Hector A Cautionary Tale.

We’d wanted a splitscreen bus for years. And first got the bug, after hiring one for a holiday in Cornwall in 2009.

- DAVE RICHARDS

As we drove away from the people we’d rented it from Mark said that holidaying in a nineteen sixties bus was the worse idea I had ever had, but within minutes we were laughing and smiling so much! It turned out to be one of the best holidays had ever taken. From that moment we were totally hooked and our lives changed completely!” Kate Burch and her husband joined the splitscreen van club in the summer of 2012. “The friendly forum gave us lots of help & pointers and the search began. Shortly afterwards, Hector came up for sale and after many emails, pictures and phone calls, a day trip to Manchester was arranged. Everyone said; ‘Don’t buy the first one you see’. So in October 2012 we did.

“Hector was raised in San Diego, California and stayed with the same owner from new until 1981. He was then sold to another Californian until 2000 when there’s no record of him until 2003 when he was imported to Scotland where he was restored with a colour change to Cream and Black. It was at this point that the original 1500cc engine was replaced with a much larger capacity motor of 1915cc with 044 heads and straight cut cam gear. There’s also a deep sump for a larger oil capacity and a remote oil cooler. It breathes in through twin Dell’Orto 45’s and out via a big bore fully merged stainless header & matching silencer. The engine develops a more than adequate 109 bhp which it puts down onto the tarmac via a Type 3 gearbox and a more recently fitted Creative Engineering IRS conversion. For added peace of mind there’s a Fire Tech foam extinguisher mounted in the engine bay. Following the resto he was owned by the chap we bought from in Manchester.