I`ve been meaning to post some pics before but never got around to it . Brief history ..... Bought as a cheap second car in 91 as i was quite heavily into surfing and as i was an apprentice toolmaker at Rover i had a cheap new car which i didn`t want to ruin with wetsuits and the like . The westy was Brown and white when i bought it for the pricely sum of £1100 (eleven hundred ) recent factory recon engine and 84,000 miles . The interior had been a bit butchered and changed but as i was 17 it was the cool factor . It needed a rear corner and bottom of the slider to make good which i did plus i resprayed her in green and the over spray is still in the garage 20 years later ..... She was used in this guise till 2008/9 serving me well with trips down to Spain ,devon ,cornwall ,all the early vanfests and the like , but after 20 years use she was showing her age abit and after a bit of tlc . so after the sale of my house freed up some funds i set about semi-resto number 2 She ( I`ve never named it ) now needed new front doors ,arches ,rear valance and for the second time rear corners ,plus a colour change to blue/white . Now still only with 104,000 genuine miles i decided on a usable stock look . I sourced a complete interior for 300quid , genuine fuch which ment i had to change the brakes , plus the parts i sourced over the last 20 years but never fitted . resto pics to follow
so due to not having an open cheque book and 1000`s to spend the second semi resto has been a bit slow what with having two kids ,moving house twice but she i all but done , For a UK westy she is rock solid ,in my 20year ownership she has always been garaged or kept undercover and the previous 4 owners must have looked after her too . I imported the fuch from texas and were a samba bargain still in og anodised finished but i had to change the brakes as i don`t like adaptors , the rear hubs i completly made from scratch (280£ from CE) and same with the front using 944 calipers but my own caliper brackets , Ambulance fans were £80 and a waste of time as you need ear plugswhen they run and the clock was a free ebay genuine early one (bought complete dash for £35 removed clock and resold dah for £35 ) Twin delloroto carbs ,again not just one to fit i made trumpets ,modied all the linkage fitted K&N filters ,28 vents and welded filter bases and machined to suit , Rear seat belt brackets were also made by me as well as three of my four overriders along with the rubbers .most of why i made the stuff is because of lack of spare cash ,i`ve made the rear side jaibars (before they were available to buy) home made
It was ok brown but needed redoing so i fancied green , its funny over the time i`ve had her i been and done most things and now finally its usable stock type 4 sump plate oil temp sender got bored of waiting for the factory recon to fail so decided to rebuild a WO code engine just fitted a genuine set of rear jailbars which is the best bargain ever 2 sets genuine unused off vzi last week £14 ...(£102 @heritage)
looks like you really know your stuff mate , nice ride ... and your repo rubbers are spot on , thanks
Nice van. It's good to read a story with a bit of history. I like your home made parts. Top quality. I recon as you get older and possibly wiser you realise that standard is better. looks better and works better. I,m sure i read on here " standard never goes out of fashion "
top work mate ....lovely bus any chance you can do a sparate post on the fuel sender hatch over in the mech tech section again - pretty please
after a lot of work and what i thought was going to be a 5 minute job finally fitted the crumpet toaster ...