Mercedes: The unseen Ebay purchase...
Discussion
It started out as a bit of a joke, but then I realised what a brilliant idea it would be to get bidding. My first Mercedes turned out to be Sprinter van.
Didn't see that one coming, did you? My garage is a slightly eclectic mix now with this one added! I've bought it primarily because I've just moved house and it needs quite a bit of work. I'm definitely not picking up long bits of wood, plaster board etc in an M3 or a Golf, and my new neighbour is doing almost exactly the same work as I'm about to do on my house. We've just knocked down a chimney breast in one of the bedrooms in his house and the amount of rubble created was seemingly inversely proportional to the original area of chimney breast in the bedroom. His Megane Scenic with all the seats removed did a valiant job of taking all the rubble to the aggregate place where you can dump it for free, but we had to do many runs back and forth. We were discussing the fact that we don't want to rent scaffold to get up to the roof as we've both got several jobs to do so started to research buying the kit instead. Then the realisation came about that long poles and all the rest of the kit isn't going to fit in or on top of a car. Most places we looked at either didn't deliver the kit or it was pretty expensive to have delivered. I started looking around and how expensive LWB vans are for a bit of a laugh, and the rest is history!
Behold, the battered Sprinter in all its glory, shortly after picking it up:
It *just* about squeezes between the corner of my garage and a meaty fence post in the new garden so I could inspect it. As in, about 10mm clearance either side. If you get it absolutely spot on, you're fine!
Obviously, the garden won't become the permanent parking place for it, but the garden is probably the lowest priority on the house renovation so it's handy for now to work on the van:
The engine bay isn't too shabby, actually. It's just dirty and it doesn't look like it's been serviced in a while. I bought a service kit and set to it. Someone had put way too much oil in, which explains why I had a high oil level beep on the dash when driving it home from the previous owner's. I actually had to stop draining the oil, drain my tub out and then carry on! That's all resolved now as the correct amount was put back in the top. I changed the air filter and reset the funky indicator on the air box that tells you how clogged the filter is. It was all the way in the red on the 100% setting... I also changed the fuel filter and plugged the water sensor back in while I was there:
Cab is a bit broken in places but nothing out of the ordinary for a van:
Lovely stains on the seats. I gave them a wet vac to remove almost 300k worth of arse and they're looking quite a bit tidier than you see below. As bought:
Photo from the top floor of the house, purely because Mrs GPM came downstairs and said the roof was really dirty. I went up to look. Correct, she was!
I've already cleaned the scuttle up a fair bit before these photos, so just imagine what it was like beforehand:
I think there was a small ecosystem in there, and the water drains in each corner had blocked up. I've cleaned it up as much as I can be bothered to for now, and the drains now work.
I've got a couple of bits and bobs to do and it's ready to do some load luggung for me:
If there's any interest in the trials and tribulations of messing about with an old van then I'll keep posting updates
Didn't see that one coming, did you? My garage is a slightly eclectic mix now with this one added! I've bought it primarily because I've just moved house and it needs quite a bit of work. I'm definitely not picking up long bits of wood, plaster board etc in an M3 or a Golf, and my new neighbour is doing almost exactly the same work as I'm about to do on my house. We've just knocked down a chimney breast in one of the bedrooms in his house and the amount of rubble created was seemingly inversely proportional to the original area of chimney breast in the bedroom. His Megane Scenic with all the seats removed did a valiant job of taking all the rubble to the aggregate place where you can dump it for free, but we had to do many runs back and forth. We were discussing the fact that we don't want to rent scaffold to get up to the roof as we've both got several jobs to do so started to research buying the kit instead. Then the realisation came about that long poles and all the rest of the kit isn't going to fit in or on top of a car. Most places we looked at either didn't deliver the kit or it was pretty expensive to have delivered. I started looking around and how expensive LWB vans are for a bit of a laugh, and the rest is history!
Behold, the battered Sprinter in all its glory, shortly after picking it up:
It *just* about squeezes between the corner of my garage and a meaty fence post in the new garden so I could inspect it. As in, about 10mm clearance either side. If you get it absolutely spot on, you're fine!
Obviously, the garden won't become the permanent parking place for it, but the garden is probably the lowest priority on the house renovation so it's handy for now to work on the van:
The engine bay isn't too shabby, actually. It's just dirty and it doesn't look like it's been serviced in a while. I bought a service kit and set to it. Someone had put way too much oil in, which explains why I had a high oil level beep on the dash when driving it home from the previous owner's. I actually had to stop draining the oil, drain my tub out and then carry on! That's all resolved now as the correct amount was put back in the top. I changed the air filter and reset the funky indicator on the air box that tells you how clogged the filter is. It was all the way in the red on the 100% setting... I also changed the fuel filter and plugged the water sensor back in while I was there:
Cab is a bit broken in places but nothing out of the ordinary for a van:
Lovely stains on the seats. I gave them a wet vac to remove almost 300k worth of arse and they're looking quite a bit tidier than you see below. As bought:
Photo from the top floor of the house, purely because Mrs GPM came downstairs and said the roof was really dirty. I went up to look. Correct, she was!
I've already cleaned the scuttle up a fair bit before these photos, so just imagine what it was like beforehand:
I think there was a small ecosystem in there, and the water drains in each corner had blocked up. I've cleaned it up as much as I can be bothered to for now, and the drains now work.
I've got a couple of bits and bobs to do and it's ready to do some load luggung for me:
- Fix extra wobbly gear shifter - second hand unit coming from Ebay. It's actually a bit difficult to find gears so that needs to be done.
- Fix over-cooling issue - viscous fan clutch has failed always on. New one in the post
- Fix clutch pedal - it's a bit skew and you can wobble it left and right. I suspect it's cracked around the metal bearing as it's a plastic item. Will investigate
If there's any interest in the trials and tribulations of messing about with an old van then I'll keep posting updates
r129sl said:
I have to say I’d love a van. A very useful thing to have. And when my wife finally tired of my shenanigans it would be somewhere to live.
Extremely useful! I've got some furniture to pick up tomorrow and I'm eyeing up some more on Ebay at this very moment. Ironically I picked up a chest of drawers today using the Golf 
I only went to view it, but ended up buying on the spot and it just about squeezed in.Northbrook said:
I bought an old Renault Master a few months ago to move house with. It was very cheap, until I had to get a chunk of work done. Twice. But it's quite liberating to drive. It's a shame I don't have a long-term home for it, as I've grown quite attached to the big old thing.
It'll be a good thing to learn to spanner on and save yourself labour costs. Worth keeping just for that if you ask me! If its taxed/tested/insured then just park it on a road somewhere, if it's anything like mine then it won't matter where it's parked 
Networkgeek said:
As a serial Land Rover fanatic, it's nice to see another car/van graced by rust 
I actually didn't realise these vans were RWD. I bet this will be entertaining with no load in the back and a wet roundabout
Yep, it's a bit worse for wear on the outer body, but that's part of the fun.I actually didn't realise these vans were RWD. I bet this will be entertaining with no load in the back and a wet roundabout
Wet roundabout experiments will take place shortly, but it's got ESP so I suspect nothing will actually happen!
steveo3002 said:
are you going to tidy up the rust ? think id mask it off and paint the lower panels in a contrasting colour just to clean it up a bit...even it its rollered on
Yep. It's on the longer term list of things to do. It looks like a different van underneath, really quite clean and tidy overall and hardly any rust. Someone's even been over the hard brake lines with Waxoyl or similar.RazerSauber said:
It is often said that rust is the only thing that kills a Mercedes van. Worth a few quid in Kurust and an afternoon with a brush and some sandpaper perhaps? Could even chuck some cheap white paint on it if you're feeling adventurous. Do post more though, this looks like an interesting adventure!
Yep, as above, I'll get to it at some point. I don't want it rusting away to nothing and it'll be fun to have a go at tidying it up anonymous said:
[redacted]
I think this one will be staying too. Very useful for all sorts. I think a tow bar and car trailer is on the longer term list too.cerb4.5lee said:
I'm a van fan as well. I remember driving one of these years ago and it felt massive to me at the time.
Good luck with it.
Thanks! It doesn't feel overly big to me but you do need to remember the length of the wheelbase at tight T-junctions etc.Good luck with it.
R56Cooper said:
Excellent!
Recently bought my first Merc and it's also a van. Had to buy a red AMG keyring to go with the chrome ignition key, looks posh until you see the actual vehicle...
Shame these rust so badly, suspect that's a few MOTs away from the scrapper but in the meantime it'll do great service as a work van.
I love driving vans, despite the size visibility is often excellent and they have proper big mirrors instead of tiny things on most modern cars.
Main thing is planning ahead and thinking about the extra stopping time.
Well, you can't tease with a sentence about how you bought an old van too and then not post a pic... Recently bought my first Merc and it's also a van. Had to buy a red AMG keyring to go with the chrome ignition key, looks posh until you see the actual vehicle...
Shame these rust so badly, suspect that's a few MOTs away from the scrapper but in the meantime it'll do great service as a work van.
I love driving vans, despite the size visibility is often excellent and they have proper big mirrors instead of tiny things on most modern cars.
Main thing is planning ahead and thinking about the extra stopping time.
It's surprisingly good underneath, I'll get some pics of that up soon. A good jet wash and some underseal would see it preserved for a very long time I reckon.
Cheers everyone, I'll post some more updates in due course
EdmondDantes said:
Bilt hamber do some excellent rust treatment and proofing!
They do indeed! I've got some of their stuff already, and I'll look at rust killer too R56Cooper said:
Here's mine - 2011 Vito rather than a Sprinter.
The big difference is from 2006 these were galvanised so there's no rust issues, albeit she has a few battle scars.
I can't imagine not having a van now - even though mine's a camper there's still loads of space inside - picked up a free leather couch the other day and it just swallowed it whole. Have also loaded her up with plasterboard and building supplies, not to mention biking weekends away.
Smart! Except, the first rule of van club: no polish. Yours looks waaay too shiny The big difference is from 2006 these were galvanised so there's no rust issues, albeit she has a few battle scars.
I can't imagine not having a van now - even though mine's a camper there's still loads of space inside - picked up a free leather couch the other day and it just swallowed it whole. Have also loaded her up with plasterboard and building supplies, not to mention biking weekends away.
SHutchinson said:
Was it used underground in a salt mine? That rust around the screen is bad, it's worse than the 33yr old Mk2 Golf I'm restoring!!
Still, it'll give you something to do if you ever get bored.
No idea, but it's got a new-ish windscreen! That area's quite well protected from road rash so I have no idea why it's so rusty. That's one of the areas I will definitely tidy up at some point. To be fair to the van, it's probably not had the same love as a Mk2 Golf, and has been used year round in all weather for almost 300k miles!Still, it'll give you something to do if you ever get bored.
bolidemichael said:
I'm in. Rather fatigued with vans having access to our fleet of them at any time, so it's handy in that respect and then I return them in time for Monday's runs!
Looking forward to your updates. Nutter.
Nutter? Moi? Looking forward to your updates. Nutter.
Maybe a bit of mission creep and man maths, but Mrs GPM loves the van so I'm on a winner.EdmondDantes said:
I keep looking at mwb low roof 4x4 sprinters on EBay, and get it painted in that tough black trunk liner paint!
Got to admit, if I could've had a 4x4 one I might well have gone for it! They seem expensive compared to this one, but I'd like to have a poke about with the four wheel drive system, and of course have a go at some off-roading in a van, when everyone else is in their Defenders Right, lets have another update then!
Just to illustrate how tight it is if I want to work on the van/park it in the garden. It's a proper squeeze but it just about goes! I did manage to rip a rear light cluster off by brushing the fence post on the way out the other day. £20 later for a new but non-genuine one and we're back in business:
The gear linkage, as already mentioned, was shocking. It looked like it was in neutral when in gear, such was the play in the gear stick. To remedy that I bought a much less used example of a gear shift unit from the good old Bay of E. This one had a mere 126k miles under its belt, so should be much better than mine.
The old unit has significant play in the bush that holds the metal ball on the end of the stick, and also the plastic moving piece to one side that actuates the other cable. It looks like it's made to come apart so I'm wondering if I can buy a repair kit from Mercedes. I'll investigate that as having new bushings will give a brilliant gear change again. The second hand unit I've put on is a million times better than the original but there's still some wear and tear to it. I can, however change gears properly now without losing momentum while trying to find a gear.
Next job is to investigate why the van is over-cooling. First on the list of suspects was the viscous fan clutch as I could hear 'fan roar' all the time. The clutches either fail completely 'off' so they won't ever try to pull air through the rad, or like mine, fully 'on' so they're coupled to the engine speed all the time.
It was fiddly but straightforward enough to do. There was an 8mm allen head bolt that needed to come out from the front of the fan and I had to counter hold on the crank to undo it. There wasn't loads of room between the fan and the back of the radiator once I'd moved the shroud out of the way but just about enough to do the job:
New viscous clutch ready to go on:
It took me less than an hour start to finish so not too bad to do overall.
Here's a pic of the dash too. The coolant light on the dash was low level in the reservoir. A top up solved that one, and I'll keep an eye on it:
Immediately after fixing those bits I had to dash out on a 150 mile round trip to pick up a bed for the spare room. The temperature now comes up to the normal area on the gauge but it takes a long time to do so. Next suspect is the thermostat then... I want to do a coolant flush anyway so I'll put a new 'stat on then.
Looking forward to picking up a few more bits for the house in the near future. I'll update once I've done some more work on the van
Sheepshanks said:
I guess the van would warm up quicker than a car due to its extra wind resistance, but on my 2004 C270CDi it'd be well into the teens of miles of rolling driving before it was up to normal temp, 85C. Once there it wouldn't budge. I had the car from nearly new and it was always the same.
That had a hefty electric booster heater - it had to to be set to auto in the dash and then it worked if the temp was 8C or less. It only worked when the car was moving due to the current it took (aorund 150 amps - car had a water cooled alternator). I think Sprinters were often fitted with diesel auxiliary heaters. Both these systems are somewhat iffy so even if you have one or the other it's unlikely they'll still be working.
I'm pretty sure I've got the aux diesel heater. There's a box with coolant pipes and a small exhaust in the passengers front corner under the bonnet. I'll test that soon! That had a hefty electric booster heater - it had to to be set to auto in the dash and then it worked if the temp was 8C or less. It only worked when the car was moving due to the current it took (aorund 150 amps - car had a water cooled alternator). I think Sprinters were often fitted with diesel auxiliary heaters. Both these systems are somewhat iffy so even if you have one or the other it's unlikely they'll still be working.
I reckon the dash needs to come apart as I'm not sure the heat selector control does anything. Maybe the cable isn't on the flap in the heater matrix any more. Either way, hopefully it's a simple fix as it gets a bit cold when driving for any length of time.
Mr Tidy said:
A slightly alternative thread - great!
I had a part-time job delivering online shopping in 2011 in a Sprinter box van and they don't hang about, although ours had speed limiters sadly.
Looking forward to the updates.
Mines limited too. The sticker under the clocks says 75mph which translates to about 78 on the clock. It doesn't Hang around either for a big van!I had a part-time job delivering online shopping in 2011 in a Sprinter box van and they don't hang about, although ours had speed limiters sadly.
Looking forward to the updates.
Mr Tidy said:
They do get going pretty well, but sadly ours had a 56mph limiter. 
That must be annoying. I had to run at 60 in fourth on the motorway last week as 5th gear went AWOL and that was bad enough! Turns out the clip I lost in the dash when changing gear shifters meant the cable didn't move fully... I had to dig it out and fit it 
B'stard Child said:
Well that was a surprise - I was expecting something smaller
Hey ho
Bookmarked because all your threads are worth reading
PS Mrs BC is yet again going on about me converting a van to a camper van - I really can't be arsed but well van thread = research so no whinging from Mrs BC
Hey ho
Bookmarked because all your threads are worth reading
PS Mrs BC is yet again going on about me converting a van to a camper van - I really can't be arsed but well van thread = research so no whinging from Mrs BC
Cheers!A van would definitely be a worthy addition to your fleet, though if you make a camper van I think you should make all the bits removable so you can use it as a van too. Best of both worlds then.
hyphen said:
Checked the MOT history of your new purchase, and has been run as a shed for a while as expected
Congrats and yes, keep the updates coming.
You should see the MOT history of some of the Transits I was looking at originally! The Sprinter has a positively glowing history in comparison. Actually, that was one of the reasons I put a bid on it - it might look rusty on the outside but it's never failed an MOT on rust. Most of the other bits that were picked up were average things for an old van so I'm happy with that.Congrats and yes, keep the updates coming.
Excellent. If I could have a petrol one I probably would just for the bonus points of rarity. Having said that, I quite like the 2.1 diesel in mine. Obviously I'd prefer the 160bhp flavour diesel but this one does the job well.
Edit: @hyphen. I stand slightly corrected on it not failing an MOT on rust. It did fail one because a rear wheel arch and a front wing were likely to cause injury through corrosion but they're not structural so it doesn't count
Edit: @hyphen. I stand slightly corrected on it not failing an MOT on rust. It did fail one because a rear wheel arch and a front wing were likely to cause injury through corrosion but they're not structural so it doesn't count
Edited by Gallons Per Mile on Thursday 10th February 07:45
Just a quick bump to say I'm off for a 400 mile round trip tomorrow to pick up the correct bulkhead for the van rather than continue with the homebrew wooden one with sharp ends of screws sticking out of it in to the cab. It's the first time ever I've fuelled up and the £99 limit was hit before the tank was full 
It took another £12 after that to brim it... Ouch!
It took another £12 after that to brim it... Ouch!Update time! The trip above went well, apart from it being SO COLD in the van with the heater still not working. The thermostat definitely wasn't right as it took about 45 miles of driving for it to come up nearly to running temp. Time to get the heater sorted once and for all. I've got another long trip to do to pick up some more furniture, and that'll be the spare room ready for guests next week. I'm not doing that in the freezing cold again!
The thermostat is in plain sight but a little bit fiddly to replace as there's a bit of wiring loom that needs to be moved and a couple of fuel pipes. Once I removed the hard fuel line it was suddenly much easier. The oil filter needed to be removed for access too. It's wrapped up in the rag on top of the engine!
New stat in its snug position:
Oil filter housing blocked off with left hand rag. Intercooler blocked off with right hang rag. No way I wanted anything untoward getting lost in those:
Various bits that needed to be removed. Quite a straightforward job really. Everything else I've done so far on this van has been really straightforward. I think it might have been designed with maintenance in mind
Next thing to do was work out why, now that the van runs at perfect temperatures, was I still getting no heat in the cab. The temperature dial on the heater controls definitely felt like it was connected to something, but it also didn't feel right. Lets take it apart then! Five minutes with a T20 torx and the dash looked like this:
I found that the cable controlling the flap on the heater matrix was bent when in the hot position. I unclipped it from the dial mechanism and was able to bend it straight and reconnect it so it worked as intended. Fully cold setting:
Fully hot setting without a massive bend in the cable:
A quick test drive proved we hat heat in the cab now
I did a bonus fix while I was there too. The lighting on the dials wasn't very good and I discovered one of the two bulbs that lights the panel was broken. I found a couple of spares at my local motor factors for £2 and replaced them. I had to break the seal below, so the bulbs I replaced were the originals:
Two working bulbs:
Except... the dials are still dark when they should be illuminated. The spare bulbs I bought were physically shorter than the originals so my guess is they don't throw the light along the plastic tubing that goes over the bulbs to route the light around the panel. I've had a look around online and found the OEM Lucas bulbs for £4 so I've ordered those and will replace in the near future.
More adventures coming soon, with added warmth on cold days now
The thermostat is in plain sight but a little bit fiddly to replace as there's a bit of wiring loom that needs to be moved and a couple of fuel pipes. Once I removed the hard fuel line it was suddenly much easier. The oil filter needed to be removed for access too. It's wrapped up in the rag on top of the engine!
New stat in its snug position:
Oil filter housing blocked off with left hand rag. Intercooler blocked off with right hang rag. No way I wanted anything untoward getting lost in those:
Various bits that needed to be removed. Quite a straightforward job really. Everything else I've done so far on this van has been really straightforward. I think it might have been designed with maintenance in mind
Next thing to do was work out why, now that the van runs at perfect temperatures, was I still getting no heat in the cab. The temperature dial on the heater controls definitely felt like it was connected to something, but it also didn't feel right. Lets take it apart then! Five minutes with a T20 torx and the dash looked like this:
I found that the cable controlling the flap on the heater matrix was bent when in the hot position. I unclipped it from the dial mechanism and was able to bend it straight and reconnect it so it worked as intended. Fully cold setting:
Fully hot setting without a massive bend in the cable:
A quick test drive proved we hat heat in the cab now
I did a bonus fix while I was there too. The lighting on the dials wasn't very good and I discovered one of the two bulbs that lights the panel was broken. I found a couple of spares at my local motor factors for £2 and replaced them. I had to break the seal below, so the bulbs I replaced were the originals:
Two working bulbs:
Except... the dials are still dark when they should be illuminated. The spare bulbs I bought were physically shorter than the originals so my guess is they don't throw the light along the plastic tubing that goes over the bulbs to route the light around the panel. I've had a look around online and found the OEM Lucas bulbs for £4 so I've ordered those and will replace in the near future.
More adventures coming soon, with added warmth on cold days now
Wow. Over a year since an update and I hadn't realised at all.
So, how's the ruined Sprinter doing? What's been going on in the last year? Carry on reading to find out!
I did a few maintenance jobs just to keep the mechanicals sweet. It had clearly had minimal maintenance for a while so really I was just catching up on bits and pieces that needed attention. First up was to look at an oil leak. The front of the engine was covered in oil so it wasn't very easy to see what was going on, but the vacuum pump looked suspicious. It's easy to remove so I whipped it off and discovered the O-ring was well past it:
A new O-ring later and we were back in business. I bought some scaffold so I could get up to roof height and inspect stuff:
The coolant light kept appearing on the dash. I had a proper look at the radiator and it looked very much on borrowed time, so I ordered the biggest box I could:
Contents: one radiator!
The easiest way to remove the rad was the strip the front end down slightly:
Yep, that was toast:
With the front end of the engine bare it seemed like a good time to jet wash as much oil leak off as possible. Things were looking a bit rough:
A bit cleaner now!
I found the crank seal to be kaput too and had to replace it:
With those bits sorted it was time for some work. I've been removing tons of bricks in the form of old chimney stacks that were dangerously loose. The Sprinter was the perfect vehicle to throw bricks in to and not care at all about the mess made! I found a local company that takes bricks/concrete in for free so it didn't even cost anything to get rid of rubbish
The digger in this pic came very close to the van several times while picking tons of stuff from the pile. I definitely wouldn't want to be doing this in a van/car I was remotely worried about! The operator obviously knew what he was doing, but still, one slip of a finger and I get a convertible van!
That takes us right up to the start of this year. Everything was going marvellously until I realised it was MOT time and the Sprinter was looking particularly tired in the bodywork front. The rust had taken hold and definitely worsened in the short time I'd owned it. I threw it in for an MOT with a whole reel of gaffer tape to cover up sharp edges and rusty bits to see what would happen. Of course the inevitable fail sheet greeted me when I got back to the garage. I sent it to a local MB specialist because it needed an ABS fault fixing before it could be MOT'd to get rid of some lights on the dash that had appeared months earlier and I'd done nothing about... The reason the ABS was giving faults was because the earth wire for it was attached to thin air. The wire itself hadn't been cut or anything, the van had dissolved around the point it bolts to the inner wing
It was decision time. Scrap the van or learn how to weld? The mechanical fail points were easy enough to sort, so I chose learning how to use my welder properly, of course! The cost of the parts to fix everything wasn't that much, it was just going to be a big investment in time and effort. I didn't realise quite how long this was going to take and it turned in to a marathon, but that was mostly due to having to work outside in the garden and a large part of Feb/March this year was solid rain which totally stopped play.
I started having a dig around one of the MOT fail points on the bodywork to discover someone had been there before. Lots of filler covering up a rusty hole...
And a very rusty wheel arch:
Which led to this:
The state of the panel I cut out!
While I pondered how best to tackle the bodywork I did some of the mechanical bits. The advisory for an oil leak was strange, as I'd sorted those out above. The leak was actually diesel, and it was coming out of the high pressure fuel pump at a rate of knots! This must have only just occurred as I think it would've caused a failure to proceed very soon. Off with the pump!
And here it is on the bench. Luckily you can buy seal kits on Ebay for not a lot of cash:
I exploded it with the help of my little Snap On impact wrench. It might be small but it really packs a punch for its size!
The cam lobe inside the pump. Pretty good for almost 300k miles, I'd say:
I ended up rebuilding it twice due to not discovering all of the seals first time around and still having a leak. Second time worked a treat though.
On to the handbrake issue. It wasn't good enough for Mr MOT Tester. I checked the mechanism was all free and working properly, which it was, it it was just a case of adjusting it correctly and that made a big difference. I like fixes that are free!
Back to the white elephant that is the huge amount of bodywork that still needed to be fixed. Panels were cut, welds were made, grinders were broken, replaced and used in anger.
The pic below was my first attempt at serious welding. It wasn't the best but certainly good enough for this job. I got better as I went!
I made a slight cutting error here and had to weld up a cut line on the piece of arch I wanted to keep as it wasn't actually rotten at all! Oops...
This big patch was required because I'm pretty sure a bus reversed in to the side here. There was rust anyway, but not a rusty dented hole... Soon fixed with a grinder, hammer and welder!
Now for the bit I was least confident about, at least to start with. I stripped down the front corner that was completely rotten and started cutting:
I used a lot of CAD (cardboard aided design) for this. It seemed to work best as several patches that could be shaped with a hammer and welded together on the van:
This is someone's bodge attempt at covering up a nice gouge in the side of the van. It hadn't quite gone through the metal but was pretty close. It was just a load of filler, so I ground it all back to assess what needed to be done, and dealt with the worst of it via a big patch of new metal:
I wasn't originally going to do much with the sliding door, but it really did need some new metal gluing in place:
The front inner wing had a small bit cut out too:
Here's the earlier bus damage partially welded:
I used a lot of Bilt Hamber's Hydrate 80 all over the van. It brushes on a light blue colour, turns dark blue and then black as it dries. Hopefully it'll help protect the metal. Most of this inner wing was left out in the rain completely bare because I'd weld until the weather closed in. There wasn't any other way of doing it:
The broken auxiliary heater used to live in that rusty corner of the engine bay. I removed it as it didn't work and removed the two hard coolant pipes that ran down the inner wing to meet it too. They were on their last legs anyway. As the coolant system was completely apart it seemed like a good idea to fit a new water pump 'while I'm here'.
You can see the new bypass pipe I put on which removed the need for the metal pipes feeding the aux heater. It's the one running from the small electric pump bending up to above the engine. I believe the pump is there to allow flow around the heater matrix as it seems to be the highest point in the system. Also it would've been needed when the aux heater was working to pump the coolant around the circuit when the engine was off - I think the aux heater could be used this way, but correct me if I'm wrong!
With some wax over the fresh painted welds too, I reassembled the now pristine front corner of the engine bay:
The underside of that welding got seam sealed as it's in the wheel arch. As did pretty much everything else around the sills. It's not quite a factory finish but it doesn't look too bad:
I even got some filler out to smooth the ground back bodywork around the welds, not that it made it look any less terrible!
A quick and dirty rattle-can job later:
Here's the driver's side:
Welding finished now? NOPE!
Rear wheel arch tubs had gone in three places on each side. They got welded, seam sealed on the outside and a quick spray of schutz on the inside:
We must be nearly done with the welding now, right? Erm, well almost...
Passenger door work:
I cut the inner repair panel slightly too small so when I folder the outer over it, it didn't quite grip at the bottom. Some spot welds sorted that out but it didn't look as good as I wanted it to. I tried slightly harder with the driver's door, and if I say so myself, it came out pretty well. I should definitely have just done this with the passenger door:
With minimal filler work I had a pretty respectable job on the driver's door. With a small amount more effort I think you wouldn't be able to tell I'd actually replaced the door bottom at all, but it's not that kind of van so 'good enough' is how it'll stay on the bodywork front!
I even took the wood panels off the inside of the van so I could spray some cavity wax over everything and not worry about rust for a while longer. It should last me the rest of my house renovation which I'm slowly plodding through now.
Time for MOT #2. Three months after the initial fail I dropped it off at the local MOT station rather than use the MB specialist is it was a half hour drive away, and went to cry in to my fry up in the nearest greasy spoon in anticipation of yet another fail for something I'd not noticed. An hour later I was met with great success. The MOT man was very happy with all the work and even complimented me on a good job all around. He noticed I'd sorted some of the advisories too. Which was nice.
It might looked absolutely battered still, but it drives well and is mechanically and bodily sound now. Happy days!
So, how's the ruined Sprinter doing? What's been going on in the last year? Carry on reading to find out!
I did a few maintenance jobs just to keep the mechanicals sweet. It had clearly had minimal maintenance for a while so really I was just catching up on bits and pieces that needed attention. First up was to look at an oil leak. The front of the engine was covered in oil so it wasn't very easy to see what was going on, but the vacuum pump looked suspicious. It's easy to remove so I whipped it off and discovered the O-ring was well past it:
A new O-ring later and we were back in business. I bought some scaffold so I could get up to roof height and inspect stuff:
The coolant light kept appearing on the dash. I had a proper look at the radiator and it looked very much on borrowed time, so I ordered the biggest box I could:
Contents: one radiator!
The easiest way to remove the rad was the strip the front end down slightly:
Yep, that was toast:
With the front end of the engine bare it seemed like a good time to jet wash as much oil leak off as possible. Things were looking a bit rough:
A bit cleaner now!
I found the crank seal to be kaput too and had to replace it:
With those bits sorted it was time for some work. I've been removing tons of bricks in the form of old chimney stacks that were dangerously loose. The Sprinter was the perfect vehicle to throw bricks in to and not care at all about the mess made! I found a local company that takes bricks/concrete in for free so it didn't even cost anything to get rid of rubbish
The digger in this pic came very close to the van several times while picking tons of stuff from the pile. I definitely wouldn't want to be doing this in a van/car I was remotely worried about! The operator obviously knew what he was doing, but still, one slip of a finger and I get a convertible van!
That takes us right up to the start of this year. Everything was going marvellously until I realised it was MOT time and the Sprinter was looking particularly tired in the bodywork front. The rust had taken hold and definitely worsened in the short time I'd owned it. I threw it in for an MOT with a whole reel of gaffer tape to cover up sharp edges and rusty bits to see what would happen. Of course the inevitable fail sheet greeted me when I got back to the garage. I sent it to a local MB specialist because it needed an ABS fault fixing before it could be MOT'd to get rid of some lights on the dash that had appeared months earlier and I'd done nothing about... The reason the ABS was giving faults was because the earth wire for it was attached to thin air. The wire itself hadn't been cut or anything, the van had dissolved around the point it bolts to the inner wing
It was decision time. Scrap the van or learn how to weld? The mechanical fail points were easy enough to sort, so I chose learning how to use my welder properly, of course! The cost of the parts to fix everything wasn't that much, it was just going to be a big investment in time and effort. I didn't realise quite how long this was going to take and it turned in to a marathon, but that was mostly due to having to work outside in the garden and a large part of Feb/March this year was solid rain which totally stopped play.
I started having a dig around one of the MOT fail points on the bodywork to discover someone had been there before. Lots of filler covering up a rusty hole...
And a very rusty wheel arch:
Which led to this:
The state of the panel I cut out!
While I pondered how best to tackle the bodywork I did some of the mechanical bits. The advisory for an oil leak was strange, as I'd sorted those out above. The leak was actually diesel, and it was coming out of the high pressure fuel pump at a rate of knots! This must have only just occurred as I think it would've caused a failure to proceed very soon. Off with the pump!
And here it is on the bench. Luckily you can buy seal kits on Ebay for not a lot of cash:
I exploded it with the help of my little Snap On impact wrench. It might be small but it really packs a punch for its size!
The cam lobe inside the pump. Pretty good for almost 300k miles, I'd say:
I ended up rebuilding it twice due to not discovering all of the seals first time around and still having a leak. Second time worked a treat though.
On to the handbrake issue. It wasn't good enough for Mr MOT Tester. I checked the mechanism was all free and working properly, which it was, it it was just a case of adjusting it correctly and that made a big difference. I like fixes that are free!
Back to the white elephant that is the huge amount of bodywork that still needed to be fixed. Panels were cut, welds were made, grinders were broken, replaced and used in anger.
The pic below was my first attempt at serious welding. It wasn't the best but certainly good enough for this job. I got better as I went!
I made a slight cutting error here and had to weld up a cut line on the piece of arch I wanted to keep as it wasn't actually rotten at all! Oops...
This big patch was required because I'm pretty sure a bus reversed in to the side here. There was rust anyway, but not a rusty dented hole... Soon fixed with a grinder, hammer and welder!
Now for the bit I was least confident about, at least to start with. I stripped down the front corner that was completely rotten and started cutting:
I used a lot of CAD (cardboard aided design) for this. It seemed to work best as several patches that could be shaped with a hammer and welded together on the van:
This is someone's bodge attempt at covering up a nice gouge in the side of the van. It hadn't quite gone through the metal but was pretty close. It was just a load of filler, so I ground it all back to assess what needed to be done, and dealt with the worst of it via a big patch of new metal:
I wasn't originally going to do much with the sliding door, but it really did need some new metal gluing in place:
The front inner wing had a small bit cut out too:
Here's the earlier bus damage partially welded:
I used a lot of Bilt Hamber's Hydrate 80 all over the van. It brushes on a light blue colour, turns dark blue and then black as it dries. Hopefully it'll help protect the metal. Most of this inner wing was left out in the rain completely bare because I'd weld until the weather closed in. There wasn't any other way of doing it:
The broken auxiliary heater used to live in that rusty corner of the engine bay. I removed it as it didn't work and removed the two hard coolant pipes that ran down the inner wing to meet it too. They were on their last legs anyway. As the coolant system was completely apart it seemed like a good idea to fit a new water pump 'while I'm here'.
You can see the new bypass pipe I put on which removed the need for the metal pipes feeding the aux heater. It's the one running from the small electric pump bending up to above the engine. I believe the pump is there to allow flow around the heater matrix as it seems to be the highest point in the system. Also it would've been needed when the aux heater was working to pump the coolant around the circuit when the engine was off - I think the aux heater could be used this way, but correct me if I'm wrong!
With some wax over the fresh painted welds too, I reassembled the now pristine front corner of the engine bay:
The underside of that welding got seam sealed as it's in the wheel arch. As did pretty much everything else around the sills. It's not quite a factory finish but it doesn't look too bad:
I even got some filler out to smooth the ground back bodywork around the welds, not that it made it look any less terrible!
A quick and dirty rattle-can job later:
Here's the driver's side:
Welding finished now? NOPE!
Rear wheel arch tubs had gone in three places on each side. They got welded, seam sealed on the outside and a quick spray of schutz on the inside:
We must be nearly done with the welding now, right? Erm, well almost...
Passenger door work:
I cut the inner repair panel slightly too small so when I folder the outer over it, it didn't quite grip at the bottom. Some spot welds sorted that out but it didn't look as good as I wanted it to. I tried slightly harder with the driver's door, and if I say so myself, it came out pretty well. I should definitely have just done this with the passenger door:
With minimal filler work I had a pretty respectable job on the driver's door. With a small amount more effort I think you wouldn't be able to tell I'd actually replaced the door bottom at all, but it's not that kind of van so 'good enough' is how it'll stay on the bodywork front!
I even took the wood panels off the inside of the van so I could spray some cavity wax over everything and not worry about rust for a while longer. It should last me the rest of my house renovation which I'm slowly plodding through now.
Time for MOT #2. Three months after the initial fail
I dropped it off at the local MOT station rather than use the MB specialist is it was a half hour drive away, and went to cry in to my fry up in the nearest greasy spoon in anticipation of yet another fail for something I'd not noticed. An hour later I was met with great success. The MOT man was very happy with all the work and even complimented me on a good job all around. He noticed I'd sorted some of the advisories too. Which was nice. It might looked absolutely battered still, but it drives well and is mechanically and bodily sound now. Happy days!
RC1807 said:
About the same time you were collecting your Sprinter, my mate’s was off to a scrapyard in Germany.
Like yours, bought to help in a property refurb, but tin work got the best of it.
The scrappy in Koblenz wouldn’t give any money for it as, “there’s not much metal left!”
Well done on all that welding!
Thanks! That's a shame about your friend's Sprinter. I think most people would have scrapped mine too, but my logic was that my labour is free and parts were cheap. It was cheaper to fix than replace but just getting a new van might not have tipped me towards insanity so much!Like yours, bought to help in a property refurb, but tin work got the best of it.
The scrappy in Koblenz wouldn’t give any money for it as, “there’s not much metal left!”
Well done on all that welding!
emmetb said:
Hats off to you for the welding... when i first looked at the thread and someone mentioned the rust I thought 'no chance', but you have done an epic job. The corrosion levels are stupidly high though, I know it's nearly 20 years old, but even so. Anyway massive pat on the back to you for your effort and perseverance.
Yes, they do rust quite badly... It was quite the weldathon but I'm pleased with the result MJK 24 said:
Great work! Another five years left in it now!
I was working on making it good for this MOT and two more without any significant work at all. Time will tell!Northbrook said:
Wow.
Wanna do mine??
What needs doing?! Money + steak + beer required Wanna do mine??
cerb4.5lee said:
What a fantastic job! So great to see, nice one.
I can barely tie my own shoe laces...nevermind tackle something like this! Awesome.
Cheers! I had a very basic idea of using the welder beforehand but I'm a lot happier with it after that project. It just needed practise on a vehicle that doesn't matter too much...I can barely tie my own shoe laces...nevermind tackle something like this! Awesome.
Cheers. Nope, not particularly done any welding save a very tiny bit here and there. And that was a few years ago too. It's probably a good thing I've got no space for more projects at the moment as you're correct - anything needing a bit of welding is now well and truly on the radar rather than avoiding!
Short update! What's been going on since passing the MOT in May? Nothing too spectacular, really. Shortly after passing the MOT we officially hit 280,000 miles, although the van's done slightly more than this in reality because the speedo stopped working when the ABS fault happened, and that wasn't fixed for a few months. We probably only covered a couple of hundred miles in that time though.
I pressed the van back in to use for my house renovation. It's been carrying lots of bricks and concrete again, picking up building materials and also ferrying scaffolding over to a mates house too. Here's an action shot at the builder's merchant with a mate helping me drop off a load of bricks and rubble:
I'll give it an oil service over winter. It's been totally reliable. I must think about changing the door seals as with all the heavy rain we've been having the step in to the cab fills up with water. The alternative is to just park it with the nose up the hill outside my house so the water runs out rather than collecting!
I pressed the van back in to use for my house renovation. It's been carrying lots of bricks and concrete again, picking up building materials and also ferrying scaffolding over to a mates house too. Here's an action shot at the builder's merchant with a mate helping me drop off a load of bricks and rubble:
I'll give it an oil service over winter. It's been totally reliable. I must think about changing the door seals as with all the heavy rain we've been having the step in to the cab fills up with water. The alternative is to just park it with the nose up the hill outside my house so the water runs out rather than collecting!
Time for another update. I didn't realise it had been so long!
Firstly, I got around to changing the oil at last. First time I've changed it since the initial service when I bought it. Two years but only about 3,000 miles IIRC.
It's still looking absolutely battered, nicely 'worn in' in my eyes Next doors kids washed the bonnet at some point because it had turned green, and that's as much cleaning as it's had really:
I changed the exhaust because it was hanging off and took it for another round of MOT roulette:
It passed first time with only the front brake pipes noted as needing a clean up or replacement soon. I'm very happy with that. The MOT tester even commented that it's a lot cleaner underneath than it looks on top That's me sorted for another year of house renovation then...
Firstly, I got around to changing the oil at last. First time I've changed it since the initial service when I bought it. Two years but only about 3,000 miles IIRC.
It's still looking absolutely battered, nicely 'worn in' in my eyes
Next doors kids washed the bonnet at some point because it had turned green, and that's as much cleaning as it's had really:I changed the exhaust because it was hanging off and took it for another round of MOT roulette:
It passed first time with only the front brake pipes noted as needing a clean up or replacement soon. I'm very happy with that. The MOT tester even commented that it's a lot cleaner underneath than it looks on top
That's me sorted for another year of house renovation then...Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff