Hello all, maybe about to become a very late bay owner.

How weird is this?

I've found a youtube video of Brazilian Formula 1 racing driver, Rubens Barrichello driving the actual bus I'm buying around Interlagos race track in Brazil, along with the Delorian from back to the future, on some sort of Brazilian Top Gear type program!

 

One careful owner

 

Its just gone up in value...

 

Celeb history = £££!

still not seeing any pic though?

 

At least you've got a proper window van!

 

Anyone know what hes saying.?

 

I tried the auto translate option on youtube, but it just came up with some gibberish and ignored most of the dialogue!

Anyway, I can tell you what he's saying having just driven this bus home for 160 miles. He's saying, "This bus is hella fast, (it still is, for a bus anyway, even now it's had the turbo removed, due to the intake and exhaust mods they did to it) but man, the steering is the biggest pile of dangerous Marmitee on anything I've ever driven!"

At least he should be saying that, I was scared Marmiteess driving it home today, I know the old split screen steering these still use is a bit slack, but this thing is something else, it's positively dangerous and I'll not be driving it again anywhere apart from for testing reasons until I've rectified whatever the hell is going on with it!

Anyway, dire steering and suspension apart, (yes that's Marmitee too due to a badly done 4"+ drop and 30 profile tyres!) it's actually really nice, I'm looking forward to getting stuck into it. I'll update on progress soon.

 

Lookef like he was doing steering gestures...

 

If you really want it translated I have a Portuguese friend but I think you already know what you need to do

 

£££ I doubt it, lol! Is he even a celebrity to anyone over here anyway? I'd never heard of him until I looked him up, maybe that's just me though, I've never got the "celebrity" thing at all.

Give me a chance on the pics, I've got to wash it first and get it in the garage!

 

First pictures, more to come once we get started, for now it's cleaned and garaged.

 

Yep - as an F1 fan for many decades, Barichello is well known to me at least - even if he was midtable most of the time.

 

He was schumachers team mate for Ferrari he is well known

 

perhaps the wheels too

 

How are your brakes and handbrake as see you don’t trust those as wheel chocks in flat garage ??

 

Oh the brakes are all fine, it had just been washed, so I left the handbrake off out of habit to stop any surface rust formation causing the brakes to stick, to be fair anything parked up that I'm not using for a while gets chocked anyway with the handbrake left off, It's just good practice.

Anyway, it's 2 feet off the ground now with all the wheels off

I'll update on progress soon. The rear spring plates are hilarious!

 

Won 11 grand prix too...

 

Some progress. So I've got the bus up in the air now and the wheels off and had a better look at it. Good to see there is no rust at all on the chassis, it does appear to have been quite well undersealed. There are however a lot of rubbing marks under the front tubs from wheel contact!

I measured the ride height whilst on level ground before I started any jacking and established it's currently riding 6" lower than standard at the front and 4" lower at the rear!

It looks like good news that my worst fears of a possible torsion leaf hack to lower the front wasn't done either as there are adjusters welded to the beam, and the welding looks to have been quite well done too. This is pleasing, as I still want to retain a gentle lowering of 1 to 2 inches and this means I can achieve that with just a re-adjustment and fitting a set of 1 or 2 inch dropped rear spring plates. Lets hope the adjusters actually adjust OK!

Talking of spring plates, do you all want a laugh? What you are about to see may shock you, so avert your eyes if easily offended.

Behold the current rear spring plates, have you ever seen anything so diabolically S***e!



The right hand side spring plate appears to have been made up from parts of 3 other spring plates welded together, with a part of a broken adjuster left on it. The left hand side appears to be still utilizing a badly made adjuster that has been badly welded on, causing a hole through most of the piece of plate it's attached to, it looks like it could collapse at any minute if it hit a large pothole. Scary to think the last owner drove to Spain and back with it like this!!

I can't wait to get them off and in the recycling pile, but it's going to be a while, as new plates have a lead time of about 2 months!

Back soon.