Hello! It's been a while. My first (and last) bay was in 1999, a '79 panel van in yellow. I got it from a guy in Sheffield, gave him my MK1 Jetta (which I had bought for £350) and £600. Those were the days. It was a good wagon, but needed bodywork which I didn't have the funds or facilities to do and plans to convert it to a camper never materialised. When my dad passed on a Reliant Scimitar SS1 (terrible car) I sold the T2 to a "mate" who refused to even change the oil and thrashed it mercilessly until the engine blew up. Shame. It's the one on the left. A couple of years after that I bought a tatty T25 panel van off a carpenter friend for £600. This one did get a basic conversion, insulated and boarded and a full width rock and roll bed fitted. I tidied up the bodywork using a brush and some coach paint and painted a stripe down the side. Despite a tendency to overheat when going up hills this was a great fun vehicle, reliable and virtually rust free. Had it for quite a few years but for one reason and another wasn't using it enough so sold it to another friend. I cried when it left. Jump ahead to 2014, with two kids and a taste for some adventure the urge to buy another wagon took over. This time the budget was a little more generous so I started looking at proper camper conversions. I went to see quite a few T25s and the reality hit me that actually most of them are pretty rusty by now. Finding a decent one, with the right spec reasonably local for under £5000 was actually starting to look like a challenge. So, when I saw what looked like a solid T2 with reasonable spec and a Sheldon high top, freshly listed on eBay, just within my budget and only down the road my heart took over and I pressed the Buy it Now button. Oops!
Welcome to the S H i T club (Sheldon HIgh-Top) club... I think there are now three of us on here! They may not be sexy... and they may never see the inside of a domestic garage, but at least we can stand upright when cooking our bacon in the morning!
Thanks all for the warm welcome! Great! Would love to see some more pics of your bus! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder... I happen to think that the Sheldon top makes for a pretty cool looking van, sure it's not as pretty as a tintop but as you say being able to stand up (and all the extra storage space) more than makes up for it IMO. In terms of practicality it's hard to beat. The luton van disappeared from that neighbourhood (Islington/Hackney borders) a long time ago. I'm not sure if it was still in work when the picture was taken - I never met the owner. I saw a similarly signwritten "Richardsons" VW LT luton around North London a few times later on.
Thought I'd start a thread on the van: http://thelatebay.com/index.php?threads/1973-sheldon-high-top-camper.46854/
