1968 bay resto

[casino]

frank was bought from essex just over a year........ as a vert solid rhd uk bus that needed a curse word load of work!

it's had new frt beam
been lowered at the same time
new rims/tyres
new brakes all round
new clutch
respray(all prep work etc by me)
re done the devon conversion.... floor to roof!!!
curtains,cushions
new engine 1641cc
progressive webber
new exhaust.
stereo...

the list is endless and ema and i have spent a fortune over the last year but nearly all works were carried out by myself which saved a load of cash.
We had an idea of the style that we wanted for frank and its good to see your ideas and hard work come together

it was a hell of a bigger job than i thought it was going to be but is well worth it now


pictures speak louder than words so...........................

[casino]

FRANK then gained two awards at bvf 2005



bought this for frank 1641cc..

[casino]

the first new exhaust on franks new engine proved to be a little on the low side

[Deleted]

Give me your car now! ;D Bloody marvellous, to put it that way

[casino]

cheers dude

[tigran]

Damn it that is awesome. Liking the soundsystem hidden in the interior. Just loving the whole thing!

[daverapid]

I'm hugely impressed..yet another R.R. member is one of my hero's.

[ChasR]

A Lovely camper that with some very nice touches with the roof, and inside . The Early Crossover bays like yours are one of my favourite style of VW Campers .

I have one question though. Have you had any problems regarding overheating running a 1641 in a bay?

[Smiler]

Very nice, it has helped inspire me not to sell my long neglected old '72 bus. I especially like the roof and had been thinking of doing similar to mine.

I have an elevating roof on mine which I am thinking of replaceing with a webasto sunroof to give the bus it's original lines back.

Being a '72 bus, I have the earlier front panel and bumpers but have the larger rear light clusters and oblong side vents of the later bays. I think I might try to convert it to the earlier style. That or I might try to fit some mk1 Cortina rear clusters to it. Might have to try a bit of photoshop with it.

Anyway, great bus, great pics and great kick of inspiration! Nice one!

Smiler.

[casino]

chasr said:

A Lovely camper that with some very nice touches with the roof, and inside . The Early Crossover bays like yours are one of my favourite style of VW Campers .

I have one question though. Have you had any problems regarding overheating running a 1641 in a bay?

errr not so far with the webber proggressive it goes like stink(for a bay)

[casino]

smiler said:

Very nice, it has helped inspire me not to sell my long neglected old '72 bus. I especially like the roof and had been thinking of doing similar to mine.


Anyway, great bus, great pics and great kick of inspiration! Nice one!

Smiler.

cheers mate ...... my bus needed a new headlining which comes in over £100 and then to fit it is a nightmare if you get done professionally its gunna cost you £300!!!!! so i decided to clad it..... it took 12 hrs to do but cost a grand total of £23..... word of warning tho mate... because of the tin top the wood starts to change shape with the summer heat and mine has come apart a little in places(in the winter it goes back to normal... but thats when the bus is off the road ).... so if i were to do it again just try puting a little wood glue in the crack(?) of the cladding when you fix it together..... should work and will save you having the probs i've had ........ looks coool when you wake in the morning to that roof tho..... sort of swiss chalet style

[Smiler]

Thanks for the tip. How did you hold it up in place? I was thinking either fabric straps to hold it together with the occasional screw into a cross beam or even a thin ply sheet in the roof with the cladding stuk to it.

Having said that, the sodding great hole in the roof swill mean I'll have much less up there and reduced expansion rates so I may well not encounter those problems anyway.

Finally, whats the red car in the background of the third picture? I have one or two ideas but won't say for fear of embarrasment.

Smiler.

[casino]

it was an mg of some sort in for some tin worm remeady the "other" is a 70's capri which was havin some v8 treatment

regards to the roof... mine was just drilled and self tappers into anywhere thats double skinned although(redfaced) i did manage to drill 2 holes straight through the roof...... after paint too,wasn't inmpressed ... but was an easy fix

[Smiler]

D'oh! Don't you just hate moments like that!

As for the cars, I guessed MGB GT but didn't spot the Capri. Sounds an interesting garage.

[DerbyDan]

Great work that man! Loving the overall look & colour scheme

Early bays are my favourite VW Van - for me they just seem to have more romance than splits (I think this has something to do with the uninterrupted veiw out of the curved 'bay' windscreen) & more character than late bays & T25s

Edit; just wondered - to finish off the light-wood 'beach hut' theme on the interior, maybe one of those wooden slatted blinds would look pretty cool?

[casino]

i know what your saying dan!... they would look trick and that was one of the options we considered but we wanted that particular fabric for the curtains and the upholstery.

[DerbyDan]

casino said:

i know what your saying dan!... they would look trick and that was one of the options we considered but we wanted that particular fabric for the curtains and the upholstery.

No thats cool, I was just thinking out-loud.

BTW; I only had in mind having the blind on the back window only, as a 'Jail bar' set could be used to stop the blind from rattling around too much if driving with it down

[casino]

derbydan said:

casino said:

i know what your saying dan!... they would look trick and that was one of the options we considered but we wanted that particular fabric for the curtains and the upholstery.

No thats cool, I was just thinking out-loud.

BTW; I only had in mind having the blind on the back window only, as a 'Jail bar' set could be used to stop the blind from rattling around too much if driving with it down

would look cool.... i've always liked the idea of a couple of pineapples in the back window(very strange).... would look ;D ...well..... until they went off