basset

BASSET THE T25
Basset was offered to me by my then boss, who said to me one day "I've been asked if I know anyone that wants to buy an aircooled van, and you're the only person I know that likes them". Well I wasn't really that interested, (we were quite happy with Chugalug at the time) but didn't want to upset him, so I arranged to go and have a look.
	What I found, stored away in an open barn full of straw, was a solid, LHD T25 aircooled minibus (with eberspacher) with a carb problem, the then owners had been told that the engine was shot, "it's dropped a valve sir". I offered them a silly price and they nearly had my hand off. We now had 2 vans, was going to do the T25 up and sell him off, but someone made me an offer I just couldn't refuse for Chugalug, so that was that, the process started again.
Strip the interior and start from scratch, he's now got his fourth, and hopefully final, incarnation, having had a Hitop fitted along the way, and an engine rebuild, so should now last us for a few more years. Mind you he's got a CV joint that knocks every now and then, I will get around to stopping that one of these days. As well as the new interior he's had all new (2nd hand ) doors and tailgate, sliding windows in both sides, alarm and immobiliser fitted and will have central locking fitted when I get the time. (I've got the bits, it's just the time)
We also gave him a lower half repaint in a turquoise blue, which with the white Hitop and black surround to the windows is where his name came from - everyone said he looked like a liquorice allsort, so what better name. I've also fitted cruise control, (albeit a fairly basic form of, but more than adequate for those long hauls to the South of France) a diesel Eberspacher and some very comfortable sierra ghia seats
He's had a full rewire, which included putting a lot of the electrics above the cab ( when we had the hitop fitted I asked them to cut out the roof panel above the cab for this purpose) and a solar panel on the hitop to assist the leisure battery when on site. Future plans for him include sliding windows both sides (they're in the garage waiting to be fitted) and tinted windows all round. We've also got a new sliding door, tailgate and right hand front door to go on - rust does attack T25's as well. Watch this space for further updates. Well he's now beeen sold, didn't think I'd be saying that for a few years, but circumstances change, see here for why, we got a very good price for him and he's gone to a good home, and they're going to keep his nme as well. So ends the story of Basset, in our ownership at least.