Crossed up Deluxe

[Geeze]

Ok, so being chipping in occasionally around here, figured it's about time I started a thread!

Having been busless since we chipped our old SA T25 in for the deposit on the house, decided this year it was about time we got another bus. Few phone calls and ended up heading for west london to be viewing this

It was on with Luke at Terry's. I've known Luke a long old time and would pretty much taken him at his word over the phone but had to go view (and catch up). And for all the 'hes expensive' remarks, it wasn't much more than others I saw but it came with a years MOT and the engine attached to the gearbox, not on the backseat

So we brought it home.......

Top priority when we were bus hunting was to get something solid. It was sights like this that sold it to us

So first job on getting it home was to check out just what we'd bought.

Started out by stripping the interior, first up cab area

That looks pretty good 8)

Then the rear

All pretty tidy

but did manage to find a hole :shock:

Not so good, as my welding is scarey side of awful. My other half lays a far better bead ! Luckily, my next door neighbour is a mobile welder (and bus fan, has a split and a late bay) so he popped round and did this

which made the world good again! 8)

Next up, was to sort out some of the niggles to make it sorted.

First day we had it, the side door popped open just after collecting the girls from school :shock: cue day taking sliding door to pieces and redoing umpteen catches and rollers. Also sorted various other jobs like stiff handbrake, intermittant indicators and all the usual. Will spare the photodocumentary, just the usual first flush of ownership pride and fettling!

 

[Geeze]

So rolling on.....
We picked up the bus at the end of march, promise was to have it lowered and ready to camp by big bang.

It's got a set of (kinda worn) original z-bed hinges in the back

so stripped out the middle seat and set to with the wooden flooring, doing the usual underlay and ply routine

also started getting it ready for lowering, first job being 3hrs spent just clearing the underseal from the torsion bar covers.
really should have taken a 'before' shot, it was so thick you had to know they were there to spot the bolt heads :shock:

but look! OG niagara blue! 8) so that's what it looks like before it fades :lol:

for og paint fans, the bus isn't as original as it looks in photos. the blue is mostly factory but the top has had a real bad respray in appliance white at some stage....

it's cracked and crazed (and what looks like montana red :? is buried beneath it) but there's factory cloud white lurking under it all 8)

all of which tarting about meant that despite two four day weekends, I wasn't going to hit the deadline of big bang and having it lowered, despite having a big fat box of T2D tricks sat waiting to go on.

In my defence, part of the problem is having the right tools to do the job as my garage looks like this :shock:

Bonus points / old codger marks (you decide ) to anyone who recognises the beetle....! But either way, still can't even find my axles stands

So I did the only decent thing and cheated a couple of days before the show, and gave it to Larry and Deano up at RetroCustom to do the honours. Cue obligatory fuel station shot!

and all loaded up and ready for big bang....

 

[gvee]

Lush bus! :mrgreen:
What have you got in store for it next then?

 

[retro]

looks very nice, wish i had bought a drive and go one now :lol:

 

[mattyd72]

Nice 8)

Another Wimbledon registered deluxe too

 

[Danbury Doug]

Lovely bus! Niagara Blue Crossovers rock!

I bought my previous bus from Luke. He's a really nice chap.

 

[Geeze]

Lush bus! :mrgreen:
What have you got in store for it next then?

Thanks

Immediate plans are to get a camping interior in it before we head down to the west country then cornwall in August. Big bang was a nightmare, there's nowhere to 'put' anything so it all ends up spread across the loadbay floor!

Also still need to sort the stance as it's all wrong
Another inch or two needs to come out of the front.....

looks very nice, wish i had bought a drive and go one now :lol:

Being straight back on the road was a big bonus for us. We've been without a bus for a year or two and camping last year was a nightmare, we ended up taking two cars :shock:

Nice 8)

Another Wimbledon registered deluxe too

Is that where the reg is from? Saw a brazilian 15window only a couple of numbers away at Stonor and then followed a westie crossover with almost the same plate on the way home!

Lovely bus! Niagara Blue Crossovers rock!

I bought my previous bus from Luke. He's a really nice chap.

Cheers fella
Yours looks lovely and a lot shinier than ours though!

 

[Airtime]

Very nice deluxe! I like the roof rack. 8)

Have fun with it.

 

[creationblue]

Nice solid bus, mine too came from Luke, I must try and catch up with him.........

Just

 

[Geeze]

Very nice deluxe! I like the roof rack. 8)

Roofrack looks to be a genuine one came with the bus which is a bonus!

 

[Rusty Lee]

nice looking bus bud

 

[Buss69]

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Xd3Ea2u4jQQ/TeloNW5aunI/AAAAAAAAADk/wJnImXmKVso/s512/02052011569.jpg[/img]

Bonus points / old codger marks (you decide ) to anyone who recognises the beetle....!

Is your old bug Carson Topped? I'm sure I recognise those graphics.

 

[Geeze]

nice looking bus bud

Cheers fella, though will feel a lot happier about it when I get it sat properly

Is your old bug Carson Topped? I'm sure I recognise those graphics.

yep, that flat top mostly doing handy service as a shelf at the mo.....

 

[gninnam]

Great bus dude 8)

 

[Danbury Doug]

Lovely bus! Niagara Blue Crossovers rock!

I bought my previous bus from Luke. He's a really nice chap.

Cheers fella
Yours looks lovely and a lot shinier than ours though!

Thanks! Mine's not really very shiny when seen 'in the flesh'! The paint on the front panel is very flat, but I think if I put some effort into the other panels, I could get more of a shine.

My love of the colour combo stems from my folks originally having the same from brand new (same year and also a tin-top). Theirs had the 1700 Type 4 engine, which I guess yours has, or has it been upgraded to a 2 litre, like quite a few seem to have been?
Mine is a 1600.

 

[Buss69]

yep, that flat top mostly doing handy service as a shelf at the mo.....

I am going to show my age (and yours probably) is that an early 90's bug, sure i've seen that on Run-2-the-Sun?

 

[mattd1984]

Nice bus, will hopfully see you around as im only in Hitchin. Also know Deano so some quality work done their.

 

[Geeze]

Lovely bus! Niagara Blue Crossovers rock!

I bought my previous bus from Luke. He's a really nice chap.

Cheers fella
Yours looks lovely and a lot shinier than ours though!

Thanks! Mine's not really very shiny when seen 'in the flesh'! The paint on the front panel is very flat, but I think if I put some effort into the other panels, I could get more of a shine.

My love of the colour combo stems from my folks originally having the same from brand new (same year and also a tin-top). Theirs had the 1700 Type 4 engine, which I guess yours has, or has it been upgraded to a 2 litre, like quite a few seem to have been?
Mine is a 1600.

Was that yours at Stonor? If so took a pic of it for the missus to give a better idea what Niagara blue is meant to look like!
Haven't investigated motor much yet, supposed to be a 1700 but only got as far as noticing that it's got a nasty weber progressive on it! Current mission is seals to try and keep the weather out...

I am going to show my age (and yours probably) is that an early 90's bug, sure i've seen that on Run-2-the-Sun?

Yeah, it's been around since '89 :shock: I didn't build it, that honour goes to Mark Salisbury but have been it's custodian since the early 90s. Try not to think too hard just how long ago that is now :lol:

Nice bus, will hopfully see you around as im only in Hitchin. Also know Deano so some quality work done their.

Pootled it through Hitchin just last Saturday, you do any of the local meets? I know there's one over at the Stanborough in WGC but keep forgetting which night it's on

 

[Buss69]

Yeah, it's been around since '89 :shock: I didn't build it, that honour goes to Mark Salisbury but have been it's custodian since the early 90s. Try not to think too hard just how long ago that is now :lol:
:

Wow, I remember that bug on it's first year out, nice to see it's still alive. Massive respect, those 80'/90's GFX and colours really inspired my first bus, it was a 72 Peppermint green and purple Bay with blacked out windows, it seemed like a good idea at the time. :? Funny, I remember telling one of the major UK VW retailers at the time I wanted to put a silly engine in a Bay Window and all I got was a sarcastic laugh and a comment along the lines of "why would you want to do that to a Bay, Splits are where it's at". Hmm, how times have changed.

 

[Geeze]

Wow, I remember that bug on it's first year out, nice to see it's still alive. Massive respect, those 80'/90's GFX and colours really inspired my first bus, it was a 72 Peppermint green and purple Bay with blacked out windows, it seemed like a good idea at the time. :? Funny, I remember telling one of the major UK VW retailers at the time I wanted to put a silly engine in a Bay Window and all I got was a sarcastic laugh and a comment along the lines of "why would you want to do that to a Bay, Splits are where it's at". Hmm, how times have changed.

Will hold my hands up to pastel hued squareback and porsche magenta on a beetle. Possibly should be embarassed about that but still fancy doing another proper nu skool callooker . Ironically, my first VW was a split though. As a skint new driver I couldn't afford the prices beetles were commanding!

Some bays were loved way back then, had a mate (he worked for Autocavan, that dates it!) with an early bay running a stroker motor 8) no one else understood it, he was just way ahead of his time!