Aardvark's '78 (Re-issue)

Ok, had some problems with Photobucket so managed to lose all my pictures from my original thread, so I'm going to bore you all senseless again and restart my resto thread. Luckily the old thread didn't have much on so not much catching up to do!

Bought the van for a bargain price from my brother-in-law who bought it from a mate to avoid it being included within a divorce settlement. On first viewing it looks a solid project bus to work on.










Notice the array of colours present under the dash!



It had a minimal interior...




.. and minimal engine


It's funny looking back at old pictures to see things now that you didn't notice previously.

 

It arrives at Chez Aarvark...


and with a bit of help




We get it into the garage...


...just!


Got the engine out within fifteen minutes of it being home


There's not much too the engine but will be useful for a part exchange.


It's new home for the next, er, several years!

 

Removed the fuel tank firewall




Striped the already sparse interior

 

Removed the fuel tank which is not in the best of nick

 

The skylight was re-arranged getting it into the garage so a temporary measure was put in place.

 

With the engine out started under covering the horrors of the engine bay

 

Leaning against the front of the camper one day, I heard a loud crack. After further investigation this is what I found.










Obviously a PO had made a rather poor job of covering the spare wheel mount on the front. "a PO had made a rather poor job" will become a recurring theme.

 

under the bus one day I notice a double skin on the rear corner. Further investigation lead to...









Notice how the panel line has actually be carved out of filler and the original one covered up.

 

Ouch!!

Thats a real bodge job keep up the good work

 

oh my word ... thats mad

 

Had not seen these the pics of web you first got the van mate , was in bad way. Keep the pics coming I want more lol

 

BayBug, you may regret saying that!

Not only were the rear corners interestingly mended, the left hand side proved equally interesting.










Got a bit bored.

 

Underneath the rear left chassis rail

Removed what was left of the bottom of the left hand rear corner

 

Seems to happen alot 'the panel over panel' repair but at least they took the time to draw the seams in!

C'mon then lets see some more

 

Its shocking I'd rather see someone who has tryed to fit a new panel after cutting out the old and made a bad weld of it but had a good do if you know what I mean .
That is just bad all over .
I've seen a few of your pics of the rear arch before but did not see the others in that state

 

^^^^ what he said

 

Stripped the top of the chassis rail to find the following: -

 

Some interesting use of expanding foam





The dreaded Y-tube isn't great


But at least the floor plan underneath looks ok

 

you did say it was a bargain..
well keep up the good work fella