virgobugs
Active member
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2022
- Messages
- 29
- Reaction score
- 27
- Location
- Cornwall
- Year of Your Van(s)
- 1971
- Van Type
- Microbus
Hey, So.. I've been lurking for a while and thought it was time to register and get involved.
Back in June this year I stumbled across a 71 Bay very local to me down here in Cornwall and would have been rude not to go and check it out. We'd not really been looking at all but always fancied an Early Bay to replace the then for sale T25 Panel Van we had and to cut a long story short we ended up doing a deal there and then. This particular Bay is a Californian 71 Deluxe and some of you may know it from way back in around 2015/16 when it was owned by Slammed72 who changed the look of this bus quite dramatically, take a look at the thread; https://earlybay.com/threads/1971-ratstoration.68119/page-5#post-602881
So, hows the bus now? We bought it knowing it's been through a couple of owners since then and if I'm honest I think a lot of love was lost for it and its lost some of the bits that made it. The cabinets have gone along with some of the Deluxe parts like the rear windows and even that engines been swapped out, even the suspension was raised...! So what are we working with, pretty much a blank canvas to put our mark on a pretty solid Cali Bus that needs a lot of loving to bring him back. The Gearbox was busted when we done the deal so thats the first job along with a engine refresh and to get it driving again, then the lows.
As it sits now..
And when it was in a good place:
Looking for some inspiration with the interior as we want a full width bed, so lets see where that goes. The van never got flattened and polished after the last post so some work to do on that before adding a bit of patina..
I'm sure we will be adding a bit of progress to our insta page bobosaurus_wrecks
Thanks for having us..
Back in June this year I stumbled across a 71 Bay very local to me down here in Cornwall and would have been rude not to go and check it out. We'd not really been looking at all but always fancied an Early Bay to replace the then for sale T25 Panel Van we had and to cut a long story short we ended up doing a deal there and then. This particular Bay is a Californian 71 Deluxe and some of you may know it from way back in around 2015/16 when it was owned by Slammed72 who changed the look of this bus quite dramatically, take a look at the thread; https://earlybay.com/threads/1971-ratstoration.68119/page-5#post-602881
So, hows the bus now? We bought it knowing it's been through a couple of owners since then and if I'm honest I think a lot of love was lost for it and its lost some of the bits that made it. The cabinets have gone along with some of the Deluxe parts like the rear windows and even that engines been swapped out, even the suspension was raised...! So what are we working with, pretty much a blank canvas to put our mark on a pretty solid Cali Bus that needs a lot of loving to bring him back. The Gearbox was busted when we done the deal so thats the first job along with a engine refresh and to get it driving again, then the lows.
As it sits now..
And when it was in a good place:
Looking for some inspiration with the interior as we want a full width bed, so lets see where that goes. The van never got flattened and polished after the last post so some work to do on that before adding a bit of patina..
I'm sure we will be adding a bit of progress to our insta page bobosaurus_wrecks
Thanks for having us..