meet 'Van of Doom'!

[handyandy]

Meet the most abused ford transit ever!
2007 2.4 tdci,I never paid a penny for it.when I divorced 'the she devil' I swapped her dent covered,turbo bolloxed,vauxhall zafira for it,straight swap.
the van had been an English telecoms company van that had been involved in an accident with an HGV.
it had been forced off the road,hit the kerb and flipped over onto the passenger side.
I managed to get the dents pulled out and half a tin of filler,and a box of 24 cans of matt black later we have this ugly looking beast!
It has heavy duty suspension,triple battery set up,solar panel on roof to keep charges up,scanner radio,pop out dvd player,fridge,is kingspan cavity insulated and a
really useful roof mounted working platform.
Am looking to get some extra bright led spotlights fitted front and rear and to fit out inside with few home comforts.
Have had this van all around Europe,over to morocco,north Africa,turkey etc without any major hassles.only a few punctures.saved me fortune in hotels!
sadly its starting to rust underneath due to crappy ford chassis/body treatment which is peeling off.
just got it through test after breaking out my mig.When she comes to the end of her life I will use her for storage at my
building site to scare away strangers.
Long live van of doom!

[Wulfshead]

Oh gods, how I miss my old transit.
Not very fast but bloody bullet proof.
Mine was painted with radiator paint and I truly felt a lump in my throat when forced to send her off to the happy lugging ground in the sky (well the back of a scrappies trailer)
Me and my son had some great giggles in ours on the way to work and back. My wife always felt safe being so high off the ground after being hit by a flat-bed when we drove a normal car.
I think the person who designed the transit should have won the Nobel peace prize.
I also like the way boy racer chavs back down when a transit keeps coming at them, whos right of way ? mine, I drive a transit

I like your van, Oh gods, I really like your van

Wulfshead

[handyandy]

haha!Ta very much.You are right about everyone getting out of the way.i reckon they think ''holy shit,look at the state of that van,he obviously doesn't care about wrecking it so best I let him have right of way!!''
mine also serves as a band van so plenty of dings from flight cases,drum kits etc and empty beer cans rolling about as well as the obligatory puke stain

[Arzosah]

[quote="handyandy"It has heavy duty suspension,triple battery set up,solar panel on roof to keep charges up,scanner radio,pop out dvd player,fridge,is kingspan cavity insulated and a
really useful roof mounted working platform.
Am looking to get some extra bright led spotlights fitted front and rear and to fit out inside with few home comforts.
Have had this van all around Europe,over to morocco,north Africa,turkey etc without any major hassles.only a few punctures.saved me fortune in hotels![/quote]
Thats my ambition! End of 2016, I'll be away Its a lovely van, handyandy, well done you

[handyandy]

ta.tbh having been around Europe and north Africa a few times id advise avoiding the temptation of hopping on the ferry to morocco as the so called border control is a free for all for the local con merchants to 'help' you get through (for a fee of course!).if u speak French it helps a lot!
also id generally avoid eastern Europe like Serbia,bulgaria etc as they rip you off with windscreen 'tax' stickers and Serbia insists u get insurance even if you are just passing through,100 plus euros.
last long trip for van will be to south of spain next summer to do gigs (if van hasn't rusted away by then of course!)

[Wulfshead]

Handyandy,
If you are doing Spain then make sure you have breakdown & recovery on your insurance.
Our van broke down in the North of Spain and we had forgot to add recovery to our policy. It cost us £1800 to have it on the back of a recovery truck from Saragossa to Torrevirja.
That was in a Bedford van and I soon bought the old Transit when we returned.

Wulfshead

[handyandy]

yeah that would be sensible thing to do,too sensible for me!lol
ive always winged it tbh.im mechanically minded and have been lucky I guess.
aw man I had a Bedford 2.5 petrol camper many moons ago,toured with a band in Belgium,france,holland
it was so shit that after every gig we managed to invite ourselves back to someones house just to avoid sleeping in it!
luvin my transits reliability (even though it does look like a stealth project gone wrong!)

[woodsman]

Worst move I ever made was to buy a Nissan primastar , most unreliable
Bag of bolts on the road , I smiled when I scrapped it . Next van will be a transit for sure

[handyandy]

good move woodsman but make sure you treat the chassis cavities etc with waxoyl or similar to prevent it disintegrating in front of your eyes!lol

[Big Bear]

the she devil

brightened up a gloomy Saturday morning