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Nov 23, 2013 23:13:57 GMT
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Woke up this morning and just before a serious case of CBA set in, I had some coffee and decided to just tax the flipping t25 even though I'm wasting 3 weeks worth, and go out and buy some wood and get on with actually doing something, instead of doing sod all. Taxed it online and DROVE THE THING STRAIGHT OFF THE DRIVE WITH NO TAX DISK COS I'M A FLIPPING RENEGADE. Managed 3 miles before almost writing it off in a toyko drift icey road/rwd moment, thankfully I managed to avoid the stone wall-van interface through mostly sheer fluke. Crisis averted, I bought several sheets of wood from Wickes, drove home and started clearing the garage to work in then lost interest and decided to just use the kitchen/dining room since it's warmer and you're not the boss of me. Here's the stuff I'm replacing, as you can see it's all wet and warped and stinks like sash. Seriously, It was in the house for three days and has absolutely stank the place out. Asda delivered the shopping just at the right time, and as ever they came up trumps with the "you couldn't spare a few of those crates could you?" so I had a workbench sorted: These crates are ace, loads better than owt you can buy from a shop, they are unbreakable. I'm must have cadged 20 or 30 of em in the last couple of months. Shazam: I could have bought them all off of ebay for £95 and most people would, but that lot cost £15. Now I just need to try and find someone selling rolls the material out of the middle of rover 600 recaros to cover them with, although I have seen some Nova SR burberry stuff which is cheap and I'm about 90% sure I like.
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,256
Club RR Member Number: 160
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Nov 24, 2013 16:50:40 GMT
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The rover half-leathers will be winging their way to you tonight with Ryan (rtlkyuubi) so if you sort out with him and they are yours. Much better nick than I thought they were but they do need a wipe over so sorry about that!
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Nov 24, 2013 16:57:04 GMT
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Wow Rich, can't express how grateful I am, that's amazing. Thanks!
I'll get in touch with Ryantlykuuubui on the facebook about picking them off him.
Thanks again!
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,256
Club RR Member Number: 160
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Nov 24, 2013 18:08:49 GMT
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Wow Rich, can't express how grateful I am, that's amazing. Thanks! I'll get in touch with Ryantlykuuubui on the facebook about picking them off him. Thanks again! No worries dude, just seems a shame to see the seats going to waste and someone wishing for some tidier seats for their otherwise spot-on van! little bit of leather feed and some tlc and they will be spot on.
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Mar 13, 2014 22:07:59 GMT
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Well, things had totally stagnated with this for the last few months. I was waiting for upholsterers and to try and decide on what fabric to use and the rest - Embarrassed to say that I didn't even start it for months! I've not even tried to make a good pair of seats out of mine and the ones Rich very very kindly donated. Anyway lately I've got a kick up the to get it usable from all angles - I noticed it was sunny all of a sudden, and I've ended up with a girlfriend who is absolutely desperate to go out camping. All my months of choosing fabric went out the window and I just bought 10M of hessian for a tenner, to cover all the sde trims in the back. It actually looks pretty good, a lot better than I thought. I was going to retrim the bed, but I really don't care right now so I'll just sling a mexican blanket over it for now. Anyway, this morning I decided to take it to work (20 miles). It got there fine -was a lovely drive. Stopped off for a coffee at macds and two separate people commented on how nice it was, which was nice if slightly awkward. So. This morning: Sadly the drive home didn't go so well. I got 100 yards from work before my perfectly good gearbox decided that it didn't have a first or second gear anymore. No drama or noises, the gears select as normal, they just don't make the van move anymore. I reckon the layshaft bearings have collapsed, but I would have expected a bit more warning. I've a couple of spare gearboxes to fit, and TB I need to change the crank oil seal so it's a kick in the do so that job, I'm just surprised by the total no warning and no drama way that I've lost two gears, plus I'd got plans for camping in Edale next weekend rather than dry bumming a gearbox into a clutch plate for hours.
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bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,901
Club RR Member Number: 71
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Mar 14, 2014 18:51:07 GMT
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I've a couple of spare gearboxes to fit, and TB I need to change the crank oil seal so it's a kick in the do so that job, I'm just surprised by the total no warning and no drama way that I've lost two gears, plus I'd got plans for camping in Edale next weekend rather than dry bumming a gearbox into a clutch plate for hours. Any of the spare boxes past saving or even if the one in the van is, cut the input shaft off on use that to line the clutch plate up so it's an easy lift and push
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Mar 16, 2014 21:20:33 GMT
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Well, so obviously the gearbox spat the dummy out, so this weekend I decided to finally go out and get some carpet and glue and put the interior back in to a van with only 1.5 working forward gears. Mainly as a mojo boost really. So at about lunchtime on Saturday, this was the state of affairs: I'd been down to BIG BOBS DISCOUNT CARPET AND DOGFOOD SHOP for some cheap carpet, and ended up with twice what I needed, for a tenner. Rather than fit a wood subfloor then carpet over like usual, I just used the OE VW caravelle sound deadening and some of the rubber insulation to fill the gaps where seats would slide in - It's soft underfoot and will hopefully be nice and quiet, plus I can cover the step edge with a VW step threshold rather than trying to fashion something out of aluminum angle. With the floor carpet in and threshold strip on I started covering the side panels with hessian. It's not something I'd normally do, but honestly it looks great in person, I wish I'd just done it this way months ago. Once I'd got all the sides done, I dig all the old interior out of the shed and just bolted it all back in. The plan is to eventually remake it all from a dark oak wood, but the silver is actually not at all offensive so it will do the trick just fine for this summer. I do need to see about covering the bed though. i.imgur.com/B3GEECkh.jpg[/IMGWith all that installed I called it a day because I'd run out of glue! This morning I got a late start after a big breakfast and stuff, then popped down the shop for many more tins of glue and redid the headliner, re-ran some wiring for the roof lights and fitted the locking motor for the tailgate and it's corresponding door card. It's such a lovely place to be in, especially compared to the cave that it was before. It's not exactly how I would have planned it, but I'm really happy overall. Just need to make some curtains now, and see if I can sweep enough bits out of the garage to make and fit a working gearbox.
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foldy
Part of things
Posts: 710
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Mar 16, 2014 22:30:56 GMT
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Shame about the gearbox. The van is absolutely stunning though. Makes me want my old 2.1 auto back so bad!
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Last Edit: Mar 22, 2014 20:48:22 GMT by foldy
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luckygti
Posted a lot
I need to try harder!
Posts: 4,912
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Mar 18, 2014 19:11:07 GMT
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Looking lovely. I've finally got some mojo back for mine, in fact I checked in to do an update!! Not looking as good as yours though!
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Mar 22, 2014 16:49:55 GMT
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Had a couple of steady hours on the van today after driving it down to my mates in third gear last night to use his flat driveway. Got the linkage off and manually selected gears on the box to confirm 1st and 2nd had disappeared. They select fine, but no drive. I dropped the oil which has done about 80k miles and there's only the slightest hint of swarf on the plug. Seems strange that it just goes without any noises or warning, so I reckon I will quite likely have the box in pieces and see if a selector rod has gone or something - I've got a spare box to nick bits off. Anyway, I took the box off to compare it to my new one to see exactly how much longer it is: about 40mm is the answer. Basically my engine is sat 40mm too far forward because I used the mounts off a very early diesel engine, so that with a 4 speed box I can use a normal late 5 speed mounting bracket and it all fitted, but I had to cut and shut 40mm out of the linkage. When I put the 5 speed in I need to move the engine back (cut and shut the bars probably) but this means my expensive exhaust will probably foul the crank pulley. Oh well. Gave up early because we were having to work in total silence since my mates bird was asleep in the house after working nights. and it started raining and I'm too old for that curse word. Left the van like this, unsure whether to look for another 4 speed box or just bit the bullet and start cutting things about tomorrow.
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Mar 22, 2014 20:17:09 GMT
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djay
Part of things
Posts: 34
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Mar 23, 2014 11:41:48 GMT
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Looking very tidy with the interior fitted. Quick word though, I'd treat the hessian with scotchguard or similar because it can get grubby looking very easy. Dave.
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Last Edit: May 2, 2014 21:49:07 GMT by cobblers
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luckygti
Posted a lot
I need to try harder!
Posts: 4,912
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Van looks brilliant mate, real credit to you. Would be a real shame if you have to get rid after all the hard work.
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I hope a solution does present itself, it would be a massive shame for you to have to part with this now that it looks so good. It's unrecognisable from the van I saw back when you delivered my lovely repaired pedal box for the BX way back when.
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Sept 17, 2014 21:02:58 GMT
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Little update, the "Staying with our lass for the moment" turned in to permanently living with her, so I don't need to sell the van anymore. She likes it as much as I do, so she'd also much rather I keep it. I went up to Dalby Forest with the mountain bike a couple of months ago, It was great, but having the bike swinging round in the back of the van was a nuisance, so I've now bought a Fiamma rack. Last month we went camping for a weekend in Gloucestershire to go to a wedding in Tetbury, but we ended up just swapping around the place for a week. One night we ended up sleeping in the grounds of a private boarding school that's run by a friend of hers, then a few nights at various caravan club places which ranged from awful (Burford) the reasonably nice (Greenhill near oxford) The van hasn't wanted for anything other than some wiper blades, but I did upgrade the leisure battery setup with a load more batteries I got from work - I added these four which fit perfectly in the bit under the drivers side of the bed. They are 37AH a piece, so in total I now have 8 batteries with about 220AH total. Ignore the croc clips, I had them on charge to get it all full before I go - Despite being a 70A alternator, it only seems to pump 30A into the leisure batteries, I presume due to voltage drops over the skinny alternator to starter wiring, the slightly scruffy earth strap and my cheap crappy auto switching split charge relay. Next step is to upgrade to a proper 140A relay and a 4AWG feed directly off the alternator, and perhaps rebuild the alternator with the 110A internals I've got. I'm also going to finally fit a PMS unit and mains hookup to the van - I've learned that I'm ending up on Caravan club sites more often than I'd like, so I don't really need to be able to run a coolbox for 4 days, as I'll have a hookup. I've got about a dozen PMS units here ready to fit and they have a cracking charger, so I might as well find a place to stick one (PM me if you want one cheap!) Oh, and got some bigger front tyres on. I had some part worn One Hung Lo 215/40/18s on, but they had worn funny and were very noisy ad had begun to crack with age despite only being a few years old, so I put a pair of 225/40/18s on and it's reduced the cabin noise at speed by about 10db. Which brings me to the final thing - Wind noise! The van will happily and comfortably cruise at 85mph, but I can't hear myself think for wind noise round the front end. The seals are all in good condition, but at 60+ they just seem to make a row. Has anyone got a solution? I've got two layers of bitumen and 10mm of foam rubber sound deadening all over the front, but it's still really loud.
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Sept 17, 2014 23:04:22 GMT
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Glad to hear you're keeping it and using it. As for wind noise, years ago when I was looking at one of these I was warned at 50mph+ they're noisy as anything even if you have a relatively quiet engine in them because of the shape so it might have to be something you live with. I was also told the older the bus the worse the wind noise at motorway speeds.
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I signed up to this forum from this thread alone! What a great effort and she looks a beauty.
I am currently working abroad but back to my T25 in Mid 2017 and cant wait to finish off the restoration I half competed. Mine has a Golf Mk1 Gti 1.8 DX engine but looking to tidy the water pipes up and replace the diesel manifold and single down pipe it has.
I am however drawn to the idea of using a Mk3 Gti like the AGG if this one packs in as I found it was a reliable engine in my old Golf Mk3 I used to have.
If I got an exhaust fabricated to a Mk1 gti manifold, would I be able to reuse the exhaust if I ever went AGG? I assume the bottom ends are similar positioning? I am worried id splash out on a nice exhaust that is'nt too loud and then the engine pack in and it be worthless. Alternative is to dig my welder out and fabricate one myself, but not sure how easy it'd be without having lots of leaks.
How come no post in so long? Hows the interior going?
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Love the colour, is it a Porsche hue?, I'm doing the same to my velle at the moment.
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The lurker formerly known as Cappuccinocruiser.. or wedgedout..
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It's VW toffee brown - unbelievably expensive because it's a mica/pearlescent of something - just the basecoat was something like £300+, I nearly fainted when the bill came as I thought it was a plain metallic and 1/3rd of that price. I had about a litre spare, but the bottom of the paint tin it was in rusted through while it was on the shelf in the garage, and dripped all over the roof of the van. Ironically, the paint had been saved to redo the roof of the van which needed painting again really.
Sadly the van is more or less as I left off in the last post - I've used it a few more times but just don't have chance to do anything with it nowadays, I live 20 miles away from where it's kept so I find I never bother just "popping down" to spend an hour or so on it.
I think in the next few months I'll get it booked into a bodyshop for the roof done and a couple of other bits tidying up that the painter first time round ballsed up, then I'll put it up for sale.
As for exhausts, I'm not sure if the port spacing is the same or not. Personally I'd stick an AGG in just to get the more modern engine management system - it really does drive so much better than any old mk1 or mk2 golf engine I've ever experienced - it makes my old mk2 1.8GTI feel prehistoric!
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