I just wanted to start a build thread up on here as my last one disappeared (well it was just a few pics of the van from before I picked it up anyway lol). OK so maybe ‘build thread’ is overdoing it a little haha. So here is ‘YUSEF PANZERFAUST’ he is a LHD 1986 ex-Dutch Military personnel carrier with a 1900 DG motor; layed out like a crew cab (van). Ignore the N reg plate, good old DVLA messed up his registration so he is now 10 years newer lol! Yusef to be fair due to a military past is riddled with dents and scrapes but what attracted me to this van is how solid it is…. And it really is; it has only really spent the last couple of years in the UK. After it’s Dutch military service it came very briefly to a military surplus/ex vehicle dealer in the UK whereby the guy I bought the van off picked it up because he was moving out to Spain and wanted a LHD vehicle… so that’s where it’s been for over 12 years; lovely, sunny Spain! I was fortunate to be contacted via facebook out of the blue by the sellers daughter in law who I went to school with, I haven’t seen her since school but she knew that I was into Volkswagens and the guy sold it to me *cheap* before it went on the open market…
How it stood before & just after I purchased it:
Back corner where previous owner drove into a tree stump; will be sympathetically repaired!
Anyway the plan really was just to get the van through an MOT and trundle to a few shows over the summer, chucking a spare futon mattress that we have (due to the fact that I’m crap at throwing things out!) into the back but one or two issues with the original engine (mainly it’s a bag of spanners) have meant that the project has become a little more in depth haha! Body-wise what you see is what you get, it’s solid as I said (apart from that back corner) and that’s the main thing but it would take me months and months to get all the panels straight to try to make it a minter so it seems that if I want to use this van anytime soon (and I do) that it needs to be a rat-bus!
However in contrast to it being a rat-bus, I have big plans for a real plush interior over the winter and I’ve got some sweet rims in the pipeline. My good friend Simon (known as Davethebus on this forum – blue and white Aircooled high top) makes banded steels for a living and he is making me a set of 15” T4 banded steels for this wedge; I also managed to get a set of ‘as new’ dome caps off ebay for £21! So I reckon along with a healthy slam Yusef Panzerfaust’ is gonna looks the dogs danglies!
So I started out by rubbing the paintwork down and using some kurust on the any surface rust I found, the idea was to repaint it nato green but I really love this rubbed down look so it’s staying for now (also fitted a ratty roofrack):
Then one of my mates decided to do me a quick photoshop of my plans and this is basically where I’m headed with it:
So ratty, slammed, nice rims, plush interior… got that? Right, well that was fine until I fell at the first hurdle; poor old Yusef’s tired DG lump; to cut a very long story short (as I have tried quite hard to keep the original engine) it’s knackered so it’s had to go. As some of you will be aware from my ‘DG lumps are too expensive ‘wanted’ thread I tried to get an original replacement however struggled; so we ended up doing this instead:
Random centre box for an exhaust, could be from a Landrover but who knows!
It’s an 1800 8v from an Audi but it’s basically a PB block (like the old Golf 8v engines) which means it shares the same mounting points; which means it can sit on a diesel cradle and ‘slot straight in’ – the gearbox input shaft had to slightly shortened and the bell housing needed a bit cutting out of it so that the new starter motor wouldn’t foul; water pipes were made up of cobbled together bits from the old engine so now that I have the shape I am probably going to get some silicone ones made up eventually…. Other than that it’s just a case of relocating the coil, mounting the header tank and some wiring, unfortunately we were foiled by a flat battery & a clutch slave cylinder which decided to give up so this is where we are at today!
I have a few maintenance bits like track rod (original one is bent) & a new gear selector bush kit but basically once it’s running I’m going to stick it in for it’s MOT and we’ll see what’s what!
Big thanks to ‘davethebus’ for all the help as ever; I literally couldn’t do it without you dude!
I’ll keep updating as often as possible as when I do bits, got a few bits to do straight away so hopefully will have an update up in the next few days….
Would look better with serving cord rather than sisal. 
