The start of my van's body build

[Steve Bryant]

It's been a long time coming but I am finally starting the build of the wood frame of the John Heath body kit for my AD van.
The box of parts has been carefully stored and I can now start putting them together
   

The selected wood parts required for the body frame.

   

Complying with the instructions required some thought to solve.

   
   
   
   


As things progress I will share the pics I take for your perusal and entertainment. I hope you like them.
Cheers,
Stephen

[Graham Barker]

Great pics. I enjoy seeing pictorials of car builds. Please keep them coming.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

I shall be following this too, I have a similar van in for full restoration just now and Daisy is keen to build a "Sports Van".

   

[Ivor Hawkins]

Excellent, I thought the V8 was going in until I saw that beautifully restored motor!

[Steve Jones]

Daisy appears to be thinking in the proper way!

Steve

[Steve Bryant]

Ruairidh, wouldn't the Austin van be more of a "Slow Speed service van" as opposed to the MG version?

Ivor: sorry to disappoint, the engine in the back-ground is a customers cast off and was pushed behind the Seven for storage.
Cheers,
Stephen

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Ruairidh, wouldn't the Austin van be more of a "Slow Speed service van" as opposed to the MG version?

Daisy says, "it depends who built the engine".

[Steve Jones]

And Daisly is correct!!

Steve

[Peter Naulls]

I'm looking forward to seeing your van come together Steve. As a teenager I used to visit John in my summer holidays and watch him assemble Chummy vans (amongst other things). He was always very generous with his time and advice.

 I think he would be amazed at how long his kits of parts were put on one side before being assembled!

[Steve Bryant]

Hi Peter, thank you for your interest.
I've had this kit in my possession waiting to be put together for almost forty years!!  It's exciting to finally see it all coming together albeit slowly. There are no other cars here in Calgary that I know of to look at so it means that I have to rely on the good nature of others to answer my multitude of questions through the auspices of this forum.

I was lucky to visit John back in the eighties when I was looking to restore or replace the body of my seven. Through correspondence with him after that, the decision was made to purchase the van kit from him.

   

The project is being built at my place of work and is being followed with interest by my colleagues and some of our customers. We service, repair and restore British Sports Cars so this is an interesting diversion.

Cheers,
Stephen