My Van

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My Van

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Ford Forum >> Ford Trucks, Ford Vans & Ford SUV's >> Ford Econoline E Series >> My Van

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My Van - 3/21/2008 4:08:11 AM

big bopper

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Joined: 3/19/2008
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sorry if this is in the wrong place.

Right here goes, i have a 1986 Ford Econoline 5.0L dayvan, i bought this of off ebay in May 07, it was described as being a lovley van needing very little work, the photos were realy nice so i placed my bid and won it, my mistake as i didnt even go and see it first.

these are the ebay photos

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needless to say the photos were a little over flayyering!!

when i got there to pick the van up i saw that all the door bottoms were rusted through, the scuttle panel below thw windscreen had rotted through and has a huge hole in it, the panel at the base of the windscreen inside has rusted through (god knows how!!) it had not been driven for nearly 2 years and had only been started and run for ten minutes the week he listed it, so with a 300 mile drive home to look forward to i set off. first thing i noticed was that 1 mile up the road on way to the garage was that it ran out of fuel, nice. once running again i noticed that it stank of burning brakes, no surprise the calipers had seized, so built up as much speed as i could and slammed on the brakes.........that worked........should have put my seat belt on first!!!! nose on windscreen time!!!

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< Message edited by big bopper -- 3/21/2008 4:44:14 AM >

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RE: My Van - 3/21/2008 4:31:09 AM

big bopper

Posts: 11
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Joined: 3/19/2008
Status: offline

when i finally got it home i found out that the M.O.T. that it supposedley had ran out 2 years ago.so of it went to the M.O.T. station to fail miserably. brakes not working properly hand brake / parking brake i think its called in the U.S. inoperative, horn not working, head lights not working. now on a U.K. car this would not be a problem as you go to the spares shop and buy what you need but what you have to remember is that this is not a U.K. van its American, so of i go to find out about buying spares and to get it repaired, brakes turned out to be a caliper and rear pipes corroded, so new caliper ordered £145.00 ($287.43) 2 new pipes £50.00 ($99.11) now the parking brake mechanism was not available to order so i had to wait for nearly 5 months before i found one on ebay, £175.00!!!! ($346.90) this is getting expencive. the horn and the head lights turned out to be fuses and even this was not an easy fix as U.K. fuses are plastic push in fuses and not glass fuses, the only U.K. glass fuses i could find were 3cm long compared to the U.S. glass fuses which are 2.2cm long, (i am still trying to find fuses by the way) so out comes the fuse wire for a bodge abd beieve it or not its still working!!. van now has a current M.O.T. and is on the road. it did its first show las August 07

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it needs one hell of a lot of body work repairs but i am getting there slowley, i have managed to get the 2 front doors, 2 side doors secondhand with very little rust and 1 brand new back door. i have found a very good second hand bonnet (hood i believe it is in the U.S.) as mine has rusted through.

will post more of its updates later.

Tony

cant seem to post any photos?

< Message edited by big bopper -- 3/21/2008 4:44:56 AM >

(in reply to big bopper)

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RE: My Van - 3/21/2008 6:22:09 AM

Gary2Wheels

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Joined: 2/15/2008
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I admire your tenacity...evilbay strikes again.Be careful.I'm not sure,but perhaps NAPA auto parts ships internationally..

(in reply to big bopper)

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