Post by dustyrose on Feb 28, 2018 23:31:00 GMT 1
It’s a year tomorrow 1st March when I browsed Donedeal and came across Dusty Rose or what was left of it for sale. Knew it straight away as my neighbour Philemon Morgan bought it in 1980/81 an I’ll never forget driving it when I was 12. Another neighbour of mine bought it in 91 an did a light resto sills etc. He painted over the original paint an drive it for a few years before selling it. Unfortunately I didn’t know he was selling it and it went to a new owner about 20 miles away. We all thought it was scrapped as we didn’t hear about it for years an ironically in January I was showing Philemon’s brother the piece Peter Lee wrote about Dusty in the Transit 50th anniversary book. Once I got the van home a chain of events started which I can only explain as unbelievable. The amount of help, history an advise Iv gotten from people including Steve Stringer has just been unbelievable never mind the friends Iv made along the way an I can never thank all of those people enough and with out their help the van would probably still be sitting never to be restored. Iv got all the panels an chassis bits I need now and have made a start on the drivers side front corner which was the worst bit due to accident damage and the leaky bubble sunroof which I remember leaked in the 80’s, it’s just been a bit to cold to hit the garage at nights when the fires blazing in the house. Iv had the chassis number examined at a mot centre for DVLA an the van has been verified as the genuine article by Steve Stringer and the oldest surviving van he has built. I rubbed down the paint which was applied over the original artwork and it was like finding the Mona Lisa by Da Vinci. When I came to the original clear coat an carefully took that off the paint underneath was like new an as hard as diamonds a real credit to the original painter who also has been in contact with me. I’m going to restore the van to as close as possible to original but I’m putting a Zetec an 5 speed in as I want to drive it. I’m just glad to get the chance to save a van which put me onto a path of all things Ford back in 1981.