Piaggio Porter 'Even Further'

Picked up my PP today.

Is about as good as I had expected for £500! Certainly not the bargain of the century, but still cheap for my first step into converting a van.

So. I drove it home (5 miles max) via a garage to fill up some petrol and it overheated. Pretty much as expected.

Please help me with advice on anything you can! Really looking forward to getting stuck into this as it's my first camper/van project.

The drivers window gets stuck on the way up by ways of leaning inwards. any advice on how to fix please point me in the right direction.

The seats are torn and the whole cab could use some love. (How the hell do you crack the face of the gear shift knob?) - seatbelt receiving clip is held together by gaffa tape

There is a radio/cassette screwed into the top of the dash!

It's a bit of a heap - I get that. I just don't have the £2000 to have bought one in better condition right now, even though I know I will probably spend more in the long run!

Help sourcing parts would be amazing.

This is the worst of the body damage that I have sen thus far. Assuming some filler and refinishing should sort it.


The missing door handle - It was actually still clinging on when I got the van, but didn't make the journey home  


The dash screen peeling - this must be pretty common. Quite looking forward to designing my own one of these to replace it.





The view of the engine. I have no idea what you might be able to tell from looking at this. It's certainly not a race machine.


Overlooking her new home in Bristol.


Seatbelt receiving clip. How easy are these to replace? Do you need to replace the whole thing from the bolt upwards, or just the casing? It still works just fine.


Silicone


Van side view


Will try some back to black on the bumper. Think a square style number plate will look better.


Smashed indicator housing


Does this show the window leaning in clearly?


Well used interior


Decent scrape/dink on the drivers rear side which has been rattlecanned


General cab view with entertainment system!

Hey G,

If you can sort out the overheating, I think it is not that bad a buy...

Mine (bought a few weeks ago) is in better shape and doesn't have overheating problems. I do have a minor oil leak. (Is being tackled as we speak... or write). But then again ... I paid 1300€... With mot included.

That seatbelt foto... Put it 1 X1 meter on canvas... That's just art...

I will start my own story in a few, but I will be following yours closely.

Success with yours,

Ben

Hi George. If you email me your mobile number then I will give you a call. Should have most of the bits you need. I can also talk to you about bleeding the Cooling System.

First get yourself 2 new Radiator Caps before doing anything. It CAN be as simple as new caps and a proper full bleed of the system. I have bought Hi-Jets with "Head Gasket gorn mate" and all they needed is two Radiator Caps and the system bleeding.

My email address is thehijetmaniow@gmail.com

The Entertainment System is actually placed where it was meant to go as an option! There is a lift off panel beneath it to cover where the cables go when it’s not installed. See I you can get a console for it, they come up on bay an install the stereo in that. Seatbelt fittings are a common issue, pics of engin from under passenger seat would be interesting. Seems a lot of issues but looks a fairily solid van for a nice project. Contact Woodie, he’s the man!

Hi George. Don't waste your money on Back to Black. The only thing to restore plastic bumpers to near new condition is Boiled Linseed Oil from a hardware store or painting merchant. It must be the Boiled variety though.

Clean the surface of the bumper up with stainless steel wool, the stuff that is curly looking. Works a treat.

Thanks Woodie - such a golden nugget that one!

I will drop you an email with my details shortly! This is going much better than I thought when I picked her up earlier today!

Good. Glad to hear that. You will find that this Micro Van Owners Forum is the best one going for Hi-Jet Owners. But you will need a good sense of humour and can give and take the Mickey. The Hi-Jet Owners Forum is full of Speccy Anoraks according to some of our members. I joined it for years ago and only posted once. A complete waste of time in my opinion.

Never mind the van, just noticed the Colnago in the back
It’s got the nicer steering wheel as well I see. Got a reasonable MOT history as well, only fails hav3 not been major things so looking better as things progress

Interesting regarding the console unit Raggy, I think I'd better set up a watch alert for anything related!

And yes, I am an avid cyclist. That bike is the single most expensive thing I own and like all cyclists I wouldn't dream of spending as much on a vehicle!! That said, it was bought in stages and done up bit by bit so may end up a relatively similar process to the van!

Thant makes two of us! Although I don’t get out cycling as much as I would like at the moment.

nice thread with a nice amount of pictures
i love it

and like raggy said: woodies the man

get the overheating sorted before you go any further.
if youre lucky you can fix it like the others said.
good luck an keep posting updates

Had a look at the cooling system and there was loads of gunk throughout - called in a more knowledgable friend to take a look and turns out the previous owner had used some kind of gunk which is supposed to block any leaks - problem is it gets everywhere and blocks lots of things it shouldn't!

We filled it with a solution which should loosen and flush all the crap out, before I can then flush it again and hopefully this should help.

Am feeling hopeful it's not the dreaded head gasket issue so have began thinking about what it might look like on thew outside. Some possible ideas along with various reference images attached. Any painting will be via a DIY approach - and may ned to wait until spring unless I can find someone with a garage.

definitely go with the day-glow fluorescent yellow!

When I had my bull bars coated someone was picking a set of wheels done that dayglow colour. Certainly wouldn’t miss them!

day-glow fluorescent yellow but with a black grill and headlight surroundings

Camel of course! Or at least a color that doesn't hurt your eyes when looking at it.

Update - Flushing the system seems to have worked wonders and van is not overheating any more!! Wooo!!!

Gave it a wash today and used boiled linseed oil on the black bumper parts thanks to the advice of Woodie (The Oracle)

Feeling much happier with how it's driving and now looking. Starting to feel like £500 well spent! Aim is still to get her converted ready for next summer. Wife hates the fluoro yellow so likely won't be that option.

Well done, that has come up superb! You changed the rad caps? Do anything else apart from a flush?

No rad caps yet. Do you have a link of where to buy them as I think it's probably worthwhile in any case.

Unless you have a convenient Motor Factors near to you, then sadly Ebay is your next best choice. If you search for Hi-Jet Radiator Caps there is a choice of over 30 listed. First Line's FRC 74 is usually the cheapest at
£3-10 upwards but with postage it doubles the price.

I would go for the Blue Print version which is £8-74 x 2 of course but free postage. Little bit more but it is what I use and have found them a better buy overall.

How do you use the linseed oil? You say boiled, is that before and let cool or just boiled and used warm"

There are 2 types of Linseed Oil. One as pressed from the seeds and then the same oil as boiled. It must be the Boiled variety that you use. It clearly states it on the bottle Available from Paint shops and Hardware stores.  It does make plastic bumpers, dashboards etc. Dash Dandy and all the other rubbish makes,  pale into insignificance compared with Boiled Linseed Oil. Used cold straight from the bottle.

wow look much better , good work man.
did you flush the system with the thermostat out?
have you followed the bleeding procedure after that?
did you fill it with proper coolant or water?

i dont want to spoil the party but if it doesnt overheat in lets say 4 weeks you can probably say its good.
i  and others had the same moments of happyness when working on the overheating problems.
only to see it overheat again a couple of weeks later.
so keep that in mind.. dont be to happy

Woodie wrote:There are 2 types of Linseed Oil. One as pressed from the seeds and then the same oil as boiled. It must be the Boiled variety that you use. It clearly states it on the bottle Available from Paint shops and Hardware stores.  It does make plastic bumpers, dashboards etc. Dash Dandy and all the other rubbish makes,  pale into insignificance compared with Boiled Linseed Oil. Used cold straight from the bottle.

Thanks, may pick some up and try it on the window winder handles as they don’t look good.

Before you do use it, clean the surface with the curly type stainless steel wool to get the grey powderery surface off the parts you are going to treat.

scotia wrote:wow look much better , good work man.
did you flush the system with the thermostat out?
have you followed the bleeding procedure after that?
did you fill it with proper coolant or water?

i dont want to spoil the party but if it doesnt overheat in lets say 4 weeks you can probably say its good.
i  and others had the same moments of happyness when working on the overheating problems.
only to see it overheat again a couple of weeks later.
so keep that in mind.. dont be to happy

Thanks, I'll try not to get too excited!
Am driving it for a bit to let he system flush do it's thing, then will reflush clean and replace thermostat and rad caps. Will reflush with antifreeze/water mix.

Sounds a good plan.

So far so good re: the system flush. Still overheating in traffic but the fan override is doingg its job well.
Picked up some 15" alloys today which I know will divide opinion. £100 seemed decent, and they previously came off a hijet so think they will fit okay. I'm looking forward to fitting them.
The guy I bought them off super nice, and was breaking a hijet which had front end damage, and is going to give me a call if he finds the wheel arches to go with the wheels, as they sit a bit wider.
Whilst I was there the guy also chucked in the internal and external door handles for the drivers side sliding door which I needed, and also 2 x front seatbelt stalks. Overall very happy with today's result!