Retroanaconda

It’s dealer fit though, all the accessory packs are.

The genuine hub caps are good - mine have been on for years without issue.

It’s an Allmakes sub-brand, generally their better quality OEM type stuff.

As a matter of principle only your own insurer can financially ‘write off’ your car as per the terms of their agreement with you, i.e. they will not pay more than X to repair, where X is a number determined by the market value. However you will be (or should be) claiming off the other party and their insurer. They do not have this option and legally you have every right to request that they put everything back how it was before the accident, even if this means repair costs of more than the vehicles value or indeed even a straight replacement with another vehicle of similar spec/age/condit

Thanks folks. It’s definitely a power coating process rather than plastic dipping/coating. They do two grades, Colourgalv and Colourgalv Marine. The latter has an additional primer stage from what I can ascertain. Here’s the specification sheet for it. https://higalv.co.uk//wp-content/uploads/Colourgalv-Marine-specification-for-website.pdf Longevity is what I’m interested in. Chassis do flex as we know so it’ll need to not crack and flake off at the first sign of that. Abrasion damage off road is unavoidable but likewise it would be good if that didn’t lead to large-scale delami

My 90 has a galvanised chassis which I painted a few years back during the swap - T-wash followed by two coats of Buzzweld Chassis-in-One. This adhered well but wasn’t durable/thick enough and had effectively been worn away by salt and road dirt in certain areas within a year or so. Because of this and the fact that I need to make some modifications to the chassis for the rear tank etc. I will get it blasted and re-galvanised, so I need to do it all again. Apart from the longevity issue with the paint it was also a major pain to do and took nearly two days, so I’m looking at other op

Don’t skimp on the concrete - a decent C30 mix won’t be expensive and combined with some reinforcement mesh will give you good strength. If you can get the truck right up to the building then it will be fairly easy to get it in there and smooth it off. Doing it within the building will give you a challenge in terms of tamping/levelling as the walls will prevent you using the top of forms to do this. Perhaps you could set some angle iron a few inches in from each side which you could then run the tamping board along? Underlying ground conditions will dictate the thickness of slab you’

Don’t let wariness of planning permission stop you building what you need - unless you’re in a conservation area or similar it’s not difficult to get.

Welcome I’m afraid I can only answer your question with more questions to begin with. It may help to give us some idea of what you want to use it for? Is it a plaything to throw round the local quarry every other weekend? Second car for taking dogs for a walk? Daily driver? Long distance tourer? Do you have a budget in mind? The 200Tdi came in in 1990, with the 300Tdi in 1994. Earlier vehicles with either engine will have been retrofitted, but genuine Tdis do carry a premium. Likewise genuine station wagons (rear seats and windows) carry a premium over converted hard-tops.

Normal. It’s for the air conditioning pipes.

I provide this opinion on the condition that you post a workshop build thread I agree with the gentlemen above, a ramp is the way to go. I’ve used both and the adjustability of the ramp alone wins it, let alone not having to climb in and out of a pit. One day I will have a workshop big enough to have one!

Sealant is factory. The slotted threaded plug on the front is an oilway drilling. Excellent photos - these will be useful for owners of other 4-cylinder engines as the blocks are very similar.

I had this problem with aftermarket (Britpart) bronze bushes years ago, changed to genuine ones and it fitted no bother. How much of a difference is there in diameter? Could it be it requires reaming to size after fitting?

That’s a fair bet yep 😊 Worth fixing sooner rather than later, it’s been known for the handbrake cable to act as a surrogate earth with melty results!