Recently we pickup this MOT failed rather un desirable Ford Transit connect. This transit connect to be fair was very cheap sub £200 we picked this little gem up for, The main reason for the failed MOT was because of the rust and general corrosion. These little transit connects are riddled with rust on the sills.
Transit sills are cheap to buy but the labor in welding often puts people off this type of repair, you are able to pick these up for £65 for the LWB connect. Ours was a short wheel base we purchased the LWB sills as they were the same cost and we had room to cut shape and overlap in some places for extra protection. Of course these sills will need to be cut and welded after cutting the rust from the vehicle.
Once the sills are shaped and welded to the vehicle to be buy the book and follow MOT guidelines you should seam seal around the welded areas and then underseal. We used professional grade seam sealer and underseal as we have this in stock. The total labour hours on this vehicle totaled over £380 if we were to charge the hours out to the end customer.
Next up we have the rear bumper to contend with another common issue on this model of connect, The rear bumper on this connect is completely corroded someone has been in this area before and sealed with what looks to be mastic the only problem with this is the mastic is bonding rust to rust. We locally sourced a rear bumper for under £50 and this will be fitted next week. As you can see we have started to wet sand the rear lights as well as the front headlights to give both the front and rear a fresh look. You would be surprised at the difference it makes.
We will be doing a few short videos once the connect is ready to leave us, Just to give you an idea of the total cost of this restoration we currently stand in at under the 500 mark we have yet to put the transit through and MOT so we expect to have £45 as an additional cost.
Keep an eye out for the finished project video !!!!