No. 35 - Vauxhall / Bedford Midi van

[edessex]

My usual car, Astra33, has a buggered engine. I started looking at vehicles, but had a very strict guideline. In order of importance:

1) Suitable for daily driving
-reasonable mpg
-under 2.1m tall

2) Load Lugger
-small van
-diesel
-able to tow over 750kg

3) Capable of 2wd off-roading
-rear leaf spings
-good ground clearance to start
-able to raise front suspension

4) Able to be used for camping
-long enough to sleep in


As many of you will know, I bought myself a Midi last weekend!

I spotted it on eBay, but the main problem was it was nearly 300 miles away in SW Wales! But I decided to bid anyway. Obviously I won it, and decided to make a 'short break' of it.

I hired a car, and drove most of the way there last Saturday night after work. I got to the hotel at about half-past midnight!

The hire car was a brand spanking new Golf TDI:






It drove really nice, still felt like a proper car even though it was packed full of electrickery, which spent a lot of time screaming at me!

Early Sunday morning, we left nice and early, and did the final leg (1 hr) of the journey to the van.

Gave it a look over, the guy took me for a drive, all was alright, so did the deal and drove away...




Bit different to the new Golf:




We took the van to the next hotel, and spent the rest of Sunday driving around in the Golf (I figured I'm unlikely to get the chance to drive a brand new car again any time soon!).

Monday morning we nipped down the nearby hire centre, and handed over the Golf.

We spent the rest of Monday, and Tuesday, driving around the South coast of Wales, having a 'Midi Adventure'! Bit of a photo dump, in no real order...


































































Tuesday mid-afternoon we then headed back home. The Midi is very low geared, but it managed 70mph the whole way back!




***Edit: 26/02/18***

Midi purchase price: £600
Hire car cost (inc. second driver and zero-excess ins.) £169
Total Midi Purchase Cost: £769

(I'm not taking into account any fuel costs, as it was a 'holiday')

Other costs:
VED ('road' tax): £245
Business Ins. (Comp): £388
Total: £633


Total costs so far: £1,402

Technical Info:
1997 Vauxhall Midi Merit (base model), SWB panel van
Isuzu 2.4 Turbo Diesel, front engine, rear-wheel-drive
Manual gearbox, with 5-speed column change

Kerb weight is about 1500kg (Astra about 1000kg). MAM is around 2500kg. Train Weight around 3500kg.

Wheelbase: 2350mm / 93" (Astra: 2517mm / 99" Caddy: 2601mm / 102")
Width: 1690mm / 67" (Astra: 1696mm / 67" Caddy: 1695mm / 67")
Height: 1950mm / 77" (Astra: 1410mm / 56" Caddy: 1846mm / 73")
Length: 4350mm / 171" (Astra: 4050mm / 159" (Estate: 4278mm / 168") Caddy: 4207mm / 166")

[jonsey]

Nice van. I saw one on the road last week and thought I hadn't seen one for years. Looks like you visited Carew Castle ( went there a few weeks ago) and Manobier Castle (tried to go there last Saturday but got lost).

[mrbounce]

I remember hiring a Midi to go to Blackpool and back in the 90s - it was a surprisingly good drive. I did 655 miles in one day and yet had no backache or discomfort. And I loved the column gearchange!

Nice to see one back on the road and at a good home 

[edessex]

Cheers guys.

To be honest I drove down so many winding roads, neither of us had any clue where we were! Lol

Some stunning scenery though. Part of my plan for the van is to use it for camping-type breaks away. The wife isn't much of a walker, so we usually end up driving a lot. Always seems a waste to backtrack to a hotel, just to sleep. So we are going to kip in the van. We'll be able to cover more ground that way, which is quite important as we can only take short breaks away.


This is a SWB with column change, which is exactly what I was after.

The column change does take some getting used to, and I think I need to lube the rods for it.

The seat bases are a bit squashed, so need to see to them, and move the centre seat back a bit.

[edessex]

Present TTD list is:

-buy some 16" wheels, and AT/MT tyres
-give the engine a service, inc. glow plugs
-start seeing to the rust, I'm thinking of a rust converter as they didn't seam seal the panels, so I'm hoping a rust converter will leech into the gaps
-stab around the sills, and figure out how much welding to do
-sort out the seats
-look at the tracking
-paint the van NATO green
-add signwriting
-paint the load floor and cab floor
-cavity wax

-possibly insulate?
I want to be able to sleep in it for short breaks, BUT every now and then it'll have a lawnmower thrown in the back, so it can't get too hot in the sun.

I'm thinking insulation, and a spinny vent thing.

As far as insulation goes, I'm worried about creating damp areas or stopping airflow in the panels, and in the sills.

I want to try and stop the rust, and keep it at bay.

What is the best way to do the insulation?

[theoldman]

Feb 23, 2018 22:12:11 GMT edessex said:

On the grass verge outside the Silverdale Motel opposite the Esso service station Johnston..2.8 miles from my house?

[mr2fc]

I like this shape of van so much, I play a variation of the yellow car game with the kids I work with...

...called "Toaster!"

Half points are awarded for Rascal-sized toasters! We don't play punchies-rules.

[edessex]

Feb 24, 2018 8:57:42 GMT theoldman said:

On the grass verge outside the Silverdale Motel opposite the Esso service station Johnston..2.8 miles from my house?

Technically in the edge of the car park, but yes! ...and that place is state! Main building closed, and the lodges seriously need updating.

Bought the van from Pembroke Dock.

[strikey]

golf vs midi....golf will probably have done everything very very well....except put a sodding great big grin on your mush!!

midi looks fair tidy , cant wait to see where it ends up.

[edessex]

I doubt that Golf would last a month of my ownership! Lol




Rust - I've got loads of little rust spots on the body, and a few slightly larger ones, but they all look like surface rust.

Some are in the gaps where panels meet.

I'm thinking about using a rust converter, especially on the panel gap ones, hoping it'll leech in there a bit.

Any advice?

[edessex]

I've updated the bottom of the original post with some technical info & costs.

[edessex]

Roof & upper panel insulation...

This is how it stands at the moment, no insulation apart from some old stuff in the cab, which will be removed:




What I was thinking of, was the tin-foil bubble-wrap stuff, and glue it in...

Thermawrap General Purpose Foil Wrap 1000mm x 7m | Wickes.co.uk


I found a couple of photos of a Midi van with it done...






I was only going to use it for the upper panels. I'm thinking of stuffing the lower panels with that glass mineral wool...

I'm still generally concerned about airflow and rust...

[gtviva]

I used to like driving these back in the day apart from high mileage ones where the column shift gets a bit vague! the only issue might be sourcing parts as some of them are getting hard to source but if you need anything give me a shout I have all the GM microfiches and catalogues for part numbers

I do have a new GM tailgate stashed away if you need one! its new with no rust but a bit battered from being moved around so much!

[edessex]

I don't suppose its a solid (non-glass) tailgate is it?


This one is on 167k miles now, 3rd can be awkward to find sometimes, but I'm hoping adjusting the rods and giving them a lube will sort that.

[gtviva]

No its got hole for the window, GM never did a solid tailgate for the Midi, have fun with the linkage there is quite a lot of it!

[edessex]

Spotted a Midi for sale with a solid tailgate ...maybe someone plated it?


I'm sure the linkage will be a right pain!

[djefk]

Is this the turbo diesel? I had one just like it for a few years - amazing how dated it felt compared to modern vans, far more so than a car of the same age does.

We used to do regular long motorway journeys in ours and 70 was noisy as hell, as you say the gearing was far too low, you didn’t need 1st gear in any situation, mind you I could get the speedo off the clock if I tried and put up with the noise! Mine had done 65k miles and the column change was nice and tight.

I still have a brand new oil bypass filter and air filter somewhere in my parents’ garage - if I ever get the chance when I’m next back I’ll dig them out if you want them for the price of postage.

[edessex]

Yeah it's the turbo diesel, and yes I'll happily buy any service parts your find!

I'm going to fit oversized tyres, so hopefully that'll improve the gearing a bit.

I love the dated feel, it feels early 80's, mainly because they didn't bother changing anything other than the engine.

[djefk]

We had many happy memories of ours - we used to take it from Ealing down to Rosilli on the Gower peninsular in South Wales on a Friday night for weekend camping trips (in tents mind you) with friends who would inevitably arrive there first in their cars - we never used to spend much time packing though as we’d just chuck everything we wanted to take with us and go, so much room in the back for camping gear, mountain bikes etc. that no orderly and time consuming packing was needed! When we got there we’d set up a gazebo right outside the size door so the van would form a very effective wind break and that’s where we’d have our BBQ while everyone else would be getting wet!

Once, instead of going with friends I took just my then girlfriend and I - after a lovely weekend walking and mountain biking, on the Sunday when the tide went down we walked across to the Gower with a picnic hamper and I got down on one knee looking across Rosilli bay and proposed.

Another thing that stands out is how capable that van was in the snow (very topical right now!) - even with old and almost worn tyres in deepest darkest Devon where all the lanes were iced up as long as you got a run-up you could go up any hill a normal car driver couldn’t - I once followed a Range Rover from Honiton towards Axminster via the lanes and the guy couldn’t understand how I was able to do so! Another time the A3 was gridlocked as cars couldn’t get up one of the steeper hills on their wide low profile alloys that all modern vehicles now have - No problem for the Midi! All I did was let 20psi out of the rear tyres and once the people in front had pushed their cars out of the way, up I went!

It also never broke down - apart from the time the heater matrix burst while my wife was driving and gave her feet a hot bath!!

As you can tell I was very fond of the old bus. I also used to enjoy outdragging most boy racers up to 40 from the lights with the turbo on full tilt in 2nd and 3rd (I could do split second changes!)

Oversized tyres would be a good idea - I would have done the same if I’d kept it long enough - although I’d want to get the speedo recalibrated as I’m fussy for details like that.

[edessex]

I bought some wheels off eBay the other week. came from an L200.

Tyre size is 205/80r16 (Midi is 185/80r14 I think). They have 3 good all-terrain tyres, one bald. So I'll buy a new pair of mud-terrain, keep one AT tyre as a spare, have the two fitted ATs on front, and the two new MTs on the rear.


So at present only got rears fitted atm.

www.facebook.com/2WDOffRoader/photos/a.457295038022988.1073741841.199618733790621/459312677821224/?type=3&theater