tim glovers 1955 pickup

Believe it or not the Pickup was advertised on the SSVC forum by Miles D for somebody who lived in Portugal (English) and had bought a house and the truck was underneath in the store shed/garage. it was advertised as a 50's Single cab and it was hard to tell it was a Barn Door from the Photo posted on there. I was looking for a single cab so I was interested any way before I had any idea what it was age wise. It was only when he took more photo's and emailed them to me the penny dropped!! as you can imagine I rang him straight away and said I'd have it.

I went out to Northern Portugal a couple of weeks ago and pulled it out of a barn. unfortunately we were stopped on the way back up through Spain by the Police and told we could tow it no further as the towing dolly we were using was not legal. I left it in storage over there and arranged freight transport. It arrived here last Friday night. Now I have the lengthy and costly parts search to go through as there is some quite heavy panel damage to the R/H front as well as mechanical and "bits missing" dilemma's. Apart from the sills and inner sills the underside is in very good condition

My plans are to swap the Rear transmission/suspension for a Short shaft Pre 66 Beetle straight axle set up and fit a engine 1641-1835cc. at the front I'm going to rebuild where necessary, lower and possibly fit disc brakes, then add a set of Centerline wheels and use it while I source parts to rebuild battered bodywork.....oh and plenty of Waxoil of course!

1952 Panel

It was actually built on the 21st of Jan 1952 although I'm told it still has most of the 51 year only features. On the 22 Jan 1952 it was delivered to Schultz, Dusseldorf. it was originally dove blue but was painted red with a white roof and had German sign writing and a diagonal stripe on the sides (I am looking into this to see if I can trace what it was used for) it also has some strange rack/seats in the back.

It was then imported to Harrogate, Yorkshire on the 8th March 1961 where it was registered (321 WY) and painted back to Dove blue apart from the roof which remains white. I have the original green logbook which was last stamped for road tax in 1965 and also tax disc from the same year. Its possible that was the last time it was used on the road!?

It was then bought from a guy in Yorkshire around 1990 by Charlie Highgate from London. Since then the only time pretty much that its been out of the container was when it was trailered to the first Volksworld show in 1996. In Mid Febuary this year I was contacted by Rikki James who knows I'm a big fan of early commercial buses, he told me it was up for sale and the arrangements were made......On the 26th of Feb I went down to London with a trailer, handed over the cash and became the owner of this very early panel van.

tim glovers barndoors

1955 Pick up

1952 Panel