Starting to clean up the rubbish

I had the the day off work today to look after my little girl, that meant I had almost an hour while she slept, to get back into the garage and try to re-arrange the mess I created yesterday when I dumped the J van in there. I re-shuffled the Mini and the Moke and shifted my two bikes around, then started cleaning the junk out of the J, trying to see what was in the back. The obvious things were the engine and another spare wheel (that means I have seven wheels) there were also a couple of drivers seats, bits of engine shroud (including the part with the chassis plate) and sundry parts I can't identify. Also a coil of rubber hose, a wool bale bag, a plastic bucket and the base of what looks like an old fashioned cinema seat that flips up.

I eventually lifted the engine out, its a lot heavier than the Mini power units I'm used to (and less powerful). It was sort of sinking through the partially decomposed floor and leaking black sticky smelly oil. The engine is the original, and the gearbox is still attached. The engine (and all the front facing parts of the chassis) is coated in a thick layer of fine grey dust that has obviously gone on wet and dried there. This van must have spent a lot of time on country roads. Inside the toolbox under the seat I found a handfull of wheel nuts, all of them were full of old mud-wasp nests. I'm seeing the signs of a vehicle that lived in the country.

In an effort to work out its history I sanded through the white house paint that it seems to be covered in to see what was underneath. It seems to originally have been a beige colour, possibly with black mudguards.