This was my first Syncro and I bought it from a young garage mechanic in Germany in March 2008. It was advertised on ebay and I had little idea of how I would collect it from ‘Severin’ – north of Berlin. I took someone with me and, having flown out, got some idea of how far away it was when driving back.

Having driven it for a few years – never off road apart from in the snow, I soon became an enthusiast and had dreams of an engine replacement. I found a Californian company ‘Eurospares’ who supplied a kit which included a rear carrier with a new 1.9 pd engine on hydraulic mounts and some kind of conversion plate. I have a friend in a VW garage who was able to buy a new gearbox for it from South Africa. I had another guy who took this box apart to put the longer-stronger gear-pairs for third and fourth gears, oil baffles for improved oil distribution and a vacuum operated decoupler. The front diff had a new CV and we got the diff-locks working front and back.

It was always jacked up a bit but I put a pair of spacers over the upper ball-joints which has given it another inch on the front – which may be an inch too much in reality.

Then it had started to need some bodywork – as they do – so I left it with Darren of ‘Wedgies Workshop’, Newton Abbot. Darren went to work on it removing and replacing large areas of bodywork including the big one below the screen. The sun-roof needed some attention and the parts were difficult to find so it was down there at Wedgies for about three years but the result was very pleasing after it had been repainted.

I have it back now and it was my intention to install camper conversion units but I have run out of steam. It just seems to need a younger owner now I am nearly seventy.

All the above is what I’ve done and had done. The sliding door hinge is longer than standard to allow for larger wheels – tyres. The rear spare wheel carrier is newly powder-coater and the fixings onto the body at that quarter have been strengthened with a contoured block on the inside.
It has been repainted in it’s original colour and under-sealed since the re-paint.
To keep the engine a little cleaner I had a bespoke under-pan made up. This was quite a job as it was necessary to make up a card-board one, then a thin aluminium one, and finally a thick aluminium one which could be duplicated for other Syncros.

It has an M1 pull-out bed with two three-point seat-belts and a large cushion over the engine which gives enough space to stretch out – and more. I have not finished the job by including camper units so it is not a camper but the new owner can install units of his or her choice.
The “Syncro” green lights all work – that is the front and rear diff-locks and de-coupler.

The ECU and a few of its associated relays are all mounted in the interior, on the floor, next to the bench seat. It would be concealed when a camper unit was installed over it but presently it is exposed. Building something over it is one of the jobs I may get round to.
The left indicator doesn’t cancel or is intermittent. The dash is all brown and CC’s say they have a brown whisker to replace it. The van has all new door rubbers so the doors are sometimes a little hard to close properly.
The clock still shows KPH.

Phone  Mob 07761 028018

Land-line 01883 625009
 
Email ianbrooks53@yahoo.co.uk

We know for a fact that just the engine and gearbox logistics and work combined cost just a few thousand under  the offer price on this van! What a beauty though.. We wouldn’t expect this one to hang around for too long.