A sad Day

The date is the 17th of may2003, every camping related part has been removed, I've stripped the engine down totally, just the bare block is left swinging in the mounts, gear box is out, prop shaft and the entire back axle is off the van, you can guess how much the engine weighs, look at the distance between the front wheel and it's arch, that used to be a 3 inch gap when the engine was all there.

I've just taken the side windows out, there was no rust at all under there so that should dispel some peoples worries about having windows fitted to a panel van, when they were fitted the cuts were sprayed with some rust preventer, and electrical tape run around the edges, it worked, but the bare metal cut where the inner panel was taken out of the side door has remained rust free, despite all the condensation we had in the van (I used to get about 15 litres of water out with a dehumidifier every year, half that was from the waste tanks tho, if I left the plug out of the sinks, the dehumidifier would dry the tanks!!

Certain things are staying on the van to be crushed, the bumper is a massive, heavy home made thing, and who ever made it didn't own a flat surface to build it on, it's twisted along it's entire length, and that has rusted out in a few places, I repaired it all 2 years ago, but more spots have rusted out, bad design, it's open box section most of it's length, so water gets in and sits there, the sand is all under the van for a reason, when I took the gearbox out, I tipped it a bit too much, and oil poured out the breather, when I took the back axle off, I collected the brake fluid from the brake system when I disconnected the brake pipes, then as I moved to get out from under the van, I kicked the bucket of brake fluid over, ever had the feeling you don't know why you bother? I had it that day.. about 10 times in total I think :)

The rear lights are similar to candles, the bulb holder parts needed replacing and I was going to do that this year, hey I saved myself about 20 quid  now:), don't buy the cheap smoked lenses, the drivers side one had faded really badly, the passengers side one is still like new due to it being shielded from the sun by the spare tyre (went where that round mark is on the door :), I cant get the tow bar off, it's been on since day one it seems, so I'd have to cut the bolts off, and I can't be arsed with all that, I've bruised all my arms and knocked a few more joints in my back stripping the engine down, the tow bar can be crushed with the van, the front bumper is useless.. thanks to volkspares, it was a perfect one, a rare find at a scrapper, then they decided to try and fit past 4 different vehicles, and failed, I had red paint on the left rear bumper, yellow right rear, blue on the right front bumper corner, and they reversed by a concrete bollard ripping the left side of the front bumper off and denting the wheel arch, and the engine was still blowing oil out when I got it back in a 'supposedly' perfect condition.. one to avoid I think, the bumper is still the broken one, so you can guess what they said when I asked them to pay for a new one.

But 6 axle stands replace the rear axle, the jack is there for show really, it's not doing much, I used a trolley jack to raise the rear, it's gonna be fun tomorrow getting the van onto the back of a recovery truck, hope no one climbs in through the holes where the windows were and takes it for a joy ride before then :)  I did lock the doors mind, so I should be ok, I just wish I could take the stickers of the countries I've been to off the doors.. and re-use them, but I guess I'll just have to go to them all over again in the new van :),

But this is it, the end, Game over for this van :( I have to pay to have it taken away and crushed!, £40 to the firm I used to work for, and he'll take it to a scrapper that crushes them for free, if I were to get the local vehicle dismantling yard to collect it, he'd want over £100, prolly more as there are no sellable parts left.. I have them all, I paid for the buggers, only fair I get to sell them on, I'm not paying for a pikey to make more money out of my ex pride and joy.