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TJW1970

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May 17, 2017
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Location
Ludlow
So, went to see an early bay today, liked it, bought it and then brought it home.

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First impressions ...
Looks great. Some minor paint blemishes, but I have seen FAR worse.
Underneath is great. No rust, sealed, clean and again, no rust.
Inside has a Devon interior with some lovely looking cabinets. RnR 3/4 bed with 2 fold away jump seat frames and cushions.
Nice curtains, great front and rear seats.

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New tyres all round and hard and soft spare wheel covers.
Tin top and gutters all clean. Was a Danbury, so has had a tin top replacement. Done to a high standard.
Engine is a 1,500 so lacking a bit of power. Likely to be changed in the future. Gears easy to find.
Big file of past info and recently passed MOT (this month).
Regularly fails on offside main bean dropping too low. Might set this before going to next one.

Seller was Ian B. Top guy and immediately hit it off with him. He has other buses and knows what he is talking about. This bus is a credit to him (and the previous owners) and I know it was not great for him to see it go, so much appreciate this.

Agreed to buy it even before the test drive, but we went on the drive anyway. Came back, then paid for it there and then. While transferring the money he was taking calls from dealers wanting to buy it. It was priced to sell and we were lucky enough to be the first to go to see it.

It needs a headliner. Possibly from JK at £270, unless anyone can suggest somewhere else.

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Front seats are good and in good condition. Glove box cover included. Need to sort out stereo, might just be a switch or a fuse.

18402814_10212760280938826_7999417554192443327_n.jpg


So, that is it for now. I'm off to read the file of stuff and learn more about the bus. Looking forward to it.

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Just read through the file of work done. Quite extensive and thousands spent, mainly in 2007 and 2009. Includes new tintop, respray, rubbers, etc. Basically, they did the lot and did it well. This explains why it looks so good today.

Drive home was great. A little slow on a couple of hills, but there are some steep hills around Bristol. Then a steady 50 to 55 on the motorway. Final stretch on our local roads was great cos I knew how to keep the momentum up. Did these easily. No steering creep and good round the corners.

Really chuffed. Looking forward to getting to know the bus more and moving all our existing VW 'stuff' into it ready for our upcoming trip to South Wales. Going to get out the old cookers, plates, pans, etc. and start the prep work. Not too much to do, so I'll start making a list ... till I get bored.

- New flooring cover (possibly wait till we come back)
- Fix stereo or find out why it isn't working (manual is in with the receipts)
- Fit 2nd battery (all electrics are there already)
- New headliner
- Check out all keys and how to get out of sliding door (from inside) if closed from outside
- Get water pump in side unit working

Happy days.
 
Oh, and while we were having lunch, I arranged insurance for £96 fully comp with 5,000 miles. With free tax, that seems pretty low annual costs.
 
Already got an Early Bay Sticker, so it has to be ok!
Mascots on front to be returned to Ian.
Ours to be added over time. What else is a VW for?
 
Ok, the fun bit begins. Making it ours.

Started off by cleaning a load of bird muck off the roof and cleaning the gutters. All cam off fine, no marks left. Not sure whether to put the roof rack off the splitty onto it, or not. Pretty sure it also fits an early bay.

Then fitted the buddy seat by the table, so that 3 of us can sit together for a brew, etc. We were given a spare panel to fit behind the seat, so took the cupboard out and slotted it in. Also found the original bus plate.

We have loads of old stuff from all of our own buses, so we sifted though it all to pick out what we thought we would still want, or need and then loaded up the bus to see where things would fit. Found spaces for old melamine plates, cups, saucers, etc. frying pan, cutlery, cooker, water container (still need to get pump working) and all the dogs stuff, leads, water bowls, etc. It was interesting going through all the old tools and parts I used to carry around in the split. Not sure if I want to carry it all again, but guess I should. Will need to buy some more spark plugs, as my lad Joe used the last set when he was in Spain.

Finally, we took all the food related and washable items, such as blankets home again to put into dishwasher and washing machine respectively. Then put the cover from our 74 Bay (long since sold) onto the bus, even though it is inside, as I hate the dust that settles on vehicles inside an industrial unit, even when nothing seems to be happening to cause it!

So ... some questions ...

- where should I go to buy a Leisure Battery (Halfrauds, a Caravan type shop or a VW specialist, or elsehwere)

- I am considering a new engine, where to get it? 1600, 1641 or 1776. Don't really want to go mad, just more power to get up hills and don't want a stupid loud exhaust, or new suspension, just a little more torque to get up hills. I am located on the Shropshire/Herefordshire/welsh border. Would prefer a turnkey, rather than an exchange, as I can then keep the 1500 as a spare.

Maybe I'll add some more later, so please let me know your thoughts.
Thanks, Trevor
 
Got my leisure battery from Halfords - came with a warranty and its a bigun, think you would struggle to get a larger one in!



Will PM you ref engine
 
Hi lovely looking bus, I'll keep an eye out for you if you cross the border in to Wales :D
 
NickJ said:
Hi lovely looking bus, I'll keep an eye out for you if you cross the border in to Wales :D

Hi Nick,

Was over there last weekend, but not in this (of course, cos I didn't have it then). Regularly drive over that way on my way to Mac, Aberdovey or Towyn.
Would be happy to arrange to meet up.

Trev
 
Decoded my M-Plate today, hence now showing. At first it thought it was a bus from Chile. The writing made it look like it said EH, which brings up Chile, but it was EN, i.e. Ramsgate, England. Phew. Good job I had a couple of web sites and books to 'help' me through it.

Happy days, looks like we got ourselves a great UK bus, as initially described by Ian. Top man!
 
Ok, today I am going to try to fit the leisure battery, shouldn't be too big a job, but depends if it fits in the current space, etc. That should provide power to the consumer electrical unit already in the bus and hopefully the stereo too.
I then have all the wires to fit a cigarette lighter to run phones, sat nav, cameras, etc. Hate all the wires, but need the tech.

Fitted/made a shelf to fit between the 2 front seats during the week. It rests on the 4 stoppers and can slide in/out. It is ideal for resting 'the stuff' that comes with us, like phones, etc. It also has 2 recessed holes for drinks and underneath holds a large fire extinguisher with quick release. I prefer to have this 'to hand', as the current one is in the back and 'if' a fire started, by the time you get it out the bus would probably be gone. Need to also consider something for the engine bay.
 
Sounds like a nifty shelf. With the fire extinguisher and what to do, think primarily that they will help you get your family out of the bus. There are quite a few threads with lots of opinions about our busses and fire, but the main one that most agree on is that prevention is much better than fire extinguishers. Stop the fuel getting to a fire and you don't have a fire. I think we might need to see some pictures of this shelf because believe it or not, you might not be the only one bogged down with stuff. My leisure battery is gotta go in this year and I'm toying with the idea of a few points for power around that sort of area so it's accessed from the front and the rear but only on a leisure battery circuit. In the engine bay I have nothing but I have a firetec ready to go in, Stuf has an exploding baseball type arrangement that seems well recommended too, have a look at his thread.

Ozziedog,,,,,,, catch you in a field somewhere sometime soon. :mrgreen:
 
Battery fitted, no problem. Even had a strap to hold it in place, bonus. Power still not getting to stereo, etc. so a bit puzzled.

Took bus out for the first family drive since we got it. Hooray! Went via Bishops Castle and Welshpool up to Oswestry to meet some friends.
Bus was great. Easily kept up with the traffic. Slowed a bit for very steep hills, but cos I know where they are I kept as much momentum as I could. However, when I went to restart it, nothing. Red and green lights on, but no click or whirring. Thankfully there is a start button in the engine bay, so used that to fire it up. Phew, thought it was an AA moment.

Funny how you just remember how to drive a bus. It is the little things, like the position of the steering wheel and driver to the front wheels, the vision, the speed, the slow response of the steering wheel. Loved it and this bus stays far straighter then any I have ever driven before. No need for corrections or holding on tightly to the wheel on straights or dual carriageways.

Couple of more issues arose. Fuel gauge not working and heat exchangers still on, so getting heat into the cabin. Quite an impressive amount of heat, but as the weather has just turned VERY warm, it is not too welcome. Will have to switch those off for a few months. Good news is I just bought a 4 ton 2 poster ramp, so I can lift that up and do it with ease. Just got to fit a 3 phase plug and get a long cable to get it across the unit to the 3 phase wall outlet. (The toe rag who had the unit last cut off all the plugs, etc.!)

So, back to the electrics. Dropped in at Halfords on the way back and a great young chap called Adam took a look at the leisure battery to make sure it was ok and charged. It was. He then took a look at the fuses and the one for the stereo had blown, so we changed that and then that worked. I had also found a cigarette lighter on the front dash, quite well hidden, and that worked too, although off the ignition, not the leisure battery. He tested it with a cable for a Garmin Sat Nav, so I bought one of those too, as I had lost mine about a year ago. Now got Sat Nav too then!

Next we looked at the intruder alarm. We switched the batteries in the key fobs to new ones and one of the 2 worked. We then tried to start the engine using the keys. Still nothing, although we did, VERY LOUDLY prove that the alarm sensors worked. TWICE. We reckon that there is a blue black cable going from a light in the front (for the alarm) to the fuse box in the back (off leisure battery), but this has a round connector rather than a spade connector, so I can't see what it connects to. I'll post some pics up, so the intelligent ones on here can tell me what I am doing wrong. I'll also call the previous owner and ask for his thoughts.

As we parked at Halfords there was a family stood by as we reversed the bus into a space. When we got out, they came over to say hi. They had a 72 crossover and were talking us through how similar their bus was. Nice family. I then was told 3 times how nice our bus was by total strangers and heard a couple of Dads telling young kids that this was "an old bus", etc.
 
Ozziedog. I had a firetec in my last Splitty but fancy the ball that Stuf has instead. Looks easier to fit/remove too. Hope to get this fitted before the trip to South West Wales. I know we are on the border with Shropshire/Herefordshire/Powys, but this is still going to be a 3 or 4 hour trip for us!

You are right, getting people and dogs out first is the priority. Hoping the wife can jump out and let her Dad out and then the dogs, while I am running to the back to buy us some more time. Probably wouldn't work like that in an emergency, but at least it is a plan. Will have a lot more time if work has already started in the boot to help 'add some time'.
 
Just ordered :
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/mvs/AFO-Fire-Extinguisher-Purpose-Self-activation-secluded-throwing/B01M4HJ0WQ/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_60_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=QSWHVD6JK9ZNZWA6VPN2
 
Flame ball arrived today. Guess I'll be fitting that over the weekend.

Any suggestions for location?
 

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