in my country this is the only version of Mk6 not sold.

the paint looks very good. Down the black box where are the fans are 2 entrances to the cabin maybe enter rain water. clogged drains + broken weatherstripping?

[lee grout]

Good work. And in theory yes you'll need spigot rings to make the wheel central.

[JC]

Nice to see a van being looked after

[bludclot artatack]

i've spent another load of money on the van this week. having a replacement window regulator fitted alone was £142, while there i asked for the passengers side foot well leak to be investigated and for the moisture inside the drivers side headlight to be fixed so paid an extra couple of hours labour on top for that.

 

headlight - they couldn't find any fault with it so left the large rear cap off to let air in and out. hmmm, not a great fix i am pretty disappointed with that. i think that a pair of black background angel eyes will arrive shortly. (just as soon as the two weeks wages and materials monies that i am owed is paid to me) so any comments on these would be appreciated:

 

angel eyes on ebay

 

rain water leak - they stripped off the scuttle cover and cleared the drain channels. i'd already reached under and cleared what i could and steve the mechanic said that they really didn't find and clear a great deal more. then they couldn't make it leak despite best efforts with a hose pipe. so again, unresolved. to be fair it only leaks a couple of drops when it absolutely chucks it down but then so did the previous van at the start and that turned into half an inch of water every shower in the end!

 

the central locking man stripped off the door cards and cut my dynamat and couldn't find anything wrong, so sprayed all three locks with carb cleaner and then white grease. when the van came back to me it worked fine for a week then the passengers door stopped locking then they all stopped locking and today the rear doors and drivers door lock but the passengers door doesn't. the central locking man can have one more chance to fix it before he'll be stripping it all off and giving me my money back, not that i've told him the last bit yet....

 

i've managed to get one of the new alloys etched and have refurbed a fifth star wheel as a spare which was fitted to the front drivers side this morning as the paint man managed to get paint on that one when painting the bonnet, disappointingly, so slow wheel progress right now. seeing as i'm working 6 1/2 and sometimes 7 days a week currently time is my enemy (and money my friend!) hence giving the van over to others for work that i would normally do myself.

 

i've seen this new dynaliner which looks great for lining the rear side and roof panels - any thoughts before i go and spunk another load of wedge on this?

[tomsy]

Good choice of angel eyes look the same as mine, only issue i had with them was fitting, one of the multi block connectors was wired incorrectly hopefully this was a one off with my set and yours will be ok.

[mikes-fat-arsed-estate]

cool looking van : )

ive been having issues with my angel eyes that ive had on for the past few years one side head light stopped working i couldnt find a problem after changing the bulb so i fitted my standard ones as the mot was due , probably end up on ebay now.

[Matt86]

Love the old S1 RS wheels....had a few sets myself