Ronnie's new runaround - Project VAN!

[rc]

after 3 loyal years of hard abuse my faithful runaround puegeot 306 d turbo died had alot of memories in this car n gonna be emotional to scrap it! its been rallyin everywhere! stuck in forests, stuck in fields, ripped a wheel odd in the snow, hit a wall, and just general abuse, but it took it. paid 300quid 3years ago and its done me proud

r.i.p pug





which left me with a problem.... astras in bits, pugs dead, ive got no car! :sad:

so spoke to me mate and hes gettin rid of a van.. things are lookin up!

no tax or mot, but runs sweet as a nut and runs on fresh air! and all he wants for it is how every much i can cash the pug in at the scrappy! fair deal i say! its no oil paintin but its gonna do the job for free!

its a 1994 L-reg mk3 astra van 1.7 diesel













oh and its done 176k lol



bodys a bit 'neglected' lets say, but engine is sweet as a nut!

see somethings its gonna need for the mot, got a crack in the screen, which i rekon will fail, but was planning to get a new one for my turbo so mite see if he can put my old screen in the van, another prob solved,
and is gonna need some plates in the sill, though the underneith of the van is pretty solid, but weldings not a problem, so another prob solved,
my mate pointed out one of the rear stuts is broken which will have to be sorted
heres how it should be
bolted to the bottom



and hers the other side, snapped



and the handbrake seems a bit wank, but gonna see if i can get that adjusting the cable
but part from that everythng seems ok
get it a bit more respectable gonna stick me wheels that i had off my nova on it as ive got them layin round doing nothing



and i want to deck it rite down low to the floor, not too bothered bout practicality, gonna have to see if you can get 60mm van springs!

so here it is, project run around van



prob wont be major project progress on the van, but anything i do do will go in here

[Jack]

Gross, GM diesel engine.

I'd get an air filter on it, pronto, if I were you.

[rc]

yea airfilters in the boot! gotta put that back on lol

wats wrong with the engine? just gonna chug me backwrds and forwards to work running on fresh air

[Benn]

Cool, looks like a part carring,run around weapon.

[Jack]

They're naff engines. I'm seriously impressed it's got that many miles on it, to be honest.

If you take the dipstick out when it's running, can you feel gas blowing past the rings?

Genuinely interested, as I looked at a few Astras with the GM engine and they were utterly rubbish. Mayo under the filler cap, blowing past the rings. Loud, clattery, really un-impressive engines.

[Jack]

Just looked a bit harder and it's not even a turbo.

You're a brave man.

[rc]

yea its SLOOOOOOWWWWWW!!!!!! lol

but thats wat ive got the other astra for going ****in stupidly fast and drinking lots of petrol, this ones for goin slow and running on bugger all!

[kieron_67]

bargin mate will look goos when its finished

[rc]

got the first bit today, rreplacing the broken shock, was just gonna weld a bolt on the end and see wat happened, but rang up and a new one was 8 pounds plus vat, not worth ****in around so got one of them



and was gonna plate up the sill, but a new ones only 8.50 plus the vat, so not woth ****in about with a odd plate here n there, so thats coming tomorrow.

and getting a new windscreen for the trubo as its got wiper scraches all over it, so gettin the old one put into the van more money saved!

the pug still had a few months tax left so gonna cassh that in and that'll go towards the van tax

[Spinbitch]

Can tell you get bored easily lol. Good find and a bit of a bargan fella.

Chris.

[rc]

yea ur not the first to say that, think i do just get bored easily and HAVE to work on a car lol

[Spinbitch]

Tell me about it. I'm always finding something to busy myself with, the problem is its not my mk3 lol

[rc]

got the new sill section today, came to under a tenner including vat and delivery, cant complain bout that one! will fit it at the weekend on the ramp at work will be easiest! just fort id have a little more of a poke at the sill to see how bad it is! and FECK ME, half the sill is missing!!! i'll try and get some pics another day, but you will be amazed that the front and rear of the car is still connected!!! its bad i can tell ya! :O but the other side is fine, which i wierd, but good!

[rc]

just snapped some pictures!

heres the sill





and this was only pushing with my fingers

lucky i did get this in the end



otherwise would of been a hell of lot of plates!

[Spinbitch]

yep thats fecked lol. Ah well cheap enough fix which is handy.

[specks]

even with all the work,it`s costing you next to sod all,jammy git.

[2.2DTIdarryl]

lol my drivers side sill is like that on ma mk3 GSI.

are sill a big job if u were to pay someonr to fit it.

[vauxhallastra]

Vans Rock!

[MarkW]

RIP puggy, wheels for sale??

[Melv]

whats the interior like on the Pug? Break it for spares on pug306.net

[A2!]

Originally Posted by rc

heres the sill

Don't you here was the sill lol

[rc]

yea interiors nice on the pug, tis a turbo diesel sport, so basicly a XSi with a td engine! but not worth alot braking it, the eleccy windows both snapped their cables so just bolted them up solid, the alarm and central locking stopped working, the sunroof stopped working, all the panels have battle scars all round, and the engines slipped the cambelt, thats why its dead, so not really nothing worth sellin off it! and the wheels are coming off and the td/xsi alloys goin bk on, and the 17s tyres are goin back on the razors to go on the van.

[rc]

had a bit of a, errrrm, problem with the van 2nite,

rite well heres the story from the begining, it had been sitting out the back of me mates house for a few months as it ran out of mot and he didnt wanna do anything with it, so went to move it to mine, battery was flat as a pancake, but as expected really, so jump started it, gave it a glow, brum started first time! wicked drove it to mine no warning lights or faults, prob bout 5miles! turned it off, tried it again, but battery was dead, fair enough, it had been flat for quite a while, so took it off and put it on a trickle charge over night, fully charged next day, connected the positive, all cool, connected negative, sparked a bit, hmm thats strange, nothings on, then smoikey smokey smokey, the earth lead to the alternators smokin a bit disconected battery, hmm strange, connected it up again, smokey smokey, all the thick power lead to the alternator to the battery starts smoking, next thing i kno the earth lead to the alternators on FIRE oh oh, disconected the batt and blew out the fire! unbolted the earth lead from the alternator, connected up the battery and no more smoke, so think somethings shorted out in the alternator.

so with the alternator disconected i put the key in the ignition to see if it strarts (batterys still full of life) turn ignition on and the wipers wont turn off?? where ever the stalk is they're on constant normal speed. anyway ignored that for two seconds and went to start it, vrrrrah, vrrrrrah, the starters spinning but not engagueing, bugger! it worked fine when i picked it up the other day! dunno if its to do with the wiring fires! will have to do some investigating!

does anyone know if the alternatorsand starters are the same on the 8v pertol engines to the diesels?

[Jack]

Originally Posted by rc

the starters spinning but not engagueing, bugger!

Like it's maybe spinning the wrong way?



No idea what your problem is caused by, but sounds similar to muppets that mix up positive earth stuff.

[rc]

yea deffo all on the correct way! thats what i though at first, with all the sparking! but deffo charged and connect correct polarities!