Stevie the '65 Split

Well I can’t hide this one any longer, so here it is. A '65 RHD splitscreen (well some of it!).



I’m under no illusion just how much work will be involved in getting this back on the road, with plenty of metalwork to keep me busy, and quite a few bits missing that I’ll need to source. This is in another league compared to the Baja bug and our bay window in terms of the amount of work involved.
The van was imported into the UK in 2009, having spent most of its life in Thailand (it was originally destined for Bahrain). A restoration was then partially started, including blasting it to bare metal. Unfortunately the restoration then stalled for many years so the unprotected metal has now started to rust again, so I’ll be getting it blasted again before I get stuck in.

I’ll be getting the shell trailered down to the workshop so I can start assessing what’s involved and stripping off any remaining bits before I send it off to the blasters.

Suffice to say I’m super excited! Here we go again kids!

 

Collection day for the new ‘65 split last weekend and the start of her journey back to being roadworthy!

Expertly loaded up by "The Pink Tow Guy" and dragged the 20 or so miles back to my workshop.

A big thank you to the previous owner, Phil, for letting me buy it off him. I’ve promised him and his kids that I’ll bring it back to them in a few years to take them all out for a ride.

 

Nice.

Will it be ready for Whitenoise?

 

which year?

 

Nope! One door left to remove.

I will be chopping out a bit more metal though as someone started fitting a new long panel but it's the wrong one for the year.
The cargo floor was also replaced (I think out in Thailand) but the pressings are awful and they decided to use box section for the floor supports instead of the correct I beams.

I'll be getting the blasters to epoxy it to seal the metal after blasting.

 

looks like a great project - looking forward to seeing this progessing

 

I do love hiding away over the winter chipping away at something like this.
I've got into a bit of a routine over the winter of biking out to the workshop regardless of the weather and spending a Saturday down there. It's a good 20 mile round trip so helps keep my fitness up a bit.
I've just built a mezzanine floor down there to free up a fair bit of room too (I need to have a bit of a sort out though!).

 

I hope not too much of it's missing, splitty catches and whatnot make bay bits look cheap, I think I'd rather have a more rotten whole one!

Good for you though, RHD for the win, I'll be watching.

 

Balls of steel, am sure will be nice when done.

 

Hey Jim - i found the part you need:

https://classicsteelbody.com/collections/bodies/products/fully-assembled-23-window-bus-body

just click "add to cart". job done.

 

I think what he needs is all the other parts.

 

I need to go through the boxes of bits it came with to work out what’s missing but unfortunately I think they’ll be quite a bit to bring together. This has the classic case of having a resto started by a company that subsequently went bust, and along with that a lot of bits went missing.

Thus far I’ve acquired some half decent front indicators and a really nice speedo for it.


I’ve also just bought some front seat frames for it for not much more money than a set of bay frames seems to go for (£175). I’ll be reupholstering them anyway so pointless paying more for a set that have the remnants of original 60 year old covers clinging on for dear life.

The metalwork will keep me busy while I track down the rest


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Well, that's a challenge.
I think I'd be looking for a unsaveable rotten LHD doner probably work out cheaper overall.
I'd love to mosey down one Saturday and see it in the flesh. If you make as good a job of it as the other two it will be stunning, I'm sure.

 

I think that's the problem though, not many seem to come up that aren't unsaveable.
I'm hopeful I can save quite a bit off this; I have all of the doors that also need blasting but look fairly solid.

 

A nice project,it looks mostly solid,,?

its probably thicker metal and less rusty than a bay thats been here for 40 years

 

Looks proper scary like that, obviously we can't see the transit van full of bits that came with it though.

I'm sure you will do it.

 

Yeah it looks worse than it is. The metal looks solid compared to the rot I had to chop out of the bay.

Here’s a random shot of the underside, the main chassis rails are rock solid.



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