Above and below Eric
Brough is on his third RHD GS van and claims the UK all-comers
record. These his first one, a PROPER UK-market vehicle. The
photos were taken in about 1983/4 in Chertsey, Surrey. Eric
found the van parked in Sunbury with a For Sale sign in the
window and acquired it ‘for a song’. It had a quite
distinctive paint job with the brown waistband and tailgate
treatment. The second picture gives a hint on what happened to
just about all of the vans of that era – see the sill and
door-bottom area. There were large holes where the floor
should have been, and just about everywhere else. At 10 years
old (L-reg = 1972) it was quite a survivor even then! It also
shows some interesting grab-bars on the tailgate.
At some point, he lent the van to a friend at work whose own
transport had let him down. He hacked it up to Manchester or
somewhere and returned it with a blown engine. He advertised
it in the Citroenian and a man from Sussex came and towed it
away.
The vans were estates with a lot of components taken off and
several extra panels added. Where the rear seats normally are,
there is an extra floor panel which extends the boot floor
space forward to a steel bulkhead behind the front seats. This
floor panel could be removed and lo and behold you’d find the
fittings to take a rear seat. Eric had such a seat installed
for a while but it was a devil of a job to get people in and
out of it! Other blanking panels cover the insides of where
the rear doors would normally be. When these are removed what
you find is the interior panel of a normal rear door somehow
assembled into place, complete with hole for window winder,
door release etc.
