Vintage Thing 44.1 - the Citroen C15D

My C15D - Mighty Whitey - looks like a Friesian cow at the moment, thanks to flaking paint on (or rather off) the new bonnet. It doesn't look like I'd keyed the black primer coat sufficiently when I applied the grey primer and white paint. I used the remains of the cellulose paint with which I'd sprayed the van several years previously (well, have you seen the cost of it nowadays?) and reckon the paint had passed its shelf life.

Anyway, what's flaked off has flaked off and I'm encouraging the rest of it to come off with a small knife. It's laborious but doesn't harm what's underneath as much as sanding. It also gives the sort of surface the "shabby chic" VW boys and girls like to have on their old vans. Personally I'd like my van to be painted properly.

I recently fell into conversation with someone while I was turning up at a campsite in the old fun bus.

"That's an old van," he said. "Have you had any trouble with the pedals?"

I had as a matter of fact. The clutch and brake levers share the shame shaft and the nylon bushes wear, especially if they get a bit hot when welding a pedal back on after it snapped off once. If the bushes venture out of their holes, the pedals can interact so get the brake goes down when you depress the clutch, which can be a tad disconcerting. We'd come to the same solution - a hose clip either side of the shaft.

"Have you ever replaced a rear suspension arm bearing?" was his next question. I hadn't, preferring to get a whole new rear axle off an accident damaged van a few years ago, so was very interested to hear what he had to say.

He took the whole axle off and did something using conventional spring compressors. My understanding was that you had to buy a special Sykes-Pickavant spring compressor at about £500 a go to achieve this but he said it was possible without. Getting them back in again was very difficult and he ground about an eighth of an inch off the strut within the spring, which he found made it much easier and didn't affect the suspension. I haven't tried this myself but when the rear wheels go knocked kneed again and start rubbing the inner wheel arch I'll have a go.

He seemed to be either in the trade or very friendly with it. He had one C15D that did 600,000 miles, although "it sounded terrible by then, Still ran though."

He didn't rate the Berlingo at all. He reckoned it was designed to be disposable. Injector pumps had unlabelled redundant wires and the central locking was a nightmare. He said he'd only contemplate one of the earlier less complicated ones.

This confirms what I've thought for a long time. Old vehicles are sustainable. Newer ones aren't. This is not happening by accident. It is deliberate.

And when my old van gets sick it'll be better for me and the environment to keep it going rather than throw it away and get something else.