The fish, belonged to a mate of mine... well mate/customer... I ended up working on it doing some electrical jobs, and also on a splitty that he owned!! After working on the splitty over a couple of weekends while he was away, he announced that he was emigrating to canada and he was going to take his vans with him... 6 months or so later, I'd moved, and he was off in canada, and I saw that the fish was for sale.. dropped him a email, and right enough it was, but he was pretty sure that he'd just sold it bugger I thought.... about 3 months after that, I noticed that it was up for sale again... quick email, and a phone conversation later, where he basically talked me into buying it (not that I needed much persuading), i was one happy owner of a last edition bay Looked almost like that, apart from it'd sat round for the best part of a year, so the nicely polished teles were no longer shiney.. and some of the old rust had started to push through in a place or two!! Just need to get my finger out and get her back on the road now!!
Wifey wanted a T2 and had been looking around for a while but she had just got a Cooper S Works which had cost us a few sheckles and my brother in law spotted this one in a small ad in the local Adtrader at £950. We rung and rung and it was a wrong number so we rung Adtrader asking for the guys email contact details and they wouldn't give them due to confidentiality so I asked them to pass on my number with a message that the number was wrong. Turns out I was the first guy who'd thought to do that. Got it for £825 and a further £300 for 2 brand new heads, 4 brand new pots / pistons, a brand new carb and most of the parts to rebuild the lump. This is how she looked when I collected it and then after a wash down. She's a rotter though. )
Fed up of viewing one rust bucket after the other I went on eBay Australia to have a look what was being sold down there. Fell in love there and then and pushed the 'buy it now button'. The bus was totally rot and rust free, with one loving owner from new. I do keep in touch with the original owners in Oz and they absolutely love what I've done to the bus. It's 2 years now since she arrived in the UK and she's now 95% complete, to where I want her to be. She'll be 100% complete by the Spring.
Looked at a few rotters that had been bodged and painted by unscrupulous dealers; (no names but they're up North Wales way) then found the bus I have now. Bought it 7 years ago from a guy in Oxford. As an Oz import it was rock solid bar the bottom of the slider and a front arch, and the steering wheel was on the right side! Drove it as was for about 5 years, then decided to sort out the minor rust issues and get a re-paint. Ended up bare metalling the bus and having any rust issues cut out and repaired. Then had it painted and put back together with all new seals etc. Looks bloody lovely now, but hardly use it as I'm away all the time! Keep threatening to sell it but dont know if it'll ever actually happen.
Went travelling in OZ, in a hired winnebago, loved the 'life is on your back' lifestyle, so decided to look at VW campers when we got back. May 2010 On Fleabay one Thurs night, having a few beers, watching bids on late bays. Saw one, called Alice, that was rotten over the bottom 6 inches and had been off the road for 6 years but was attracting a lot of bids. Started to play bid and then after a few more beers, ended up 'winning' the bid. Drove to London, saw the rot was a little worse than the photos, windows out, some filling and prepping underway but run out of funds to finish the work, so picked up the van. Transported her home, partner and family immediate reaction was 'what have you bought - bag of nails'. Stripped man-made surf-bum interior out to get empty shell, off to the welders and sprayers. Found out since that we have done the third restoration of Alice in her 35 years. We have photos of the first restoration, when the rear windows were cut into what was a mini bus originally, when she was all cream coloured. We have recently met the family of the owners of Alice for her second restoration and are currently awaiting some photos of her from around this time. They sprayed her blue and white, which we have continued. Dec 2010 to Feb 2011 Both front wheel arches, inner panel. deformation panel, chassis and front axle needed rot cutting out and new metal welding in. New master cylinder, brake shoes, disks replaced. Rear wheel arches both sides, repairs to both doors, sliding door, window surrounds rot cut out and new metal welded in. so, with all rust cut out, prepped, primed etc., then resprayed. looked beautiful but with empty interior. MAr 2011 met with mckinnon campers, discussed what we thought we wanted to do with the inside. they advised us differently and we agreed cabinets in the back, rock n roll bed, new electrics and leisure battery, cabinet behind front seats, with tv and dvd player in it. all panels re-covered, new headlining, front bench and driver seat recovered, kick panels replaced. Paris sunroof fitted. 2012 work :- Engine and oil leak issues, so engine replaced with re-conditioned 1641cc with twin webber ICT32's. Battery tray and rear corners cut out and replaced. New wheels put on. MVC steering wheel put on. 2012 Brighton Breeze Show and Shine Late Bay winner !! 2 years of work and much cost but we love the van and the scene so much that we would do it all again, no problem ! 2012 winter work planned - to add a Dormobile roof, if we can source one !
Since i'm still pretty new here --so some may remember 'willow's' story, One day on my way to work i spotted her sitting on a junk/scrapper's trailer on her way to the junk yard,Mike the scrapper & i have been kinda friendly since i bought parts from him in the past,well any way- i call Mike up & he tells me the van runs they had just bought it at a metal auction the night before & were just getting ready to go to scrap it,I ask from him to hold off til after lunch, Well my oldest son (D.J) has always loved VW's-- usally bugs but prices here are stupid! so at lunch time i go & look at this beat up van,I really didn't have the extra money since i was putting my car together,but my son was getting ready to graduate from high school & was going to turn 18 years old,so we (Mike &me) make a deal for $650 US {419 quid} after i drive over to where i work & have 1 of our mechianics look at (he works on VW's),well i came up the plan to tell DJ that i was working on it for mike-cause i'm always working on other folks junk for some extra $,DJ's face lite up as soon as he saw this little beat up bus,we worked on it every week end for a month or so so-with each DJ wanting it more & more,Damn it was hard to keep the story going! One of the first things we did was clean all the junk out of it & start to polish the old dead paint,with in a day it went from creamy tomateo to a red apple right before our eyes,well behind my back on facebook DJ had started to think the bus was his! DAMN!!! had to think fast---so i told him Mike didn't want to put any more money into it & was going to junk it,so i asked a lady i work with if i could hide it at her house til graduaion still (a week away)so 1 night the bus disappeaered,DJ was upset- he started to really love that little piece of junk,It was hard to watch him be in a funk about wasting time working on it & having it junked,man he was :censored: here i sat back & watched it all unfold--he was trying to get anybody to loan him the money to save the bus from the scrapper,I really started to feel for him -all a while enjoying watching him freak out > so a week later during his graduation party me & the misses snuck out & retieved the bus,while he was unwrapping his presents I wrapped 2 toy buses & the title and licence plates,when he unwrapped the toys he didn't find it funny by NO means! BUT the look on his face with he saw the paper work & lincence plates! well during our first tear down we found insurance cards for a car rental company,so it was a rental car at one time during the the mid 70's probally when it got all the body damage that was just filled & not fixed right,it has a insurance sticker for when it went to Mexico in the 80's & it spent time as a Wyoming press van some time in it life,I do know for sure it has not been the road since 1995 & the previous owner tried to work on it, check out my signure for the link to photobucket picture or http://thelatebay.com/index.php?topic=15025.msg259639#msg259639 http://thelatebay.com/index.php?topic=13147.msg206928#msg206928
I'd wanted a van for a while as the boyfriend and I like camping but as he doesn't drive and is useless at putting up tents I was getting abit peeved that I had to do the driving and manage putting the tent up. I had grown up with my dad's beetle and my thoughts turned to a VW camper, however at the time a camper was just not affordable to us, we couldn't buy a resto as we just didn't have the know how for one and my dad was busy restoring his beetle so I put all thoughts of one to the back of my mind and didn't even mention my idea to the boyfriend. The the boyfriend got made redundant and found a new job straight away so we ended up with a nice sum that we were going to do sensible things with, so I raised my VW idea and was told if I want one I will have to save for one :'( So I was resigned to viewing them on ebay and I even added an expensive jaffa one to my watch list and the bidding ended with it unsold, at the time I hated jaffa vans and swore I would never get one that colour . Then the day after New Year I then saw a lovely what appeared to be MINT baby blue bus on the Friday ad so briefly mentioning to the boyfriend 'i'm just looking' I disappeared out to collect my dad and go and view what actually turned out to be a rust bucket that was literally falling apart (They were after £10k) we told them we were really looking for one that needed less work and were told we wouldn't find better for the money! So off I trotted back to my parents and whipped out thier laptop and showed my dad the jaffa one. He was impressed, there was a telephone no and the guy explained he didn't sell it as he wasn't getting what he was after for it (14k) and was going to wait until spring, he then explained he was getting divorced and having to sell the van so I asked if we could view it and off we went out again. Went for a test drive (dad driving not me) as this was the first time I had even set foot in a van. Offered the guy £12500 cash went to the bank to withdraw the boyfriends redundancy money (well would YOU be angry if your girlfriend randomly spent your money on a vw? > ) and bought the bus. (That's what you get for putting it in a joint account, what's yours is mine) Drove it the 30 miles home only for it to run out of petrol juts as we pull onto my parents drive and discovered the fuel gauge didn't work. All has been well since, I then learnt to drive the bus and luckily even that didn't scare me off it! The boyfriend wasn't that impressed at first (but oddly wasn't angry either?) We have been away a few times and it was only 2 weeks that the boyfriend came home drunk and finally admitted he likes my little Jaspervan ;D It has had 11 owners and from the paperwork the owner before the one I bought from had bought it from a dealer in a rough shape and had alot of welding and chassis work done to get it back on the road in 2005/2006 down in somerset, although it wasn't a full restoration. I have no info from before this.
Fair play to your boyfriend for not blowing his top -- surely he gave you at least tentative permission , well done for getting a van !
crikes! you withdrew your fellas redunni cash ? whew ! he must be a very relaxed dude !(i salute him !) re tickets , i won 2 for m. jackson moons ago , was gonna sell em , but girl in pub told my then missus !!! (thank you !) so off to the gig we went ! wouldn"t have minded so much but m.jackson ,open air ,Glasgow Green ? eh , no way !!!!
Back in the year of our Lord, nineteen hundred & ninety six, Mrs. Fishtrousers thought it might be a good idea to get a van. I was not over enamoured with the idea but was talked into going to Vanfest with the express idea of buying one. 'Well', says she, 'we can run it for a year & see how we get on, we'll probably be able to get our money back' Our budget was two & a half thousand pounds & not a penny more. I don't know if you remember Vanfest back then, but the 'for sale' area was about 5 vans near the central road just to the right of the big hall thing - hopeless, the lot of them. But there were absolutely loads for sale all scattered about the camping area including a rather nice split (within budget, but lacking an interior). Went to speak to Phil Shaw - back in those days he was something big in the TTOC & he said, 'if you want to use it, buy a bay, if you just want to go to shows, buy a split' So we pottered round taking pictures of stuff for sale & writing down phone numbers. A week later, when the photos came back - anyone else remember that? We phoned an old bloke called Frank in Sheffield who was selling his beloved 47,000 mile bay 'Bertha' for £2950 'and I'm not bartering with you, if you don't want to pay the full price, I'll keep her' HER? Off to Sheffield we went with 200 quid in the fishtrouser pocket & after a bit of a test drive & a demonstration of how to spill two cups of coffee whilst erecting a Rock n Roll bed, a deposit was paid. Receipt was given - Frank actually signed his name over a second class stamp stuck to a sheet of Basildon Bond! The following weekend, nipped back with a bundle of cash to become the fifth owner of a bog standard '79 bay. 16 years later & Bertha has had a bit of weight saving, the B has gone & she is now Ertha. The interior has been re-uphostered, the cupboards have been rebuilt. The arches, inner & outer sills have been replaced. Four of the Five opening doors have been replaced. The rear suspension sagged so much that dropped spindles were put on the front to level things up. Every single ancillary engine component has been replaced, although the original carb lasted for 25 years and the replacement for just 3. So the original was sent to that strange Laurie bloke for a rebuild and is back on and carbing again. The engine long block & gearbox remain original with 158,000 miles on them. Oh, it's got a 10,000 watt Marshall sound system* Fun breakdowns include an early attempt at Porlock Hill with minimal brake fluid - stopping on the handbrake so close to the temporary traffic light sign that I had to back off. Comedy coil failure on the Brighton Breeze many years ago when we had two scrap coils, one on the engine & another in the fridge. Each would run for about 20 miles before it had to swap over & have a bit of a cooldown in the fridge - 12 times we had to do that. Bought a replacement on the sea front. Gear linkage failure on the way down to Cornwall was not going to ruin my holiday. All the gears were still there, they just weren't where any sane person would expect them to be & 1st & 3rd kept jumping out, which made hill starts an entertaining two man job. 4th was somewhere by the back seat & on the way home it stayed there for 300 miles. I was crossing roundabouts in top. End of the season now & it will have its gutters filled with vaseline in a week or two and be sorned at the end of the month, but I have no intention of selling - ever. *this bit may not be true.
i would love to know where our first van is now a 71 Danbury bought in 1978 - it was like new ! We bought it off my wife's dad who had owned it from 1973 , he took his wife and 7 kids to Italy in it for a month every year , i had one trip in it to Borth with him and decided i wanted it , three month's later and £900 lighter it was mine , we loved it and kept it until 1988 when we sold it to help buy our dream home , a year later we couldn't live without a bay and went out and got a 76 Devon which we kept until the mid 90s , we never use that one so much . Lou walking back to our first van in Belvedere Maritimo calabria southern Italy in 1984 -
i'll just re link to my story i did a few months back http://thelatebay.com/index.php?topic=14829.msg231943#msg231943
