Here are a couple of photo's of the doormobile taken around 1985, probably in Devon or Cornwall. As I recall we usually set off for Cornwall but usually broke down by the time we got to Devon!! In the end it got sold to buy a Land Rover (series three, i think) because dad got bitten by the off road bug. Anyone seen it around? A couple of stories about this one include the engine bay catching fire - Mum phoned Grandad who told her to phone the fire brigade instead. He lived further away than the fire station but still got there first and saved the bus! I distinctly remember having seen someone giving a 'one finger salute' and wondering what it meant i decided to test it out on mum. I was in the camper and mum was just locking the house, I yelled "hey mum" and flipped her the finger... I knew from her face that it was a BIG mistake so I jumped out and ran around the camper with mum gaining fast, she caught me just as I was going to jump back in - I got a tanned hide for that one. I was probably about 7.Happy days! As for Dads slides - I searched the attic to no avail but i'll keep trying, I can't believe that they would have been thrown out. At the very least I'll extract the full story from him - or what he remembers, he says he can't remember which country he ended up in but some trip highlights include having the bus highjacked by the PLO at machine gun point, watching mortar and tracer fire in the Libyan or Syrian civil war, having his arm broken whilst under arrest for hitting a kiddie off his bike and pretending to be russian in Morocco because it was the only language the hustlers didn't speak (English? Francais? "Nyet, Ruskie"). Keep the pictures coming they're great!
Here's a DVLA check, Sorry to say it seems it died in 1997 mate Vehicle enquiryThe enquiry is complete. The vehicle details for URD 408H are: Date of Liability 01 03 1997 Date of First Registration 07 07 1970 Year of Manu[glow=red,2,300]FACT[/glow]ure 1970 Cylinder Capacity (cc) 1584cc CO2 Emissions Not Available Fuel Type PETROL Export Marker N Vehicle Status Unlicensed Vehicle Colour PURPLE Vehicle Type Approval Not Available
Cheers Woody, I was ready for the worst - it was shabby when we sold it (bottom 6" problems), and nobody seemed to be doing much with them back then. Someone must of given her some love (and purple paint) to get her through to '97 though. Funny, that's the colour Lucy wants for moominbus.
Its bad when you find out, I know coz my old bus went the same way The enquiry is complete. The vehicle details for BWA 656G are: Date of Liability 01 02 2008 Date of First Registration 25 02 2004 Year of Manufacture 1968 Cylinder Capacity (cc) 1584cc CO2 Emissions 0g/Km Fuel Type PETROL Export Marker N Vehicle Status Unlicensed Vehicle Colour WHITE Vehicle Type Approval Not Available
Thanks moomin bus, loved the pics and text, reading this made me smile and the tears where streaming when i read the bit about you flipping the finger to your mum.....ouch...i bet you felt that tanned backside again just thinking about it, great stuff, it made me think of a camping trip when I was a kid ... late 78/9..80 maybe.. ..... we didnt have a van but we were packing the tent down when mum suggested that dad should pull the datsun estate car around the front of the tent to load up..........what happened next was like a scene from Father Ted...my two younger brothers were playing in the back of the car so dad jumped in the car that was parked around the side pointing down the slight gradient hill.......,he let the handbrake off to just roll it around the front of the tent...shame he forgot about the steering lock...me and mum just stared as he deperately tried to get the keys out of his jeans pocket while rolling down the hill, luckily the little tent that was in front had packed down and left about an hour earlier!!! by now my two brothers were leaning over the back of the front seats wondering what was going on..........also the site owner was picking up litter next to the hedge at the bottom of the field dad tooted him and waved vigourously at him to get out of the way,,.........he just looked up and waved back..as you do.......then dived out of the way at the last minute......a split second later we heard the thud as they hit the hedge and saw my brothers disappear over the front seats like a couple of horses at the grand national.......!!!!!!!!!!!!......shouldn't laugh but it was funny ..thinking back....no one was hurt, dad managed to pull the front wing out off the front wheel and we managed to drive the 100 odd miles home ....great times cheers, keep those pics coming Lee
I searched a few years ago on the DVLA website for a old vw van my dad used to have, it had date of liability 1990 something. I then forgot about it and rechecked last week and date of liability was feb 2012. So it must still be out there somewhere, as could yours. Its still on the database so thats a good thing. It just hasn't been SORN'D.
