On the floor

The ride height has bugged me from the start. I didn't like the way the bus drove or the way that it looked so the lowering time had come. The front wasn't easy though and took a while to get the height properly dialled. The back was very easy :0).

The front beam was removed to allow me to fully assess the chassis above it which was in remarkably good shape. As well as fitting the adjusters I also rebuilt the calipers, fitted a new steering damper, removed the bump stop mounts and did loads of other front beam related stuff....

The Engine Rebuild

It was a lovely sunny day and we were heading back from the lakes and the camper was getting slower and slower and then.........bang. The engine overheated and one of the pistons seized in the barrel, the connecting rod kept going causing a right mess.







So, it was decided to throw even more money at the bus and try to guarantee some reliability (although this is impossible) by buying a brand new engine from VW Mexico. This came via VW Heritage in the UK and has been a very good strong engine though not without some push-rod tube issues causing a few teething troubles. The block as delivered was built up with pretty much ALL new ancillaries total engine build cost circa £3k!

All back together

It took some months to finish off the paint and with the looming excitement of a trip to the lakes we put our bus back together as quickly as we could - we didn't cut any corners but we didn't do all of the things we wanted to (like new front seat covers).

So, all new rubbers, powder coated bumpers, painted wheels silver, new chrome hub caps, classic number plates, light lenses, aerial, painted dash, rear carpet, brown cord curtains, reupholstered seats, new cooker and fabricated sink (thanks dad) plus loads (and i mean loads) of other stuff.