ME AND MY RESTO
Andy Ibbotson’s epic resto, from barn find to Beaulieu!
INTERVIEW MATT TOMKINS PHOTOS MATT HOWELL
My son, Sam, first came across the van while walking public rights of way at work. It was just a mile from my house, as luck would have it, in a barn on a farm. Regular readers will know from my Staff Car Sagas that I’m a long-term Morris Minor fan, so a van certainly piqued my interest. It had been painted black by a previous owner, but as soon as I lifted the bonnet I knew that it was a former Post Office van – and that it needed saving.
It was in a really dreadful state, with rot everywhere, including around the notoriously tricky to repair gutters on both cab and back. The rot was so bad that the roof had been anchored to the sides with angle brackets to prevent it blowing away! Holes had been bridged with duct tape, which had been topped with filler that had latterly been covered in more tape. It’s astonishing really what people will do to keep an old van in service! It also had windows cut into the side, which required carefully welding up – a seriously tricky and time-consuming process to avoid warping the panels. In honesty, I only bought it as it was so local. It was past saving really, but despite all the corrosion and 30 years sitting in the shed, I was able to get it running where it sat and drove it onto the trailer to bring it home!
That’s when reality really hit – I borrowed a space in a friends barn and left it for a year while I summoned the motivation, cleared the decks and came up with a plan of action. Once in the garage, and before the complete strip down began, I set to work repairing the van back while it was still on the chassis and bolted to the cab. This essentially acted as a jig to keep the shape and steadily, piece by piece, I was able to restore enough strength to the body – including replacing the floors and arches with repair sections – that it could be safely removed from the chassis.
The cab came next and the van was soon stripped to its constituent components. Unlike the Minor saloons and Travellers, LCVs (vans and pick-ups) benefitted from a ladder chassis that makes the restoration process somewhat different to what I’d been used to until this point. The chassis too, of course, required a fair amount of rot cutting out and replacing. It was a painstaking process.
Once the welding was complete, months of preparation followed before I painted each component – cab, back, doors, bonnet, wings – with synthetic enamel. The engine was rebuilt with fresh bearings and a rebore to +0.20, while each and every one of the ancillaries required attention – for example the distributor bob weights were seized solid and the carburettor needed a complete overhaul.
AS FOUND
Long-hidden just a mile from his house, as soon as Andy saw yellow paint under the bonnet, he knew this barn find was worth restoring.
Rocking and rolling
The suspension was so worn out that rocking the top of the wheel yielded significant movement and clonks, so both uprights were replaced along with a full complement of trunnions and bushes throughout. The wear was remarkable given that it had only been on the road for 12 years in its working life – but following its service for the GPO it had served as a builders van and had clearly worked hard in that short time. I actually managed to get in touch with the builder who had used it and took the restored van to see him. He was delighted to see it again and amazed that it had survived. By all accounts, it should have been scrapped in the Eighties but luckily the farmer simply pushed it into the barn and left it. I now use it for everything from local events and runs to trips further afield such as the annual pilgrimage Sam and I take to Moggiefest, organised by the Dorset branch of the MMOC, at the Beaulieu Autojumble. It never fails to turn heads wherever it goes – being a bright yellow van – and performs well, even when fully loaded with spare parts and our favourite beer from a brewery deep in the New Forest!
Nuts! Minor LCVs featured double ended wheel nuts – so a full complement could be retained even if the threads were damaged on the end of one.
Power 1098c A-series is perky enough. Originally it would have been fitted with low compression pistons, which ensured sufficient torque to move the van when fully laden.
Buzby! Voiced by Bernard Cribbins, ‘Buzby’ first appeared in 1976 as part of a marketing campaign by Post Office Telecommunications. Andy has faithfully recreated the van’s livery and signage as it would have been when it left service.
BEST HELP
‘I bought a shrinker/stretcher tool to form repair panels for the gutters, but it’s paid for itself ten times over now.’
TIME TAKEN: 2 years
ESTIMATED COST: £2.5k
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