Any progress with this?

Funny you should ask!
To cut a long story short, the nights rolled in, and work and life and stuff got in the way. However, now that daylight is returning, I went and did a bit of sorting out just the other day. I shall try to get the project up and running soon.
In the meantime, here's another pic, introducing you to the donor vehicle:

Just spent a very enjoyable day butchering the red Special. Next job: sift through the offcuts, take the junk to the scrap merchants... and then get on with the van. Can't wait! Happy days!

Took the chopped up shell to the scrap merchants this morning. 78 kilos. £11.70!! Don't know why I bothered!

Just think :"You did it for the Environment!"

Better than nout

That's exactly what I was thinking as I counted the measly returns from my saintly endeavours!

Kind of... but when you factor in the fuel to take the stuff to the scrappers, plus my time (even at minimum wage) it would have been more cost effective to forego the returns and just get the tatters to pick it up. I'll know next time!

Call me a sentimental old fool, but I felt kinda sad looking at all those bits of shredded duck sitting in the skip (another one bites the dust, etc) - but I really didn't have much choice.

That was what my attitude was when the consensus was that i should weigh in my chassis as id get a fiver or so,

But the 40 mile round trip outweighed that idea..

Sold it in ebay form£21...!!

Right, starting to get down to the real business of getting the 250 on the road.

Having prodded about and pissed myself off with the remains of the red Special I thought I'd go and take a look at what I actually bought last October. It's been 6 months since I last looked at it. After buying it I simply towed it to my Mom and Dad's and stowed it away in the back of their garage, then got on with other things in my life.

Well, here is what I pushed out of the garage: Looks quite cute with all that foliage underneath it, doesn't it? Nice back wheel!

Still kind of torn about what to do with it, in spite of pondering the problem for several months. Shove the red Special's 602 engine and disk brakes in it (in quite good nick), or take a punt on the original engine and gearbox and see whether I can get them going?
First things first. I had a little prod around and emptied all the bits that were in boxes in the back.
Seemed like a good idea to just see what it's going to look like, so I had a mess about with the wings, and got the lights out. Don't worry, there are replacement light units in one of the boxes. There's also a spare back door, all the glass (apart from the windscreen, bah!) doors, spare doors, two seats plus a bench seat, 3 speedos (2 Club-style - the original one in kms & another in miles - plus a Special-style) 2 bonnets and plenty of other nick nacks. The wiring loom is all there, too. There's even a 10L can of two-pack & hardener in the right colour. More or less, it's all there, like a giant lego kit, but without instructions.

The underneath's looking good: In fact, it's all looking as solid as I remember it was when I bought it, so at least I can reassure myself that I wasn't suffering from Buyer's Delusion when I made my purchase. The body shell is very solid indeed - the only bits of rust on the exterior of the van are just surface spots, which someone had a go at with an angle grinder by the look of it prior to selling it to me... the only bit that's a bit of a concern is the slightly ratty bonnet hinge and some dodgy seams over the top of the back doors.
The inside is looking like it's seen a bit of life. I decided that the best thing to do with the remains of the day was to stabilise the surface rust. So out came the trusty bottle of Fertan....

A few minutes later and I could see progress.
Tomorrow I'll go back and wipe off the Fertan residue and marvel at my solid, if rather safe, start to this project. I'm playing myself in, giving myself time to focus on what the heck to do... and then I'll have to learn how to do it!!

At the moment, I'm thinking I'd like to chuck the 435 back in (if it works... that engine really does look a bit knacked) and get it all mechanically rock solid, but leave it looking as agricultural and original as possible, with its authentic patina.

That bonnet seam's gonna wake me up at 3am though, I can tell!

Stick with the original engine!! Why not rebuild it and refurb that?