Confessions of a late bay owner

Once upon a time I had two lovely Late bay's.

This Westy which I'd had for 10 years.


And this ex-Devon Dormobile I'd got more recently because I thought it was cheap.


Life changed and in quick succession the buses had to go to pay bills.

But I had a little bit left, so before it got frittered on random useless rubbish I bought Pumpkin unseen on Ebay. Oh the irony! I'd seen a few pics and the recent MOT fail. It looked like it was mechanically sound but needed time and some panels. That was basically right and it was about as bad as I'd imagined.


I did 6 weeks of solid welding on Pumpkin, then shuffled her about as she was always in the way and I didn't have much time to attend to her. I did some filler from time to time, got a pair of imported doors and then stripped the engine for everything but the block, barrels, pistons and flywheel for a new engine...


...for my newest bus.


I shouldn't have bought the early of course, I should have finished Pumpkin.

This thread might encourage me to pull my finger out and finish her.

 

Well?? Crack on then! Lol
You take any pics along the way? Don't be so hard on yourself fella, remember, the early was the first bus I'd ever been in

 

Pumpkin was a bit rusty.






...and had the dreaded belly pans fitted.


But as I often say "never buy a van with dodgy gutters"


So not all bad.

 

She has an interior too.


The ad was a bit short on pics of the pop-top and had me wondering, but it turns out it and it's concertina bellows are in excellent condition. 4 years and I don't have a photo!

 

Stick an mot on it and sell it otherwise it will keep stealing a little bit of your soul at a time

 

I have a few, but as always, this was for me so a lot of the time I didn't bother taking pics.
From the front, it had:
New deformation panel and repairs to inner valance and ends of chassis rails and lower front panel as needed.


Rebuilt A-posts of course.


front panel windscreen repair panel down to the grill and local repairs to the inner screen panel. No pics for some reason.

Front arches both sides and local repairs i.e. everything they touch!

 

Not quite the same standard as my welding fella, as you're well aware lol! Good job but then wouldn't expect anything less mate
I reckon you should keep it, all on the up now isn't it so do a little something for you this time

 

Working backwards, the usual top hat and I beam repairs, all new outriggers and jacking point, new sills, rear tub repairs, replacement arches, rear corners, valance, battery trays, closing panels, stuff inside the engine bay...

 

Then I pinched it's nice loose ball jointed front trailing arms and it's still up on stands in the paint shop.

 

your guilty secret. i thought it was going to be the confession about women's underwear?

 

That was supposed to be private.

 

It's just gone public.

 

oops. soz.

 

Look! New bits! One thing I have at least been sensible about it prepping, rust-proofing and painting the underside repairs, though obviously not in this picture.

 

Typically, it didn't look too bad before I started but I did know about all the underneath rot from the pages of MOT rot failures.

 

6 weeks welding...

I like pumkin better than you other bus ,it looks normal...

 

Yes but there's no rust now, no good doing half the job just to get an MOT.
I agree about it looking more normal but the early wasn't meant to be normal. When it's done maybe I'll sell the early and keep Pumpkin (after some engine swapping).

 

If you sell the early, I think I know of someone born in '68 who might be tempted to buy it.

 

would that by any chance be Ricky the Kid ?