NZ Beige - Torvette Camper

[NZ Beige]

Hi,

I have recently bought a 69 Devon Torvette. Hopefully going to use it to get to work during the week, then once summer rolls round (our seasons are opposite down here in New Zealand from you guys up top), I'll be able to take the wife and little boy away for some weekends at the beach.

It started back before Christmas when I found an old picture of my Dad's bus he had back in the 70's.

After asking Mum and showing her a few buses, I have found out it was a neptune blue RHD with twin sliding doors. My first choice was trying to find this same bus, but it has been deregistered and off the road since 1996, so not much luck there.

So went for a visit to the local V-Dub Shoppe, these guys had helped me with my split bus a few years back and had something for me. It was an early bay with a horrible paint job!

As you can see, it need some work.

So first thing, have to get rid of that horrible colour scheme and get it back to the original beige. It was a company vehicle so had stickers all over it too. The one on the bumper is part of a zip, where the blue was coming away to reveal the orange colour!
There were little sqaure silver bits up the front where the two colours met to complete the illusion of a zip - Classy.

Luckily there is original beige on the inside, so I'll be able to match the outside to that. Roof, bumpers and the widened 15inch steelies will be back to white as well. The inside has a pretty complete devon torvette kit, I'm missing the cooler though, and most will need to be fixed in some way. I already have a mate lined up to help with this - in exchange for beer of course!

Long term plan is lower it a bit and maybe run some detailed 17in fuches, seen that white bay running them and it looks pretty bloody nice! Also have a soft spot for empi 5's and sprints too, so will have to see how it goes. I have a spare link pin beam in the garage so the ideas are already ticking over in my head.

Spent all day today sanding, and should be getting sprayed in the next few weeks. Updates to follow.

Cheers, Daniel.

 

[the irv]

nice
i'd love to see some interior shots, always good to see another torvette
on the road.

 

[gninnam]

Nice purchase and sounds like you know what you are after so good luck and keep us posted

 

[NZ Beige]

Update time!!!

Ok, so I got a bit carried away with the quicky scuff and spray job. Took all the windows out to find some rust under the rubbers. So all that was fixed along with a few other areas, but overall not too bad.
Then came the sanding.....

So after a few months of weekends sanding, today the roof got it's topcoat.

Just sprayed.

Out in the sun.

It's an off white used on a Kia (they do have a use after all!), and looks really good. I didn't want a bright white, and this has an older look to it. The bumpers and wheels will go this colour too.
So back to doing a bit more sanding on the rest of the body next weekend, but getting pretty close. I've lost my fingerprints with all this sanding!

Hopefully updates will be a bit more frequent from now on too!

Daniel

 

[gninnam]

Roof is looking fantastic 8) - keep it up

 

[NZ Beige]

Cheers mate, been a busy few weekends!

Last weekend we got the insides of the doors sorted and continued with a bit of body prep. Forgot the camera so no pics of that.

This weekend we had a big day and got the main shell into paint. Back to the original L620 Savanna Beige.
Didn't get any decent pics of it though. We did unmask it to see how it looked, but didn't take it outside as there were a few black clouds coming in. Will hopefully get some better ones next time.

Nose:

Drivers side:

Now just the outsides of the doors and the other removeables to do and I can start putting it back together

 

[moler]

Nice work, love the colour 8)

Your dad's old bus is my current Holy Grail, a RHD '69 double door tin top :mrgreen:

 

[NZ Beige]

Been a busy few weekends!!!

But got the last of the bits back on the bus this morning.

Going for a wof next week, hopefully won't need anything else.
Then it'll finally come home and I can start on the interior.

 

[Fortunate Son]

Wow, very very nice bud. Particularly liking the look of the wheels in OG colours but wider - very subtle and very tasteful 8) 8) 8)

 

[NZ Beige]

Yeah, I wasn't so sure on them when I first got it, but they've grown on me now. They're widened 15in split bus rims.
They should do until I figure out what I'm going to do with the running gear. Was thinking of some detailed 17in porsche rims, already have a spare link pin beam sitting in the shed.

That might be a while though, getting it to this stage has cost a lot more than I first planned!!!

 

[NZ Beige]

Nice work, love the colour 8)

Your dad's old bus is my current Holy Grail, a RHD '69 double door tin top :mrgreen:

Yup, happy with the colour too, the only one I know of down here that is beige! Most have been resprayed in a brighter shade :roll:

If I could find my Dad's old bus I would try buying it, but our buses rust out as bad as the UK versions, so there probably isn't much left of it.


Cheers, Daniel.

 

[NZ Beige]

After mucking round for a few months, I finally have the interior almost done, just a few more finishing pieces to add, and some new bits for up front.

Did a full wood headlining and refinished the original cabinets.

Also have a Kauri (native New Zealand wood) tabletop and a matching piece on top of the wardrobe (cabinet behind drivers seat)

With pillow

Also did something a little different at the back. I extended the bed top out to the side to conture around the spare wheel. Then there's a little lid that lifts off to store the jack and tools. It's lined with some black carpeting so everything doesn't rattle round.

Also made some "retro" styled speaker covers for in the doors and in the back under the rear seat.

Still got a few more jobs to do, but basically done. Might do something with the cooker unit as well, but not sure the cooker can be saved. The unit should come up alright though, it's supposed to live behind the front passenger seat, but it might take up too much room. Don't think I'll be doing much cooking inside it anyway!

It's still up for sale, but not really too worried if it doesn't sell soon, it's coming into summer over here so I'm using it every weekend and take it to work a couple of times a week too.

Gave her a wash too

If I do end up keeping it the next step will be to remove some of that space between the wheelwell and tyres!

Cheers, Daniel.

 

[weeboll]

v-db shoppe brings back some memories, i think half of my spare parts came from there before i shipped my bus uk side - its going back to the same colour as yours so should be a carbon copy from the outside - down to the nz widened rims

like the wooden headlining