Bright truck of frogs

Will it fit my Skoda?

Yes, yes it will, with the assistance of a grinder, welder and a hammer. that's an MOT issue checked off

that towbar hardware needs some treatment, but the rest of the underside is impressively rust free

Today I removed the plastic liner, must have been an expensive mould as its just one large piece. but its out and now I can see the rear shock turrets properly.

And see that the wood slats in the cargo area are indeed gone. replacing them has been added to the ideas page.

The Damage

in all honesty its not as bad as I had in my head. I may actually learn to weld for this. My sister did a course once im sure she'll point and laugh at my attempts. I welded my Subaru's exhaust and that didn't turn out terrible.

off to YouTube

So time to see what I have let myself in for.

Last MOT shows brakes, oil leak, tires, exhaust. ( no rust yet )

so lets start there and clean some bits along the way so I don't always need a change of clothes from just looking. The truck is not at my home for this bit as I didn't have the space, which means picking a few bits at a time to take with me and clean/sort

Interior

Inline with my first impression it does appear to be complete, just very dirty and worn in the high hands traffic areas, will get back to this as it's all MOT good. will take some leather bits home for cleaning/refurb tests

Leather colour restorer from amazon, kinda worked. My hands went yellow, but it came off my hands. Skin is basically leather so im not expecting it to last and the yellow is off tint. Might put that idea to sleep and aim for replacing the leather in the future.

Bodywork

Here comes the rust. Front arches have some in the 'normal' places so nothing new yet. Still can't get to the rear turrets as it has a moulded plastic liner from a caddy. Rear wheel arch on the drivers side seems crunchy under the fiberglass moulding. Tailgate has a very tow bar shaped dent in the middle. paint looks to be in great condition, just needs a polish

Engine

It still runs, but oil is coming out from the rocker cover probably as fast as you can put it in. new gaskets ordered. Most of the pipes have deteriorated, bit of part number tracking and hit the bay for replacements

Brakes

very spongy, but work better than I expected. new pads and disks ordered, the pipes don't appear to be as bad as the MOT claims so might just clean some of them up for now

Wheels

Yellow,, tires are well past any prime so a new set all round, my tyre guru (brother) said the one good tyre I had is a good tyre for the car, so 3 more ordered. took the front wheels home for a clean, and they cleaned up well

Truckman Top

Honestly im not a fan of it, does remind me of thunderbird 4 though and I like thunderbirds. Maybe a carnival float in the future. I like the pickup look and on my ideas page ive already added a fabric alternative for when I need one, it'll be easier to store. So this one will be getting a clean and be available to anyone that's interested in collecting it 

Initial summary 

So far im still very happy with my purchase, told my dad to charge admission as people keep heading over to view what ive tasked myself with. And he keeps offering help and access to tools so either he is liking it, or wants it out of the way 

So after helping a friend bring home my now daily driver I felt like I should be able to do this one.

so rented a trailer (thank you HJ Auto's) picked up dad and headed over the estuary to collect my new to me truck.

  Dad inspecting my crazy

Loading it onto and strapping it to the trailer went painlessly. we stopped at a services shortly into the journey to make sure everything was secure and take an obligatory photo.

I can only presume my dad was just checking he was sober, and not imagining what was unfolding through the day (I think he likes it really)

and its arrived at its temporary home until I've gotten it back on the road, another shout to HJ Auto's as the trailer was pleasure to work with

People that know me know I've been keeping this model car on my radar for quite some time now.
And today I actually got up and got one 

So here it is, no TAX and MOT, but that just seems to be the way I buy things now.

Not had a great look around but everything seems complete, age marks expected. Plastic lining cover the rear mounts so fingers crossed some metal still exists underneath (foreshadowing?).
leather has seen some wear but no tears visible. engine runs but is misfiring and half the exhaust is missing