by Sy Hollinshead Thu Jun 17, 2010 11:53 pmOk, so the time has finally come for me to start working on my camper van, so i thought i would start a thread on it to keep track of the progress.
We had decided a couple of years ago that we wanted a camper van. My wife likes the VW style splitscreen vans from the 60s, but i can't stand them, and they are WAY over priced over here. They rust too easily, and have miserable little engines in them.
I started looking for something interesting by doing a series of searches on Ebay. At that point i had no idea what to buy, but wanted something unusual. I came across a Ford Falcon Econoline that had been painted red,white and blue in a very striking pattern. I had never seen one before, and liked the look of it. Here is a quick piccie...
The paint job wasn't to my liking, but we decided to go and have a look at it, as i could easily repaint it. Anyway, to cut a long story short we fell in love with this van, but didn't buy it due to the amount of bodywork/rust that would eventually require attention. However we were well and truly hooked on the idea, so i started searching straight away for something similar.
The search was hopeless, there was nothing available in the UK, so i started looking on EBAY USA. Eventually one came up that we liked the look of, and on a whim i just clicked the Buy It Now button. Here are some of the piccies from the ebay ad....
The van had been partly restored by the PO. The paint was new, and the engine had been rebuilt, along with a lot of the parts in it as well.
I then sold my 1970 Mustang with a 460 big block to fund the project and make some room in the garage....
So then all we had to do was wait for it to be delivered... It turned up about 3 months later, on a low loader, after travelling about 6000 miles at sea, including the panama canal....
Over all, the van looked in very good condition, although i was annoyed that the camper roof had been irrepairably damaged during transportation. Nobody owned up to what had happened, but it was obvious from the two scratch lines down the rear doors that the whole roof had flipped open whilst at speed, and had gone right over the back of the van. Upon further inspection, it became apparent that the roof had only been held in with a piece of thin electrical wire, and this had broken. Apart from that it looked good. So the van was put away in the garage, and there it has sat ever since.
I have to go to work now, but will continue the story when i get home....
Regards
Sy
We had decided a couple of years ago that we wanted a camper van. My wife likes the VW style splitscreen vans from the 60s, but i can't stand them, and they are WAY over priced over here. They rust too easily, and have miserable little engines in them.
I started looking for something interesting by doing a series of searches on Ebay. At that point i had no idea what to buy, but wanted something unusual. I came across a Ford Falcon Econoline that had been painted red,white and blue in a very striking pattern. I had never seen one before, and liked the look of it. Here is a quick piccie...
The paint job wasn't to my liking, but we decided to go and have a look at it, as i could easily repaint it. Anyway, to cut a long story short we fell in love with this van, but didn't buy it due to the amount of bodywork/rust that would eventually require attention. However we were well and truly hooked on the idea, so i started searching straight away for something similar.
The search was hopeless, there was nothing available in the UK, so i started looking on EBAY USA. Eventually one came up that we liked the look of, and on a whim i just clicked the Buy It Now button. Here are some of the piccies from the ebay ad....
The van had been partly restored by the PO. The paint was new, and the engine had been rebuilt, along with a lot of the parts in it as well.
I then sold my 1970 Mustang with a 460 big block to fund the project and make some room in the garage....
So then all we had to do was wait for it to be delivered... It turned up about 3 months later, on a low loader, after travelling about 6000 miles at sea, including the panama canal....
Over all, the van looked in very good condition, although i was annoyed that the camper roof had been irrepairably damaged during transportation. Nobody owned up to what had happened, but it was obvious from the two scratch lines down the rear doors that the whole roof had flipped open whilst at speed, and had gone right over the back of the van. Upon further inspection, it became apparent that the roof had only been held in with a piece of thin electrical wire, and this had broken. Apart from that it looked good. So the van was put away in the garage, and there it has sat ever since.
I have to go to work now, but will continue the story when i get home....
Regards
Sy
