Little Red van, most cost effective way to transport 1/2 ton known to man!

[Doctordiesel77]

I just realised that I've not posted anything in here about what is one of my most often used Maestro/Montegos these days. Some old pictures here from a trip to Barcelona (via dieppe and Andorra)

[Doctordiesel77]

Little Red van to the rescue of a Scania with a dead battery (just in case of any doubt, new batteries in back of van, rather than tow starting the lorry )..

[Doctordiesel77]

Winter tyres are agood plan if going over Hartside...it was raining at home...

[Doctordiesel77]

Little red van seems convinced it is a coal lorry..... In this case it was taking Coals to Newcastle, from what is now the only mine in the North of England. Just in case anyone is wondering, it is a right royal pain getting coal into those daft little bags & it was only done for ease of handling at the other end of the trip..

[Jeff Turbo]

That van does take a lot of abuse

[Doctordiesel77]

That van does take a lot of abuse

It is a thin line between use and abuse, I'm allegeing use, and I'm sticking to that story Still amazed at how well it goes for a non turbo and how little fuel it uses...not tried towing much yet, but maybe that would get me onto the wrong side of the thin line

[Jeff Turbo]

Just shows you how good they were

[Doctordiesel77]

Just shows you how good they were

Yes, every so often I come across this https://www.classicandsportscar.com/...livery-maestro and wonder how much ford must have spent on 'incentives'...the mk3 escort diesel was a gutless little pram.. I once put a timing belt on one...first time I drove it was after I'd done the belt...it performed so badly that I was convinced it must be a tooth out & rechecked everything I'd done. Eventually the owner came & took it around the block and said it was going better than it did before! His previous van had been a Maestro diesel which he said had been far better than the escort, until it went down with tinworm. If he still had the escort, I'd hvé been tempted to do some back to back comparisons with the Maestro, I think they had done a similar number of miles.

[Soulcharger]

Yes, every so often I come across this https://www.classicandsportscar.com/...livery-maestro and wonder how much ford must have spent on 'incentives'...the mk3 escort diesel was a gutless little pram.. I once put a timing belt on one...first time I drove it was after I'd done the belt...it performed so badly that I was convinced it must be a tooth out & rechecked everything I'd done. Eventually the owner came & took it around the block and said it was going better than it did before! His previous van had been a Maestro diesel which he said had been far better than the escort, until it went down with tinworm. If he still had the escort, I'd hvé been tempted to do some back to back comparisons with the Maestro, I think they had done a similar number of miles.

Some of my old friends back in the UK who work in London's catering circles (or did pre-Covid) told me that the Maestro Van is so trendy (circa 2017/18) and lamented that nothing comes close to the retro 1980s AND is a great workhorse than the Maestro.

[Doctordiesel77]

I thought it was about time the Little Red Van got back to work, unfortunately I poked too hard & found a few holes, holes that grew when I got the hammer out.....Even more unfortunately my welder decided to take a break, so I'll have fix it first, hope RS's delivery service is as good as it used to be!

[Jeff Turbo]

Welder has seen some action then

[Doctordiesel77]

Welder has seen some action then

It certainly has, the bloke I got it from was into 1950's-60's Vauxhalls, so was well used when I got it, I can live with a £12 gas valve solenoid replacement every once in a while tho'...now to go and see if I can avoid burning my arms....

[Doctordiesel77]

As the computer predicted, lots more welding, I don't think I'll bother patching the tailpipe though!

[Doctordiesel77]

For a bit of light relief I repaired this switch in between welding, very easy to do, one screw holds the cover on the back of the stalk, once the screw is out it just unclips/bends out, the switch can be removed from the stalk, then just 4 plastic clips holding the back cover on and the contacts can be cleaned up. Only possible escapees are the three little springs under the contact plate & the return spring for the horn button, which is mildly fiddly to get into place under the stalk cover when reassembling. New/good used stalks are still quite cheap, so not useful information at the moment, but might be good to know when stocks dry up.

[Doctordiesel77]

From a creating myself extra work point of view using a much bigger hammer than the ones MOT testers are allowed to use was a bad idea, but if I hadn't, I think I'd have been busy next year too! The inner sill, outer sill and inner wheelarch looked pretty good, but the bottom of the inner arch seemed a bit easy to dent... I bit the bullet & cut a hole in the 'as new' side panel...there is an inner inner sill, this had rotted off at the back, which would weaken the structure quite drastically. If I hadn't touched it it would have passed an MOT, but fixing it should reduce the stress on the rest of the structure & make it last longer. So far it has only taken twice as long as I expected! The in car entertainment fast check is a useful timesaving tool, plug into radio harness and aerial lead, attach crocodile clip to aerial mast and it tests memory power supply, ignition power supply, lighting power supply, aerial continuity, earth and insulation as well as testing the speakers with a variable frequency so that annoying rattles can be identified.