Gladys 1971 Custom Resto Camper

I paid £675.00 for this mess and boy it was a mess she was very rotten and some of the repairs had been started but not been done to my standard
My background is NOT from the world of Vw but Hot Rods and Drag Racing






No i had the van it was time to plan the project and have a target in mind in stepped Graham Durbridge who created an image of Gladys


Start at the bottom
The chassis was in a very poor state

I hand fabriicated New custom chassis sections and welded all in place these have been rolled and folded and hand swaged and not off the shelf anywhere






I then started on the inner wheel arches and removed all the rot and again all new panels where hand fabricated and welded






She was now solid enough to start some cutting about
1st was a hand fabricated sun visor - Made from 18swg steel beed edged swaged and blended to the body



I then moved to lowering the front a beam was supplied via dreamworks Southampton




The rear was then dropped two clicks


The ride heigh was not set and as you see later she does go lower !!!!!!!

Carrying on with trick work I set about the tailgate
Before

After

Next was to be the rear lights - I just wanted a subtle change so I frenched them in by 1 inch
Before

After