Well, after a couple of years and a long push through summer, this vehicle is finally back on the road. After 30 years!
As far as I can work out, it was purchased at auction in 1989, driven to Ian's property and that was it until I purchased it in 2016.
It turned out to be really good mechanically, the gearbox was a replacement which still had bits of foam packing stuck to it, the engine (crate engine) looks good after some new core plugs, and the axles came up nicely as well.
I replaced all of the oil seals and gaskets etc, on everything, and so far so good.
It was a bit of a strange one, a lot of the bolts were not original, the seat base was held on with hardware shop stuff, the axle drive flanges were hard ware shop stuff as well, and a lot of the body had non standard bolts holding it together as well. I would like to know the history, it looks like it was put back together at some stage with just anything that was lying around.
The bodywork was the issue, quite a bit of rust in the bulkhead, and about 7 coats of paint on everything. Time consuming, and not my favourite bit!
It is great to finally get it back on the road, not quite finished yet, I need to fabricate a baseboard for the battery trays and finish the wiring for the charging system.
If this thing was a film, the credits would go for a long time, but thanks very much to everyone here who has helped out with parts, advice and support!
Here are a couple of photos, a bit of a contrast I hope to the earlier ones!