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Seven

Seven

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Hi guys!

I thought I should write a quick hello and introduce myself. Me and my family are due to be the new owners of the 2500PB van that Jules renovated a few years ago (and gave it the temporary name of Bessie) and was most recently owned by Dan (Basilbrushhead).

I am due to pick it up on Sunday and hopefully complete what is likely a 4+ hour journey from Salisbury back home to Colchester in Essex!

I have lurked around this site and been looking for a van like this for a while after seeing a beautiful Commer at a local classic car event in Colchester park a couple of years ago. (I dont know if the owner of that van frequents this site? I sadly lost the photos I took of it when my phone had a meltdown so cant add more identifying details apart from the fact it was blue!)

Having noted the horror stories and costs involved in rectifying serious rust issues and having seen the restoration thread of this van by Jules I am hoping that I will be able to avoid this kind of trouble with this van, but know it must have regular upkeep to keep it that way. I also love and value highly the original interior elements.

Please wish me luck on the drive back and do let me know any advice you would give me as a novice to driving these vans and let me know if there is anything I should keep an eye on during the drive to hopefully make it go smoothly!

Any advice gratefully received!
 
Hi Seven and welcome to the Madhouse:D
You've taken on a very nice looking van, we don't know the recent history of it but the renovation by Jules turned it into a little belter:cool:
Best advice I can give for the drive home is not to expect it to behave like a modern vehicle, keep the speed down to where it (and you) feels happy and let everyone else blast past in their hurry to get somewhere five minutes before you. Keep your eyes, ears and nose open for any changes, leave plenty of room between you and the car in front and brake early, take a basic tool kit, water and most importantly your AA breakdown card;)
Enjoy.
 
Hi. Enjoy the drive back. I'm a novice so no real advice to give just that with mine which i have had for a few weeks, gear changing is done slow and 'with purpose' as opposed to just banging it through the gears and he is most comfortable at 40/50mph. Hi up so great view ahead so by the time the car in front has hammered his brakes on i have already slowed back etc etc. Oh and will she need lead replacement juice when you refuel on trip? :)
 
You'll be fine and dandy, as people say, slow and steady certainly at first till you get used to its quirks, once you learn it's abilities I think they go pretty well. Good luck
 
Welcome Seven, and congratulations on choosing a lovely classic van. I hope you enjoy it for many years.
My advice is:
1. Once a year lie underneath it for an hour and look critically at every little bit you can see.
2. Park it under cover.
 
Thank you everyone for the warm welcome and bits of advice which is very helpful!
Good idea Panky about a small toolkit. Picked a little one out of the garage to put in my rucksack for the trip over and got my RAC card in the wallet (where it hopefully stays)!

Good call as well Soupdragon about the lead replacement juice, but hopefully as I understand it, it has had an unleaded conversion done to the head, so fingers crossed.

From my very basic reading is overheating a common issue to look out for? I am also slightly nervous about stopping for the re-fuel and re-start! When I went to see the van I did spot that the carb is a Weber which I am hoping is a plus? Martin Maltas very kindly called me back after I left him a message before I went to view it and that was very helpful pre inspection advice. I think one of the things he mentioned was the carb? Any tips for hot starting, i.e foot down on throttle or part on etc?

Colin, both sound like very good advice. As is probably the case with most people this is going to be too tall for my garage. it comes with a tailor made cover which is a plus but I do intend to try and find some covered storage over the winter. However I would definately like to try and protect the underside before winter. I have seen mention of Aquasteel which sounds like great stuff. Can this be used instead of soemthing like Waxoyl or used before Waxoyl?

Thanks again for the welcome!
 
Good advise all round:)
Hot starting can be a problem for some but not all - one little tip, if you do have a problem, is to pour cold water over the carb and fuel pump to cool them down and stop the fuel vapourising to get you started again and yes the Webber is a step up from the Zenith. If you do have issues we have a few tips to sort it out once your home.
Aquasteel is great stuff but not as a replacement for a protective coating. It's a rust converter so any bits of rust you find give them a good wire brushing and a dose of Aquasteel before you paint and waxoil - but don't use it on new shiny metal because it wont react and just flakes off.
 
Take Radiator hoses if you have time to get some;) Like Panky says there are mods you can do to help vapourisation but given you can make tea while you wait not so bad in the short term:D. Ours squeezes in the garage I just had to raise the door height and it just gets under the roof now. If you can get it in all the better ours suffered a bit just under a cover. Good luck I look forward to an update with pics when you get home.
 
I put the heater on,with those flap things on the 'matrix'(?) box open if stuck in traffic on a hot day and that stops his temp going up. And just think in the unlikely event you do break down you can relax in the back with a fresh cup of tea and read a paper/book until help arrives. Rock on:)
 
I built a wooden carport(for my last car thing, so had to raise roof). Technically a temporary pergola structure with pvc roof and cheap marquee side panels for winter and a power point for charger etc
 
The comment on the gear changes is very good, had a bit of trouble getting use to ours, works perfectly now in its own way but our previous Commer was an Auto - I had been struggling to find 3rd gear.

Welcome and good luck for the drive home tomorrow!
 
Thank you very much everyone for the very helpful comments. Nervously excited now for tomorrow. I promise to report back on how it goes!
 
Howdy Seven and good luck with your Commer. My first drive home route was planned carefully to avoid hill starts as first and second were unobtainable. Easy fix I found out later.
 
Welcome to the nut house. As has already been said... Keep the speed to a point you are comfy with, watch out for the truck ruts in the left lane, check oil everytime you stop and don't trust the fuel gauge below 1/4 till you get used to it!
Have fun
 
Well that was an epic journey!

Apologies for the delay in writing the update but I got back at around 9.15pm last night after about a 5 1/2 hour drive in which I felt the van was fully tested in a wide variety of driving conditions and performed brilliantly! After that I was too knackered to open up the computer!

We had hot summer weather, followed by thundery rainstorms and two terrible long traffic jams on the M25, one of which was when the fuel was getting down to the 1/4 tank and I really didnt want to let it get too low, the rain was lashing down and I was getting nervous! Thankfully we crawlled along to the next exit and I managed to get off the motorway and find a petrol station. The next worry was the hot restart, but it fired up straight away!

Throughout it all the van performed marvellously. Oil pressure stuck at 40 (which I think is right?) and the temperature was basically straight up (with slight deviations), even in the traffic jams, which I was relieved about. She/He seemed happiest at around 45-50 but caused a few tailbacks on the hills :)

All in all it made me feel much more confident about planning a few trips up to the North Norfolk coast which is where we enjoy visiting and is a couple of hours from us.

I would like to give the interior a little bit of a re-fresh (is it right a very light sanding and aplication of Danish oil for the woodwork inside)? Any particular brand of oil recommended?

I am not terribly mechanically savvy, but am keen to learn, so would also like to try and carry out an oil and filter change. I need advice about the oil filter on this 67 model. Could I have help identifying its location first off?!!....I presume its not a spin on type?

Thank you again for the words of encouragement from everyone and thank you bazateer about the possible owner of the blue van I saw.
 
Excellent, the van sounds like it's running perfectly:)
Yes Danish oil is great stuff, I used it on Harvey's tired interior woodwork and it came up lovely, I just got the clear stuff from B&Q. The oil filter should be a spin on type (Champion C-102 or equivalent) and is down on the right hand side of the engine, be prepared for skinned knuckles;) Use a good quality 20/50 oil and all will be good.
Oh yes - pics please or it didn't happen;)
 
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