Thought it was about time i added another project thread. i'll firstly bore you with details of how this came about. whilst doing my house up and having the 21 in bits i decided i needed a van again. i've had an extra which i converted to a b18ft. it was a great van but this time i figured i should get something bigger, and as always had to be a renault. the newer trafics look great as far as vans go but just not retro enough for me, so the hunt began. i spent a couple months looking and it seemed that the blue ones were alot rustier, and the diesels were, well gutless! so with that it had to be white, and the 1700 petrol version.
eventually i found one and as with most old stuff it needed some work. it was advertised with overheating problems amongst other niggles but thought it was worth a punt and headed to oxford with scoff to collect it.
had a quick look over the van and tbh it was alot better than expected but after a test drive realised it also had a slight slipping clutch but since it was tidy, bought it anyway. this is how it looked when i got it home
i set about sorting some of the running problems. as there arent many of these vans on the road, more so the camper versions, there isnt alot of secondhand parts availible so i removed the rad to give it a good clean out as i figured that was the cause of it running hot, only to find it was almost completely blocked. gave it a good flushing out but appeared the rad had corroded internal so was replaced with a laguna one. now it runs cooler than it should as i suspect the previous owner had removed the thermostat. apart from the slipping clutch, the other niggles were copeable for what i wanted it for so have just let them be for now.
although the sign writing added to the retro look i was going to just remove the phone number but decided to remove all of it for a more subtle van
after using the van as my daily and got most of the bulky housework out of the way i thought it was time to sell the van on before i got carried away as i usually do. it was advertised for sale on here as i felt there could have been members interested in it cheaper than other trafics and would be capible of changing the clutch when it finally gave up, although it hadn't worsened during my ownership.
i thought it would be best to tidy up the front bumper due to a good sized hole on the passenger side, which after poking about looked like this
it seems its harder to find a replacement than i thought so i thought it crack on. since there wasn't much metal left i decided fibreglass was the best way to repair so it was buzzed back to bare metal and in went the resin
i have got the bumper all fillered up with some textured paint over the top, but dont seem to have any pics. the plan is to do the same with the rest of the plastics.
as i ran out of time to sell the van before the tax ran out, and with little interest on here i thought i should also get the clutch replaced to help with the sale so bought a gtt clutch from a fellow member and out came the lump
the engine appeared to have a few oil leaks so quite grotty
despite the bellhousing having oil in it i can only assume that the clutch had seized on and when it freed off smeared the friction plate onto the flywheel. it could have been cleaned up but as i had the clutch it wasn't worth it.
so while it was all out i thought it was best to give it all a good clean up
again, while it was all out i decided to splash some hammerite about but first i had to tackle the rust spots
and chopped the rougher bits out and cleaned up prior to welding
then set about gettin the welding done
followed by some filler work
and then some stone chip. i'd normally only stonechip the lower sections on cars but as its a van and looked a little rough i thought it best to do the lot
now as i'd gone this far i thought it was wrong to hammerite it so thought i'd clean up the underside of the bonnet to get a decent coulour match
and hammerite up the wheel brace while i was at it
once the paint arrived i made a start, much better finish than hammerite
as the engine was out i wanted to make the clutch pedal that much softer so fitted a 172 fork but as the cable/box is a different arrangement to the gtt i had to use a spacer, a bit overkill but easiest way was to use the original and add to it
and of course, hammerited
and fitted, much longer