1966 Ex BRS Austin VAK 100 "Noddy" van. Shack building.

As mentioned before elsewhere. I massively admire people who own one vehicle for 10.20. 30 years and keep changing it or just keep it standard.
But sometimes we and our life paths change.
It certainly has taken me this long to realise that I need to move three of my toys that have all served their purpose in time.

I don’t have any doubt this has taken a lot of your cerebral space recently and not so recently.

Life is good and life certainly goes on.

Yes Ian, I am pretty much there with the decision now.

Another issue influencing things is that in the near ten years of this saga, spousal redundancy, pay freezes and inflation have combined to decrease my monthly disposable income by more than 80% in real terms. Regardless of all the other factors, I don’t think I could afford to run it, even if it was drivable and fully roadworthy right now. 

I don’t think that it’s going to return enough for a foreign holiday 🤣

In all seriousness, I don’t have a great deal of cash actually tied up in it, and the last thing I’m going to be doing is buying another project. 

I might just plough the money into the Land-Rover. I would like to make it a little more refined (or less unrefined 🤣), so some repairs to the doors, some sound deadening and some trim are possibilities. 

Just come back to the site after a long time away.

Sad to hear this news about the Noddy van as your thread is what inspired me to join the forum and keep working on my (neverending) project.

I'm the same age as you though, so totally appreciate the challenges you're facing - I've been running my own business (furniture and mattresses) for the last 16 years, but the recent cost of living crisis along with the Ukraine war and the pandemic have nearly finished me off.

I've still got my Walk Thru and still have my dream of getting it fully roadworthy - I constantly find myself thinking of simplifying my life and getting rid, but I'm still in the mindset that I would look back and regret it. The van, which I've owned for 29 years now, seems to almost represent who I was pre kids/mortgage/monthly bills and I'm loathe to let it go.

If you can find a way to keep it, please do, whether it be passing it on to someone you know or working a way to simplify owning it, but if ultimately it'll be a weight off your shoulders then so be it.

Thanks for the inspiration and good luck!

I am happy to take some measurements for you. Bear with me and I’ll do what I can.

As for weights, the confusion comes with a change in conventions. Back in the 1950s, when these were designed, it was customary to refer to lorries by their nominal payloads. Thus, some of the prototypes of these vans were built on “3-ton” chassis, and some on “5-ton” ones; which refers to 3 tons of payload (about seven tons gross weight) or 5 tons of payload (about 9 tons gross weight). From what I understand, the 3-ton versions had 6.00-20 tyres, 6-stud hubs, four cylinder engines of 3.9 litres and generally all round dimensions slightly smaller, although there appears to be no survivors at all, and it’s hard to get a proper idea from the odd picture. The bigger 5-ton chassis had 7.50-20 tyres on 8-stud hubs, bigger brakes, and a 5.1 litre six-cylinder engine. It was found that the versions on the heavier chassis performed much better, and as far as I know, all the actual production run of 2800 odd vehicles from 1958 through to 1976 were built on 5-ton chassis.

As HGV driver licensing was introduced in the 60s, with its bandings according to gross weight and axle configuration, as well as vehicle taxation moving to gross weights, it became increasingly common to refer to vehicles by their gross weights rather than by their payloads. So, although my lorry was designated a VAK100, with the 100 referring to 100cwt (5 tons) payload, it is in modern parlance a 9-ton truck.



The above is a 3-ton chassis which, as I say, would have been around seven tons gross. You can make out the six stud axles, and the whole thing is a scaled down version of the bigger vans.



This one is a 5-ton chassis, and you can see that everything is bigger.



And this picture shows the two basic variants of the 5-ton chassis next to each other, with the front one being a high roof and longer bodied version, like mine, and the rear one being the more common low roof short type.

Hope that clears things up for you. In short, the vast majority of these vans were built on chassis’ which were 9-ton gross weight, with a 5-ton payload. Of those, probably more than 80% of them were low roof, short bodies, designed for urban delivery work. The rest were high roof long bodied ones like mine.

It’s worth noting that they are much bigger, physically, than they look like in pictures. Modern lorries of this size have smaller wheels and different proportions that we’re subconsciously used to, and that kind of fools your eye when you look at these pictures. The big wheels seem to make the rest of the bodywork look small, and it’s not until you stand next to one that you realise just how big they actually are. Here’s a picture of an Austin wheel next to the 7.5 ton DAF that I broke for its engine to give you an idea what I mean. 

Thank you very much, very informative and all makes sense now.

Overal dimensions would be great if you can, I didn't know about the high roof versions or that the larger chassis came in so early.

Do you have a picture of the type of rear doors yours has on the high roof version?

I have spent the last eight months going around in circles.

I’ve decided to keep it, sell it, break it, keep it, and on and on ad infinitum.

At the end of last month I finally put together a for sale advert. A chap came over and looked at it. Didn’t want the engine and gearbox, or most of the spares, just the rolling shell. He made me an offer, we went back and forth a bit, and ended up doing a deal.

I then moped for a couple of days.

Received a stiff talking to from SWMBO.

Called the buyer and pulled out of the deal.

So. Where are we?

Basically exactly where we left off, except for a load more junk piled up in front of it and a good bit more green slime…



Domestically though, we have a fully completed en-suite bathroom, and a totally re-plastered, redecorated and refurnished bedroom. So SWMBO is content with me finally being able to put my focus on the Austin.

First job today was a bit of a tidy up, then sweep up all the leaf litter, catkins and yew tree needles that seem always to be carpeting the floor. Then break out the pressure washer and get rid of some of the green, and a bit more old flaky paint. I also did as much of the floor as I could reasonably reach.



With the area in front of the lorry clear, I started on the next step. Working outside means bad weather is always the excuse for not doing any work, and I need to do something about it. So, inspired by teaboy and commycouper I have decided to erect a temporary shelter at the front of the vehicle, to give me some protection from the elements. I have bought a stack of used pallets from a local firm. They’re 8’ x 2’8” and cost the princely sum of £2 each. I have 10 to be going on with, but will definitely need another dozen or so. The plan is to spend as little as possible, and to construct it in such a way that it can be easily dismantled. Anyway, a start has been made.



I am not worried about making it 100% weathertight, and may leave the walls slatted in order to encourage airflow and prevent any damp. Alternatively, I might just wrap the outside with shed felt. I have a line on some free roofing sheets, which will be good if it comes off. The plan is to bridge the gap between the structure and the lorry with a decent tarpaulin.

With that done, and some temporary lighting, I should be able to get some decent progress on the front end over the winter.

What jonsey said...

Hi Glen, as many have already said, I'm really pleased to hear you're keeping it. Super close call though by the sounds of it! Hopefully, the potential buyer was understanding of the situation? This project has such great potential and to know that fire has been reignited is great news.
A temporary covering is definitely the way to go. There's nothing worse than trying to crack on with the job, but the weather has it's own ideas! Especially when you have bare metal and your tools set out everywhere. It's a headache trying to figure out which to deal with first as it starts to 'P' it down!
The down sides of having cover is that you then can't blame the weather for a lazy day!.....it's a catch 22 situation 😄