Description
£17k ono, cleared-funds only.
Historic/ classic vehicle; Tax & mot free; Cheap to insure (justcampers £99pa for me).
LHD was imported 14 years ago from the US (California number-plate, Idaho chassis-plate), lightly used and dry-garaged (dehumidified) by me since.
1700 type-4 engine, twin 34 ICT Webber carbs, US-type oil cooler, 90k miles on ODO. Mot’d last in May 2021. Is genuinely good to drive. It has been unexpectedly reliable for us e. g. twice failed to start and three times dumped oil. It is 50 years old in May, so needs regular use, checks (e. g. hoses) and care (eg. wipers & lights are not modern).
Type 2 detectives in cambridge lowered it in 2011 (£1. 2k), keeping a good ride with their dampers. Buswerx in ipswich did the bare metal resto/ respray in 2012 (£3. 5k) new window/ door rubbers all-round. Buswerx serviced & maintained it since eg. wax & rubberized paint under. Gas burner alloys. New tyres ~800 miles ago, commercially-rated (quibble-free insurance) pirellis. Midland Early Bay rebuilt steering-box, still tight as less than 200 miles since (£300). Engine-bay auto-extinguisher by FlameStop (Ipswich). Tow bar & light-board, for a bike rack.
Front seats from a Saab 9000, comfy and patina’d old leather. If you are over 6 foot 3 then they will be mounted a bit too high for you. 6 seats, 5 three-point belts and 1 lap-strap (centre bench). The minibus single-seat (integral belt) can be front-facing, moved back or removed from its rails. Interior side-panels, rear seat, bed cushion and minibus seat all trimmed to match by Newton Commercial (Leiston). BlueBird quality rock&roll full-width/ length double-bed. Pop-top goes up horizontal, with space like a single-bed, wooden ladder for kids access. US sourced roof-canvas (which I wasn’t hugely impressed with for the money, but has lasted fine). Hammock for sleeping over front seats too. We did several summer holidays with 3 kids like this and a day awning. Wicker baskets with cutlery & crockery, t-pot etc included, but not the long-board nor teddy.
Kenwood head-unit, Infinity rear & Blaupunkt front speakers. Table & leg mount out of the way on journeys. Carpenter-built cabinet houses cooking-gas, fresh & waste water, with foot pump for cold tap and a single-ring for kettle or cooking. I wanted a neat little unit for doing teeth, washing hands, making tea or a cooked-breakfast but maximising living-space and not narrowing the bed.
Things to be aware of: LHS outer sill is now showing some dirty-brown rust speckles (hence price dropped). Othewise the underside, wheel-arches, gutters etc are dry and solid – I’ve taken lots of pics so just email me if you'd like to see. There’s no cabin-heating as I removed the under-floor air-pipes years ago for peace of mind, so just fresh-air feeds. Engine-bay would benefit from new air filters, plus new rubber seals around the engine. The carbs were rebuilt though several years so, so occasionally let petrol through into engine when the van is not in use, hence the manual fuel-tap (good for security too). Reverse is there but needs some familiarity. One headlight reflector is corroded and will need replacing before long.
