Split Screen Desire - The road to true love is never easy

So you're probably looking at this blog entry and thinking: "Who is this person and why is he blogging on the Volksworld website?"

Well let me start with the "Who" aspect of that question.

So I'm (another) Jon (the one on the right of the photo), I'm 27 and I live in Surrey. Ok, that sounded worrying like I'm on Blind Date, actually the most important aspect of my life for this blog is that I own a 1967 13 Window Deluxe Split Screen Van.

How did I get into this situation? Well, a few years ago, after numerous hot hatches (think Uno Turbos, 205 Gti's, Clio's, Golf Gti's and copious Nova's with every engine transplant under the sun), the notion of travelling round Europe came up in conversation. This necessitated a change of vehicle, but to what?

Now somewhat fortunately I live about 5 minutes from Sandown Park (you can practically see my house from it), so this meant for many years I have been exposed to seeing an unbelievable amount of VW's each March. Having seen this spectacle I knew I should get an old VW campervan. Naturally I wanted a 23 Window Samba.
After much research I realised that I was severely delusional in thinking that I could afford one of those, so I set my sights a little lower and went for the oldest thing I could afford. I ended up with a 1972 Bay Window Panel Van.

To say I was a little naive when I bought this would be an understatement. There is just so much more metal on a bus than any of the previous vehicles I had owned up until this point. Suffice it to say that this probably wasn't the van for me as it needed far more love and work than I could ever give it. Still, I was young and foolish...

The furthest I got in that van was Deal (in Kent), and staying in it for one night, not quite mainland Europe by any stretch of the imagination. I did do a bit of work on it whilst I owned it, this included replacing the speedo cable, doing an alternator conversion (on Christmas Day, read as "bad idea"), wiring in multiple AV devices in the back and even as far as trying to paint it...

I owned this for around a year and I really enjoyed all the attention it got and peoples reactions to it, but, in the end, it was never really the one I wanted. Then it failed its MOT on some fairly serious rust issues that I just didn't have the passion to fix so I sold it - Interestingly it's been brought back to life now, and I recently saw it for sale on Volkszone forums.

Fast forward 2 years and the European travel desire came back, and this time I wasn't prepared to compromise, well on the Split Screen aspect at least. I knew I had to have a van with windows, and as many as possible. I wasn't too worried about the engine or the interior, my biggest concern was to make sure I bought one with a solid chassis. I looked at the market, and worked out how much I'd need to save each month and then waited.

By the time of the Volksworld Show 2009 I'd saved enough to start seriously looking. I spent hours at the show, looking at all the vans but to no avail, there was nothing there that stood out at me. I was down heartened, I thought "If I can't find something here I like, I never will" - I almost contemplated buying an early bay as I really like them too, but it just wouldn't have been a Splitty and I'd been down that road already.

Afterwards I spent weeks looking on the net and found nothing, then, I saw a really ratty but solid Californian import 13 Window Deluxe come up for sale. It was down in Wales so after contacting the owner, me and my friend Pete went down there. The bus owner was Grahame Pells at BBBC (Bridgend Bug and Bus Centre).
It was his own personal bus, and he kindly had the bus up on a lift for me to view. To say I was impressed is an understatement, it was so very solid, and a far, far cry from my old Bay Window. Even Pete who has a lot of experience with rusty old cars (he owns a 1969 Mk2 Mini) was amazed at the condition of the 42 year old chassis. We took it out for a drive, the steering was a bit twitchy, but other than that it drove very well, and the unknown engine from a 70's Beetle (presumed 1641 on Weber 34's) pulled very well.
By the time we arrived back at the shop, I knew this was the Bus for me, I spoke to Pete and he agreed, we negotiated a bit and ended up at a price we were both happy with (that included a steering box refurb) I put down a deposit and we were on our our way back to England. Other than my Golf getting minorly rear ended at a services roundabout on the way home it was a great day.

I then went down with some friends the next week to collect. And Roland (The Rat look bus), as he is now known, has been mine ever since. The spec is as follows:

Dropped Spindles
2" Tubed Front Arches
4" Narrowed Beam
Straight Axle Rear
Front Disc Conversion from water cooled bay
15" Radar Wheels
Oil Gauge
Rock and Roll Bed
Split Charge System
Original Deluxe Clock
Uncut Dash
Original Headlining

So back to the "Why" question - Well I'm blogging here because I work for Volksworld in an abstract sort of way. Basically I deal with making the websites and I’ve been reading the magazine for years, so I thought maybe they'd let me write a blog about my bus. It would appear the answer was yes...

This blog is going to be kept up to date with the various trials and tribulations that go on with the bus, of which there have already been many. Next up will be a few tit bits of what's happened so far followed by my latest challenge of buying a welder so I can learn how to put my exhaust back on (lowered buses eh?)...So far I've tripped the garage out 4 times, it's not going well...