The 'van spring clean (paint) :)

[clarkey1984]

Hi all, after a years ownership of my 1990 abbey gt516 and much remedial work in that time already, complete interior redecoration, new carpets, bouncy floor repaired, bathroom and kitchen areas retiled etc etc, i felt that the outside kind of let it down, so after much deliberation about how much of a pain it would be to do, i decided to repaint the exterior too.

I know that there are specialist paints for this very purpose, but being on a budget (and a bit of a tight git if truth be told ) i bought some water based quick drying gloss paint in brilliant white from B&Q, and a foam mini roller, the tin says touch dry in around 4 hours, but after a hideous trip incident which led to me putting my hand directly onto a part id only painted less than 30 minutes before, i found that it was dry already.

It took 3 good coats to do the whole 'van, well, both sides, apart from the window surrounds, and although i'm in no doubt that something from dulux for example may have covered in less, for around 20 quid i was more than happy with it, the 2.5 litre tin was just about enough.

All i need to do next is some vigorous masking up in order to spray the front and rear, as well as the window surrounds, and to tackle the side trims (silly me painted over them) but the trims were/are heavily oxidised and tarnished so i may well rub them back to bare metal, hit them with some quality etch primer (we have it at work) and spray them in a nice metallic silver, ill also get the side stripes repainted on again, probably in slightly brighter colours (luckily i have a friend who is a signwriter) and ill also get the abbey gt and 516 lettering/numbering reapplied by him too, probably in a nicer sort of style as well.

Here's a few shots of the old girl, how it was after the winter lay up outside, after a good clean (which wasn't enough for me) and then after the paint, the look of the newer vans and their crisp pure whiteness appealed to me far more than the very 90's beige that i had before.















I mentioned earlier that the interior had already had a refurb, this was the other halves domain, she was given complete free reign and picked all colours and styles inside, here's a few shots, the curtains have now been dyed jet black and we are looking to find a way to do the seats as well, getting my nan (82 and still an absolute demon with a sewing machine!) to recover them looks to be the easiest way to get those black as well, smaller pictures as had to lift them from facebook, iv'e deleted the full size originals since.







Thanks for looking

[volvo145]

Did you try wash it with the proper wash chemicals before you decided to paint it?

We have cleaned up worse vans than that looking at the pictures but it sometimes takes a few washes.
Its still good to see a van getting the full monty though.

[volvorocks]

Looks heavy - what are you towing with?

Regards

[clarkey1984]

i washed it with everything known to man, and did get it very clean in the end, but its standard colour is a beigy cream, and i really wanted it a bright white, so a recoat was my only option.

And the mtplm is 1250kg and although a lot nearer the limit than with my old pug 406, the 1999 v40 2.0i (as seen in my signature seems to cope quite well, although a turbo diesel would cope better, like the old pug was, the power delivery ith a td motor is much more suited to lugging weight i find. The towing figures do puzzle me slightly though, as the so called ruling i have read is that a caravan or trailer cannot be heavier than the kerb weight of the towing vehicle, but according to the parkers website information, my car weighing 1250kg, has a towing capacity of 1400kg, so im legal, plus the pug weighed nearly 200kg more than the volvo, but has a towing capacity of 200kg less, which means that i was actually illegal towing with that, on paper anyway, although we dont really take a lot with us when we go away so i doubt i ever hit the mtplm in any case.

[volvo145]

As you had a spongy floor did you drill it and then inject it with resin glue?

[clarkey1984]

Actually no i didnt, i read the information online about it, and saw about the dowel and epoxy kits you can get, and how you shouldnt under any circumstances use expanding foam because your floor will bulge up like mount snowden if you do, but i figured if you know and understand the expanding rates of such a foam and are careful enough theres no reason why foam wont work, and it did, i drilled loads of holes in a grid like you would using the kit but applied foam in 1 in 4 holes each way if that makes sense, so that way all the other holes allow for expansion and overspill, very small bursts and lots of care, it worked perfectly well.

[kieran40]

Nice van you have there Clarkey the diesel is a real tower mate is that a 4 berth van mate. I want one of those retro 60's/70's vans but modern mod cons inside I like the older vans much more interesting to look at.

[Simon Jones]

Reminds me of a chap I used to know who asked his 'mates' down the pub what the best paint was to use for rust on his Fiat Panda. They told him water based emulsion was brilliant for rust. Indeed it was, and it was soon covered in more fresh orange/brown patches than before . He even got stopped by the police as they thought someone had vandalised it.

Glad to say your roller work looks like a neat solution.

[gillberry]

Looks good, an old gent we know who has a Cheltenham like us pains his in Dulux Weathershield