I thought i had found a suitable van the other day, i seem to live for Thursday when autotrader gets updated, and this Thursday just gone i was scanning the iveco's section, nothing was available at all it seemed, only a couple of extra long wheelbase models, and they all had twin rear wheels, and were all too old, (and wanted over £3500!!), i was about to give up when i thought for once i would look through the ads without pictures, i've always skipped these as the way i see it, you place an ad with autotrader and you get a free photo too, you don't pay any extra, and you don't get a discount for not having one, you don't have to do anymore than give your address when you are booking the ad, and a rep will come out and take a photo of your vehicle your selling, so i always figures people's ad's with no photo's are hiding something.

Well one of the ads was for a semi automatic iveco daily ELWB, 1998 R reg, £2000, more details on the sellers website, so i looked and there was a photo there, i could see  a knackered bumper, front panel was dented, few scratched down the side etc, so i figured that was why it was cheap, no company nowadays dares to buy let alone use a van that is battered, makes them look very bad, would you send a package with a firm who's van is battered and dented?, i wouldn't, shows the drivers don't care about their vehicles, what do they care about the packages or whatever they are transporting.

Anyway, it matched all my criteria, so i e-mailed the seller asking for more details, like a speedo reading, and how the semi auto box worked, i.e. i wanted to know if it was a factory fit option, or an add on, as i had heard about a system for disabled drivers, which the clutch is disengaged when they touch the gear stick, brake or the handbrake is on, i didn't think it was a particularly good system my self, so i wanted to avoid that system.

The bloke e-mailed me back the next day, said the van had 2 former owners, 42,000 miles on the clock, and just said the semi auto bit worked lovely, just press the accelerator pedal and it goes, factory option i guessed, so i phoned him up to go and look at it, he was in London, and didn't want me to go and look at it that day as it wasn't starting, i said I'd come and look at it anyway as i want to see if the van is even suitable for my needs, and I'd arrange a test drive at a later date if it was even good enough for me to consider.

So we set off to London, got to the garage and no sign of the van, asked and it was in a back street out of the way.. the rest of his vans were practically brand new ones, so i could see why he didn't want this van on his forecourt, anyway, the van was battered, but wasn't that bad really, it had been broken into at one point.. recently judging by the water in the cab, the drivers window was a passengers window (writing the wrong way round), drivers door lock was punched in, steering column cowling missing, parts of the dash missing like air vents in the middle, for the cab the front bumper was scrap, the front grill panel was useless for what i wanted the van for, there was some damage under the van where the bumper had been smashed, but it was repairable, the bonnet had gouges in it, can only assume the last owner drove it through a fence, the rear bodywork was a right mess, smashed rear bumpers, big deep gouges down the sides, punched in rear quarter panel, doors a bit mangles, rear step crushed etc.

but underneath the van it was fine from the bumper back, the engine looked ok, but i couldn't start it of course, i could see it had potential, and i decided i would provisionally have it, depending on how it drove, the bloke assured me it was a simple fix, and would be done over the weekend, the mileage was not to be trusted he said, and i could see it had a new speedo head fitted at some time, but it had 2 new tyres on the front, good uns on the rear etc, so i went home to find out more about the clutchless transmission system, and get prices for bumpers, front panels and dash bits.

E-mailed fox covet van dismantlers for a price on a bumper, panel, and various interior parts, I'd been past their yard a week before so saw they had iveco daily's in, next day i got the usual reply from them, 'sorry, we have no vehicles in for the parts you require', i found out they do this a lot, unless you are after a whole engine, transmission or axle they don't want to know, i went to an iveco dealer and got a price for a bumper.. £208, front panel £188, all plus vat.. yikes, scrap yard hunting time i think.

I tried sorting insurance out, just getting it all ready for a phone call on the day to get cover, chose CIS for insurance as they do short term van insurance, insured as a car i.e. no goods allowed to be carried, gave her all the details, got a quote for 3 months cover, and was then told that a agent would call round on Tuesday to sort the details out and take payment!!!, this was very strange, every other insurance i have ever taken out was done over the phone, but cis need to see you, what for i don't know, as the van wont be there for them to see, i need insurance when i buy the van, can't drive it home with out it.

So insurance was going to be a problem, breakdown cover too, the whole family is in the RAC, and they have a cut off limit of 18 feet, I'd heard this had changed a while ago, so mum phoned them up, got a woman on the phone, mum said 'does the 18 foot long restriction still apply?' "yes" was the reply, mum 'ok then, is there any other cover we can pay for to get a longer vehicle covered?'... "no" was the reply, and that's it, they wouldn't help at all, they could have at least tried to sell us commercial breakdown cover, but this woman wasn't interested, so the RAC will not get my money when the van is a motorhome.

The RAC will cover longer vehicles, as long as the cover is taken out via another firm, i.e. CCC breakdown cover is with the RAC, and your allowed upto about a 20 foot long motorhome, but going direct to the RAC your restricted to a 18 foot long one.

I searched around the net and found national breakdown (now called international breakdown) offer cover for vehicles upto 7 meters long.. prefect the iveco is 6.660 meters long, they cover upto 3.5 tons, 2.3 meters wide, 3 meters tall, well within the sizes of the iveco.. even when it's a motorhome, they do a lot of levels of cover, i chose UK only (when i insure the van as a motorhome I'll take out their breakdown cover which is very cheap, and covers Europe as well), but i chose roadside assistance and recovery, i never go for home start as if i can't get the van started no bugger else will be able to, and they'll just want to take it to a dealer, stuff that.

for the above package that's vehicle specific it costs £53 a year, not bad at all considering the size of an iveco daily van, and especially when i know how much a private recovery job costs when people have inadequate or no cover and breakdown (i used to work for a recovery firm, we charged £25 call out, of £50 callout if on a motorway, £25 per half hour on roadside assistance, double on a motorway, and 65 pence per mile recovery.. and you pay the return journey too as the recovery truck has to get back to base.. most people don't realise that, do a few sums and you'll soon realise that the membership fee's are the cost of one typical call out for an easily repairable job like a shed fan belt, anything more and you saving money).. just make sure your cover is for the size of vehicle you have, it's no good lying, as if you say you have a 18 foot van and it's really 20 foot, they will send a tilt and slide truck out that can fit a 18 foot vehicle on it, they'll find out when the van wont go on the bed that you've lied to get cheaper cover, and you'll get a bill and cover cancelled there and then, plus you will be stranded where you are.

Anyway as international breakdowns cover is vehicle specific, they need the reg number and a few more details, if i don't buy the van i will have to pay £3.50 to change the vehicles details, i can live with that, it's cheaper than personal cover which starts at about £77 with most firms,
So i had breakdown cover arranged, I'd ring up and pay for it when i know the van is driveable, as it needs 24 hours to become effective, insurance is gonna be a pain, but hopefully i can sort it, so that's what my weekend consisted of really.

On Monday i had to take mum to the hospital for more laser surgery on her eyes, while i was in Peterborough i went to machine mart and bought a 6 ton bottle jack, as i noticed the van didn't have a spare wheel let alone any tools, when i got back home i found out the wheel nut size for the iveco, 27mm, and bought a 27mm 3/4 inch drive socket, i already have the 3/4 inch drive breaker bar, as i needed it for the LT.. that only had 19mm wheel nuts, but were bloody tight, and broke every 1/2" drive bar i tried, i got a phone call from the garage saying the van was starting, it was a simple fault that they had got cured, so i arranged to go and see it in more detail on Tuesday, and i set about paying for the breakdown cover on the vans reg number, then phoning up to try and get insurance quicker, as i would be picking the van up when the agent was supposed to be calling round, that was fun...

Phoned up the agent, his answering machine was on all the time, called CIS head office to be told there is no way i can get cover with out seeing the agent, other than if i was to go into an area office, great I'll do that i said, ok, nearest on is... Peterborough!, bollocks, so i got the mobile number of the local agent and rang him for advise, i explained what i wanted to do.. arrange cover for when/if i bought the van, he said no problems but he wasn't the agent i wanted, as i was in the wrong area of town, he gave me the mobile number of the correct agent, and said all i needed to do was phone her up when i bought the van, and she would give me cover there and then, and call round the next day to collect payment and issue the cover note, at last i was getting somewhere, i then went and packed a tool kit, put the socket set in a back pack, along with the jack, handle, breaker bar, extension handle and socket, it weighed a ton, and i also sorted out my toolbox that i keep in the van.

Next day we went into town and i got £2000 out of the bank, i got it in 20's, first time i had a wad of notes in those bands.. 2 lots of £1000, still didn't look that much really, i should have asked for fivers :), then we went to the train station and got tickets to London, had to go by train as mum couldn't drive with her eyes after the surgery (well, she usually uses her feet and hands to drive, but thought she's use her eyes this time :)).. you know what i mean, we got cheap day returns as they were only a few quid more than singles, better safe than sorry, even cheap day returns have restrictions on their use nowadays, train tickets are getting far too complicated lately, no wonder no one wants to use the train, it's cheaper to drive, and you can go when you want.

Train was late.. nowt unusual there, as it was late it was crowded.. people who would have got later trains go on the first one to arrive, so 3 trains worth of people were on this train, While i was waiting for the train Vicky phoned, she had got a HPI check done on the van for me, she works for the co-op so can get em done for free (it actually costs 50p a minute for a garage to log onto the hpi system.. some places charge 50 quid for that service), she told me the details of the van, most matched up, it was white according to hpi, it's blue, had 3 owners, i was told 2, other things were fine but it has had a HPI check done every month in the last year, by the same auction house, so it spent all of last year trying to be sold at an auction, the last owner got it in October, then it went through the auctions again in April this year, not a good sign.

The train took the usual hour to get to London, then we had to get back out the way we had came in on the underground, got single tickets, cheaper than a day travel card at £2.80 each, and when i got to 3 stops before the station where i had arranged to be picked up from in the van, i phoned and was told....

Sorry mate, we've been trying to call you, the van's not starting again, all i could say was i am here now, so pick me up and take me to the van and I'll see if i can get it going, no way was i gonna offer the asking price now, 56 quid to get here, plus the tube tickets, lugging heavy tools all the way, and the bloody van wasn't sorted after all, we got picked up and driven to the workshop, a grotty back street garage.. typical of London it seems, i was glad to get out of the car, the bloke drove like a twat, the mechanics came over and started explaining what was wrong.. in baby talk.. 'well mate, you have the gear box like, it's this thing that allows you to go forwards and backwards you see', after a minute of this crap i asked if it was the starter solenoid or an inhibiter switch playing up?, they looked shocked, and said I'd better look at it as i seem to know more about it than them!!

I was shown how they got it started.. by hot wiring it, unfortunately this just bypassed the safety interlocks that were preventing the engine from starting, the engine ran, but it wouldn't let the clutch out, there was a problem with the auto clutch, it's controlled by a computer under the driver seat.. expensive, it needs to know what gear it's in.. so that a few switches on the gear selector end of the box, it also needs to know what speed the engine is running at, the wheels are running at, hydraulic pressure, if a door is open, handbrake on or off etc to work, something was not working properly, so the clutch system refused to power up, the garage had phones iveco and were told that these gear box's are problematic, there's so much to go wrong, and they usually end up taking the system off and fitting a manual clutch in its place, well that kinda finished the deal off, no way am i gonna buy a van that has so much that can go wrong, some things didn't add up either, the ECU for the clutch said it was programmed in 1995, yet i have found out this system wasn't offered until 1997, strange, but that coupled with the history of it practically living in an auction room for the last year, and the damage that would cost over £400 to put right, it just wasn't worth it, so we had to walk away.

We were practically in central London then, and asked to be taken to the nearest tube station, the bloke took us right back to the one we got off at, bloody 5 miles away from the workshop, and back in zone 4.. so we had to get more £2.80 tickets, we got back to kings cross at about 3 pm, i checked when our tickets could be used and was told not between 4 and 6 pm, luckily we could board the 15:35 train and be alright, but saver ticket holders couldn't, their tickets apparently are invalid between those hours, even if you get on a train before, at 14:59 it becomes invalid!!

We got some baguettes to eat, and went back home, got back into Grantham and plonked the tools back in the car, i rushed round to the bank to put the money back in my account, got there at 17:02, the bank closed at 17:00, and they were all shut up and in darkness, bugger, so i walked around a bit more with 2 grand on me, i had it in a money belt under my clothes, so no one would know i had it unless they went feeling around in my grundies, so i drove back home (left the car in Morrison's carpark all day, stuff paying £4 to park at the station where anyone knows you are on a train and away for some time, in Morrison's you could be shopping and come back at anytime.

i got home exhausted and very pissed off, £56 on train tickets, £12 on tube tickets, £14 on food in London, and an aching neck, back, legs, hips, arms, and even blisters on my fingers from carrying the toolbox around, at the end of the day the van did me a favour by nor driving, i would have probably bought it, then found out how they got it going, by bypassing safety circuits.. basically a big bodge, i know these vans have to work for a living, but most others are kept in much better condition, so i'm looking again for a van.

I contacted a mate who i knew in the VW LT club, he's had to sell his LT because he wanted something bigger, so he bought an Iveco, one of those social services buses, nice big fibreglass body, practically a coachbuilt already, longer than a normal iveco, and he's in the middle of converting it, but he mentioned he had a mate that buys and sells iveco's, so i asked him if he could ask his mate if he can source me a van that meets my requirements.. and expectations, he said his mate said there'd be no problems getting an iveco for the budget i have, just hope he can find a single rear wheel, XLWB model, and around an R reg for the cash i have (£3000 or so).

I phoned the coachbuilders up today, the bloke said he's stick to his original quote of £6000 plus vat for the body, plus a couple of hundred for the fibreglass moulded rear panel I'd seen on the last iveco they built on, it really finishes the body off, plus £400 for cutting the metal body off and disposing of it, so that sorted, I'll deffo be going with them, they said if i were to bring the van upto them and leave it there they would try and get the body build sooner, could just sit there for 3 months, but if they are delayed on a van they are building, have a cancellation or any free time they will be able to work on the van then and possibly get it done sooner for me, i like that idea, but also i need to use the van a couple of times while it's still a van, and i will be doing some work on it no matter what.. change the cam belt is the first job, while i'm in there i will whip the injection pump off and have it re-calibrated, as well as the injectors, replace the water pump while im in there and see where i can put the second alternator etc, I'll have to see if they can sort of act as if the van was in their yard, and if they get time to work on it, phone me up and I'll get it to them in 3 hours or so.

I now have to work out where i want electrical things putting, so the wiring can be put in when they build the body, that's gonna be a right bugger as i am not even 100% sure where everything is going in the van, i have plans but they will be changing all the time, I'll have to ask them if it's possible to make the interior body panels removable so i can put the wiring in my self, or even leave the inside unlined, but i don't think that's possible.