Ben asked us to sort the body work for this panelvan so he could arranged to have it straightened and painted. So we did a few suttle modifications to the bodywork along the way, one was dropped sills, second was a dropped nose panel.

Minor rust repairs have been conducted all over it. mostly the lower half.

Ive never yet found a replacement panel or section that fitted without spending several hours making it fit, so we find it quicker to make sections ourselves. We lowered the bumper 2 inches as well, just for the heck of it.

The bottom of the back door needed work as well, inner and outer sections of that can not be bought either.

Ben would like the bus IRS's lowered to make it more driveable, so once its painted we will be seeing it again and sorting suspension and brakes for this sweet little panel. This would have the straightest floor I have ever seen in a panelvan of this vintage. This is one very nice split.

So, back to business, over the Christmas break Ben had it painted inside and out and its back to us sporting front and rear safaris and in need of some brakes, suspension a gearbox and a new motor, but more about that later.

How red is that, Awesome. Stripped out the rear end ready for the IRS.

Bolt in clamp in place and a late model bearing housing in place. We are using the early bolt pattern on this bus, more about that later.

Beam out and an adjustable ball joint beam in place. Power disc brake will pull this ole girl up, but more about that later.

Does my arse look big with this positive camber? More like the ride height we are aiming for.

With a balljoint front beam from a 69 bay fitted our adjusters for a better ride, some new brakes were in order. We have a disc brake set up that brings the wheel track back to the standard width of the splitter without narrowing the beam, keeps it safe and all nice and legal.

IRS was also on the list with a very late model L Bug box for some freeway kruizing. All new brakes on the rear as you would have guessed.

As you guessed Ben spared no expense and went for as many new items as possible. All the locks, handles and strikers are new, all the glass is new, Head lights tail lights, hub caps mirrors, gauges and the list truely goes on and on. The best thing that happened to this bus was Ben getting hold of it. It is really in good hands.

Then of course the motor, it too had to be new, Brand New. So everything was new and its around 1900cc with Alternator, twin Empi Single Barrels

Once it was finished, the engineers report complete, a blue slip complete and some fresh number plates, I drove it then for 400 odd miles and ran the motor in checked it over and over and over, from top to bottom as we do with a fresh rebuild like this. I left off a heap of brand new items that would have been just plain boring. But it steers like new, it stops better than new and its at very lease twice as fast as it was in 1962. Its one very Very VERY nice 1962 lil red fun box. This was a hard one to hand back.

Thanks Ben for being such a great sport and sharing this with us.

Now for some holiday shots...

A day at the races, or was it "the fun box on the hill" what ever it is Mount Panarama was a day out for the fun box.

Stan looks up Mountatin Straight and on the ripple strip. The big red box looks great from behind now the suspension has settled.

                                    Ready to give Herby a run for his money.... Go Stan !!!

Chief.