Giving an old van a bit of a makeover

Giving an old van a bit of a makeover

Author
Discussion

richyb

Original Poster:

4,615 posts

217 months

Thursday 3rd December 2009
quotequote all
Hello all, want to put this out to the masses and get some advice. I've got an old Renault B110 tipper, (basically a beefed up renault master) and I use it solely for towing a chipper amd carrying woodchip. Now its certainly not a pretty vehicle and its well used (was council owned and used from new for 14 years). Has a selection of little dings amd scraps over the doublecab and the enclosed tipper body had lots of surface rust. Now I am fully aware you can't polish a turd but mechanically its sound and its only covered 80k so I am thinking of sprucing it up myself. Its a great workhorse though and I am thinking about spending a couple of hundred of tidying it up. I've done the tipper body already. I basically wire brushed the rusty bits and old paint work and applied kurust rust treatment then painted it all over with white hammerite. This looks a lot better and only cost me £25 and a few hours. The cab is the bit I've not sure about. Obviously painting on white hammerite isn't suitable here so I'm looking at options. A proper respray is out of the question for my budget so I'd looking for some ideas. I did think about msking around the scratches, rusty patches, rattle can spraying then white again then tryng to tcut them to blend. Not sure if this would work. Anyone got any ideas? Again it is a working vehicle and I have no illusions of it being a show vehicle. Just want to give it a bit of care and attention.

Picture of the woodchip wagon prior to me painting the tipper.



v8will

3,307 posts

203 months

Thursday 3rd December 2009
quotequote all
If the paint had a good polish with an orbital buffer and some new decals I think that would be the best looking option for least outlay.

Drederick Tatum

1,033 posts

192 months

Thursday 3rd December 2009
quotequote all
you could go for a Matt colour and just spray it yourself with cans

steveo3002

10,662 posts

181 months

Thursday 3rd December 2009
quotequote all
any access to somewhere you can spray it and park overnight while it dries?

rustoleum combi colour is about £12 a litre and sprays on nice , plenty of gloss and covers well etc , avail in lots of colours

if you cant spray it , some folk have had success brushing or rollering it on . ive done some sills and valances with it , use some white spirt to thin it a tad and a quality brush , it goes better than you would think if you take a liitle care

martin vr6

3,831 posts

208 months

Thursday 3rd December 2009
quotequote all
What I would do is get the wheels off and get them blasted and coated silver again, repaint the hubs, in black, and give the whole thing a good soaking in undiluted TFR, scrubbing stubborn parts ans pressure wash the whole lot off, and give it a polish. The remaining sctratches etc just touch in with a small brush in the correct White colour

Done this on a few Escorts, Caddys and a VW LT, they all looked rough as he'll before hand, and after this netted a tidy profit when I was finished using them and sold them on

Gallen

2,162 posts

262 months

Thursday 3rd December 2009
quotequote all
Mmmm be careful - it could turn out looking worse than it already is if it looks "tarted up"...

Will keep you busy though! smile

richyb

Original Poster:

4,615 posts

217 months

Thursday 3rd December 2009
quotequote all
Cheers for the info guys. Going to have a good look painting the little scratches then giving it a good polish. Leaving well alone is always a good option!

Mr Green

936 posts

189 months

Thursday 3rd December 2009
quotequote all
martin vr6 said:
What I would do is get the wheels off and get them blasted and coated silver again, repaint the hubs, in black, and give the whole thing a good soaking in undiluted TFR, scrubbing stubborn parts ans pressure wash the whole lot off, and give it a polish. The remaining sctratches etc just touch in with a small brush in the correct White colour

Done this on a few Escorts, Caddys and a VW LT, they all looked rough as he'll before hand, and after this netted a tidy profit when I was finished using them and sold them on
Ageed. Clean everything then paint everything it's cheaper than buying stuff like wheels etc. At least it will looked well cared for and you will be less likely to get pulled on a spot check.

snotrag

14,928 posts

218 months

Thursday 3rd December 2009
quotequote all
That guys got the right idea.

Re-paint the wheels so they aren ice and shiny silver/black. Plenty of glossy tyre shine on the tyres.

A really, really, really good clean to get rid of all the crap, along the undersides, all the moss growing in the windows, in the arches etc.

Treat all the plastics so they return to black, nice clean polished windows, rattle can the wipers back to matt black from rusty silver/orange, etc etc.

Very cheap, will look a whole bunch better.