Finally got the old girl back to the works yard today, was an interesting drive back from Redhill! Some good looks from the passing plod! She drives ok, bit smoky at first but ran sweet after that, managed 70 on the M25.
Seems like the first two years of her life are a bit of an unknown. After 1990, she belonged to a large firm as a wages van, I have all the MOT papers from 1990 to 1997 which show very little mileage increase in that time period, most of the 43000 miles on the clock were racked up in that first couple of years. The van has not been on the public roads since 1996 according to the vehicle licencing records, so probably sat in a yard or warehouse for quite a few years. She was purchased by NineNine Action Cars in 2005 and that is who she stayed with until Dream Cars in Redhill acquired her for the Guardian telly ad at the end of last year. Going to remove the police graphics, and have the wood-and-plastic bullbar remade in ally with discrete brackets so it can be removed if necessary. Also going to have the windscreen grilles remade and also fitted with discrete bracketry so it can be fitted and removed quickly. I'm hoping that there will be future tv/film work for the van so need to be able to offer it in both 'standard' and 'beefed up' guise!
Couple more pics...

