1968 Campervan conversion

[joaonar]

Greetings to you all from Portugal.

I've been filling myself with courage just to come here and share with you all the work that's being made on my family bus.
You got here such a great forum with a lot of excellent topics with amazing jobs around these beautys that I decided to join in. I just hope I'm not trespassing it since I'm outsider... not to mention that my English is as rusty as my van was.
Please forgive my spelling mistakes... I will try and make an effort to keep them at a minimum acceptable.

Well, where can I start?
Let me begin by telling a litle about this van history with us.
It all began in the 1974. My father bought this 2nd hand van with the idea of making an campervan for all of us. Since we were (and we still are) 3 sons and 2 adults, he needed to make 5 beds... not an easy task in such a small bus. And also a lot of packing space for at least a month on the road. So, after a few months, the conversion was made:

(on arrival - 1974)

(the Anglia still exists :mrgreen: )

and after the first conversion (Spain - 1977)

and in the North of Portugal,

(I'm the child on the picture left corner :mrgreen: )

and again, Spain - Pyrenees with another Earlybay,

on the way to a weekend on the beach 8)

and already there:

The poptop was home made but fully functional. It was my two older sisters bed 8)
As you can see in all these pictures the shape of the wooden poptop changed along the years... In the end, my father made 3.
The bus took us to a lot of places....

Chamonix:

Switzerland:

Venice:

Paris area:

somewhere in France:

etc, etc....
:mrgreen:

 

[joaonar]

The interior was home made. It had a sink (with a 10L water tank and electrical water pump/tap), a small Campingaz stove and no fridge (milk and butter were left out of the van at night to cool).

.... and a chemical toilet (excellent for us, kids).
It was under the right seat in the next picture:

Once the seat was opened, it could make a small both, completely closed with the quarter light to work as small "bathroom" window :lol: .
Beneath the seat where my mother and older sister are, there were two drawers. This seat stretched to the front seats and that was my parents bed.

In this picture, you can see the curtains behind my older sister. I like this system a lot because when not in use the curtains rolled up. I'm still going to use them but with some improvements.

 

[the irv]

great pictures

 

[toastiemaker]

Welcome.
those photos are awesome. Such a cool look you can only get with old film cameras. 8)

 

[Doris]

Hi,Welcome and Thank you for posting such interesting pictures & story. I love a bus with history! keep the pics coming

 

[Airtime]

Welcome Joaonar! 8) Awesome that you're going to work on a bus with so much history for your family! I love the old pics and can't wait to see more of those, as well as more recent pics offcourse.

And for the 'outsider-thingy': We all have earlybays, no outsiders here! 8)

 

[mattd1984]

Welcome to the forum, a great history there. Sounds like a great home made conversion. Great pictures

 

[gninnam]

Brilliant :shock:

Love the history, the pictures and the stories :mrgreen:

Looking forward to more pictures and stories of the bus and your travels.

What are the plans regarding the old girl (assuming it is a girl?)

 

[Guest]

just to echo everyone else lovin the pictures 8)

your english is excellent keep the posts coming

 

[ib-bus]

Very cool pictures , thank you for sharing them.
Your english is fine , my first language is spanish and I have not been kicked out of here yet , keep those cool pictures coming.

 

[bananacustard]

Fantastic old photos of a bus being properly used. Thanks for sharing them with us and WELCOME !

( look forward to seeing more )

 

[bluebay]

Hi,as the others have said I too am loving the pics,such a history can`t wait for more.

 

[joaonar]

Thank you so much for such warm welcome.
8)

@ gninnam: yes... she's a girl. Just haven't decided wich name to give her yet. My plans are to rebuild the interior, swap engines and to travel again with my wife and 7 years old son

Before sharing with all of you what's being done since these past 5 years, let me tell you something more about her (old pictures again :mrgreen: ).

Buying a van (and at the time the brand was not important - it could be a VW, Mercedes, Renault - it only needed to have enough interior space and be affordable) turned to be also a backup plan for weekends and hollydays away from home. The first idea my father had was to build a boat (a catamaran) and use it to go up rivers, discover lakes, etc, and when necessary set up the tent and sleep in it. But one day, my midle sister awoke during the night and left the tent from the wrong side and felt on the water.
Luckily nothing happened and she swam for the shore :roll:

here are some pictures :mrgreen: :

(you can see the '65 Ford Anglia that pulled this litle wooden monster :mrgreen: )

after that episode, they decided to stop using the tent and start spending a litle more time on land... Besides they also decided to have another son (me :mrgreen: ) and there was no more space inside her.
8)

 

[joaonar]

The bus took us to a lot of places (I've already wrote this). My memories with this particular car are huge. I spent my first 16 summer hollidays in her until my parents become too tired to continue to do them in the van.
Also, my sisters no longer wanted to go with them which led to a progressive abandonment... It become more of a freight van than a Campervan.
While carrying all of us, our luggage and her own camper interior, the bus had to carry a lot more as you can see in this picture:

On top of the pop top, an '82 Mike Davis windsurf board....

(I had a rope tied to the boat :mrgreen: )
and my sisters....

....and at the front, on top of the cabin, you can see where this boat was carried (you can see the masts and padles on the left/midle between the tents):

(how? :mrgreen: )

like this:

And not to forget this one....

or this one (picture repeated)

So, one boat at the rear, one on top plus a windsurf board, 5 family elements, lugage, camper interior.... 8)

The only thing I can add is that her (still original) 1600 cc's engine is really tired :mrgreen:

 

[joaonar]

I'm sorry if I'm bothering you with this long introduction....
But this is why I'm spending a lot €'s to bring her back to her glory days.
The interior was like these drawings:

It will be the same but with newest materials and a Electrolux fridge. The water tanks will be underneath the van (waste water tank and a fresh water tank).
The interior cabinet ( - ?) was removable. That's another reason for not having a fridge (although the main reason was my mother's huge fear of gas leaks during our sleep).

Here it is:

a lot of meals were done in it... :mrgreen:

 

[gninnam]

Again - what great photo's and stories :mrgreen:

Can't believe the van manged to move with all that it had to carry/tow :shock:

I should image it took a long time to get anywhere

Keep them coming

 

[streetboy]

Fantastic stuff joaonar, and welcome fella

What memories you must have, and the best bit? you still got the same bus to do it all over again 8) but this time as a parent!

My wife has many memories from her childhood with her dads 73 bus (brought new and still got it) and she was the one responsible for me getting the bug :roll: so she can't complain about the hours I spend playing with the bus can she?

Keep the pics coming

 

[joaonar]

thank you both

Yes streetboy... I can now do it all over again. In fact, I already did in 2004 summer. My son was only 2 years old but he did not forget it. He's always asking me when is the bus ready again....
I really need to finish it but it's taking far more time than I was expecting...

So, let me start showing you all, what I have been doing with her.
After the 2004 summer, I started looking for a bodywork shop. There were a lot of rusty areas to work on because she was going to fail her next MOT.
After several years of painful neglect and abandonment without any proper maintenance, and being left out on the rain without any decent cover... constantly covered with old leaves in the roof gutter during rainy days and even some hardness in the treatment by my father left her in pretty bad shape.

 

[joaonar]

When my father in law heard that I was looking for a bodyshop, he decided to offer me his help. He does this kind of work as a hobby and as inexperienced as I was at the time, I thought the result would be good .... but it wasn't. A few years later I would find out how wrong I was.... I know what he did was with tremendous goodwill but it proved to be an error. It may work on everyday cars but it's not the proper method for cars you want to preserve for several years (decades maybe ?).

Live and learn!

So, on June 2005 we start working on her:

Worse than it seemed, right?

 

[joaonar]

After 2 months working on the bus this was the end result.
For me and at the time, it was excellent: