Well, here we are. I have finally got around to starting my restoration thread.

Back in the summer of 2009 my dad (Andy - driving the van in the pic) and me (Matt - currently 20) decided that we wanted to get a splitty after both having the idea individually. We talked about what we were after and it came about that we both wanted a split (not being fussed on what year) and for it to be a RHD. I was living away from home and it soon became apparent that dad was on to searching out the bus for us! After shortlisting a few right hand buses and much frustration, my dad found a bus in the Isle of Wight. The pictures showed a good looking bus and description seemed to give the impression that it was a bus that was nearly there. So to get things moving dad and a mate from the village treked down to the south coast, jumped on the ferry and on the other side, parted with some dosh for the 67' Van. May I note at this point that I had no idea that dad had decided on the bus and got it, I found out when it was coming home, so of course i made sure that I got back to see the arrival. I was greeted with this....



Here we have my 67' RHD Walkthrough.

It looked great, excitement was high and as a celebration we took it around the block just to see how it ran. It moved. And man was it a good feeling to know that we had our RHD Split!!

I've had a bit of insight into what Mr Haywoods been doing with this bus. BONKERS!!!
Going to be an excellent thread.
I can't wait to see the end product.

So we got underway in stripping it down. And a lot was revealed! We could tell after the once over that there was more than a few bits which would require a lot of work but then we half expected that. But as we took more and more off we realised that we had basically bought a van which had been dolled up to sell, and most of the repairs were ..... pirate like!

It was booked in to get dipped at SPL for the week before christmas 2009. So dad borrowed a trailer to get it up there and away the shell went.

Unfortunately after christmas my dad fell ill, we thought it was man flu but the type which he wasn't faking. The day before New Year he went into hospital and got transferred to a hospital with a Rennal Unit. However after a few days and doctors not knowing what it was, he deteriorated and went into ICU. To cut out the details he went up and down for a month but on the 6th Feb 2010 dad's lungs failed and they couldn't do anything for him and died that morning. Which was a shock to all of us! Sorry if all you were just expecting was a resto thread but I want to give the whole picture as best I can.

Anyway during the time that dad was in hospital, the van had come out from the SPL and as we weren't in a position to collect it, a friend with a lorry went and picked it up and dropped it straight off at the welders. After things started to get moving again in life, I went to see the welder dad had contacted and discuss how it was going to move forward.
I was the apprentice up until now, however I had now acquired the new role of 'Project Manager', although not having a clue about car restoration at all!

I asked the welder to get going on what had been discussed and started researching things as fast as my brain could cope.
The progress seemed slow, and I was getting frustrated (nothing much had particularly been done by July) and started to think of alternatives of where to get the van done. On the up side I saw one of my good friends at the pub and she dropped into the conversation that her dad did a lot of classic car restoration and would be willing to help out. So I jumped at the opportunity.
After a few phone calls and visits Mark was now recruited onto my restoration team! Yay! We went to see the van and decided to pull it from that welder as it didn't seem to even be ON the to do list

And here it is arriving back home.......









Yikes.... but was so nice to have it here at home where I could see it!

monkey wrote:I've had a bit of insight into what Mr Haywoods been doing with this bus. BONKERS!!!
Going to be an excellent thread.
I can't wait to see the end product.

Yea I am so thankful to have found that place! Dave and Matt are some top guys!
I can't wait to see the end product either!

Ok so while I was enquiring and making a decision about where to get the shell moved forward, Mark and I had been getting on with a few of the mechanical bits. We pulled out the front beam and decided the strip it down and rebuild it.
We first dismantled and degreased it all.

This is what it looked like before, a lot of crap around.....





Also a dodgy thread on one end!



I wish we had taken some photos whilst using the grinder, welding the adjusters and on the spray up but unfortunately both Mark and I were all go go go and forgot the camera.

We got it painted and it came out like this...... (not completely happy with the paint finish so will redo some of the bits)



Torsion leaves back in.... took a lot longer than we thought!



And some lovely bits here!



Here the beam is built back up with new link pins, dropped spindles, new track rods and ends. Nice



Oh and a few bits which will be added later!

Servo and.....



Disks



So that is the beam just about done, will be respraying the idler arm and going to get that back on hopefully end of this week.

Matt. Firstly sorry to hear about your dad. I can't imagine how that felt.

On the positive side I'm sure you'll be inspired to get on with the resto and finish it. Looking forward to seeing your progress. Good luck.
Loz

Biglozzer wrote:Matt. Firstly sorry to hear about your dad. I can't imagine how that felt.

On the positive side I'm sure you'll be inspired to get on with the resto and finish it. Looking forward to seeing your progress. Good luck.
Loz

Hey Loz, yea I have been inspired with reading through threads on here, checked out moler's thread which was crazy cool! Also have been really blessed with people like Mark giving time and energy.
It's exciting stuff!

Hi Matt,
Welcome to the forum, sorry to hear about your Dad, big shock for you.
Looks like you've got some work to do, but as you said, looking through the resto threads on here are always motivating & inspiring. You'll find plenty of encouragement & advice on here.
Good luck with it all.

So just before Christmas 2010 I had a visit from Mr Dave Haywood to give the van a good butchers, I had been up to the 'Haywoods' workshop a number of times and was very impressed with the work there. I agreed to get it up to him, and on the 5th Feb 2011, the van went up to the workshop to undergo some serious surgery.... luckily in the hands of some good surgeons! (btw the van was transported by craig on ssvc, who also collected my roof section - brillaint service)

So before I get ahead of myself I'll show you what the van was like before going away. Pics arn't great but you will get the idea!!!

First up the front of the roof and windscreen...



Some crazy had stuck a bolt up there ????



Previous roof repairs...



Dash.....





Previous replacements...



Short side..





Rear corner..



Other corner...





Roof!!!!! Is that light coming through? !!



Window aperature...



And off to Haywoods.... Me saying bye to it!

There's been a bodger at work on that bus
This should be a nice thread to watch if you keep the updates going.
It's the ideal thing to help you overcome the ordeal with your dad i think.

Good luck with the resto , i've bought my bus together with my granddad about 2 weeks before he passed away. Atleast when it's finished you've got a positive reminder of your dad

cheers!

Suprised how much rust is in the metal after the dipping... Was no treatment applied to the shell?

best of luck with this project bud..and a heart felt sorry about dad..i lost my mum when i was 21...
keep the pictures coming.

vwJim wrote:Suprised how much rust is in the metal after the dipping... Was no treatment applied to the shell?

I was thinking that. Looks like it needs doing again once the welding is done and then getting it in primer quick.

Yea it will be a brilliant reminder of my dad and I decided a while back that even though I'm not particularly into the whole naming vehicles/boats type thing, that I would name the bus 'Andy' as I thought that seemed fitting!

'vwJim' and 'matt d' As for the treatment after it has been dipped, it didn't have anything on it after being dipped, which I thought was strange but according to the Invoice from SPL it was going to go back after weld up and have a final clean then be primered so the plan was to take it back there for another clean?

I would have thought you get the primer on asap but hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Will post more over the weekend