Escrot van

I'd have thought you just need to do your sums very carefully to make sure you don't spend more getting it MOT'd than you'd pay buying a better one. Talking of which... I have a nice little Astra 1.7TD van going cheap. It has an MOT until March, but needs a head gasket. No worries about skimming the head as it comes with a complete cylinder head from an identical van. I CBA to fix it, so just need to get back as much of the

215 quid I paid for it as I can. Unfortunately, it's on Anglesey so probably too far away from you.

Yeah, that is a concern I have to admit, but parts are so cheap its a close call. I might do some more detailed sums and come up with a specific price cut-off.

Anglesey isnt that far TBH (2 hour trip) depending on overall condition (other than HG which is a job I love - not sure why - and seems common on these?). Plus I'd rather buy from someone I "know" at least in a round-about way lol. Which year is it and do you reckon you could get a bike in it stood up with its wheels and handlebars on? I cant work out from pictures just how large the loading area is!

Coyoteboy (Coyoteboy ) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

It'd fetch damn near a ton as weighed-in scrap alone - so it's already effectively thrown-away.

Now consider how useful a van is generally, and how few and far between half-decent cheap vans are.

There y'go. If it was any bloody good at all, it wouldn't be yours for a ton.

Go look at it with that attitude and a healthy dose of scepticism, and you might not get tucked up.

Plenty of people scrap vans that have major mechanical issues (BGH, couple of hours worth of welding that are fixable) - I spent saturday scouring the local scrappy trying to find weak spots and where to look but other than sills the escorts looked solid and still ready to go. Things like bottom ball joints/arms are £10 - it seems that half of the vehicles in the scrappy were there because they were just beyond economical repair by a garage etc. As with many cars, even my celica which would have been scrapped when the £1200 dealer priced clutch change was due, perfectly repairable vehicles get scrapped.

I know what you mean though, if you go in expecting a shed then you wont get caught out. As I say, all I want is something I can use for 12 months (more if its good enough but by then I'll be employed again!) then weigh it in or sell it on for as good a price as I got it. So long as it isnt totally shafted im not worried. Head gaskets can be changed, pumps can be changed, worn bores are fatal. Welding is an evening with some fun and a grinder. Dont even care if the paint matches afterwards if its visible! :)

It's not that bad at all. Ex-council, so you can see the marks where the lettering's been peeled off, apart from the back where it's still wearing orange and yellow chevrons. Oh, and there's a yellow high-wis stripe all round. Getting rid of all that would tidy it up a lot. Then one side has a fair few rust spots which the other side seems to have escaped. No rust holes anywhere though.

The HG must have gone immediately after the MOT because it had been sitting in the depot until we collected it and its twin. The other one had a knock from the big ends, so my pal fitted an Isuzu engine (both had GM engines) and kept the cylinder head for this one.

It's a P reg. I think...

Not stood up, no. It's the Astra estate car shaped one, not the AstraMax which was higher.

Well it's swallowed quite a lot of junk in its current role as a shed. I'll get the tape measure out if you're interested.

I reckoned it would take about 60 quids' worth of gasket set and stretch bolts to sort it. Add a new cam belt too as it would be daft not to. Value would then be 300-ish after an hour or two of T-cutting, except I'd also need to tax and insure it to do a road-test.

Balanced against 70 quid just for weighing it in for scrap, I really can't find the motivation to do anything with it, but it would be nice to see it gone.

:) My car is currently a shed, poor thing, all sorts stored in it but its not worth selling (ive done too many repairs I'll never get the cash back on) and I cant afford bolts to sort it. Add a new cam belt too as it would be daft not to.

I'll drop you an email...

Have you considered an old carlton? They're prone to rust and often need the bushes replacing but other than that you can't beat them for the size.

Do they still exist?! When my dad got rid of one back in the late early

90s it was falling apart. But its a good shot from the sideline. Not sure about fuel economy etc on them?

I used to get 30mpg out of mine - a 1.8 petrol. Pretty good for the size of the car. Not sure they'd pass the standing up bike test though.

No, me neither, and 30mpg is bordering on defeating my van point really. Theres far fewer of them on ebay than there are vans, and the ones that are left seem to be the top spec ones people have kept nice.

What I really want is a workhorse that I can throw muddy bikes in without caring, leave on the street outside without praying no-one scratches or dents it (cant buy most metal body parts for my celica now im told) and one that means the most i have to do is whip off a front wheel and the bikes will go in, instead of standing about for 10 minutes to build or dismantle the bike, then carefully slot it in without getting mud on anything, then find a place for wet clothes without getting seats wet.... lol One I can drive to see my brother in without using £70 in fuel and really having to question whether I really NEED to visit my brother this year... lol

Astra van, like all but the smallest hatch/estates, will fit whole bikes without standing them up - you just put them in on their side, what with no back seats to get in the way. 2 bikes, ditto. More, you've run out of people space anyway...

cheers, clive

I can do that now but I dont like them scratching and denting each other, though its a last resort I would go to with a cloth between them.

Dont use people space :) Only me an the missus to deal with.

Popped you an email (assuming I de-spammed your address correctly). Ta J

What sort of bike? I could only get one mountainbike into my old escort van (with bulkhead), without removing wheels. For two, it required both front wheels to be removed.

Yup, mountain bikes. Cant imagine why you'd need to remove wheels? What bits got in the way? We managed to get 3 mtbs into my brothers old maestro van, which has an almost identical load area? I was considering welding some QRs into the floor anyway and removing front wheels, letting them bolt up to hold themselves steady.

The shape of the bulkhead meant you could only get one bike diagonally across the back, sort of on it's side Any more, and you had to take front wheels off, unless you wanted to start stacking the bikes up on top of each other.

Taking the wheels of when I had the van wasn't a problem, as I still had QRs then. At the moment I'm keeping an eye out for a cheap Combo, as wheel removal is a bit more problematic with bolt through axles..

Combos are nice vans (not the corsa combo, thats WAY shorter than the escrot)

J

Rear brake compensator valve. It's a regular MOT failure, as they seize up when old. £150ish from Ford. £20 from a scrappie, IF you can find one

- mine went earlier this year, and after looking in 7 yards, I finally found one still on the van, only because the van was flat on the floor, so no-one had a chance of getting it off. All the others were already sold, and go as soon as a decent one comes in the yard. Alan.

Cool, will keep an eye out on that one then. Probably not easy for me to test manually but at least I'll know what to scavenge from a scrappy if im there again soon!