Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Loving the turn this thread is taking. I've been building some of the interior furniture for a glass top double decker in a bus garage in Southall and keep thinking about a decent VW California instead of my current van. I'd want something I can get an 8x4 MDF board in though. £50k+ for a new California Ocean, not sure that's going to be painless to arrange. What's the best value in the range?

The double decker cost £300k without an interior, it's the size of a 1 bed flat. Amazing bit of kit, the owner has 4 of them. It's going for homologation tomorrow.

http://www.bustronome.com/london/concept/

There are an agreeably nerdy plethora of options for a T5- pop top, beds, captains chairs, awnings etc etc.

I particularly like the integrated deck chairs in the tail gate of the California Ocean

Pop up vans are the nuts. My camper is a hi top and while great inside, makes it a ball ache to park anywhere.

Camper van appreciation thread >>>>>>>

Also Commers beat VWs:

Commers are doooope. In yellow.

Fucking seat heating got so hot it burnt through the leather and my coat this morning! Thought Mrs Hammer was just farting unusually until the smoke appeared!

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#guilty

However, I do think your judgement is clouded by moving to the S West where everyone drives vans and thinks it's normal.

On the plus side, I've been waiting for ages to use all these "Dammit Plumbing" signs I made a while ago

I haven't been able to use the fan in my Transit Connect for a week because of a "dangerously-warm plastic" smell. Worried it'll be a dash-out job.

Bought some £1 gloves from Decathlon.

Love this. Not even the slightest hint of irony. Well played.

Wait.... it’s not normal to want to drive a van everyday?

I think it’s just that everyone in the SW is smart, and knows that if you buy a kombi, you can claim it as a tax write off for work.

Does this thing have some sort of anti-gravitational prototype technology on board?

Is it actually a monorail in disguise?

It's had a little bit of lowering but they all have those cool inset wheels.

Looking a little worse for wear in that last one.

Looks like it'll topple over quite easily if you turn too hard. But on the other hand, it also looks like it'll keep rolling and land back on its wheels again.

just came out my studio to find the front grill of my mini hanging off... someone had undone all but one screw.... think i disturbed them!

broad daylight though in the middle of Bethnal Green... da fuck!

I think if you see that happening you'd just assume it was their car?

Exactly.

I remember getting lots of funny looks but nothing happening when I stripped out the sound system, spare, hubcaps and anything else of value from my old car before it was scrapped.

I'd got the collection day mixed up so had to do it last minute late at night after a few drinks.

Still sucks. Though. @Manson7am Could you replace them with torx screws / bolts?

Just caught up on the WhatDammitCar portion of the thread and I'm going to half agree with hoops on getting something sensible....

.... although I'm not sure driving a minivan through London, to airports, shops etc. makes much sense without owning >4 kids.

I'd have thought a Golf Estate GTI would be the sensible choice. Pretty sure you can chuck a bike in the back with both wheels (even if you can't a front wheel just takes a sec). If you need to upgrade anything Golf's have one of the biggest mods scenes.

I've just realised that with the MGB and a 1.6TDi Passat, I am the poor man's version of dammit.

The MGB even has a forum hand tinkered engine and I want it respraying.

My Passat is sooooo boring but sooooo useful.
#permanenttopboxlife

Even though we're talking about vans can I still post this?

https://youtu.be/fik4zbSTmW0

What an irritating guy.

Made it to 1.24

The subtitles were helpful.

I absolutely agree with you and it's cool to see the lengths you're going to with it.

I've always preferred Coupes to Soft tops (although two of my favourite cars are Caterhams and MX-5's) and I guess I've been conditioned to think that out of most cars that are available in both variations, a cab/softtop is likely to be compromised in terms of chassis stiffness and not as well suited to being produced as a more hardcore version.

I do like things that are slightly left of centre though and I love reading about any car project so keep going with the updates!