Having looked around for a while, and being inspired by among others RetroMats camper RetroMat at the end of last year I bought this:
Given its age it was in remarkably![]()
good condition - although far from mint. The interior is a bit warn and there are some signs of rust although mostly cosmetic (I'm telling myself). The bottom of the passenger side dor was pretty far rusted as the drain hole had been blocked. I quickly found that repair panels are pretty much non existent so had to get a bottom section fabbed and then the door re-painted
The repair section is where the side trim is missing. I have the trim, but it's pretty crappy so may remove the whole lot - it's just glued on.
Mechanically it seemed ok, 1.6 12r engine, 4 on the tree gears. It sounded a bit blowy but on the run down from buying it that blow turned out to be the head gasket which went - along with the ignition!
(you can see some primer on the rear where my dad and I knocked out a dent) It was recovered back up to yorkshire to my dads where the engne was fixed up with some new gaskets, points and some cosmetic tidy ups. The engine is pretty sound - but feels underpowered especially going up hill! I might ultimately like to swap it out for something 18r, 22r, Beams 3s-ge?!
I don't have much space to work on it at the moment so it's subsequently done the run from London to Leeds and back without a problem 2 or 3 times. One of those trips was to install forward facing minibus seats with 3 point harnesses - as it had no rear seatbelts for the kids:
This meant a bit of reconfiguring, but the lower bead still folds out and I want to get these seats trimmed up to match the brown vinyl look of the rest of interior. I've added back some of the boxing around the base - have since done the other side too. I want to replace the seat pads so they look like square cushions as on the other side.
I remade the fold out bed base to accommodate the passenger side rear seat and covered the top with felt. You can also see the speakers that I installed in the rear. The stereo setup when I bought it was an old kenwood head unit in an ugly metal cradle under the dash, So I removed that - reinstated the stock AM radio (thankfully all still there and working) and also added a headless bluetooth system, which is basically a receiver (from a boat) tucked under the dash and an amp in the back. I can then pair my phone to the receiver and use the phone as the head unit.
I've also added halogen bulbs, replacing the original sealed beams. I'd like to keep upgrades subtle, looking to renew suspension components, wheels and upgrade the brakes in future - it currently has drums all round and front discs were an option I believe.
Looking forward to many summers of camping!
Here are some more pics:
Most of the bottom corners look like this - nothing toooo(!) bad - but without readily available panels I guess I'd need to get someone to custom fabricate pieces for repair?. I'd love to get to a stage where I have the space and skill to weld, but that is not where I'm at right now.
Given its age it was in remarkably
The repair section is where the side trim is missing. I have the trim, but it's pretty crappy so may remove the whole lot - it's just glued on.Mechanically it seemed ok, 1.6 12r engine, 4 on the tree gears. It sounded a bit blowy but on the run down from buying it that blow turned out to be the head gasket which went - along with the ignition!
(you can see some primer on the rear where my dad and I knocked out a dent) It was recovered back up to yorkshire to my dads where the engne was fixed up with some new gaskets, points and some cosmetic tidy ups. The engine is pretty sound - but feels underpowered especially going up hill! I might ultimately like to swap it out for something 18r, 22r, Beams 3s-ge?!
I don't have much space to work on it at the moment so it's subsequently done the run from London to Leeds and back without a problem 2 or 3 times. One of those trips was to install forward facing minibus seats with 3 point harnesses - as it had no rear seatbelts for the kids:
This meant a bit of reconfiguring, but the lower bead still folds out and I want to get these seats trimmed up to match the brown vinyl look of the rest of interior. I've added back some of the boxing around the base - have since done the other side too. I want to replace the seat pads so they look like square cushions as on the other side.
I remade the fold out bed base to accommodate the passenger side rear seat and covered the top with felt. You can also see the speakers that I installed in the rear. The stereo setup when I bought it was an old kenwood head unit in an ugly metal cradle under the dash, So I removed that - reinstated the stock AM radio (thankfully all still there and working) and also added a headless bluetooth system, which is basically a receiver (from a boat) tucked under the dash and an amp in the back. I can then pair my phone to the receiver and use the phone as the head unit.
I've also added halogen bulbs, replacing the original sealed beams. I'd like to keep upgrades subtle, looking to renew suspension components, wheels and upgrade the brakes in future - it currently has drums all round and front discs were an option I believe.
Looking forward to many summers of camping!
Here are some more pics:
Most of the bottom corners look like this - nothing toooo(!) bad - but without readily available panels I guess I'd need to get someone to custom fabricate pieces for repair?. I'd love to get to a stage where I have the space and skill to weld, but that is not where I'm at right now.
