9 minute read
SWEET LIKE CHOCOLATE
Al Booth’s creamy-smooth ’57 15-Window looks so finger-lickin’ good, you just want to lean in and take a bite…
Words Dan Bevis Photos Andy Saunders
For as long as mankind has had the ability to bang things with rudimentary tools and communicate with a system of advanced grunts, the species has relished the idea of being told that something shouldn’t be done.
It’s a primal thing: tell a child that they’re not allowed to touch that cake, or that they shouldn’t swing the wonky fence panel aside to see what’s beyond the end of the garden, and what do they do?
You’ve got it. The mischief is ingrained, it’s just human nature. And even more powerful than the received wisdom that something shouldn’t be done is the notion that it can’t be done. We, as a species, love to be set a challenge. ‘That sofa won’t fit in the back of your car,’ a bystander may tell you – so you’ll spend all afternoon trying. Can’t? Can’t doesn’t exist. There are no hard tasks. There are simply certain tasks that take longer than others. Chemically and physically speaking, everything in the world is just made of other things.
Nothing should really be impossible.
All of this is keenly embedded in the psyche of Al
Booth, the man jangling the keys to the sweet ’57 15-Window we see before us. Having served in the Royal
Anglian Regiment (‘The Vikings’),he decided to retrain as a joiner in 2006; after building up a respected and indemand business in London, Al then opted to relocate to
Cornwall in 2012, founding the Northshore Carpentry Co. and generally making some extraordinarily skilled and complex work look like a piece of cake. And you won’t be surprised to learn that when he’s not doing clever things with wood, Al’s a dyed-in-the-wool air-cooled VW obsessive. This project represents the latest in a long line of artfully reimagined Buses, and the manner in which it entered his life was really quite surprising.
“It popped onto my radar back in 2017,” he recalls. “I was having a chat with an old army friend of mine about a few of the old Buses I’ve had over the years – too many to recall – and he casually informed me he still had a 1957
15-Window Bus in a garage in Bury St Edmunds that had been in there since around 2000/01 and hadn’t come out! And with that I think I spat tea everywhere, and straight away drove over from Cornwall to take a look.”
Kinda Ok!
There’s nothing quite like the adrenaline spike when that sort of thing happens, and Al was down at the garage in record time, pinching himself all the way and praying that he wouldn’t be opening the door to reveal a mound of oxidised fragments between a couple of number plates. But the motoring gods were clearly in good humour that day, as the figurative beam of light that shone out when Al eased the portal open was akin to that of the briefcase in Pulp Fiction.
“There she was, covered in years of dust,” he remembers, misty-eyed. “Her colour was Sealing Wax red and a kind of chestnut brown – and you know what? Bus sat stashed away for the last two decades but actually wasn’t too bad
This gives the game away when it comes to that killer stance
Al doesn’t need a spirit level when pitching up at a campsite
Spot the subtly positioned air tank? She looked okay. So we made a deal, and after a few hours of whacking the brakes and trying to pull her out with a tow rope and a T4, she was out and on the back of a trailer.”
Exciting times indeed, and the story just kept on getting more and more intriguing. After a quick overnight pit-stop with his parents in Southend, Al headed out on the long journey back to Cornwall the following day, itching to learn more about his rarefied new acquisition. Arriving home and unloading the Bus from the trailer, some further digging revealed that it was actually a Panel Van which had been converted into a 15-Window Bus in the States in the 1990s.
“Neither of us knew, and to be honest you’d never know unless you knew,” says Al. “But even so, it was still a great find and a cracking Van to try and get back on the road.” So now it was time to roll the sleeves up, as there was some hard work ahead…
Air we go
The van was running air-ride, but the system was so outdated and tired after its couple of decades in the dust that Al concluded ripping it all out and renewing the whole systemwas the only sensible way to go. Being in Cornwall, he was ideally positioned to go to the artisans (or should that perhaps be air-tisans?) at Autostyl in Truro to work their magic on the Bus. A full Air Lift system with 3P management was fitted and, with priority one taken care of, Al moved onto the next item on the ever-growing to-do list. And it was that Sealing Wax and chestnut combo that was next in the firing line.
“After the first winter, the paint started to bubble,” he continues, “so we made the decision to strip her and repaint her, and if I’m honest that’s where my hands-on
involvement stops; beyond paying for the materials and the work, I took a step back and left it to the experts.”
The experts in question here are Ollie and Livi, a father-and-daughter team – friends of Al and proprietors of their own garage where they quietly obsess about old stuff in general and Volkswagens in particular. The dynamic duo duly removed the engine and gave it a full rebuild, with a fresh new bay crafted by the one and only Ev the Candy Van Man (if you know, you know). Ollie and Livi then set about stripping all the paint, perfecting the bodywork and preparing it for its fresh new revival.
“They did actually ask me what colour I wanted her to be,” Al grins, “and I said ‘You know what? I trust your judgement on things, soyou can choose’…” The ensuing colour scheme is something we can call Chocolate Cheesecake – indeed, that’s the Bus’s nickname – and it really is an outstanding job. We just can’t get enough of this Dub’s low-key vibe, creamy-smooth and oh-sosubtle, with just a hint of underlying menace implied by that low-slung stance over dark colour-coded rims. They’re Porsche 356 steels, incidentally; 4in up front and 5.5in out back, shod in lo-pros and ready for action. Which is just as well, as the hot-to-trot motor provides all the action one might reasonably desire; it’s a 1641 mated to a GT gearbox, so there’s all the get-up-and-go you’d want from a great big bar of soap like this.
Quality cabin
That Chocolate Cheesecake theme carries over beautifully to the interior too, which has been reimagined in sumptuous and fabulously detailed style. “The interior was completely redone by Del Interiors Del Interiors did a great job of the seats and trim
It’s no surprise Al’s smiling. He left lots to the experts but the finished result ended up spot on!
As you can see, Al decided to keep it all nice and simple up front
in the south-west,” says Al. “There’s over 70 years’ experience in car interiors there. Seventy years!” That heritage certainly shows through in the finish, the quality of this cabin is downright exquisite – and a million miles away from those utilitarian roots as a Panel Van in Germany.
“The retrim is an amazing job,” Al beams. “And the body, paintwork, engine and pretty much everything else was completed by Ollie and Livi, who really went above and beyond to make her what she is today. In my opinion she looks great, and when me and Alf the Malamute would drive around town, everyone stopped to take a picture… she’s a real head-turner.”
With Alf the huge hound on the passenger seat, this ’57 certainly made a statement down on the British riviera. Sadly Alf departed this world in 2021, and Al finds himself in a state of flux with the Bus’s future uncertain: “She’s now up for sale, or part-exchange, and I guess if we can find another old classic from the scrapyard to save we will,” he says, evidently taking more pleasure in the journey than the destination, as is true of so many enthusiasts.“But until that day she’s tucked up in the barn, nice and warm under cover, ready for the summer fun. And there’s a cast of characters I have to thank for getting the Chocolate Cheesecake to where she is: Autostyl, Ev, Del, and of course the legendary father-and-daughter duo, Ollie and Livi. And I can’t forget dad – cheers for always believing in these crazy projects.”
So it is with the passage of time, this remarkable Bus may or may not be making way for the next one, but that’s all just the circle of life. One thing’s for sure: this VW hadn’t been dealt an easy hand by fate, finding itself variously chopped up, reconfigured and abandoned. But ‘can’t’ doesn’t exist and nothing is impossible. In whatever form and whatever venue, Chocolate Cheesecake will be spreading her sweet affection around for many years to come. Al asked us to dedicate the build to Alf, 2008-2021. “Ride in peace, my boy.”
