The owner of this van approached us at Brighton Breeze 2008 asking for some adivse on what route to go with his restoration. Originally we were told it was rusty but we weren't prepared for what we saw. This van has gone beyond rusty, the front was held on by the lower edge of the fresh air vent only and litterally fell off! The rear 1/4 on both sides isn't much better. However in amongst all this rust were some gems, a complete very nice condtion Devon Tourvette interior, a good roof and poptop, a great cargo floor and the vast majority of the cab floor was still in good shape and the chassis for the most part is still solid..

Upon viewing the van we gave our recommendation of parts and were subsiquently commissioned to collect all the parts for the work.

With all the parts accumulated, the van came in for the first stage of work, a new front, arches, doors and repairs to the cab floor.

The body work on this van was beyond rotten but the chassis is in very good shape considering. We sourced a replacement rear body cut from the sliding door backwards to make the repair. We aim to fit this body cut as one complete unit.

We began by removing all the scrap metal/rust from the back of the van and generally investigate the true extent of the rot. Originally we had planned to replace just the corners and the rear 1/4's. But upon deep investigation, we found the fuel tank tray to be rotten as well as the rear section of the chassis rails.

We cleaned all the old metal off the vans chassis and found the two rear top hats to be rotten, and of course all the usual bits need doing, jacking points, outriggers, sills etc....

One top hat has been replaced, the rear body cut is almost ready for first fitment to check measurements and chassis is being cleaned ready for treatment and chassis black. On cleaning the chassis we found one of the bump mount brackets to be rotten beyond repair, fortunately the IRS section we cut from the new rear body cut just happens to be able to donate the required part to replace it with.

The chassis has had a clean up and a nice new coat of paint to give it a few more years of protection. Also the new sills have a protective coat on the inner sides as once welded on they won't be accessable. The under side of the floor was cleaned up painted for protection and then the inner sills fitted up.

MIddle Sills now fitted. A poor repair patch was removed and made good again ready for the jacking point and outigger to be fitted. Also the 'c' pillar was made good back to the sill again.

The sliding door side 'c' pillar is also made good and now......its on!.....yes the rear end is on.....Just need to weld it in place. Fits like a glove, such is the nature of reclaimed panels.