Bought from a ex member and friend on here ( still a friend) Named after looking at the number plate. Dan was pleased to see her go in the end, he’d bought a T5 and needed her off the drive. My son Neil came with me and drove her home, when we got back he asked if he could have her, I said yes when she’s done but you must help me. That was 6 years ago and it’s been a slow process. Dan the ex owner ( Moley ) and my son Neil on purchase day. After stopping off for a pint on the way home where we decided she drove well and true I handed the reins over to Neil to complete the final leg of the journey. He assumed the well worn pose of sitting on the step of the bay Dan had been unsure of how much of the actual body needed attention and I think the pending task finally swayed him to go in the T5 direction and leave the bay for someone else to sort out, he’s a Vw mechanic is Dan not a body repair person so luckily the mechanics were good, but the body, err… View attachment 133339 So it was out with the grinder and welder, neither of which I enjoy or am professional at, but needs must n all that, I’m not a body repair person either or a mechanic but I’ve sorted a few buses in my time now. I showed Neil the welder and let him loose.. Our plan was to get her reasonably solid or rather all the bits of rust cut out and new bits in place to save money in the future , and do her more thoroughly when she gets a future cash injection, Neil can then simply have her done. Long term he is exploring an electric engine option or a possible modern engine. He has time to work on that!
With the front panel on she began to look a little more respectable, we knew there was a long way to go but she was moted so she became a rolling resto, in the meantime Neil began paying me monthly for the van, it seemed quite fitting as this is how I’d paid my father in law at a similar age for my first bay. At time’s enthusiasm wained and we left her sitting on the driveway without use and then all of a sudden we’d get a surge of renewed vigour and get grinding and welding again. Unfortunately we never took pictures of every stage probably because we found the job quite absorbing and weren’t always entirely happy with the work and redid it. Some of that was ground down and redone, we renewed a jacking point, middle sill and an outrigger too, but otherwise she was pretty solid. Slowly but surely she was coming together
Once we got her solid Neil began to use her more and more. One day he asked if we could get her sprayed up. As unfortunately my friend the paint sprayer had recently passed away I was unsure of who I could ask to paint her, we asked around and quite literally no one locally wanted to do it, those that did wanted the sort of money we could buy a half decent T25 for, so we explored our options. TLb came to the rescue again. After reading a few posts on here about rustoleum painting and the different degree of finish people had attained we looked into the possibility of hand painting her! Gee’ed on by some positive posts about the ease of use we decided that was the path we were going to take. It wasn’t a major issue as Neil has plans to eventually have her stripped and fully sprayed, but for now he wanted her to look a little more respectable. we donned the gloves ( well I did ) and picked up the sandpaper we finally found a use for the daily mail other than the carsey
Yes. In fairness to Dan it did look a lot worse than it actually was, but Dan being a mechanic I think he would never have been satisfied unless it was spot on bodywork wise. He had this step and wheel arch completely renewed before I got it, I was thankful for that.
The rustoleum went on incredibly easy, we cut in the tight bits with a brush and foam rollered the flat bits. One annoying part of this was schofields kept sending the wrong under window and door roller cover strips so we had to paint the old ones while we waited for the exchange ones to come. In the end we just painted the new ones when they came and attached them later. So it has gone from this To this in six years, we’re content for now. And finally I’ve gotten around to doing a MJB resto thread TBC..
The next job we have lined up is to renew the window seals. We have sourced them and Neil is going to bring the van over later in the summer for us to have a weekend doing them. I have the spare paint and swear box ready. We are on the look out for two good doors and a sliding door but they have to be very good. We are willing to wait for the right ones and pay market value, meanwhile the existing ones open and shut just about and we’re content to wait. The interior is going to get a refurb too, but other than a full width bed he hasn’t decided on the design yet, we’re thinking it has to be fully and easily removable for his final respray when the money is available. The Devon roof sag is being addressed in the coming few weeks by me after advice from others on here. The floor is solid fortunately so that is a saving, but there is work to do on the battery tray and passenger side spare battery area. Again I think it’s far better than it looks and will only require some patching. I won’t know until I start digging properly and as we know sometimes they’re far worse than they look once you start. I honestly don’t think they are but we’ll see, I’m prepared for the worse! The drivers side had a dent along the side which I tapped out and filled, I’m not entirely happy with that so a friend is going work his magic on that this winter when he gets five minutes. We’ll rustoleum over it when he’s done, but we have time so that’s no biggie for us. So she’s still a rolling resto. I’ve avoided putting a mot on her while we’ve been doing her but she is going to be mot’ed before they use her this summer just for peace of mind for me and them! One of the most frustrating things about doing this van has been getting people to do stuff. I did want to have the main work done by others, but the people I know locally who knew about these vans either aren’t doing it any longer, retired or dead etc, or are so busy they want a small fortune to do stuff, even silly little jobs they want hundreds for. When I talked to people about welding it was obvious they had little idea of what they were taking on and I would end up explaining the job and possible pitfalls, I had some brake work done on a previous van by a local garage owned by a friend, it nearly cost me a fortune and I ended up going over and showing them how to do it. That has put me off having brake work done by others. I’ve slowly got better at welding and what I see as acceptable and redo it when it isn’t up to scratch, a lot of the welding above I’ve redone where it was poor. In the end I’ve had to roll my sleeves up and muddle through the best I could, it wasn’t a scenario I had in mind when I bought the van, I’d set what I thought was a decent budget to get it to paint stage only to find I’d need at least double if others did it ( the lockdown definitely didn’t help re prices ) and judging from the conversations I had I doubt it would have been that much better than I could do. So here I am 62 years of age with another rolling resto on the go, eh oh!
Just a few odd of pictures of the van. had this seat off a guy in Birkenhead for a tenner,it’s just a replacement for the worn out Devon one that needed recovering or replacing, we chose to use this for the time being as it’s tidier. Just a basic Devon interior atm! I hate fitting windscreens. My technique is straps and Vaseline ( ooh er mrs) nice shiny new under dash tray that’s a keeper!
Thanks. This van’s story isn’t over yet and I’ll be adding to it as and when. I’m dreading the day my son takes it into a professional to have the restoration job he’s saving for and the workshop guy goes round it and says to him “ I hope you didn’t pay to have that work done” if I’m still around I’ll hide until he’s over it
your looking at about £500-£600 per cab door nowadays malc and I can’t see them falling in price. Good luck trying to find a rhd rot free slider The last one I saw went for a grand and although rot free it wasn’t very straight. It seems bus prices are dropping but parts prices are continuing to rise
I have a pair of doors , ones in the for sale section the others new , though the new one may be sold
I have seen them and offered to negotiate a price with you for them, I said I’d pay and he can pay me back but he can’t afford it just now. So I’ve just took a step back and let him come to me when he’s ready.
I know tell me about it. The slider might have to go into a pro to have it reskinned and sorted at some point, but I did one once if you remember and I was never satisfied with it.
