1996 Felicia 1.3 Pick-Up

[Bete Noir]

A few years ago I owned a couple of Morris Minor pick-ups. I have always had a soft spot for pick-ups, and so when my partner suggested we should buy another I jumped at the chance. If there was a pick-up version of the SEAT Inca / VW Caddy mk2 van I would have been after one of those, as I have four SEAT Ibizas (in various states) of that shape. After I spotted this picture

I was convinced for a while that these may have been sold in Spain, but I soon realised that this was a converted Inca van. I then settled on a Felicia or Caddy mk2 pick-up. After spending a few months scouring forum classifieds and all the usual websites I spotted a Felicia pick-up on eBay, won the auction, and caught the train to Peterborough to collect it.

These are some of the pictures from the eBay listing:

The drive from Peterborough to my home on the south coast was uneventful, apart from the battery warning lamp coming-up on the dash. I later found that the alternator was charging OK, but without putting 12v on the warning lamp connection to extinguish it.

This pick-up has the 1.3 petrol engine. I deliberately bought a petrol rather than diesel one in case I decide on an engine conversion at a later date (when I have the Ibiza projects out of the way). It had 72k on the odometer (which I do not really believe), no significant service history, and more previous owners than could be stacked in the back of it. The bodywork is a little rough, and has been brush-painted in black. The cab roof has had checker pattern in vinyl on it at some point, and the door speakers had been changed for some apparently designed to deliver volume at the expense of fidelity, both of which suggest it has been the focus of someone’s attention at some point, but the amount of dust I have been finding in every hidden area tells the tale of it having been a working vehicle for much of its life, as you would expect.

Edited 9 January, 2016 by Bete Noir

[Bete Noir]

The first thing to sort out on it was the electrics, as a previous owner had used 240v mains cable to wire the head unit and horn direct to the battery. I changed the head unit for a Sony one I had sitting around at home, and replaced the door speakers with more Sony items. It is never going to be hi-fi, but at least I can now listen to the radio without my fillings hurting.

I bought some Felicia hub caps from eBay, although I will be changing the wheels shortly.

I have bought a Felicia Magic hatchback to act as a donor car, and as soon as my son spotted the strut brace on the hatchback, there was no stopping him from doing the first performance mod!

[Bete Noir]

I know ‘personal’ number plates are not to everyone’s taste, but I like them, and I managed to get a cheap one for the pick-up, which now suggests that it is TOO LO (?70 OLO). It is not vaguely low enough to deserve the plate, but I like it nonetheless.

With all of the wet weather we have been having, the back of the pick-up was spending a lot of time filled with water, so I started looking for a tonneau cover for it. I could not find an original one anywhere, so I bought one for a later pick-up from a seller on eBay. This required me to remove the original fixings for attaching the cover from the load area top trims, and then fit pop fasteners in their place.

[Bete Noir]

The next job was to swap the pre-facelift front end with the front end from the donor car. I spent ages drilling-out the spot welds on the donor’s slam panel, only to realise that I could modify the existing panel to accommodate the later bonnet catch and release mechanism.

As I had a later bonnet release cable, and the fixing at the bonnet catch is different, I thought I may as well swap the cables over. Feeding the new cable through was straightforward, I just gaffer taped it to the original cable and pulled it through from the inside, after releasing the clips holding it to the miscellaneous wires and hoses along the top of the chassis leg. Swapping it over at the bonnet release handle was much more difficult, as the only way I could find to remove the cable was to use a junior hacksaw blade to cut through the pivot pin. I replaced it with an M3 bolt and nyloc nut, so it will be much easier to remove next time if I ever have to do it again.

I had, with some difficulty, undone the radiator mounting bolts, so that I could shift the radiator out of the way whilst sorting the bonnet catch. The offside bolt was no problem, but I could not get a socket, nor move a spanner, on the nearside radiator mounting bolt. It was simple enough to release the relevant captive nut from the slam panel, but when I put it back together I replaced both mountings with socket cap bolts into normal (not captive) nuts. This makes it possible to get a ratchet onto the bolts, and the facelift grille is obviously attached to the bonnet, so it does not get in the way when accessing the nuts. I shifted the top mounting over to the nearside pair of holes in the slam panel, to give a bit more clearance between the alternator and the radiator bottom hose.

Once the slam panel and bonnet catch were sorted, I bolted the bonnet into place, then swapped the headlights and the trim panels that fit beneath them. The sidelights gave me a bit of a scare when neither of them worked, but after I replaced both bulbs all was good. I found some uprated headlamp bulbs that I took out of the Octavia when I fitted HIDs, and as they were the right fitment I thought I may as well put them on the pick-up. I am really pleased with how the facelift front end looks, even though I now have metallic grey bonnet and headlamp trims on a matt black vehicle.

[StevesTruck]

Never met the last owner, but I came across the truck it a carpark a few months ago and had a quick nosy. Nearly left a note asking him to call if it ever went for sale, probably should have done.

 

It's not as bad as it looks by a long way. 

[Bete Noir]

Never met the last owner, but I came across the truck it a carpark a few months ago and had a quick nosy. Nearly left a note asking him to call if it ever went for sale, probably should have done.

 

It's not as bad as it looks by a long way.

Was it in the Peterborough area that you saw it? You are right that it is in better condition than the appearance suggests. That is not to say that I don't have shed-loads of work to do to get it how I want it.

[ninjacj]

Cool to see another owner! Are you on Facebook? If so there is a very active pickup group on there

https://www.facebook.com/groups/353589181488696/

As well as @Europickups gallery on instagram for inspiration

[StevesTruck]

Was it in the Peterborough area that you saw it? You are right that it is in better condition than the appearance suggests. That is not to say that I don't have shed-loads of work to do to get it how I want it.

 

Yeah. For one of these, it didn't look bad.

[Bete Noir]

Cool to see another owner! Are you on Facebook? If so there is a very active pickup group on there

https://www.facebook.com/groups/353589181488696/

As well as @Europickups gallery on instagram for inspiration

 

I am not on Facebook, but I can rely on my son keeping me informed of what is going-on there. Thanks for the info.

[Bete Noir]

The pick-up got pressed into service to collect a sofa I bought off eBay. If there was more legroom I would use it like this when we go to Lydden Hill to watch the rallycross :-).

[Bete Noir]

I decided to fit some auxiliary gauges, to show oil pressure & temperature, and voltage. I have acquired a few sets of these for my Ibiza track cars, so I found a few of the 'odd' ones and bolted them under the centre section of the dash.

They look quaintly mis-matched when illuminated, but I think I can live with that.

Under the bonnet, I used a sandwich plate between the block and the oil filter to mount the gauge senders. The wiring would have been a much quicker job if I hadn't decided to to use a weatherproof connector with crimped and soldered connections, but it looks quite tidy.

Now I can be sure that the alternator is charging the battery, even though the errant charging light is currently (no pun intended) disconnected.

[Bete Noir]

I came across this photo when looking for something else. This is the 1958 Morris Minor pick-up that I owned a few years ago. At the time I had a Mitsubishi Evo VIII with 350bhp, and this Minor which came out of the factory with 37bhp (as it had the high compression engine!). In the snow, the Minor was much more fun to drive.

I loved this pick-up, but I have limited bodywork skills and I got fed-up with chasing the rust bug so I sold it. Considering there was 40 years of development between the Minor and the Felicia, they are not all that different to drive. The Felicia makes me smile when I drive it just like the Minor used to, and I have been surprised how many people view the Felicia as a classic, notwithstanding the title of this forum.

[Bete Noir]

I found some 15" steel wheels which were advertised as mk1 Caddy & Golf wheels. They were very cheap, and it was only after I had bought them that I realised they were not VAG wheels at all. Anyway, they are still 4x100 fitment, and the centre bore is big enough so they will do for me.

When I bought them they were in primer, so I had to put some sort of paint on the backs, but I did not want to spend money on something that could not be seen. I had some bright yellow and some dark green smoothrite in the garage, but I did not fancy painting them in either of those colours. The obvious(!) solution was to mix the two together, which gave me a shade very similar to BMC engine green.

I sprayed the front faces in Skoda Black Magic. It is a fairly gash job, but it will do for now.

These wheels are 6.5J, which means they comfortably take the 195/50 Toyo T1-Rs I bought for them. A bit of research suggests they are Renault Megane wheels, although if anyone can confirm or deny that for me I would be very grateful. Having got the wheels fitted, I was expecting to have to get creative to fit some hubcaps, only to discover that the standard Felicia hubcaps fit perfectly. I will post a photo up with the wheels on the pick-up when I get a chance to take one.

[Bete Noir]

I was taking the loom out of the Magic hatchback I am breaking, and I found this behind one of the trim panels

Finding a bit of 'shrapnel' scattered around a car interior is normal, but this is the first time I have found a bullet!

[Bete Noir]

Finally I got round to washing the pick-up, so I took a couple of shots while the sun was shining.

[Bete Noir]

I finished fitting power steering to the pick-up today. My partner was struggling with manoeuvering it with the steering being quite heavy, but hopefully now she should find it a bit easier.

[Bete Noir]

I did not post any details of fitting the power steering, because I did not have it sorted properly (I still don't), and anyway there is a really good thread about it here. I have now added a bit to that thread, where what I found was not previously mentioned.

The parts I used came from the Felicia Magic which I broke, and they were the steering rack, steering column, pump and bracket, power steering hoses, and the fluid reservoir. I also swapped the alternator from the Magic, to cure the issue with the charging light I mentioned earlier in the thread. What I did not get from the Magic, only to find-out that I should have done, was the crankshaft pulley and the water pump. The 136B engine in the pick-up had a 4 rib auxilliary belt, whereas the 136M engine in the Magic had a 6 rib belt, with wider pulleys to accommodate it. Now I have the 6 rib pulleys on the PAS pump and the alternator, with the 6 rib belt (1675 or 1680mm, depending on where you are looking). The 4 rib pulleys on the crankshaft and the water pump now also need to be swapped, but as the Magic has been scrapped I have to find them somewhere else. A new water pump is ordered, and I am trying to source a used pulley.

With a bit of fiddling about I managed to remove and replace the steering rack bolts without dropping the sub-frame, using various combinations of socket lengths and wobbly extensions. The rack itself was taken out and put back in through the O/S wheelarch, once the plate in the bulkhead at the bottom of the steering column was out of the way. The track rods and track rod ends were replaced with new items while the rack was on the bench, because it seemed churlish not to for their relatively small cost. Rather than sourcing specific copper washers for the banjo unions from a Skoda parts source, I bought a copper washer assortment off eBay which contained the two sizes required.

The radiator top hose is where the PAS fluid reservoir wants to be, probably because I shifted the radiator over as mentioned before. Now I have the new alternator fitted I will see if I can move the radiator back to its original position.

For the little I have been able to drive the pick-up since I fitted the PAS, the steering feels much nicer to use. It is significantly lighter for low speed manoeuvres, but does not feel over-assisted on the road. It is definitely a mod that I would recommend.

[Bete Noir]

The new water pump was fitted today, so now three of the four ribbed pulleys are of the correct 6 rib type. Swapping the water pump proved to be quite a PITA. Getting the old pump off was not too much of a problem, notwithstanding the fact that the rear engine/gearbox mounting has to be detached, as well as the offside mounting that is part of the water pump. Once everything was disconnected, the engine had to be jacked-up to give clearance above the chassis leg for the water pump to slide off its studs. Things got a little bit more difficult when I tried to fit the new pump, as the wider pulley meant that I could not get sufficient clearance. The obvious solution was to remove the four water pump mounting studs, but as they were all (unsurprisingly) showing signs of corrosion I was very concerned that one might snap. As it happened they all came out OK, and once I had a closer look I could see that the rust was only superficial. With the studs out, it made it much easier to clean the gasket face. The shorter top stud went back in first, then the new gasket and pump, after which I could wind the other three studs in using the old two nuts trick. The only other significant difficulty during re-assembly was aligning the two engine mountings to re-fit the through bolts, but judicious application of a combination of jemmy bars, tapered punches and cross-head screwdrivers sorted it out.

I still need to source a 6 rib crankshaft pulley, but the aux belt looks a little better aligned now with three of the four ribbed pulleys being the correct width.

[Bete Noir]

Some time back it became apparent that the radiator cooling fan was not working. I pulled the wires off the thermo switch and connected them together, and the fan whirred into life, so I figured the thermo switch was faulty. I tried a used one I had in the garage, but that did not sort it, so I ordered a new one (for the sake of £7 it did not seem worth the aggravation to test the used one). Even with the new part fitted, still no joy. I wired an over-ride switch into the dash, so I could activate the fan when I saw the temperature rise, and I returned the 'faulty' thermo switch for a replacement. The trouble is, the replacement has not sorted it either, and it seems unlikely that I have had two faulty new items. I will now test the thermo switches in a pan of boiling water, but has anyone else experienced issues causing the thermo switch not to operate even when the temperature gauge is reading ~110degC? Am I missing something simple here?

[felicia16v]

It's probably the gauge over reading. Possibly someone has fitted the wrong temp sender at some point ? I have a pully just need to remember to remove it and post it now lol.

[felicia16v]

Infra red temp gun is handy for checking sensors etc

[Bete Noir]

It's probably the gauge over reading. Possibly someone has fitted the wrong temp sender at some point ? I have a pully just need to remember to remove it and post it now lol.

Infra red temp gun is handy for checking sensors etc

Thanks Jim that is worth a look.Let me know what you want for the pulley, I still have your bank details.

[Bete Noir]

I have not posted on here for a while, because after some soul-searching I decided that this pick-up was not a solid enough base for what I wanted to do. Rather than spending more time and money on it, I decided to look-out for a better one, which I have since found. Updates here VW Caddy pick-up thread.