Slam a Montana!

“I wanted a family camper as the Splitscreen we owned wasn’t going to be big enough with 3 boys!”

- DAVE RICHARDS

Rusty Lee from the eponymous Rock and Roll bed manufacturer, helped source this bus as he knew that Adam Edmonds was on the look out for an early Westfalia. He managed to find & import this from California where it had been involved in a side impact accident.

“The damage to the side was severe, but other than that it was in amazing dry condition, and just looked like it had been sat for a while. It had a lovely sunburnt look from the Californian sun so that pretty much sold it for me. I have owned the bus for 6 years now, and I have only just finished it!

“My first job was to repair the accident damage, which meant putting a new middle panel and dog leg in. I had never really welded when I purchased the bus, so it was always going to be a steep learning curve for me to get it done. As my imagination and skill set increased, it soon turned into much more than originally planned. I managed to repair the rear quarter panel and luckily the door hadn’t been touched. Once that was done, I knew that I wanted to go low, but then I decided that I wanted it really low whilst still usable. After much research, I chose an Aire Valley front beam with a Rayvern Hydraulic setup.

“To my consternation I found that it wasn’t quite as simple as just fitting the kit. It was pretty much a process of constant trial and error with endless adjustment of the suspension geometry and clearances until I had made it as usable as possible.