So how did we get to have this bus...?
It all started when we were on holiday in Norfolk/ Suffolk/ East Anglia... Around Cromer/ Sherringham
We were driving down a road when my wife said "Split Screen Van!"
So I dutifully stopped and reversed and got out...and went to look.
Rang the doorbell...no one home..
Walked around, lifted up the corner of the tarp and saw...15" wheels, 66 rear bumper, early front bumper. Turkis and White..
Narrow hatch kombi/ microbus in a bad way...missing front valance, rear corners rotted...

Interesting...no one in to talk to..
I was looking for a project for my youngest son.. maybe. ..

Then around nine months later in April I was still looking and saw a bus on thesamba.com...looked familiar...later bumper ...Turkis and white.... at a ridiculous high price... Asked some questions and received some answers... learned the seller did not know much about them..
Bus was in Upper Sherringham...sure we saw it in Cromer...turned out we were correct.... He had moved house and bus


Saw some good points and a bad roof...really reaĺy bad..
Then the advert was removed and had the small comment and picture ... Deleted - usually means sold.

Then in August it was advertised again and I contacted the seller again and got more information and pictures - turned out he had been in France. I learned the engine was a year younger than the VIN...March 1962. Peculiar... one year almost exactly. ..
Then after 42 emails back and forth and many more pictures I saw something that excited me.. a pole which looked like a Devon pole table from a Devonette...and the bus had no awning rails so it could be! Exactly what I was looking for a kombi Devonette in Turkis.
Turned out it was a microbus....mmm in SWR & BG...would look smart...and very very very rare unusual. ..so worth saving.

Turned out that he had bought it from eBay to do up for his daughter and had paid around the silly high price he was asking but had looked at it and the challenge was too great. He decided to buy his daughter a rolling half decent Bay window Devon. Sadly he had removed some items for his Bay...radio etc. he had also removed most of the broken, rotted, wood wormed interior and fed it to his log burner..DOOOOH

I worked out what I thought it would need and offerred a very low price to pay and collect it that week...and he accepted so Craig collected for me! What a star!
Dave Haywood was very amused and thought it was savable but would need lots... including a roof.. so search for a roof commenced immediately.


Pictures as they appeared on thesamba.com

Front bumper is inside, front lower valance completely missing...







Hump back bench seat, possible dealer fitted optional washer bottle, missing radio plate and gear knob strange incorrect interior mirror.. lovely padded black vinyl interior...is the OG underneath? I wondered.....?







Cab door tops rotten... oh and a crumbling A post








Velour headlining non og mirror.....grey sun visors.. Pebbles pattern sticky back Fablon plastic sheeting stuck everywhere... Nice








Devonette over head shelf... plastic Formica wood pattern homemade rear cupboard....








Rotten gutters







More rotten gutters
















Pictures sent to me by the seller by email





















































































Down to the fine detail - pictures sent in response to questions












































































Pictures whilst stored at Dave's place before work commenced

Strip down pictures into here..

Devonette pole table mount



Floor marked with holes for interior fittings. This has been the subject of change over the years...from the screw holes and various painted areas it looks to have been changed quite a bit over time.

















Holes marked in Division to attempt to work out where the cupboard fitted..
On this the division panels were fitted and the tarred sound strips...



Gap behind Rear interior short panel had been filled with fibreglass/ rockwool as insulation. rear upper and lower panels were VW replacement panels with the labels still on them



Missing B post bottom with holes marked on division panel



Missing A post bottom




Missing engine hatch bracket....



Bottom corner of front clip replaced...this should be interesting to repair..



Passenger side wheel tub edge rotted... dog leg missing...



Holy roof




Cant rail collapsed



Cant rail was held up by door.
When the glass was taken out the rigidity changed...




Battery tray rotted through



VIN checks out...




Bottle tray not much better




More fibreglass




Planetarium show - roof doilly




B post has been repaired before



Petrol tank removed shows engine bay was sprayed with tank in situ..











Toolbox will have seat belt fitement like Rusty





Driver's side looks OK



Dog's leg replacements from klassicfab in stock



Hump back seat stripped of covers...shot blasted, metal readied ready for blow over in black and recovering at Bromsgrove trimmers

Detailed electrical bits removed into here



1962 no gear change markings

54k only

Looking forward to it already Graham, in your own time

Queue slowly forming

You sure it's going to be into here and not over there ? You keep saying it's going to be into here but, obviously not !

Looking forward to this one.

In the background Matt n Dave were busy....doing bits as we went along..

Mechanicals all stripped off the body..

Assessment carried out and "starter" metal work from Autocraft bought ready for the body ....which is in an awfull state but saveable..

I needed a donor roof.....looked like it would have to be LHD for conversion and transplant into RHD..will need some panels made by Karl...he is good at these having done a couple for Dave.

Have an extra fuse box bracket from markP so I can have teo fuse boxes and have found an engine lid stay bracket ready for refurb..

Cargo doors and cab doors have started under restoration...Will post pictures..

Rusting Hulk (Simon) has my spindles for refurbish .. bushes for king & link pins seem to be OK. I have a set of 20mm link pins...less one bearing which I am trying to source. He is restoring Sherry's steering box which has only done 54k and turns out is in much better condition than the one he did for our Peebles! Have Waso CSL lock and correct period WASO Steering column lock to be fitted but need to check dimensions of where to cut the hole.

Have a massive Excel project Management spreadsheet running of what we need and what we have got..
Been collecting....bits for the fit out..ordered two of everything with my delivery from WCM..especially seals..
Have a "To order list" which I am picking off...bit by bit respecting the lead times..and the time it takes to find the bits.

I have refurbished the speedo and fuel gauge, have another set of four gauges made in the states and got another motometer bracket and dakota CHT, have 62 loom and auxillary loom and all split charge electrics...made by Peter Good. Have twin OG fuse boxes. Have an NOS 12v wiper motor and NOS wiper arms..
Have had the 1962 hump backed front bench seat refurbished by Dave, Shotblasted, powder coated and blown over, now re-trimmed by Bromsgrove..In Basalt Grey tuck and roll. Looks superb..

Have bought some duracouresque material for interior ...ready for Joanne's magic
Have a part set of OG interior panels but may get Steve to make more than just the door and cargo door panels..which are needed.
Looking for an ARB and some white mud flaps and lots more..just like we fitted to Peebles..
Have some OG NOS verry nice aftermarket perid mirrors and reflectors...too good for Peebles!
Want some Doris bumper brackets..???
Anyone..

Oh and planning an engine 1200cc refurb this time...for slow me in my old age..
Have refubished shotblasted and powdercoated OG wheels - came up much better than I dreamed...
Have NOS VW hubcaps..
Still lots to get...
Bought twice the quantity of SS fixings I needed ...

So what next..
Oh son still looking for pictures of a 62 Devonette interior....from every angle..
Reckon we will be copying the 62 Microbus Devonette flyer
Have a man lined up to make the missing parts for me..
OG set of rear drawers being restored..so they will look OG...patina.


Well Matt first of all normally always does the doors...
Reason... to use them later to set the "fits"
So normally Cargo doors for sill position
Cab doors normaly for setting dog legs and "A" post bottoms...
Sherry is so bad Dave and Matt decided that they would need to replace the roof and stabilise and adjust the dimensions from there and do a bottom down restoration..

Without asking AFAIK this will be the fifth major roof replacement/ pillar realignment (NikC, Matt Davies were chops! Hamish from banana to straight and Nathan from trapezium profile to upright Swedish oblong) so I was confident that they would have the creative skills.
Sherry had been in a major NS accident...
Front clip bottom corner replaced...A post bottom, A post damaged, dog leg replacement, cab door replacement, B post damaged, division damaged, front cargo door replacement, short side replacement etc.
There are pop rivets OG replacement panels everywhere with OG primer inside everywhere... the whole bus is interesting but saveable..Looked like it was done quite well with old panels cut off and repaired with original panels but mostly pop rivetted in place with welds here and there. As Dave said we'll the panels used were good quality and it should be easier to take apart.
.not drilling out spot welds...just pop rivets.

First off was to find a roof..
where do you find a roof? From USA... but that is LHD with doors on the other side...so that would be a challenge..
This is a narrow hatch...and by now most have rotted badly..so unlikely to find one..

So I looked for a roof...that was undented and looked to at least have some front pillars for a graft.... some good unrotted pillars..
Like all things it was take your pick...buy it or not!

Graham Clarke looked after me well..
He put me on his waiting list and then when he had a consignment of roofs coming in... he contacted me and gave me pictures and details to choose from...Take it or not...LOL

As it turned out it looks as if the roof had been stored upside down at some stage so had a little more rust on the inside than I would have imagined but it was mostly surface rust on the paint...

So pictures of the roof...
_________________

OK so sourcing the replacement roof required was commenced as soon as we bought the van...
I am really glad I did this while waiting and found this because I am told full roof clips are now becoming harder to find.

These are the pictures I received from Graham Clarke at fbi...Have had some good help from Graham...

One late Split LHD roof from a 13 window - I think




Good peak and gutters





Some holes drilled in the edges of the gutter upstand (probably to clamp on a roof-rack)



Craig Black Country recovery was used yet again forTransport duty. He moved it from Swansea to his yard to me with ease at good price too..
RESULT!

On arrival at Dave's place ..... Dave used his experienced eye and checked it out for me and gave it the all clear... bonus, no dents, no rot in gutters/ peak and decent air box
RESULT!

Burnt cracked paint and rusted underneath from condensation but pillars with some depth at the front







Because we are converting this from LHD to RHD.. we will be removing some (or all) of the panels to relocate on the other side.
Because we are doing a hand swap instead of cutting the outside panels and grafting in the stumps....Dave/ Matt will remove the inner panels and clean the donor back to the underside of the gutter panel and weld the present skin back to the underside. While apart Matt can do the local repairs to the existing stumps. ..Like round the rear hatch.

Probabaly the only important location area will be the front pillars..

The rear large hatch rail and the spring mounts will be removed. To make this fit we will have to remove the rear corners from the roof which were wide hatch...maybe the curved metal will get re-used?

But we will see..

Now Dave will have to decide....what to leave and what to use..

Ok put lots of pictures up...more to follow on the repair of cargo doors and cab doors.
Dave an Matt follow a reasonably straightforward logic...
The door gaps aid alignment of the chassis/ body and vice versa etc.

So they usyally repair the bottoms of the doors and may replace the skins etc.
So one key step is do the doors!

So the cargo dors on sherry wer not too bad.
The forward doo had full skin
The rear door had been restored! by whom?

Any way I received these pictures..







Cab doors

Decapitation




If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

Well All cargo doors and cab doors are done for now..
BUT will need derusting...

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That will one and thrupence sir!

LOL

...and for all those subscribers....if it was not for markp I do not think I would have been brave enough...but if you can take a quite good bus and restore it...this is just the same...
I was inspired by the Moortown interior first on the Tillington bus now owned by Hollywood and only know of two of that model and only one other of this model... clymoj's..
Wait till we blast it and the tubs and floor need to go... as well LOL

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