Sherbie

[ozziedog]

Thought now is as good a time as ever to pop up a picture or two and some of the stunts I’ve done with this van. He’s a 1970 panel van originally bought brand new to be converted by the original owner to take his Mrs on adventures and travels around the UK and the continent. Some of this I’ve gleaned from various sources including the second owner who I met at Busfest one year and it’s to him I’m indebted for the history. The original owner only used the van for a couple of years possibly five from memory, then his wife passed away so he parked it up in a row of garages and just left it there because it reminded him of his wife.
Enter into the story the second owner as a young rascal / tear away as most of us were back in our teenage possibly pre teenage years. This young fella who’s name escapes me, and his cohorts would terrorise the local neighbourhood / play in this area around the garages and one thing leading to another they eventually ran amok along the asbestos sheeted roofs as part of their adventures and chasing each other around. Eventually some of the roofs were damaged here and there and bits of roofs were lost in the time period that these children played there. As children do, they had a nose about through the broken roof sheets to see what was in these garages and none of them were at all interested in a dusty old Volkswagen van ,,,,, at the time!
Years and years later as this young fella emerged as a VW petrol head he kept remembering this old dusty van in that old scabby garage and I’m pretty sure he didn’t even know for sure exactly what sort of van it was or even what colour it definitely was but I may have made that bit up. This story was relayed to me by the second owner up at Busfest one year maybe five, six, seven , years ago. This chap probably thought it was a ringer because it was no longer a converted panel van but a regular van with stock windows, he wasn’t convinced initially until I showed him some of the scars internally of where I’d changed things around, mainly to make it look like a stock van.
Back to the story , so this chap had knocked the door of the owner several times over the years but he just didn’t want to part with it despite all the offers to fix it up etc etc etc. Somewhere along the line, someone did some work for him and that someone was a friend or a relative of the second owner and eventually softened him up to sell it and a deal was struck.
Now the true state of this van was revealed as the van was dragged out of this tight spaced old garage in the middle of the rank, it was so tight on space that you could hardly squeeze down the side of the van to try and release the brakes etc. Once it was dragged out, the second owner (I’m gonna call him Vinny from now on) so Vinny gets the van out and part of the garage roof is lodged on the roof of the van along with years of dust and dirt and rain damage from the leaking roof. The rear offside corner had the drainage slot blocked for a long long time and this section of the roof had completely rusted out along with several other sections of gutters where all the crap had gotten soaking and just rusted it out. And that is as much as I remember about the first and second owners . The van was then sold on to a chap ‘in the trade ‘ and I’m fairly sure he worked at a tyre and mot place . So,,, I’ve won the van on EBay and me and my mate drive all the way to Essex I think it was as a good excuse to go for a blast in his brand new Jag that he’d bought and had delivered the week before. Well we go for a run around the block and this van is a little smelly, and a little rough, and a little oily, and sloppy steering is nowhere near a close description of where this van was going, the very recent mot had obviously come out of a box of cornflakes and started off with ‘ once upon a time’ So no fuel, no fuel guage, no steering really and not too much in the way of brakes, I was in love and a bit blinkered with my rose coloured glasses, what could possibly go wrong !
We headed off at breakneck speed off towards sunny Bristol and mainly looking for a garage to get some juice and some oil with my mate Dave trying to keep up in his brand new Jag. We got juiced up and bought oil, Comma oil was the cheapest in a gallon container going on the basis that any oil is better than no oil for the journey home. We stopped a couple of times mainly because of the smell of burning oil and not toooo sure how much fuel we had at any given moment so we eventually stopped on the M4 right at the London end somewhere and I’m treating Dave to a burger an chips from Burger King at the services, so we’ve parked up and tried to lock the van, absolutely no hope as I’ve got a bunch of keys that don’t actually fit the locks and Ford keys that are never gonna work etc etc. So I go and get the burgers and me and Dave then sit in the back with the table out and eat our stuff. A brand spanking new Merc pulls up and a giant of a man gets out and spots me and Dave sat in the van eating, this fella is dripping in chains and Tom foolery and looks a zillion dollars. In the most feminine voice I’ve ever heard from a full grown fella or indeed some ladies, he says “Oooh Nice “ and wanders off to get whatever it was he’d stopped for ^^^ say that in as high a pitch voice as you can imagine. Me and Dave scoff our burgers real quick and get out of there. It dawns on me later, at fiftyish miles an hour I’m never gonna out run a Merc and I’m pretty sure he was going the same way as us because it was the motorway!
Eventually get the van home and leave it parked out the front and it’s now the early hours of the morning. Me and Dave are still starstruck but we can’t show the girls until tomorrow.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,What The Hell Is That!!???

 

[67panel]

You do tell a good tale !!!!

 

[ozziedog]

Mrs Ozziedog won’t wake up, and I’m not brave enough to wake her, so I go down stairs and make some breakfast and a cup of tea for her. We’re sat on the bed and she’s drinking her tea and she says “ What time did you get home last night ?” “ It must have been late “ and indeed it was, it was well past the witching hour when I finally pulled up out the front of ours. I’m thinking , she’s gonna look out the window in a minute, or, she’s gonna ask about the van, but she dosent . She’s rattling on about her niece said this and her sister said that and somebody has had new windows and the lady up the street has got new curtains, rattle rattle, yak yak, so I wait for a break in the conversation and it comes as she is sipping her tea,,,,,,, “Have a look out the window “ I chirp , and she looks,
”What The Hell Is That”
I look out the window too and I gotta say I was a tad deflated by the comment and I’m now looking at what looks like a lot of work. That rear corner looked even worse from above, the gutter was rotted out and partially rotted the roof panel in the rear offside corner, and now I can see there’s several other places where it looks a little suspiciously ominous. “It’ll be fine “says me,” it’ll be like new in next to no time” So I drink my coffee and jump down the stairs two at a time and out the front door. A quick check there’s something on the dip stick, its not much but it’s over minimum, I wrestle with this big bunch of keys and wiggle them about until I get one to turn the ignition, it spins over like a jet engine but won’t catch, so I try a quick turn and a pump on the pedal, a quick turn and a pump and he starts. So I go for a spin around the block as I know this ain’t gonna be a one weekend restoration. Fab Fab Fab, up the street and up to the shops, people turning around to see what the racket is and possibly the smell of burning oil too. Back to mine, in to the back lane , down the lane and outside my garage, open the garage door, it’s a large double garage with an extension on the other end for kicks. Open the door and now I’m thinking, is it gonna fit ??? The double door is a large garadoor double door but has like a bracing steel across the middle and that’s about four inches extra drop that I hadn’t counted on. So I edge in inch by inch, then jump out and check, in a bit more jump out, in a bit etc etc. The cab clears it by about two inches but the pop top is about three inches too high where the skylight and vent is and a couple of inches too high all over. Tools are out now, off with the vent, wasn’t much holding it on hhhhmmmm, off with the sky light, not much holding that down either hhhhhhmmmmm. Inch in, but still too high, damn damn damn, grab some timber and force the garage door up another inch and a half each side, inch him in, a bit more , a bit more, nope , still gonna catch on the upstand for the skylight. Spark up a ***, what to do now, what to do indeed? Went and got some coffee and sparked another rolly and weighed up my options and Mrs Ozziedog brings down my coffee. She says something along the lines of,,, It’s a bit dirty innit?? And “Won’t it fit?” So I take another drag on my rolly and tell her it’ll be fine and not to worry. After she’s gone back down the house, I’m thinking how the hell am I gonna do this ??? So ,, options,, number one is to let some wind out of the wheels, option number two is to take the wheels off and drag it on on skates of some description and option number three is,, is,, is,, then it jumps in my head, roll it back out and take the pop top off, I’m gonna start on the roof anyway so it'll have to come off and it must be easier in the back lane than in the garage. So I’m now introduced to a strange contraption of a pop top. It’s got like a pair of squareish U shaped brackets at each end about two and a half feet high and the width of the top, as you push the top up, these pairs of arms are hinged together on each side and then lock as you push them up and out. This picture that I’ve pinched from Ben72s thread is the same sort of set up but mine was nowhere near as nice as this
The top is a fibreglass job that probably weighs as much as the rest of the van all by itself and I’m not a fan of it. It’s so big it looks like a turtle humping the roof of the van, plus it’s partially responsible for the roof being in the state it is in, because it’s so big, it is actually sat in the gutters and blocking them when it was sat in that garage with bits of crap all over it. So the Stanley knife comes out and wizz off the bellows which are in a stat anyways. Once that was off it was easy enough to get the roof unbolted from this strange apparatus then I slid the turtle off the roof and dragged it over and propped it up against the fence in the lan, looks good as a convertible I’m thinking, possibly a plexiglass roof I’m thinking, get it in the garage I’m thinking too. So wrestle with the keys again and start him up, puff of smoke and off we go, inch it in then jump out, inch it in then jump out again, loads of room now with the top off and the door forced up high with props, in we go ‘BANG’ what the hell ! As I’d forced the door up in the middle, the top of the door now in the garage had dropped, but I was past the middle bit, so I now had to lower the middle and force up the top of the door to get in, this is gonna be a real faff innit. But we’re in, let’s make a cutting list, or see what parts we need. Roof gutters are first on the list and corners too.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,J.K. Gutters!!,

 

[70-CA-Panel]

Hahah what a yarn! Brilliantly engaging Congratulations!! Let’s see some photos already!!

 

[ozziedog]

Hahah what a yarn! Brilliantly engaging Congratulations!! Let’s see some photos already!!

Now this is where the issue is. Because this has been going on so long, I can’t track down the original photos. I’ve been burgled a half a dozen years back and that was a net loss of an I pad and an I phone, a lap top and several other devices that would’ve contained pictures. I’ve tried reinstating some old android phones but I’m taking pictures of pictures on old screens and there still aren’t many of them, I’d also backed up to my web provider Blueyonder which was Telewest, but that also got junked when they were absorbed by ‘Virgin’ all those years back. Somehow and somewhere every so often, some of my old pics appear from wherever but I don’t seem to be able to find them at will. My phones have been updated quite a few times and they also have been subjected to loads of overnight updates forced by the providers to the extent that a really is a lucky dip if I try to regurgitate anything over seven days old. But I’m still trying!

Ozziedog,,,,,,I’m doing mouth to mouth on another ancient pc right now

 

[gas1man]

Can't wait for the next instalment

J & P

 

[ozziedog]

J.K. Gutters,
Ive sent off for some replacement gutters and Just Kampers was the only place that had them in stock at the time, and I’m a bit concerned that there’s no rear corners available but I’m resilient and way way way over confident in what I can do when the pieces of gutter repair panels turn up, I’ve ordered a couple of extra as I’m imagining myself cutting, bending, welding etc to make the new corner for the van. They’ve arrived in less than a week and I’m so busy at work so have just plonked the box in the garage until the weekend when I’m off . So Saturday comes and I scramble down my breaky and I’m ready to give this van some love, I’ve already stripped it out and got the glass wrapped up safely in a remote corner of the garage. I’m getting all excited as I’m opening the box and gently pull out some sections of what is supposed to be gutter repairs sections about two and a half feet long. Disappointed is not the word I’d have used, these sections were not at all rounded, they had squared corners and squared bends and looked nothing like the shape of my existing gutters and roof. Roll a ***, blimey , I’m so cheesed off <<< (polite version) I have a couple of **** and some coffee, what to do??? I know I’ll ring them up, these must be for a T25 or a T4 or something quite , quite, ummm quite square ish , maybe ? So I ring them and get through after a bit and find that not only are these the right ones, these are the only ones they or anyone else can supply, oh! OK then oh silly me. More **** and coffee required
I start cutting out just back from the drivers side A pillar and I’m gonna cut out the bare minimum then tack in a small section at a time then tack and fettle , tack and fettle, and “It’ll be fine” says me to Mrs Ozziedog, “just might take a little bit longer , that’s all “ So I start and cut out about four inches along the gutter and about two inches up the roof and start fettling this new section into some kind of roundness if there’s such a word. Im working by the vice on a two foot piece of RSJ that I’m using to ‘round’ this section, I’ve made a couple of dollies and I hear my mate pull up in the back lane in his Disco. Brilliant he’s brought his mig that I’m borrowing for this little task. Great so we get chatting and rolling **** and drinking coffee and he’s bellyaching about my smoking material, I’m on Golden Virginia with menthol filters and liquorice papers and he’s not happy So we’re looking at where I’ve been cutting out and where I’ve been fettling and he gives me some proper sage advice, “cover it with fibreglass, slap some paint on it and get shot of it” then he buggers off to golf. So I’m looking at the mankiest of manky mig welders ever to see the light of a torch on this planet. So I ring his brother up who tells me that their good mig got stolen a couple of years back and he’d beat this thing back into life to weld up one small thing way back when, and had tried to get it down the tip but was stopped. He laughed when I told him what I was doing with it and then gave me some advice of his own “ Just take it down the tip” and “put it in that old van and see if you can leave that there too” So I’m starting to get the idea that the two brothers aren’t gonna be much help to me on this resto mates or not Right, let’s sort this mig out then, next to no gas according to the guage, and enough in the spool to fill one of my cavities in my teeth, back on the phone to the brother again , he’s still laughing but he has got a full bottle I can have and a reel of .8 so I get that delivered and put up with another half an hour of Micky taking. His parting shot was, “I’ll give you a lift back from the tip, you’ll thank me later chortle chortle chortle” I’m not liking this one bit , but, I’ll show em.
Start to tack this first bit in but it ain’t going very well as there ain’t much to tack too and the plan is to gradually increase the size of the sections that I’m making up and I spend the rest of the weekend patching in little sections and Sunday evening I’m looking at it and I’m thinking this looks ****, no other words just ****. I’ve managed to drink several gallons of coffee this weekend and smoked more **** than was good for ten me and it ain’t looking good. Let’s get up the pub and see some mates and the brothers and tell em that it’s looking great. The mig has a few issues just to add to the mayhem, the spool gets jammed, where the guides are so worn and sometimes it just won’t work and every ten minutes or so it’ll blow a fuse and I’m down to my last pack of ten fuses courtesy of Mr Tesco up the road. Back to work Monday for a rest anyway.
This is back when I’m surveying for a certain midlands company and I’m surveying in Kingswood where I live at the moment so I’m getting home quite early. During a survey at the end of the week, I’m talking to the customers about camper vans as they’ve got one mid resto too, and by mid resto, I mean they’ve rubbed lots of paint off it and left it to rust. They’d sold the engine and box and the tailgate too but the interior was in it but no front seats but the lady is fed up of it parked there and hubby says it’s hiding a scabby fence panel, and she is now livid because her new fences all around looked great but they couldn’t put one in behind the van because they couldn’t move the van . So there’s a five minute domestic and the upshot of it is there’s no blood shed and I can have the van if I give hubby fifteen quid for the new fence panel so it’s a deal . Now how am I gonna get it home? Cant get a trailer in,,,,, hhhmmm one of the brothers has got a Disco, that’ll drag it,,, maybe. So I ring Steve and he’s right up for it for a pint. Saturday comes and i drive up to his and we can’t find his eight foot towing bar, but he’s got a towing catch off of some old trailer I’ve got some scaffold tube and we drill holes then bolt it all together and we’re off to get this van, Steve is a bit concerned that I’ve chucked a load of tools in a beer crate but my ace plan is I’m gonna sit on that as we tow it and I in turn can steer. We’re both laughing like demented schoolboys as we drag this heap out of this front yard and drag it through the main Kingswood shopping centre and drag it back to my garage. Steve has a quick look in the garage and sees the mess I’ve made of the gutters so far and just puts his hand over his eyes, Steve buggers off to golf. I’ve now got one rusty wreck in the garage, and one even rustier cross dresser in the lane, oh Mrs Ozziedog is gonna be so pleased, best shut the garage door down so she don’t spot it as she’s bound to be down with some coffee in a minute.
Plan B is hatching in my head right now. Rip-off all these ‘formed’ sections that I’ve lovingly fettled into making it look like a hillbillys metallic patchwork quilt and just leave bits on so I can attach the all new squared roof sections and start again. I weld all one side in the new square look and it looks absolutely like something from Mad Max with hiccups. So plan B looks a disaster too and this is looking worse than stuff you see at the scrap yard and the Cant Rails are looking extremely ropey especially as I get down towards that iffy corner on the drivers side rear. Starting to see a few bits of distortion appearing here and there but I’m not ready to sweat them just yet. Oh it’s Sunday night, let’s get up the pub and see the boys. I’ll just have to bluff it out. Luckily most of the chat is about those two ********* towing that crossdresser right through the middle of Kingswood shopping centre sat on a beer crate or two but I’ll tell you what, that van rode lovely, and steered nice, but probably left a trail of rusty bits all the way to my house, they can’t believe that I’ve now got two

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,, so where’s plan ‘C’

 

[ozziedog]

Jump forward a bit and this is what I’ve been mucking about with in the garage. I’ve been talking about it for quite a while even in that old video at Busfest four or five years ago.
View attachment 20220908_202050.mp4
So, I almost went for a CRX50 and a leisure battery complete with solar set up, but this looks to be a lot more fun. This will be my new coolbox and units but here is the prototype.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,Stella,,,,shaken not stirred

 

[ozziedog]

Chatting about this with the mates including the brothers and some of their sons and the upshot of it all is that I may possibly be indeed crazy and it’ll never work, however they’ve only seen the video last night and don’t realise I’ve been churning this over for quite a while. The plan is to get the prototype working with at least forty bottles then somehow to motorise it rather than have a chain pulling on a pair of mole grips. We did have an absolutely ace laugh about it up the pub last night.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,now for motors? Wipers maybe ?

 

[ozziedog]

So,,, plan C got hatched and it involved my new van ‘Madonna’ who is now ‘My Donor’ and th3 new plan involves popping the roof off and whizzing it over on to my van. My van is starting to look proper Frank En Stein with the amount of work gone into the roof so far and this welder is starting to get right on my **** with it’s extremely bad manners stop starting and fuse blowing. So I’m off down to machine mart to get somE bits and bobs, five thousand cutting discs in four inch a couple of hundred in five inch and I’ve already got a zillion in nine inch. Im getting some spot weld drills and I’m getting a new mig while I’m there. I’ve gone for the biggest mig you can get before you get to the euro torch set ups and the spot weld bits are like tiny spring loaded hole saws so I get a couple of them maybe four. Get back to the van and let’s get started. There are precisely several zillion spotwelds holding on the roof panel and these new spot weld bits are somewhere between not very good and useless after drilling out a couple. Yes I’m going very very slow with lots of pressure and I’m balanced on a stack of beer crates, this is gonna take forever and three weeks. As I’m gonna junk this roof panel, I’ve now decided to forget these useless spotweld drill bits and use a regular eighth pilot bit and a three eighth big bit. This is working much better but in two days over the weekend I’ve managed maybe six foot along one side and several zillion to go, then there’s getting the roof panel off of Madonna in one piece and transferring it from out in the lane to in the garage and onto my van Sherbie. This is gonna take some thinking about. In the week, I’ve gone down to get some more gas from B.O.C. as I’m down to next to nothing. Every time you go in B.O.C. It takes an age to get to the front of the queue then everything seems like a massive effort for them to actually do anything, moreso if they think you’re a D.I.Y.er . So I’m lurking about and I’m almost at the front of the queue and I strike up a conversation with some one getting some stock for a local fabrication shop and in next to no time we’re chatting about old Volkswagens and his brother has one etc etc. There’s a display stand that were queued by for DeWalt drill bits and I’m chatting about how crap some spotweld bits are. As he finishes getting served, he grabs a couple of these DeWalt Extreme drill bits and shouts to the guy serving him to put them on his account too. He tells me to get some and I won’t be sorry, then he grabs two more and shouts through to put them on his account as well and he shoves them in my jacket top pocket, we both laugh and he goes to walk off, I says thank you and shook his hand and I’ve never seen him again from that day to this, get my gas and chuck it in the car.
Game changer, on the weekend , I’m still aching from drilling and drilling and drilling from the weekend before but I’ve got a different approach now, these drill bits are a gold colour and look very similar to a masonry bit with a little stub of a bit for a pilot and they are ace . I’m now on a small scaffolding of trestles and working with these new bits and I’ve made a noose and lever. ThE noose is about a foot long and just goes over the cant rail into which I’ve put the end of my four foot lever bit of two by two, start the drill off with a spring loaded centre punch pop the drill into the punched but in the spotweld then pull the lever down on the drill. Easy as easy can be, start drill , press down, nice and slow, one two three done, and the next one. I’ve got the roof panel off of Madonna apart from the screen section in about two and a half hours and drilled then used an old scraper to hammer into separate it from the cant rails and worked a treat, where the roof meets the screen it’s brazed. Well that worked fab, now to finish getting the roof off of my van and let’s have a look.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,it was all going to well

 

[sparkywig]

I was having a hunt through old folders for some pics of Madge looking all forlorn in the lane at the back of your house. Found some from 21st August 2010.

 

[gas1man]

Love it.

J & P

 

[ozziedog]

I was having a hunt through old folders for some pics of Madge looking all forlorn in the lane at the back of your house. Found some from 21st August 2010.

View attachment 3333View attachment 3334

Well done mate, I’ve been meaning to ask if anyone had any. Madonna not only helped out my van, not sure if you got anything off her, I know about the boomerang front bumper, but the beam and part of the chassis went to Happystamps to help rebuild his infamous Ratty bus. The only one I’ve got of Madonna is one of the inside of the air vents showing the expansion / overflow set up for the fuel tank and stuff.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,Seems like decades ago!

 

[ozziedog]

If anybody else has any of my vans anywhere, feel free to pop them up. And if Barry has any pics of my red 1303 or my green beach buggy that’d be ace too. One of my biggest regrets is not taking very many anyway and possibly storing them a little more securely.

This is what I’m talking about using leverage to increase the effectiveness of the drill , here I am taking the panel van sides out a long time after the roof fiasco,

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,starting to get a bit mixed up innit
p.s. a bit like my memory

 

[T2 Brinky]

Jump forward a bit and this is what I’ve been mucking about with in the garage. I’ve been talking about it for quite a while even in that old video at Busfest four or five years ago.
View attachment 3327
So, I almost went for a CRX50 and a leisure battery complete with solar set up, but this looks to be a lot more fun. This will be my new coolbox and units but here is the prototype.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,Stella,,,,shaken not stirred

 

[T2 Brinky]

Cracking cheese at the end

 

[ozziedog]

I’ve just worked out a way to power it nicely and I’ve just sent off for a universal wiper motor. Like the ones we used to get in a series one Land Rover or a boat or a kit car, anything that could roll with just one wiper and then there’ll be a bit more fettling I expect, so I may even be able to just drive the shaft and not bother with the leverage device ( mole grips) sounds even bettererer. The electrical side of things might be a bit stickier but an app sounds good or might need a relay and something else as a switch. Any ideas appreciated

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,, Or wave a magic wand sounds good

 

[ozziedog]

So, I’ve separated the roof panel from the cant rails on Madonna (my donor) and I’m thinking of how I can lift this roof safely and not crease it, mainly because it’s a 72 Devon roof cut out and we all know their precision engineering with a World War Two can opener and five different sizes of iffy large hammers. The main downside is that the roof panel is heavy at the front and the rear but also not very strong in the centre because of the mahoosive cut out for the Devon roof so it looked like one false move and it might fold in half. I lift it a couple of inches each end , one at a time and it seems fine but a bit quavery around the weak centre bit so it’s looking time for more **** and coffee and give that thinking cap a bit of a runout. So roll roll roll and smoke smoke smoke and obvs coffee coffee coffee and Im still staring at it when Mrs Ozziedog says to me “C’mon it’s nearly eight o’clock and we've got a table booked with Rach and Dave for half past eight. So tools away and quick clean up and off for a nice steak.
Sunday morning and breakfast in bed with Mrs Ozziedog and for the first time in ages I’m not rushing it down to get out the garage. I’m a bit stumped and I’m messing around with my shredded wheat in the bowl , more just pushing it about in the bowl then I get an idea, finish breakky then down the garage. Now the plan is to get some off cuts of batten and slide them in between the cant rails and the roof panel then keep raising it evenly until there’s about three pieces under each section, then off cuts of four by two etc etc until the panel is evenly higher than the rest of the bus and those rails. Works a treat then put a raised trestle on each side and slide a half a dozen roofing battens under the roof panel so it’s supported on these battens. So there’s a trestle on the far side of the van, a trestle on the nearside of the van and another trestle nearer the garage. So slide the roof over the battens very gingerly over the nearside trestle and I cant believe how easy this is and I’m working it in toward the garage slide it a bit get it settled, move a trestle, slide the battens through and I gradually walk it all the way in a half turn so it’s ready to slide over the van and it looks great. Had a bit of a hiccup as had to get the battens out before the roof could sit on the cant rails and didn’t have enough height left to do the same in reverse under the garage door but a dozen or more bungee straps held it up to the door that I’d propped up with anything available. Drop the roof on the van then roll the van back in the garage. Now lift it off again once it’s clear of the door and bungee it to the roof of the garage. Now let’s look at those cant rails and pinch bits off of Madonna to make good. A few measurements required as all the drilling, welding, hammering, chiselling etc etc to get the roof panel off may have weakened or distorted the roof cutout and the squareness of everything. I’m right, the sides seem to have made up there own measurements and it’s now a little wider in the middle but only on one side ?. So I strike a line down the centre of the van with a string line and work out that the middle of the van behind the drivers seat has wobbled out about ten mill but the rest is fairly good so I tack weld something or other behind the front seats on the B pillar and the same at the rear then using a ratchet strap from these two points on the nearside to the wayward bit in the offside and pull it in. Now I’ve got loads of cant rails to fix and I’ve got lots spare bits to do it, happy days. So fixed up the cant rails while checking every so often for square etc then pop that bloody roof on, what a fiasco.
Now then,,, pop top ,,,, what are we gonna do about this. The original Poptop is like a lunging great turtle humping the van, the early Devon roof is a roofers nightmare as it’s a flat roof that gradually dips and puddles more and more,

Ozziedog,,,,,,,hhhmm thinking cap on

 

[ozziedog]

I’ve just worked out a way to power it nicely and I’ve just sent off for a universal wiper motor. Like the ones we used to get in a series one Land Rover or a boat or a kit car, anything that could roll with just one wiper and then there’ll be a bit more fettling I expect, so I may even be able to just drive the shaft and not bother with the leverage device ( mole grips) sounds even bettererer. The electrical side of things might be a bit stickier but an app sounds good or might need a relay and something else as a switch. Any ideas appreciated

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,, Or wave a magic wand sounds good

This has all gone wrong!
The universal wiper motor has turned up and it has no park facility on it in the switching arrangement so if you power it up it’ll just keep going until you switch it off, it cant just do one sweep forward and one sweep back which is how I’d pictured it in my mind. I can Imagine me with ten or twenty Stellas on board and getting another then dropping the controller and bottles of Stella rolling out the van one after the other non stop just sometimes even I can’t drink that fast.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,,it’d be like Stellamageddon

 

[NickP]

Sorry posted in error - I've got The Solution to Stellamageddon, but not enuf time to post it.
In the meantime keep 'em on ice, as an automated push button StellaDispenser's a'comin.....