Evening all... having been a member of TLB for some months now and posted several queries, which have been superbly answered by other TLB members, I thought it was about time I introduced myself, or should I say 'Freckle'. Freckle is a '79 RHD late bay with a 2l t4 engine and a Sheldon high top. She's called Freckle because her registration is REC and the only other name I could come up with using those letters was Wreck, which I thought was a bit unfair! Having owned Beetles in my youth and moving on to the inevitable 'modern' cars since, I was chuffed when my then Fiancée said she would like a bus, as I'd always wanted one too. So once we were married, and with a new baby only three months old, we spotted Freckle on eBay, but she was 250 miles away and sold very cheaply. A week later she was back on eBay as the buyer had failed to collect, but this time with a 'buy it now' price. Unfortunately, I just missed her as someone else got there just before me. Almost giving up hope, I messaged the seller and told him I'd be interested if he as let down again. Amazingly, ten days later he contacted me to tell me the second buyer had failed to turn up, so we agreed a price and she was delivered to my parent's house in Plymouth. Three days later, I traveled to Plymouth to see what I'd bought. In the eBay photos, Freckle looked fine, but I knew for the price we paid there was bound to be some fairly hefty expenditure to come. Freckle was advertised as 'possibly a Devon conversion', but I'm fairly certain she's a Holdsworth, as you can see below. The interior was original, but tatty, and had been hacked around several times so was a bit flimsy. She'd had a respray around 8 years ago, but had subsequently had a very poor 'top-up' coat more recently, which hadn't aged well. There is lots of filler, where you'd expect it, and some rust bubbling through here and there. She had horrible blue bucket seats (why, I don't know) and was showing her age. Nevertheless, I was happy with my new purchase. Having driven Freckle from Plymouth to my home in Milton Keynes with no problem (apart from steering which had a mind of it's own in side winds), I was happy enough to plan a trip to see some relatives on the south coast 120 miles away, so we packed ourselves, our 12-year old and 4-month old daughters and two dogs into Freckle on a Friday evening in January. Eight miles later, the engine died . It was dark, and we were stuck on the inside lane of a very busy roundabout above junction 13 of the M1, with juggernauts racing each other round the roundabout and narrowly avoiding missing us on several occasions. I looked to see if I could find anything obvious, but in the end had to phone the RAC, who took 3.5 hours to get a recovery vehicle to us, despite us being a 'priority' case due to our dangerous location and having a baby on board... grrr . Having suffered the indignity of having a piggy-back home, I had a look inside the engine bay the next morning and found a loose connection at the back of the engine (arrowed below) that I hadn't spotted the night before on the roundabout. Five minutes later it was sorted and the engine was running again. Rather than take any more risks, and with the MOT only four weeks away, I propped her up on axle stands to see what work would be needed. I could see that some welding was required, but couldn't really gauge how much, so we took her to Ro-Fit in Milton Keynes for assessment. As you'll know... with a 34-year old bus, it's never going to be a case of just sorting a few panels as inevitably, 'the leg bone's connected to the knee bone, and the knee bone's connected to the foot bone' so if you do one thing, you'll end up having to do them all. I couldn't afford the £3,000 to do the whole lot at once, so we agreed on a few essential replacement panels and then some proper 'patches' to see me through the next few years. £1,500 later and I was pleased with the results, and I had a year's MOT too . Although she's now solid, there's still plenty to be done, so the rolling restoration has now started. I may start a restoration thread to record progress as I'm inspired by the superb work done by Paradox, Zebedee and Diddymen in TLB, although I don't think I'll be able to spare the time to go to the same lengths (with a baby vying for attention as well), but I'll give it a go! We've booked a weekend camping at Camper Jam in July so hope to have a new interior by then and, although she won't have been resprayed, she'll be in a lot better shape than when we bought her in December '12. In the meantime, I'm thoroughly enjoying reading the discussions, banter and camaraderie on TLB so look forward to meeting some of you at future shows. Andrew & Karen (and, of course, Freckle!)
Nice story - sounds like you got a bargain despite having work to do (don't we all, lol). Nice to see another beige bus - it's a colour that's growing on me.
Hi Neptuneblue... thanks for your comment... I'm not sure that 'Mexico Beige' is ever a colour that will grow on me, but at least it's relatively rare!
Welcome to TLB Freckle And congratulations on what looks like a good buy, never mind a quick trip on the back of 'big yellow' or whatever the RAC use, it doesn't count unless its more than 9 miles
Haha - I know I said the same thing about beige. I think I'll still paint mine a deep sunset yellow eventually.
Welcome Freckle and thanks for posting the story of the beginning with you new owners. Hope you will look after each other for years to come.
Welcome along. Here's to many happy years of camping (I love the name Freckle - I think most buses should be called that, what with all those 'freckles' of rust and paint bubbles they seem to collect!).
Hello and welcome to you and Freckle I had a similar "loose connection" a couple of weeks back....but it was the battery +ve which had worked its way loose
Thanks Terrordales... I'm probably about to show myself up now by asking, but I have to ask... what does MOTTLBOFC stand for?
Thanks to Neptuneblue, Major Hangover, Hailfrank, Lofty, Bernjb56, Mrs Moosey, Pyroking, Madpad, Lord Charles, and of course, the Colonial Contingent for your warm welcomes to TLB... loads better than Facebook and Twitter... real people with common interests who are happy to share their experiences, have a laugh, and most importantly, meet up from time to time over a beer!
You're right - that's why I like this place Can't wait to actually meet some of the folks from here at a show or something in the future
