Ken, these are the only other photos i've got:







Not much help i know!

It is entirely feasible that the body has been dropped on to an Ami chassis, the advert says that it has a 'high compression' engine & Russ is right about the 'supercharger' pipe. Also, it's sporting a anti-roll bar... I must say i didn't investigate too far as i felt a little uneasy - i'm not sure he was too keen on me taking the pictures, even though i did ask first! I was keen to establish where he acquired the van from but i was met with some resistance. All i got was 'my wife bought it for me' & 'it came here on a low loader'. It would seem that he has a fair bit of history with it & some old photographs. He seemed to have at least some idea as to the anti roll bar & 'Diane' gearbox & other bits & pieces & i'm not sure that he's a '2cv man'.

I must say when i realised the windsreen was smashed coupled with the lack of forthcoming information as to its recent history & where he'd acquired it from, we first thoughts were its been pulled from a scrapyard.

When i checked the price of the van last night i'm sure it had 3 bids & a price of £330, just checked this morning & it's back down to 2 bids & £310... strange.

It looks to be a van chassis to me unless somebody has spent the time and effort welding the "fillet" type thing onto the rear legs to support the van shell.

And Neil, I think you're right about the bidding situation I think.

I meant to mention the ARB, which is what made me think there's quite a bit of Ami in it.

i've borrowed this image off the Jeroen Cats website - this is another AKL with similar issues:

back up to 3 bids & £330...

Weren't AK250's built on what was basically Ami6 chassis/running gear? This van, being a '68 was probably late enough to have M28 mechanicals from the factory although it has probably had a replacement engine and 'Diane' box since then.

No, they were never built!

D'oh I meant AK350 <slaps himself>

Yep. It's definitely an AKB at that age, so would have left the factory on M28 "normal" running gear.



The original engine would have been one of the no-oil-filter ones, so I'd be more surprised if it hadn't had a replacement over the years.

If that was an '80s Spesh, there wouldn't be any doubt about it being WAAAAAAAY too far gone - and the arse end of cars is a LOT easier to weld up than the arse end on vans.

Nasty, nasty, 'orrible, ghastly... And very sad too - I remember this one when it was freshly refurbed (by Alastair).

Beg to differ, though, Adrian; as far as i know, AKLs weren't made after May '68 - ie. when the changeover to M28 engines happened. The gearbox had already changed to 'late type' the previous October, quite a strange, malice aforethought, setup, really.

It has a long history on the Van Register, belonging in the late 80's to Ian Reade, near Bristol, who had already converted it to M28 mechanicals when Alastair bought it - finding M4 stuff (particularly M4 stuff that wasn't shot to bits) was a lot harder in them times. I should know...

It ought to be saved, really, given the rarity of the beast (only one left in Belgium, and one other in Blighty (Stimpy!). Hell of a job, though...