Last night I got to take delivery my very first van. 'Dougie' is a 1987 1.6D T25. He is about 3 months younger than me and mostly yellow.
With the help of my trusty VW advisor Gav, Dougie was driven back from Ellesmere Port to Sandbach, possibly by a very unusual route due to my out of date sat nav!
For a bus that's 26 years old he seems to be in pretty good nick, will be adding photos etc when I go back home this week to have a play around it.
That evening was my first ever attempt at driving something this big/slow/old. Amazingly it was easier than I expected, mostly due to a clutch that is infinitely kinder than the one in my little Ibiza. Not going to lie, arms ache this morning.
Also I have already acquired the trade mark scared knuckles from punching the dashboard during a gear change, me and Dougie had a disagreement about 3rd as I somehow twisted the gear stick instead of putting it in gear. Tightening some bolts seem to be a temporary fix but shall have to have a taking apart session to see exactly what's wrong.
Other than that the heating control lever fell off, the drivers side window winder came off half way to my Nans (very drafty) and I might have drove into a bush while parking on my drive.
Current To Do List:
- Tighten/check gear stick
- Put new bolts on the steering column
- Check the light by the speedo
- Re-attach heating controller
- Buy and fit gas struts for the tail gate
- Insulate!!
With the help of my trusty VW advisor Gav, Dougie was driven back from Ellesmere Port to Sandbach, possibly by a very unusual route due to my out of date sat nav!
For a bus that's 26 years old he seems to be in pretty good nick, will be adding photos etc when I go back home this week to have a play around it.
That evening was my first ever attempt at driving something this big/slow/old. Amazingly it was easier than I expected, mostly due to a clutch that is infinitely kinder than the one in my little Ibiza. Not going to lie, arms ache this morning.
Also I have already acquired the trade mark scared knuckles from punching the dashboard during a gear change, me and Dougie had a disagreement about 3rd as I somehow twisted the gear stick instead of putting it in gear. Tightening some bolts seem to be a temporary fix but shall have to have a taking apart session to see exactly what's wrong.
 |
| Don't punch your dash folks! |
Other than that the heating control lever fell off, the drivers side window winder came off half way to my Nans (very drafty) and I might have drove into a bush while parking on my drive.
Current To Do List:
- Tighten/check gear stick
- Put new bolts on the steering column
- Check the light by the speedo
- Re-attach heating controller
- Buy and fit gas struts for the tail gate
- Insulate!!
