Our '78 Auto named Poddington

As its a new forum I have decided to start a thread for our little green machine

I was searching for months for as best a bus that I could find with my 8k budget. While I was looking, Me and the missus found out that she was expecting! Which was awesome news, then I had the moral dilemma of, do I spend the money on what initially I saw as a selfish purchase? Or do I save the money and use it to buy everything we need for the little one, or even save it for House deposit? Well, after a long mental battle with my own conscience, and with influence from my girlfriend Amanda, who is actually an official dubber anyway, I decided to go for it and get one. On my quest I saw a few that were just above what I was hoping to spend, but weren't really worth it, I went to see a really ratty splitty panel van that the guy wouldn't budge from 9k but it needed a lot of work and was completely bare inside which would mean spending more money getting it up to even basic camping standard! So I was torn, a ratty split and camp in serious dark ages, or aim for a decent bay with a camping set up that me, the missus and the new little one, plus a dog, could use happily.

To help sway my decision I saw a really nice condition 78 Devon that had been restored a couple of years ago... all looked good in the pictures and the owner even sent me some videos of it starting, tour of the inside etc which was great.....but it was in Glasgow! I was living in Luton at the time! Luckily my friend is very clued up with VW's so I asked him to go with me, it didn't take much convincing as I was paying for him, so off we set!

We arrive in Glasgow airport with about 3 hours to kill before the owner got home from work, so we decided to have a coffee, then we got bored and went for a walk around outside the airport. I must point out that my friend is German, he lives on a canal boat, is a skipper and looks homeless... I am carrying a bag with 8 thousand pounds in it and we go for a walk... what could go wrong!?

As we are walking along past the pick up and drop off point of Glasgow airport we get chatting and before we know it we are at the industrial part with the bus depo etc, and decide to turn back round, as we do, Wim noticed something random, something to do with how badly an electrical generators fencing was earthed... because he's random like that! After he's lost interest we start to carry on walking and a Mitsi Shogun pulls up... the Police.. due to us two looking suspicious they decided to stop us and ask a few questions. It was the typical good cop, bad cop, the good cop takes our names and goes to the car to check us out, while the bad cop, for this story, we will call him Tit.

Tit decides to ask us every interrogation question he can possibly think of, relevant or not, then he asks, is there anything I should know about in your bag? When I told him I had 8k in there, and he's just seen us at an electrical box by the airport lol, I had to show him the ad for the car to prove where I was going, tell them the owners name etc, a complete nightmare!

Anyway... sorry about that, I went to see the camper, had a look round with Wim and we went for a little walk to discuss it, he asked how much it was, I said 8k and he said buy it because its worth 12 or 13 all day long, so I didnt insult the guy by trying to ask for less, so we shook on 8000, he was a fellow dubber too so that would have been insulting, so I set off at around 6 from Glasgow, and finally got home to Sheffield at 3 in the morning!! I had to stop 3 times for fuel and to wake up but made it home and here he is!








So I have a camper and an amazing little boy now 11 weeks old!



Ive bought a few bits that need to be put on/swapped on the van so watch this space....
seatbelts and lowering him is next!

Thanks for reading my tedious post

Brucie

 

Nice find

 

Great looking bus, and RHD too, looks fantastic & congrats on the new addition, happy camping fella

 

Very nice van, typical Glasgow Polis

The young 'un OK too

 

As the rest say nice van And good luck with your little one

 

Nice van, interesting write up and a bonnie baby boy. Congrats all round.

 

You found a gem there well done mate

 

Down at the bottom of the garden amongst the birds and the bees theres a lot of little people called the poddington peas

Cool bus dude i love the colour

 

cheers for the comments guys,

I taxed it on Tuesday and took it to Autotronix developments in Sheffield, who sorted out my lousy speed and crap up hill performance, turned out my passenger side carb had appalling fuel pressure, they poured fuel into the carb and it just disappeared so under strain like up a hill for example, I was basically just running on one carb! I also had them re jetted and had the timing sorted, I will be going back there as and when my carbs need looking at again for sure! It was 144 quid well spent in my opinion! Now I actually enjoy driving him as I know it can cope a bit better with hills etc, and is also much better on fuel now. Just the motorway test to go!

Here is the link for autotronix
http://autotronixdevelopments.co.uk/ Clive is sound and is very familiar with aircooled VW so happy days!

 

lovely bus and story ...

I like a lot...

Congrats on the rugrat as well..

 

Lovely looking van and a cute baby too aww

 

Just found this - love the colour, just like baby poo!

 

Nice nus I like your wheels.

 

lovely bus and baby....

looks like you got a great deal... its really lovely x


also your story is pretty funny, not at the time but always something to tell people about

 

Ive recently been lucky enough to be sent some pictures of the bus pre restoration that the PO had carried out about 5 years ago!

check these out, looks like a totally different van and has sewed the seed for me to want to turn him back to original over time...



used to have the external rear spare tyre mount and side located numberplate

 

new rear arch in


rotten front arches out


outer sil in

door pillar work


battery tray and lights section removed

front arch in

 

front panel off

new front panel in

new rear quarter in

new rear end



new headliner being made

 

That was a proper state before hand, I remember looking round your bus at the Dubbbers meet and wondering if it was original or not - as the resto work on it is that good, that's its difficult to tell.

 

and lastly a shot of the reworked units based of the original measurements but in veneered chipboard


and now I have turned him from this

to this


much happier with this look

 

thanks matey, Youre making some serious progress on your bus arent ya!? cant wait to see it!