Heres my Split. I bought it from FBI around 4 years ago stripped the paint off it and didnt do much else on it.

It was in pretty bad condition and needed the lower 6inches, mid chassis, floors ect. I wasnt going to buy it, but FBI dropped the price so i went to "have a look" in the knowlege that i A: have no money B: already own several rusty vws and C: it was 50/50 that my bug would even make it to Swansea from Cardiff.
Well the bug made it and worse still I bought it after seeing all that fresh air when the sunroof slid back!

Anyways the plan is to get it back to military stock and make it look like it hasnt been restored. A good mate of mine Dai the Barndoor (Streetwagens on here) has the 53 swedish army bus and im hoping it will look equally as nails

3 years ago after the first strip down

Having the chassis done at bbbcvw workshop


repairing the floor




the rear bed had holes hacked in it so a T25 engine hatch for better access to the engine area



Front repair




now the weird part! working from old photos of the van im replacing the dents ive lost by cutting the rust out of the van

cab floors and steps



took these a few weeks back. Van is now back down a bbbcvw workshops for final welding



Hoping to have it motd by cruise to the prom 09

Fantastic!!!!

You'll totally love that when your rolling!
Good pics and info...... nice one!

Looking good Jimi!! Heres them tyres as per PM on Airdiction.

Sweet Rides wrote:

omi-wan wrote:Chuckle chuckle........What a great thread!

I'm not sure I even dare ask but if I wanted to lower the front just slightly, say an inch or two, how bad will it be if I remove just a leaf or two of the small ones?

1. In terms of safety
2. In terms of ride

Ride will be soft, safety will be reduced - bad idea IMO

Why not just get some taller profile tyres to fill the arches? I`m not a fan of gappy arches any more than the nest person but I don`t think lowering is the answer. Check this out - agressive tread 670/15 M+S steel belted Bridgestone TRUCK tyres. A Proper load rating, modern radial "go anywhere" tyre.

IMO it`s a cool as it gets and the arches are completely full without sacrifcing ride height/useability or saftey

cheers Dai! those are what i had in mind

Always a pleasure fozzy bear.

Think your bus would have been on 14's though, you got access to any bus 15's? I have 2 that might be available, same as those above...

Looking forward to watching this project...

I was very tempted by this army ambulance at FBI when I was looking a few years ago...

yeah dude i have a full set of 15's off jp's panel van and i have several batterd ones that came with the van Had a quick look for those tyres but can only find cross plys with a chunky tread hmmm


That ambulance is too cool, gotta love that fold down rear door

Stayed on after work to start the task of sanding the bus so i can get some primer on it. this part of the resto is code name: operation morale, at the moment all i see is rust and ive decided to get the whole body in primer so i can see exactly what i have to do.

front panel repair is looking good on o/s, just got to get the other side as good


Dash board is looking better, the red oxide was painted on two years or so ago when the van was outside and needed quick protection

started on the wheel wells, bulkhead and floor

is this the same bus....buses....

cool pic but mines not there, the ambulance is the same as the one posted above and i think the second army bus was a radio van. I saw most of these vans when i bought my bus and remember the barndoors well

WISE wrote:cool pic but mines not there, the ambulance is the same as the one posted above and i think the second army bus was a radio van. I saw most of these vans when i bought my bus and remember the barndoors well

How about any of these...

i think the green one in the last pics is it

i remember seeing all those vans when i first started looking for my split manny moons ago

yeah thats my bus alright thanks alot for posting those pictures bigbulli! id started to forget what it looked like with paint, windows ect

i cant see why you stripped it now it would have looked so cool like that

4 years ago the intention was to paint the van blue/white and make it a cal looker. i was foolish to strip the paint off the beast and part of me wishes i had left it as it was...but the other half remembers how bloody awfull it looked up close. if i had only stripped the rusty bits back to bare metal it would still have lost most of the paint. so swings and roundabouts