My Bay...

Hi there everyone!

I bought Slo3bus 04 Aircooled Rio about a month or so ago from a member of this site. I had such a warm welcome here - thank you all. But for the last 3 weeks I have remained quiet while my van has been locked away and looked after by... Danbury.

I loved getting my van and when I picked it up it looked like the photo attached.

To fill you in and remind you of the story, the van had been SORN for a year and was suffering from rust in several places, so I decided to give my van a treat...I sent it to Danbury for a full service and rust sort out/repaint. I know, not cheap, but hopefully worth it in the long run. This was it at the half way stage....see photo attached.


And the final pic is of my van back at home yesterday! At last, I have my bus back and am ready to use it properly! Now complete with new roof bed, roof rack and buddy seat which were all missing before. Plus! No rust anywhere!

All I can say is, Matt and his team did a fantastic job and the service, work done, answers to my many questions, cups of tea, pick ups from station were all excellent. Thank you Danbury!

Apparrently 4 other people picked up new vans from Danbury yesterday - any of them here? Perhaps they are camping already!

Thanks for all your info folks, this site is just brilliant. Now I need to change my login in name - my van is now 'Ginny' after Sloe Gin (ref number plate) and I need to add a photo or two to my id. Then, there's all the other 'little' things I want to do to my van starting with hubcaps...but I have to wait for the funds to be restored first!

Can't wait to meet you all at the sleepover,

Thanks again for a great site!

Before


Being Painted


After

Congrats on getting your van back. Given your ref. to sloe gin i will bring some home made sloe gin to the sleepover to christen your van with !! Just PM me nearer the time - I will forget.
Congrats again.

I'll happily remind you JLS. Very partial to a slow gin

Ejred. The van looks fantastic.

Hey I'm looking forward to the gin!

Looking back at the pics I've just posted you can't really see the massive improvement on the rust! I will seek out some close ups. I had to replace the side panel above one of the back wheels and the engine door panel (not sure of correct names) both of which were subject to rust bubbling and look stacks better now!

What a transformation! Good for you. Lovely colour choice too.

Now can I make a suggestion? A coat of Meguiars Gold Class to lock in that shine!

It was soooo nearly going to be red Tim! However, decided to keep it blue and it means I can join the blue gang now! Great thought/suggestion Tim about the Gold Class....do you mean a wax to lock in the shine? Where's the best place to get Meguiars? Is it a Halfords or online job? Yep, def need to work at keeping the shine :-)

Thanks for suggestion, all top tips very welcome - I'm on a learning curve!

Yes Gold Class is a wax. You don't need to polish at all now you've got fresh paintwork.

You can get Meguiars stuff in Halfords or online. Choice is yours. I'd go for the liquid over the paste as the paste can get contaminated with dirt from the applicator sponge.

Enjoy your rebooted BraziBay!

Brilliant, cheers Tim.

Given the response to the sloe gin comments, perhaps we should rename the big meet 'the Kombi Sloe Gin Sleepover?'

TimV wrote:

What a transformation!

I totally agree, looking very smart indeed.

It does look a slightly brighter blue than before, was the repaint from top to bottom?

Hey mate - looking lush! - If it were my Kombi then the indicators would go clear - and what happened to the white walls! LOL
You were pulling out of Danbury as I pulled in the other day (I was in my works white van) - was it 28th March?
Cheers - Batty
PS - I've got Sloe gin and sloe vodka for Dubs in the Forest - mmmm

Looks great and another van with visor. I'm starting to sway to this...

Batman wrote:

Hey mate - looking lush! - If it were my Kombi then the indicators would go clear - and what happened to the white walls! LOL

I've never really thought about that mod before but now you mention it here, I took at look at various different pics and see what you mean. (and tend to agree)[/quote]

Quote :

PS - I've got Sloe gin and sloe vodka for Dubs in the Forest - mmmm

I love sloe gin and remember years ago, when I last made it, pricking sloes. Ended up with my fingers glued together They're very sticky things.

That's a great turn around, looking much better now

It's not just the paint job that has finished it off, it's the things like the wheels that complete the look

Great stuff!!

@ejred72:
could you please make some photos in detail from your sunvisor about the fixing points for me? in the next, i will go to maikäfertreffen in hannover. i will look there to buy some of this sunvisor and a side step. but before i will look how to mak it fixed on the car. and
could you please make a photo from inseide the car to the front window to the sunvisor in the outside? how is the looking to the street with the sunvisor? and what is, when you will go to a washing centre? could you let this on the van when xou go in the whas centre?
and
what is with windy noise by driving? is is louder as before you have it on the van? or the same? and at last: could you tell me about the prise from the sunvisor?
best from me

looking good

That's come up a treat. Well done.
Let the good times roll

Thanks for all the positive comments everyone!

Skytiger, yep it was a full repaint top to bottom, not cheap, but worth it.

Batman, it wasn't me in the driving seat on March 28th at Danbury... but, you might have seen my van being returned from the paint workshop which is off site and was due back around that time.

As to the whitewalls, I know, Batman, I didn't want to see them go but they will be back! The white walls my bus had were the mock inserts (sorry don't know correct name) that kind of fit onto the tyre except they didn't very well. The white walls gave off white paint if you touched them (!) and were very undulating in shape, not good for a smooth ride and looked rather odd if you were driving behind. When I've saved up, it'll be the real white wall tyres, not the stick on ones next time.

Michael_bonn - Of course, I can take picks of my visor from various angles for you! Might be a day or two though til I get them posted on here. My van already had the visor when I bought it. In fact, I think it was put on the van originally in 2004 from what I can see on my paperwork. So, I can't really comment on what it was like to drive with, without it. The only problem I've had with it is that the aerial bumps into the visor when you are on the motorway. The ariel has tape on it at the said point of contact and the rim of the visor shows wear. Not sure if the new one would have the same problem? Do the water-cooled buses have the aerial in a different place I wonder? I love the look of the visor but haven't got a clue how it's attached, so, I'll take some photos and find out!

Thanks again for your kind comments everyone, I think I will have to make sure a bottle of sloe gin can always be found on board my bus 'Ginny'!

ejred72 wrote:

the aerial bumps into the visor when you are on the motorway. The ariel has tape on it at the said point of contact and the rim of the visor shows wear.

Not going to say anything other than this was my suspicion from looking at all the pics I've seen to date.

ejred72 wrote:

As to the whitewalls, I know, Batman, I didn't want to see them go but they will be back!

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I love white walls. Max's are stored at present for future use.

Solution to the aerial hitting the visor - have the aerial extended so that it is just short of the visor - it works just as well. Simple.

JLS 62 wrote:

Solution to the aerial hitting the visor - have the aerial extended so that it is just short of the visor - it works just as well. Simple.

That would be entirely dependent on the radio it's connected to JLS 62. Some receivers work better than others.

JLS 62 wrote:

Solution to the aerial hitting the visor - have the aerial extended so that it is just short of the visor - it works just as well. Simple.

As Tim says, not all radios work if the aerial isn't fully extended. Or they'll work but only for the very strongest of signals.

Does anyone actually listen to the radio any more? There are some really dodgy radio stations around these days, especially in the South London area!

Tallulah wrote:

Does anyone actually listen to the radio any more? There are some really dodgy radio stations around these days, especially in the South London area!

Yes I do, lots. (but not the dodgy ones round South London)