What is your vans story ?

saw her parked up , paid £2650 for her , realised i"d bot a skip , spent 5-6000 pounds over 6/7 years and she went back on road this jan. RESULT!!! i love my bus

 

Went to look at a T25 and spotted a nice bay in the corner of the barn
wish i had left it there

 

Bought mine for £1500 as a rolling shell 17 months ago. Picked it up on the Sunday and on returning to work on the Monday got made redundant so the credit card got hammered as did bank of mum and dad (it was taking up their drive after all).

6 weeks of 16 hr days got it on the road and legal, if not looking a bit shabby and took it to bug jam 25. Then spent a few months sorting out the bodywork and respraying the beast until it resembled something half decent.

Now at the stage of rebuilding the interior but it is usable so work has slowed right down (not to mention a serious lack of funds and a major debt to repay, thanks dad I owe you one)

Fast forward 17 months and it's at Brighton breeze looking half tidy and getting a little bit of attention. Nice one.

 

Sitting in the '76 Aussie bay one rainy October day.Misses said she wanted something bigger,I said that's not possible even with the propex warming it up Seriously I said I am not going modern and mentioned the Jurgens that I had been keeping an eye on.Went down to Hampshire to view two in a barn.Too expensive and too crap.Spoke to the chap in Belgium who was advertising one on the Samba.Knocked the price down and went to view it.Went back a couple of weeks later cus the Misses wouldn't drive abroad.Drove it back.That was 18 mths ago. 8)

 

For my sins,I was working in Lagos, Nigeria in October 1976, and wanted a T2 to replace my 1500 Beetle that I had sold in South Africa a few months earlier.
Went along to the VW dealership, and checked out the stock of VW type 2 Kombi's, they were for sale at the equivelent of 4100 Pounds, and destined to be local Taxi's.
Then over a period of weeks I did some wheeling and dealing in sterling/Naira (illegal) exchange business and ended up buying my bus for the equivelent of 2900 Pounds......................the dealer only accepted cash!!!
I had to draw it out of the bank into a brown paper shopping bag, and stand there as the VW cashiers counted it all out.............Only then would the wonderful "Salesmen" allow me to even look at a vehicle!
They could not even be bothered to accompany me out the back of the building,into the storage lot, and choose my bus.
The colour choice was either Pastel white or yuckky grey, I chose white, and as I write this, its in my garage, 36 years late, waiting to go off for restoration in the next couple of weeks.

I think its a very lucky bus......................guaranteed all its brothers and sisters were reduced to mangled wrecks, decades ago.
Tony

 

I bought s 1975 ex fire truck on eBay. Iit was originally a fire truck at a dutch airport & was yellow, it was imported into the UK in 1981 & promptly rotted to bits, I bought it in 2004 & sold it in 2006. I welded it all & decided I wanted a better one. I'm happy to report its on the road somewhere.

When I got it:-


During:-


When I sold it:-

 

I bought Chug Chug it 2006 again off eBay, I sold my wife's car to fund the purchase. I loved Chug Chug & would have kept him but he caught fire in 2008, full story here:-

http://thelatebay.com/index.php?topic=1430.0


From this ..........


To this ..................


to this ..........

 

After the death of Chug Chug I seriously considered purchasing a T25 Atlantic, I came very very close to buying it. After making enquirers with FBI, I finally decided to purchase a Mexico Beige from Keft & Klonk,


I was booking my plane tickets on-line & my wife persuaded me to have one last look on eBay.
That I when I spotted Milly, she was imported into the UK from California in 2006 & was painted. I saw her & fell in love. Milly is now my 3rd Bus & the best I've had, I'll keep using her until I'm too old to drive, then I'll give her to my kids.

This is Milly:-


Full details here:-
http://thelatebay.com/index.php?topic=219.0

 

Remember reading that on Vizi I think over 3 years ago (think there was a link on the JK forum)
Very very sad ,never knew that it was you CRM.
Glad to see youve got another spanker though

 

Cheers it was indeed I, I was gutted for quite a while, now though I'm happy to have Milly.

 

Our westy was originally sumatra green and white and bought in 1973 in Morecambe. It was exported to the IoM before it was 3 years old (before its 1st MOT), and was re-registered.
It spent the next 20 years there where they don't salt the roads getting painted with waves down the side in blue hammerite before being brought back over here in 1995, re-registered again and given a coat of white household gloss.

My wife bought it in 2001 from its 4th owner using her student loan money but due to her not being able to drive and me not being able to insure the thing because it wasn't in my name : it ended up with another owner on the V5, mine. ;D

We ran it around for a year or so before taking it off the road to do loads of little (and some large) welding jobs on it and put it back on the road in 2004 a few weeks before vanfest with a brush painted coat of aircraft blue coach paint. Its been on the road with a constant MOT ever since.

Archaeological dig through the paint:

 

One of the moderators of club 80-90 is a radio hack ,he was talking to a farmer and the farmers old neglected pickup came into the conversation ,next he told me ,I phoned the farmer ,but it was a bad time before christmas for cash so I left it for a bit ,April came and I got more wind in my sail`s and phoned him again ,he still had it... :-*

I went to wisbeach with a trailer and it was love at first sight... O0

 

Mine was a desire for a resto. Always wanted to do one. Started off with a Mini in mind, then it turned into a Beetle then, as the wife does a lot of triathlons it turned into a camper. Drive down, compete, rest and drive back. £750 off Ebay bought blind and not knowing anything about them. Very crispy when viewed in daylight, no engine and a loose fit poptop. Slowly piecing it together and hoping to get it on the road before I hit 40! Had I known then what I know now I wouldn't have bought this one as it is a panel conversion and the windows don't look as nice. Shame it's missing it's m-code plate. I think I am owner number twelve.

 

Arthur was owned by a marketing company who had a fleet of 6 vans all liveried up in National Lottery garb, touring the country.



That's why he's a weird blue colour. Although now that I'm used to it I don't know if I'd take him back to pastel white over sage green (M-plate codes) as otherwise he wouldn't be my big blue bus anymore.

I hated him for the first 2 weeks we owned him (the joys of impulse purchases) so he's had some little mods in the 18 months we've had him, mainly to tone down the blueness and make him prettier





but also a LOT of mechanical work including a new gearbox, engine, brakes, carbs, exhaust, the works really.

 

Basil was in a garden for 6 years i`d seen him a few years before but when we saw the listing on evilbay didn`t realize it was the same bus..til i googled the address and there he was,even looked awful on google earth!
anyway bloke who owned him had travelled around with his previous wife,then they seperated and the current gf wouldn`t get in it,so he sat until they were moving house....bloke pulled the ad from ebay,we drove basil to newquay for some surgery

 

Personally, mine is standard 'fell into it' story...

Me & new girlfriend were looking to spend more time away together, tents weren't working for us anymore. I perused T25s for a while, but my Dad's beliefs kept nagging in back of head, aspire to Westy Berlin. He'd had all manner of T2s throughout my childhood.

Saw one advertised on a few sites, incl ebay. Emailed the bloke, hundreds of photos later, buy it now and home it came from across the Pennines.

I've spent same again over the last 6yrs... but wouldn't sell it for double