For reasons I won't go into I need a small escort type van.

I have a Renault Kangoo 1.5dci 03plate available to me for about 600 quid.

It has 11 months MOT, 8x4 roofrack and extra deadlocks on all doors.

It's done 106k and was bought new and still owned by a company I

used to work for.

Once mine it would get an immediate service and any urgent repairs if needed

But since it only will be used for light duty tasks

with the occasional steady run from Bristol to London and back.

I'm not expecting miracles. It doesn't have to look pretty

it just has to move me and building materials around locally for the

most part. It won't be abused or overworked (Anymore... :p ) .

Any opinions or advice would be gratefully appreciated.

I had to use my vRS to pick up 15metres of sawn timber the other day

it had to go inside :o and I had to wrap it all in a blanket first and then I could only

use 1st 3rd and 5th cos the timber was stopping the gearstick coming

back enough to get the other gears. I am desperate for a van now.

But...

Should I buy this one???

Seems like a good price if its a runner tbh and not in need of any urgent expensive repairs.

Ive been looking for a cheap van or pickup to move stuff when we start on garden, they seem few and far between,

It dont sound like a bad deal as long as there is nothing wrong with it

Kangoo isnt too bad. The 1.5 is quite a good nippy engine. So long as no expensive repairs, I'd say not a bad deal.

Reasonable so long as it doesnt smoke its a**e off like a fair few of them do

After a bad experience with a Berlingo, I swore I would never buy French again.

But if your Kangoo is a non-smoker and has no warning lights illuminated, six hundred quid for a van with eleven months ticket does seem reasonable.

Doesnt sound bad to be honest. Watch out for dash electrics issues, especially the airbag warning light.

I had a clio with that engine (100hp version).

Quite a nice unit tbh. Very good economy 60+. BUT very prone to sooting up. Well known for egr faults and running on engine oil until they go bang.

I was doing 25k a year in the Clio and the garage thought I was only running it round town the engine was so clogged with muck. Fuel treatment and and 'Italian tune-up' got it through every time

Saying that I never had a problem with the engine other than the emissions at MOT time (soot again).

The rest of the car was falling apart rapidly at 80k miles. Electrics very weak, trim weak, brakes troublesome.

Going down to London to look at it friday.

Wish me luck

If your doing garden projects etc - why not a trailer? It has to be the most useful thing we have ever bought!

Well... I bought it.

Pretty happy with it, it needs the front wheels balancing, maybe an alignment.

Surprisingly clean under the bonnet. I needed to replace the 5w parking bulbs as one

had gone. Time to break out the LEDs, I've got a set for the rear number plate too but

they aren't on yet, I'll do that tomorrow. Gotta pimp my new ride a bit

The air intake had come adrift from its mount. Fixed that today with some flexi aluminium

ducting and am most of the way through de-sign writing it.

They are only vinyls so they are easy to remove.

Paid £700 for it, it was taxed, mot'd and serviced 3 weeks ago and externally

pretty clean. My old boss made sure it had a full tank of diesel and has popped me

on his insurance for a week while I pootle about in it getting it tidied up.

Gives me a chance to source some proper trade insurance. I was also surprised

to see it had a nice JVC usb head unit and the oem tape deck was under the seat.

The roof rack is sound and I repaired the roller mechanism on the rear of the roofrack so

thats a result. Its very handy for lengths of timber :yes:

The interior was quite grim. It was a builders van after all,

what's more, I know the guy who had it last and he's barely human if he's happy to sit

in filth like that. Got a full black sack of rubbish out of it yesterday and filled

the hoover bag with sand, screws, mcfries, fag butts and all sorts of other crap.

Today the Mrs set about cleaning the cab and load area while I grouted the downstairs loo.

Popped a set of wheel trims on it today which tidy the wheels up nicely.

Will give it a proper wash and polish when the stickers are all off and I need to get a

tax disc holder and some new wiper blades. Will post some more pics when it's all plain

and white again. Maybe a remap next

Here's some pics and some free advertising for my old firm

Big thanks to them for looking after an ex employee and hooking me up with

a nice little van. The last service it had cost more than I paid for the van as it had a

lot of brake work done amongst other things. I'm pals with the guy who owns the garage where

it was done and he knows his stuff so I'm a very happy bloke.

And bonus flash stereo

Comments and tips welcome as always.

A steam walpaper stripper should make light work of the signwriting, and tar & glue remover should remove any residue left behind. A good t-cut will help tone down where the paint has faded around the signwriting.

If you are doing jobs at people's houses, remember, appearances mean everything. A scruffy van can put people off.

Edited 2 July, 201114 yr by FellyMagic

Looks very tidy. Nice catch there.

It's in really good nick for an 8yo van!

Looks very tidy. Nice catch there.

It's in really good nick for an 8yo van!

Thanks fellas. Looks even better now. :yes:

Today I finished off removing the vinyls,then cleaned residual adhesive off

with turps and a rag. Then I washed down the van with hot water and washing up

liquid to neutralise and remove the turps and degrease the paint generally.

After that, I T-cutted the whole van and managed to remove most of the ingrained

London soot and restored some whiteness and shine.

Next, Jetwash rinsed and Bilt Hamber Snowfoamed with a strong concentration,I gave

the plastic trim a good scrub while it was foamy to take away chalky T cut residue.

After ten minutes jet rinsed and hand dried.

Gave the plastic a wipe over with some Chemical guys trim shine and then I ran

out of time cos my dinner was ready.

Tomorrow I'll hand wash with some Meguiars Gold class, and wax with a coat or 2 of

Colinite 476s to protect all my hard work. Then since the load area is beyond fully

cleanable I'll nip down B and Q and pick up a couple of sheets of ply and set about

plylining the back.

Here's me Kangaroo after todays efforts.

Also sorted out my business use insurance today for a very reasonable £265 for the year

All in all I'm very happy with the van now. The Mrs did a great job on the cab and thats now fit

for human beings again. I wanted a cheap, tidy little van as it looks good when you pull up

to price up a job in a decent looking vehicle. I've got to get it signwritten now but may opt

for the magnetic signs available now so I can go stealth if the need be

Off topic I pick the vRS up again tomorrow freshly cambelted, serviced and with new suspension

and new brakes... Looking forward to that

Thanks for looking

Garry

Tidy little beast You sound a very happy camper

If your doing garden projects etc - why not a trailer? It has to be the most useful thing we have ever bought!

I have a trailer but the people at the tip throw a paddy when you take rubble and soil in a trailer,

I have a friend who will take all my rubble and soil but my vrs dont offroad to well with coilovers on

Looks very tidy. A good buy there - fingers crossed it remains trouble-free for you.

Tax disc holder: http://goo.gl/sK6vE

Smart van was a consideration when I got my new heating system quotes and double glazing quotes, don't know why but I don't trust the blokes in the rusty X reg Transits (or similar)

X reg? That new Dave?

Smart van was a consideration when I got my new heating system quotes and double glazing quotes, don't know why but I don't trust the blokes in the rusty X reg Transits (or similar)

My thoughts entirely, equally pulling up in a brand spanking new van

and people assume you'll be expensive. This is a nice happy balance between the

two extremes I think.

Now the outside is spick and span, I was considering plylining it but in the end

I just decided to bite the bullet and try and clean it, I need to get using it right away.

So, today I spent several hours on my hand and knees in the back today literally scrubbing

the floor clean with a stainless steel pan scourer after a good 2hour sesh with a scraper.

Tried using the Karcher with the plus 50% head and it still wouldn't budge.

Over time in it's previous life it had accumulated general builders crud up to

12mm thick in places including the contents whole tin of spray adhesive,

a huge puddle of paint, 3 types of mastic, some oil soaked sand, set plaster,

big blob and splat of expanding foam, grit, screws and general grime.

The spray adhesive was the worst thing to remove. Used a scraper and a screwdiver

to prise that off. It was a proper sod!

I wish I'd taken a pic of the before and after though.

Once the floor was clean, I removed the rubber seal strip from around the rear doors

and blasted all the gunge out of that with the jetwash. Came up lovely actually.

Took the plastic strip from across the rear floor of the van up and brushed brick acid

on that to dissolve the ingrained cement etc then rinsed with water.

Then I made a template out of card and used it to cut a panel of carpet out

to fit the load space from a large offcut I had up in the loft. Next I removed

the 4 load securing D rings bolted into the floor and laid the carpet refitting the D

rings which also serve to anchor the carpet. Lastly I refitted the plastic scuff panel

across the back using it to hold the carpet down right along the back so it wont lift

when I'm loading and unloading it.

Tomorrow I'm making a temporary bulkhead complete with stealth extra speakers

Seems rude not to since the head unit can handle it and there are

only two crappy speakers in the dash. I'm building in a couple of panasonic 2 way

hifi speakers that I had laying around which I'll incorporate in my simple design.

I still have a lot of black speaker cloth from my stealth shelf project from the car

so I should be able to make them more or less invisible. I'm setting the bulkhead

back about a foot behind the seats so I have a decent sized stowing area behind them

that I can access from cab side.

Enough room for a holdall, fire extinguisher and my coat and whatnot.

Considering the state of it before I started I'm much happier with the interior it's clean

and dry and the carpet, albeit temporary should help to dull the drone a bit when

I'm driving it empty, It'll only ever have a few tool bags and odds and ends of building

materials now. I'm just starting out with my business so I'm only doing small jobs really

and after getting rid of the heavy steel roof rack and replacing it with twin aluminium bars

it'll save weight and be more practical for carrying sheet materials and timber.

I will re paint the interior sides and roof with white hammerite smooth to cover the scuffs etc

when I have more time but I need to start using it straight away really so the proper

plylining and painting will have to wait until I'm quieter work wise.

If you've gotten this far thanks for reading, I'm dead excited about finally being my own boss

and I'm very enthusiastic about it all at the moment hence the long a$$ post. Got loads of work

on and it feels right for me. Nothing huge but lots of small bits and pieces which will keep me

busy for a while.

Heres a few pics of todays efforts. It's a long way from perfect but it's clean and

useable now. That'll have to do for the time being.

And those are my Winter Pirelli 210 Snow Sport tyres waiting to go on my steelies

Bloody hell, you've gone to town there! And yes, I did manage to read all of the above post

So needed some before and after pics though, but I'm sure photography was the last thing on your mind

Sounded gruesome in there before you got stuck in!

Good luck with it all

So the wife has sent you out to work again, poor fella.

Spent a bit more time on the Kangaroo today...

First thing to address was the damaged rear door trim panels.

One was smashed and one was okay but they both rattled when driving along.

After the silly prices for replacements from the breakers I contacted I decided to use a scrap

of 9mm ply I had laying about and cut out some ply panels and fit them instead.

I glued some foam carpet underlay to the rear of the ply panels for soundproofing and to

ensure the new panels don't rattle. (I hate that...) Then I pencil marked where it would be

safe to drill around the outline. Then using some 25mm drywall screws fitted the panels

to the rear doors. All the screwheads are countersunk to avoid splitting the ply and to hold

it down on the foam which is compressed in the gap making them a nice snug fit.

Then I set about making a strong temporary bulkhead, I used 18mm ply cut so that it wedges

in to the gap. Reinforced with a length of 2x2. This structure is bolted directly into the

sides of the van using existing M8 factory bolt holes. At the base it's braced with timber

pieces and bolted into the the lip where the load area ends and cab begins.

I carpeted the cab side to absorb vibration from the speakers about to go in but left the back plain

then fixed the spare set of Panasonic hifi speakers to the carpeted side behind the seats.

Pikey mod I know but hey it's only a van

They are completely hidden if you look through the window

They sound fabulous in an empty van, I'm not joking. Better than the setup in my car.

Going to have to do something about that I reckon. Time to sub up the Fabia I reckon.

Finally a couple of pics of the cab. The Mrs moaned that she'd spent ages cleaning

it and I hadn't posted any pics of her efforts. So here you are...

Thanks for looking

Brilliant work