So it wasn't my intension to post too much about this van (other than I am very smug at getting it) but it is a bit interesting if not only for the fact that it has a VW Polo 1.3 diesel engine fitted.



If I don't go deaf first then this should do a zillion to the gallon.


It is a very useful size in the back although the front cab is definately, remove wallet from back pocket, a squeeze for the more portly amoung us.



I had seen the van advertised loads of times.Every time I ignored it, then it would turn up again. Eventually I sent a bid with the message I don't care what condition it is in, I will just turn up, take it away and won't quibble.
Over the years I have bought a lot of vehicles blind. I have more winners than losers, although there is a high chance of getting burnt.
The secret is nevr bid more that something is worth as spares..........

Anyhow. Turns out that the little van looks rough but is in very good condition. No serious rust at all.
I had it home all of 20 minutes before I ripped the rubber mat out (can't be doing mats in vans) and was pleasantly surprised to find no sill rot, just a couple of holes where water had sat under the matting.



Enough of that; let's get on with some fun stuff.

Camper van!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can hear you saying now "why don't he just leave things alone..?"

Yeah well I have to meddle.

This van is going to be my daily driver, so there a couple of adjustments to make so that it is both useable and suitable.
You'll notice the back windows.



I don't like back windows in vans.



So I popped a window out, pushed a bit of 9mm ply against the hole and drew around the edge.

I cut along the lines and with several 'fittings' got is as accurate a fit as possible.


This became a template



I used the ply template and cut a piece of 1mm sheet steel.
Well; when I say "I cut" I used these.... Much faster



After a few fittings I used the first bit of steel to mark out a second one.



You'll notice that I use a white (tippex) correction pen for marking out. Not only does it give clear and accurate lines but the width of the line is about 1mm so by cutting to leave the line gives a tollerance of 2mm for final fitting.
Always better to cut bigger and trim some off than cut too small and add to the scrap pile.

As they say on TV "Some time later"



Excuse the very rough primer spraying but the wind was getting up and I was in a hurry.
The panels are held in place by an adheasive mastic. Faster than welding; just as secure; and I can always go back to windows if I want.


So now I have much greater security/ privacy and two spare back windows.

As I live very near to the toll crossing at Dartford Essex/Kent I am well aware of the fact that I can take my 7 metre 3 tonne motorhome across the bridge for 2 quid. The little van however (being a commercial) costs £2.50.
50 pence may not be much but if I go I always come back; so that would be a pound. When you're getting a zillion to the gallon, a pound goes a long way.
A commercial vehicle is described as "A vehicle which does not have side windows to the rear of the driver."

Well I have windows....... So.............



Look; you can do this with a grinder as well. After a hammer it is definately my favorite tool.



Then you put one of the back windows in. Simples.!!!!!!!!!!!
I will ply line behind the window when I make the shelving, so there is no security conflict.

And if you have a window you have to have a sticker.... And this is almost the best one in the world. Just the 'Pinky' one to add.

As you might imagine I have been quite busy.

After a thorough brake overhaul (the van must have been parked on damp grass; I have never seen discs so corroded) new discs, pads & clips; back shoes removed cleaned up and refitted (with new pins) and a fluid change, there was some semblance of stopping power.
It has a servo y'know.
A couple of welded patches in the floor and a new wiper............ Off to the MoT and ..................Hurrah
I love it when that happens.

So straight back home.

The Terra is an addict. It's been sniffing 'Easy-Start'

It starts off just as a recreational habit.. First couple of time one squirt is enough. But before you know it it will be a 2 can a week habit.
Easy-Start is pretty much pure 'Ether' and tends to was the oil out of the cylinder bores.
You have to break the habit so new heater plugs were the order of the day.

NOTE TO SELF. Diesel engines run buy squeezing the fuel so hard that it ignites.
The Suck, Squeeze, Bang, Blow principle of the 4 stroke engine still applies but the bang is provided by 'compression' where-as in a petrol engine it is triggered by the 'Spark' plug.


So try putting some diesel/ heating oil (it's all the same stuff just a different colour) on the floor and whack it with a hammer........ Does it go bang.? Does it hell.
Diesels love heat, the more the better.
Heater plugs (glow plugs) pre heat the cylinder so that the fuel ignites more easily.

These plugs are alway an 'Ar*e' to get change, sometimes sieze and are always almost inaccessible.
Bizarrely it all went well. I don't know what happened to the bits I dropped but now it's a first time starter.

ANUVA NOTE TO SELF

Diesel is derived from the same crude oil as petrol.
If you imagined boiling up some crude in a saucepan two foot tall, then at the top would be petrol, parrafin would be about halfway down and diesel would be just off the bottom.
See it is much easier/cheaper to produce diesel. A diesel powered vehicle is much more fuel efficient and if it does 40 MPG then it will do that uphill, down hill or towing. Diesel engines produce 'torque' (power/energy) at low revs.
Petrol engines are only efficient at constant revs (engine revolutions)
Britain is the only place in Europe which charges more for dieasel than petrol. This is because the 'powers that be' added a 6 pence differential between Derv and petrol. Greedy money grabbing bast********* Anyway
In the summer when the air temperature is warm I can put neat cooking oil in my diesel engine and it will run just as efficiently.
However because road fuels attract excise duty I can only use 2500 litres of veg oil a year, before I have to inform customs & excise and pay 140 pence per litre instead of 95p.
Don't try this in winter or if you have a modern diesel or one without a Bosch fuel pump

As always.....liking the work.


You should be ok 50/50 on the veg oil in winter. My bosch pumped Toyota runs like this.........smells nice too.

Fantastic stuff,

poor topless green thing is being neglected though surely?

Actually the SEATs are together; seperated by a fence so the green one doesn't get violent with jealousy

Alixcompo said:

Actually the SEATs are together; seperated by a fence so the green one doesn't get violent with jealousy

Click to expand...

Have you been able to drive it yet, it being the one with the wiring loom in place.
The diesel Panda is supposedly horrendously slow, in fact a good 3 or 4 seconds slower to 60 than a 750

From the brief journey to the MoT I can tell you that it feels quite perky but at 30 it gives the sensation ofdriving at about 60.
I have to say that the vehicle it will be replacing is an LDV Pilot which is so slow that you have to draw breath before you say its name

I just remembered that Fiat developed their own small diesel for the Panda. That was the one that made the 750 seem like a formula one racer.

SEAT with their tie up with VW used the Polo engine which, off the top of my head. has about the same BHP as the Fire engine.

According to the owner's manual I received with my pandabella the 1.4D terra makes 0-100 km/h in 23.4 sec.{ about 1.5 sec. faster than 903ccm terra! } the engine is 1.4 not 1.3{ eg 1398ccm} has 85 Nm at 2900rpm , and 47 hp at 4500.

almost a 4x4 FIRE engine that!
better economics too i bet. still want to chuck a dirty diesel engine in the fallout project...

Dragon Man said:

almost a 4x4 FIRE engine that!
better economics too i bet. still want to chuck a dirty diesel engine in the fallout project...

Click to expand...

When you get a chance to have a proper look you'll see that is isn't a complicated conversion.
Fuel filter, relay for the heater plugs etc etc.

Polo engine & I think box. The only tricky bits would be the driveshafts that are Panda at the wheel end and VW at t'other. And some SEAT agent must have them in stock somewhere to save cutting and shutting some.

i bet all you would need are the engine mounts and drive shafts.. VW one end and fiat the other. electronics are easy enough on an older diesel engine.
would be nice to have an adapter plate so i can keep the 4x4 box. (that is now getting a crunchy 4th gear to go along with the 3rd!)

makes you wonder what other engines could go in and be made to fit to the 4x4 box.

Not a whole lot of progress; I haven't had that much time. More of an update.



Can you spot the new disc..?
In 40 years of working on cars these were the worst discs I have ever seen. you can see the narrow band that was actually the pad contact patch. It should reach to the outer edge.
Bear in mind that I had cleaned this up first with a grinder to see it I could avoid spending money....!
Remarkably all I have had to do to get it to it's present MoT'd stage is change the 'heater' plugs, overhaul the brakes and weld a couple of patches in the floorpan. These patches were the result of water getting under the rubber floor mat.
I'm not sure how the water got there in the first place. I don't think the cab/windscreen leaks.


Next up is to 'Fiat' the front up



While I have got a legitimate excuse, there is a lot of rust, dents and splits) to change the bonnet, lights, bumper etc The SEAT slopey front lacks the distinctive boxy shape of the Classic Panda design.
So It isn't about 'Stigma' at all. Oh yeah; did I say that I had all the bits in stock...................

how will the panda cabin fan box heater matrix thingy fair with the diesel engine?
will it fit all nice? or are you going to mod the sound proofing to fit the panda bonnet?

"That, detective, is the right question......"

Name that film..?


The heater in the SEAT is different; There is a second bulkhead across in front of the heater box; and the bonnet insulation is different.
So is the bonnet catch. However.

Standard petrol engined insulation



It is standing against the SEAT bonnet just to confuse you.

This is the SEAT diesel insulation fitted to a Fiat bonnet after cutting new holes for all the clips.



See the extra bulkhead? Battery is on the passenger side and the heater has a plastic moulded tray over the top of it.
Insulation is shaped to the engine.

I had a kind of bonus day today.. The bad news; The gas board were putting a new main in down our road, so I had to be in to let them nose around under the stairs like they do.
They good news; it didn't rain so I didn't have to go garrity indoors with boredom.


You will recall that I was at the unenviable stage of having removed all the SEAT front end only to find I had no suitable bumper mounts.
This was very bad as Mrs Compo has been strangely laid back about the new van.
All work and parts expense have been silently tolerated............ And here was I having denuded the front end for no practical reason.......
If I couldn't get a bumper and grill on soon then the inevitable question would certainly rear it's ugly head....... "So quite why are you altering the front..?"

A mad dash to Pandasport yesterday found me with an original MKll bumper mount to use as a template.



You'll get the general picture. Cardboard template mark out on the steel; turn the template over so that I get a pair of handed brackets. Cut them out and bend them up in the vice with a big hammer.



Reasonably pleased with the result.



The bumper wants to go back 10mm and up 20mm; so I'm pleased that I used 2mm flat plate for the brackets...... I shall just cut a vertical 10mm slot and weld them back together 20 higher... "Simples"

Still waiting for the gasman to reconnect..... And so...........

The back door have 2 positions to be open. 90 degrees, so that they can blow shut and hit me in the back of the head............ And 180 degrees where-by the smash the unobtainable rear light lenses.
The obvious answer is to bend up some stops and weld them on.



I rather lost count of how many of these I made in different shapes and different thickness of material.

Ultimately I went for "Very simple" in 2mm sheet.



A very useful addition the an original design............ Although experience tells me that with Italian design comes the need to alter things so that they work rather than look good. If you get it right then they do both; though I will always settle for working..!

Oh yeah............... Did you notice the hideous security lock that I fitted.?

I was looking for something to fill the time and thought "I've got the welder set up; why would I bother bolting the paddlock hasp?"

At about the same time the gas man finished and I had a job come in..

Bugger....... I'll just weld this on then....... I positioned it so badly that I had actually welded the back doors shut.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BY the time I realised it was of course fully welded.... So I had to cut it off..... Which took two squares out of the doors.... That I then had to repair and..... And...... And...

Why do we always try to do one extra job when we have had a nice successful day. Bug*er bug*er

And annuva fing.......... Did you notice thebonnet scoop. I got it from Old Panda face. It is an aftermarket one from Italy. He said how stylish he thought it was and for a while I was swayed by his greater knowledge and experience.
However I now think that it is ******** and it can go to the first forum member, with no taste, who expresses a desire. PM me....