Billy The Bus .... My Tangerine Dream.

Well the back ground story and intro to my resto is this.... When I was five, Dad Mum, and a couple of friends decided to drive to Spain, and my Dad being a VW fan chose to do the journey in a jaffa/white late bay pop top. This is the only photo I have of the camper.



After that holiday/adventure I wanted a jaffa VW camper, and I would get excited every time I saw one for the next thirty three years. Fast forward from 1975 to 2008, I was made redunant but managed to land another job straight away. After some discussion with the family, the redundancy would fund a camper. We could only afford 3k at most, so our choice was limited. I stayed away from ebay and tried the vw specialist sites. When I saw this picture. I was smitten !


Well its jaffa, a late bay, and I thought a camper (wrong!!). I rang the owner that lived in Newark but worked in Holland (first clue). People had been contacting him regarding the bus, but he was never in the UK when they wanted to a viewing. But would you beleive it, he was back in Newark this Sunday..... it was mean't to be. I had viewed a couple of bus's already, and seen the rust monster at it's best. So armed with poking stick overalls, and my five year old son, we drove to Newark on a damp Sunday morning. This is what greeted me........


You know they say you buy a vehicle in the first 20 seconds of seeing it.. well it was true with my bus. I spent two hours poking around, and yes it was rusty, but every panel was straight, and I felt this was an honest bus. By this time my boy had worked his magic and was playing football with owners two daughters. We struck a deal and arranged to collect the following Wednesday when he had renewed the mot. It failed on an old patch of welding, the garage welded a patch the size of a fifty pence, and roberts your dads brother. When I turned up to collect, the previous owner had found an awning, roof rack, and a load of books, he let me have the lot at no extra cost, top bloke! but his kids were crying, when I asked what the problem was, he explained that Billy the bus was leaving and they was devastated. So out of respect, I promised to keep his name "Billy the Bus". The interior was a bit ruff ......



And I needed to size up the full extent of the rust problem.

 

It was the usaul bottom six inches, doors, battery trays both sides, archers, sliding door bottom, front steps, front panel, rear valance...... blah blah. I didnt relise that surface rust is 99% of the time total rust.


Anyway we decided to put a tempaory interior in, new wheels, and a little lowering... and use Billy.
Pre lowering....

After lowering...

And then we met you lovley lot....

A lot good memories made, it was decided a full resto to our own taste was in order......
let stripping commence....

The paint strip revaeled what I needed to repalce and repair, the red oxcide, and primer paint, is just to keep rust away while it travels to Absolute VW for metal work and paint. In the mean time all the running gear, brakes, axles suspension, engine, gear box, was returned to me for strip to the component parts and prep for powder coating. The parts were then returned for me to rebuild. I didnt have the resouces or time to do the metal work and paint myself, but I was determined that I was going to rebuild Billy myself, every nut and bolt.

 

The running gear was rebuilt and returned to Absolute.. they had been busy blasting the underside and replacing all the rusty bits.



This is original L26Q colour Dutch Jaffa. (clue 2) and a removal rear valance made for easy engine removal.

Sliding door repaired,sunroof gone


New doors and front panel.

 

Now the axles were refitted and we could push it round the corner to midland coach works for the paint on top, and the dash panel and bumpers.

I spent two years at the Toyota factory in Derby as a top coat (paint) inspector, so I ended up inspecting the work every couple of days, this drove the painter nuts. So I asked for a block finish and this removed all the blemishes through the process.

This was the result, after being shown at Dub Freeze, Billy came home.....


Time to start the rebuild, problem was, I didnt take it apart, so all parts needed to be researched for where they fit and how. Then I had to decide whether to replace or restore every single part..... so where do I start ???



Steering, wiring loom, screen washer, indicators, dash..... you get the picture.

 

Gearbox, drive shafts, and CV's. Fuel tank painted, new fuel lines and filler.



All the internal controls, clutch, brake, and accelator pedals, heater cables and in cab air vents.

Brake drums and front calipers stripped and rebuilt.

Goodridge hoses. I am a motor bike fan and track day rider, so goodridge is a given.

Lights, front air vent, sliding door, seals, catches, handles, but still after three attempts the sliding window will not go in, we will return to that. And the brakes..........

 

Yep sunroof defo on the leaking.
S0 engine time. This is the start.

 

all cyclinders leaking at 6 and 12 O'clock. So I decided on a top end refresh.
The four stages of cleaning, and lapping. These are sodium filled valves.

 

Barrels cleaned, and lapped into the heads, I did use a little permatex copper to help with the sealing.

 

So the rebuild can start, I cannot believe how long it took to clean everything, I am talking weeks.

 

Cyclinder heads, tinware.

 

Cooling/heating flaps, fan housing.

 

Alternator, new IDF 40 webber carbs, HE's, exhaust..... you get the picture.

 

ok time to refit.

 

I made the mistake of buying a crank end oil seal, from a local shop. It was too big and when I fitted the engine it refused to turn over. So I sourced the original vw seal, pull the engine and refit. DOH !

 

Ok so after making my final list of things to complete before MOT of which there was 22. Billy finally went back to absolute for a nut and bolt double check of all my work. They tweaked a few things and questioned some other bits I had done and advised on jobs to do in the future. Billy past the MOT and this is the finished bus.

 

Since then I have finished the bash plates and fitted a pair of Porsche tombstone seats, and quickly dropped a floor in so I could keep a promise to my son that we would attend Techenders. The Plan over the winter is to fit a cool interior, a lot of nice timber and leather.




Once I have the interior finished I will post and complete the story, hopefully I will have met most of you by then at shows and events through next year. Thank you to everyone at Techenders, we had a brilliant time despite the weather, it was the perfect place for Billy maiden voyage, Eddies farm.

 

Billy looks superb, gutted I didn't get to catch up with you at the weekend, its been far too long!

 

What a great looking bus and an interesting read, I wish Alf my bus looked like the the underside of yours!!

 

Yes Mark Was looking forward to catching up with you.