The Turkis Subhatch

Stephen & Wendy's gorgeous sub-hatch is now in paint and the refit has begun!

They have picked the classic colours of Turkis and Cream and the bus is going to look fabulous!

Here are a few before and after shots of the work so far. This bus is going to be a really stunner when finished.

It was generally a really solid Californian import! Great cab and cargo floors doors and and generally the body is in great shape considering her 40 plus years on the planet!

Here are a few shots just after the initial strip down. You can see from this first shot that the poor old girl has a little nose damage, a very common repair and nothing a replacement lower nose panel cant fix!

The rest as you can see is pretty straight. Strip back the years and years of paint and you can make out some original Turkis paint lurking under there!

 

Si attacks with his grinder, there is a little bit of rust in the outer sill, so off she comes to be replaced with lovely fresh and shiny metal!

 The Nose repair half way though. Tacked on now for the final welds and linishing. When done you'll never suspect a thing.

 

One of the lovely features that makes this bus such a rarity and desirable. Its lovely Westfalia sub-hatch

 

Fast forward a few weeks and the old girl rolls from the paint booth in her new coat of Turkis and cream.

 And now onto the fiddly bits - The refit.

Where possible here at Brookside we take the time and extra effort to restore original parts to their former glory as we believe the factory made them perfect in the first place and often reproduction parts are not only expensive but unfortunately often suffer in quality to.

With this in mind Martin spent a good few hours completely refurbishing the tired but original window latches for the quarter lights.

They look like brand new!

 

 Si started fitting some of the pretty external features! Brand new headlight rings and completely refurbed original lights by Marin. Painted on the inside too.

 

All of this was far too much like hard work for the Brookside hound so Massie climbed into a storage box and went to sleep! Look at the state of her coat!!

More updates soon guys and gals, thanks for stopping by Si

The Day to Day of Brookside!!

This week has mostly been general servicing and Mot'ing for various Brookside Customers.

First off Adrian's lovely orange late bay needs some serious gearbox work, complete removal and overhaul was the order of the day. 

 

Kelly's bug needed a little bit of brake fettling and adjustment!

 

Johns Bay in for an Mot!

 

And lastly but by no means least is Martin and Andrea's gorgeous yellow split!

If you've been reading the blog you will know how far this gorgeous bus has come!

The end straight is in sight, the build up is pretty much complete. All that there is left to do is finish the interior! 

 

 

 

This Weeks Updates!

Another busy week here at Brookside. A few pictures below of the comings and goings.....

First off this gorgeous 72 Og bug. David has brought it in to sort out a few engine oil leaks and give it a general once over. A great looking late bug on a narrowed beam and detail Porsche Fuch.

We can supply and fit all the mods you see here. You too can have a beetle that looks this cool!! :-)

Contact us for a great range of reasonably priced new wheels!! Fuch, Radars,  Empi's etc etc etc

This week also saw Dawn's beetle sporting its new coat of Matt Black paint! A really tricky job to do but with our new in house paint booth Patrick has done a fantastic job!!

Ed's T25 popped in because of Alternator problems.

 

 Martins & Andrea's freshly painted 65 now has a colour coded roof rack to match!!

 

Lastly but by no means least! Having covered over a 1000 miles recently on our trip to France in our trusty old trekker it was time the old girl had an oil change and a general service! She didn't miss a beat the whole trip!!

 

The 65 marches on!!

Well the old girl is fresh out paint!! A little mop and polish and she will be gorgeous!!

The new owners have selected this newbie beetle yellow colour and we think the she looks fantastic!

Keep checking back for updates as  progress is made towards an MOT!!

Thanks Simon

 

A long overdue update!!

Hi everyone,

First let us apologise for the the complete lack of updates! In amongst the business relocation and long line of sickly vw's needing our help we simply haven't had a chance to keep you guys in the loop.

We are going to make a concertive effort to make sure the blog is updated more frequenty.

Anyway, moving on to happenings down on the farm!

For those of you that don't know we now have a fantastic new premises in Lea End Hopwood. Bigger and better than ever before now with in house spray booth to boot!

The 65 now has a new owner and is almost ready for paint. Here are a few pre-paint pics. More to come soon.

Simon

Brookside is set to ADVANCE!

We have some very exciting news! The Brookside Air-cooled Division is packing up shop and relocating to a lovely new bigger unit! The big move is happening as I write and we should be fully settled in in early April. Our new premises can be found at Unit b The Grain-store, New House Farm, Lea End Lane Hopwood Birmingham. Our telephone number is also changing as of mid April to 0121 445 1803

Its really easy to find. We are 5 minutes from junction two of the M42. 

 

Its been a very hectic few weeks, what with preparations for the new unit taking up so much time. But we are finally getting there and the whole team is really excited about the move.

In the mean time customers cars have still been flooding in as well as the latest Brookside acquisition this gorgeous 1962 sub-hatch Westy. You can see it here as it had just arrived from Sunny Oregon parked next to Mikes bus.

 

A 62 is a cross over model, large rear lights but small tailgate.

 

 Icepick door handles another nice early feature of this bus.

 

The Sub-Hatch in all its glory, a rare early factory option for your Westy!

Amongst others This gorgeous 23 window samba came in this week for a brake tune up. It belongs to a good friend and longstanding customer Dave. He is running large 4 Pot Wilwood race calipers that needed adjusting and bleeding!

A New Girl In The Workshop!!!

Well its been another very busy week down at the farm!

This gorgeous 1965 11 window kombi has just landed! Fresh from Oregon in the states this lovely ratty van is incredibly solid. The underneath is all OG! No filler, bondo or patch work. As original underneath as when she left the factory.

At some point in her illustrious past she has obviously had a bit of bump up front and a kind fellow American has repaired with a bit of filler, this and her unique homemade paint job asside she is pretty much unmolested like so many. A real honest gem.

Slammed with Brookside's signature spindles up front and a straight axle conversion out back she rides nice and use-ably low.  She flew threw her MOT and is now ready and waiting for a new home. so if your looking for an honest 11 window bus you need look no further. Open to offers around the £9000 mark 12 months MOT and TAX.

Give us a call on 0121 451 3232 for more info.