Nara the 74 Late Bay

Hi guys,

Been looking for around 2 years and finally stumbled upon her in February this year. We collected her was super excited to finally have her home. Shes a 74 Baywindow, apparently a one owner bus. Here are a few photos from the day that we collected her.











She was complete, not missing anything except for the rear door inner panel at the time we collected her. Has all her seats, door panels and wheel caps. We have since then stripped out the seats and threw out the old carpets, scrubbed, and cleaned the floors, door panels and seats. Cut new boards for the front and rear door.

 

Here are more photos that we took on Saturday and Sunday when we started stripping her for a clean, the day after we collected her.

The before:

All the seats and panels still there.









Engine needed a good clean.



Roof lining still nice.



Looks nice and solid underneath.



Shift boss doing early inspection before the strip down begins



Seats out.. Carpet has to go!!



Carpets out and the floor is nice, only a few small rusty spots.

 

Front nice but they seemed to have fixed the drivers side with fiberglass that needs some new metal.



Started cleaning the rear, can see the difference.



Inside nice and clean.



Front cleaned up.



Scrubbed the seats and you can see the difference on the backrest. Seats look nice and still have a few thousand km's of life in them



Cut new boards for the front of the bus, and the rear door. My GF traced the rear out of paper and made a stencil for us to work off.





Fitted and looking neat.

 

More pics





Decided to spray the bumpers, grill and front badge white as the entire bus looked boring in the same color.



Also decided to spray the tow bar and exhaust while the bumpers were off.. no use having a fresh bumper when the rest looks old and worn.











and fitted , looking much better!

 

White bumpers fitted with the grill and badge and it looks a lot better. also replaced all the bolts and nuts while the bumpers were off with new ones





Went to our first swop meet last sunday at the piton ring club and found almost everything that we were looking for.



Old dashboard handle



New and looking great



Also got a radio as a gift from my dad so the bus finally has some music in her!! :hangloose:

 

That's one stunning find,,congrats !

 

hi very nice!

 

Hi holmsen and S1, thanks a lot! She really is a diamond in the rough. I sent her rims in for fixing and powder coating as we bought white wall tyres that we want to have fitted.

 

You gotta love SA bay's. I have 2

Welcome

 

Tin tops rock btw

 

Hi Joker, you have 2?? Can u post a link to them please?

 

Look in show is your ride at Joker's bus... and Joka's Doka

My other ride is the Pretender



The Pretender is the blue one. I guess you could say he is the black sheep of the family.

Joker's bus is the white one, a 1974 South African bay tintop. Who knows, we could be brothers?

Here is Joka's Doka. He's a 1972 but also South African. Probably a distant cousin.

 

@NTO Where was she from GP or ND land?
Looking at the bottom of the screen I guess ND.
Tony

 

Looks good - like the way the seats have cleaned up

 

@ Joker, its amazing how far away the busses are yet they could be closer than one thinks.. Would love to know where they stood in the production line from each other... Gives me a funny feeling seeing your busses and knowing they come from here.. Im always admiring the overseas busses not knowing they might have been local once apon a time..

@ Bhubesi, GP, bus originates from the Mpumalanga area if you are fimilier with it?

 

Nice van you've got there.

 

Seat are in really good condition regarding there age, bus cleaned up real nice from the first day we saw her.

@ Disco_kegs - Thanks alot!!

 

First trip out with our 1982 Jurgens.. This picture is what we saw more than 2 years ago when we started looking for a bus, we always thought it would be awesome to tow our old caravan with an old bus so this picture really has a lot of meaning for us.

 

I'm familiar...........except we called it something different ....just as well its from there, I had a friend with a Beetle in Durban, and the windscreen pillar completely rotted through.
Mind you he lived close to the sea front, so its not really suprising.
Where are you at exactly?
Tony

 

I have no history of its former life, other than it was an ambulance bus. Its chassis was filled with a vivid red sand if that is an indication of its location. I was told somewhere in the Transvaal region (is it known as that anymore?)

will private message my chassis number to you