Hello fellow bus folk!
Well it's been an eventful start to bus ownership... but I'll start with a bit of my background. I'll be honest, I'm a Jap car fan boy - I like going fast, making lots of noise and turning a few heads... an attention seeker I guess!
My passion for cars started with a Rover Coupe 1600. By no means quick, but I fell in love with the styling from a young age, and always knew I wanted one:
Soon though, the lack of power meant an upgrade was on the cards, and after the 1600 got written off by a lousy driver in a Merc, I purchased a 2.0 litre turbo Coupe.
It started off life like this:
And ended up like this:
After finishing Uni, I needed something a bit more reliable for the daily commute, so the Rover went, and a 200sx filled it's spot on the drive:
It was an awesome car, very quick and just took so much abuse. But again, being an 'older' car, it wasn't great for relying on daily; but my biggest bug bear was it being savagely loud, super stiff and ***** in the winter. As such, it went to make way for something a bit more practical for the commute:
Unfortunately, the VXR just didn't float my boat - was just too modern and soft for my liking. So when this went recently the hunt was on for something that ticked all my boxes. I've recently moved house so am in the fortunate position that my commute is now a walk, meaning I could go back to having a 'toy' that lives in the garage.
After a long search and discussions with the Mrs, we made the decision to look for a camper as a joint car. I bought a cheap Clio Sport to satisfy my craving for B road blasts and the hunt for a camper began. After seeing some right nails and being massively disappointed with the for sale section at Busfest, we found what we were looking for... and here is the beast!
No name as yet, but we have a list as long as my arm of bits to get sorted. The main selling point for us was how clean it is underneath - it has had a lot of work getting it structural, and a proper under sealing.
Our journey home was an eventful one, I thought my SX had stiff suspension, but this is on a new level of discomfort! Good old Mr TomTom took us down mile after mile of single carriage country roads, where anything at more than walking pace and I feared something was going to break in a bad way... Anyway, it made it back, despite my anger at the other half for actually following the shatnav, and not her instincts, and it has been tucked away in the garage since.
I was told to watch out for the starter being a bit lazy by the previous owner, and low and behold, last weekend I went to start it, and it would only crank very very slowly. Off came the starter and it went off to be refurbed, along with a new bush. Popped it back in on Friday, and it made no difference! (That'll learn me for not just carrying out my own tests). I swapped the battery out with my Clio, and it started instantly... What a ****.
So, as I wanted an excuse to drive it this weekend, I loaded it up with some crap that needed to go to the tip, and off we pottered. Lovely to have it running again, and I love the attention you get in it!
Now, on the drive home, I noticed a squeaking noise that seemed to match the rotational speed, coming from the drivers front wheel. I put it down to something rubbing and put off taking a look straight away... how I wish I had. On our way to the tip, the squeaking noise turned into the odd clunking noise, and once on the main road, my ignorance kicked my ass. There was a loud bang and the bus suddenly veered to the left. Fortunately I caught it and managed to pull the van to the side of the road. Fortunately, I was opposite my work, and managed to limp it in to the workshop where I could dismantle it to see what was going on. To be honest, for a van with a long MOT, I was a bit staggered as to what I found:
The inner cages were just 2 rings of metal and a load of shards, and most of the rollers were mishapen - the worst being the 2 lumps in the pic which are actually made up of 2 or 3 rollers that have melted together! How it got a MOT with a clearly failing bearing, I do not know...
But anyway, that's where we're up to - I love working on the bus, and can't wait to get this sorted and back on the road again.
James and Elspeth
