I just got fed up putting tents up at festivals and getting flooded out so figured a van would be a good idea. Then I figured if I bought a VW and found a van wasn't my thing then I could sell it and probably make rather than lose money. Having got it I then discovered that meant I could spend even more weekends in fields drunk at VW shows as well as festivals. then it all got a bit out of hand....
It's gaffa taped to the back of the circular inspection hatch in the engine bay near the filler pipe... actually it isn't anymore maaaaaaaan
My dad had a Devon Bay when we were very small. I used to 'help' him fix it then. When he and I were travelling to London one day we got into an accident and it rolled onto its side and slid down the motorway for what seemed like an age. Landed on its side. All the glass smashed around us. All cars stopped behind and a few guys pulled us out. I sat on the side of the motorway whilst they pushed it back onto its wheels. She fired straight up. We got in a drove off. Scared Marmite less all the way. My dad got her restored by cutting an entire side off another old bus and grafting it on. The van got resprayed and was beautiful after but I couldnt get back in it after that and my parents seperated soon after anyway. I found my current bay through an old work colleague and decided to shock therapy myself by buying it for my Birthday and getting back in again. Love it now as does my family.
My late father in law purchased a two year old 1964 split window Devon in which we went on holiday all through Europe as far as Yugoslavia. This was our introduction to camping VW bus's. We got married in 1970 purchased a tax free VW 1500 Beetle, and shipped it to Nigeria, for use as our private transport while I was employed there. In November 1972 we drove her back to the UK across the Sahara, trip took one month plus a day, that was taking it easy. We then shipped her to South Africa, where I had my next posting. After three years, during which we toured SA and visited Rhodesia and Swaziland etc. we decided that the Beetle was too small for our rapidly growing family, so reluctantly she was sold for more than I paid for her new. In 1976 my company posted me back to Lagos in Nigeria, where Bay Kombi bus's were being imported to be used as Taxi's. As I was paid in Jersey, I was able to change sterling to Naira on the black market, which enabled me to buy my Bus for £ 2,900, when the showroom price was closer to £4,100. The rest of the story is history, the Bus is in my garage here, as I write, 39 years later. Tony
All due to a temporary becoming permanent mental aberration. With hindsight, having to look for the engine at the first viewing should have warned me off. .
memories of family holidays in the '70s in our merino yellow tintop did sports cars in my 20's, 30's. kids come along and i wanted a car related project/ hobby that involves the whole family.. hence a camper really wanted a split but didn't do that, 'cos: too much money, impractical, and to get somethign with adequate performance, handling, brakes etc you pretty much have to build that all yourself from scratch, where a late bay already has dual circuit brakes with a booster, basic crumple zone/deformation panel, 2.0 motor, a firewall etc and space to sleep 4 or 5. looked at doing the @rickyrooo1 thing ie T5 as a daily which could also be used for camping at the weekend but SWMBO says t4 or t5 just looks like a builders van (sorry rick) plus she didn't want to drive something that big as a daily.
I too think they look like builders vans, but i can still sleep in it, get there quicker/cheaper and probably use it more - as for big for a daily, i drove 110 landies and td5 discos for dailys - and i guess they ain't much difference..... mrs roo is the oposite, she loved the bay but also hated it too, she didn't drive it and won't drive the new one so it's my call on the van size.
When I turned 21 I cashed in my children's savings bonds, the birthday and Christmas money we got as kids, half of that went in the bank, "so when you're older you can buy house or car or something important" I didn't need my own car back then so decided a camper would be a much better way to spend all my money. So I bought one and indeed spent all my money, and a bit more. It was broken more than it worked and rotten as they come, but that was me sucked in. 12 years later and I'm on my third van now and can't imagine not having one. The way I look at it is, as long as I'm getting out and using it, and the fun outweighs the work involved in keeping it nice, then that's a big chunk of money in a more mobile savings scheme than if I'd left it in the bank.
a long time ago but it works... I've come up with a better solution since then involving some marmite... also the line "of course your dog is going mad officer, as you can see from the cat bag with... a cat in it... my cat spends a lot of his time living in my van" is in reserve should it be needed at any point
We bought ours after being fans of "Lost". When they got to the episode Tricia Tanaka is dead" and they revived a bay window for joyriding, we got interested.Then we fell in love with the idea during the episodes set in the seventies where the transport was a fleet of Bays. Some time later we decided we would like one and so we opened up eBay didnt buy the one finishing that evening because it was described as not running well. Bid the reserve on the one finishing the next day with two weeks MOT left, expecting to be outbid but we won it. A week later we were in Royal Tunbrdge Wells with an envelope of cash and we saw the bus for the first time (and that was the first time we had looked at more than pictures of any aircooled VW) It started and could be driven. So I drove it 120 miles home stopping to fiddle with the gearchange several times and getting used to driving a bus for the first time. Since then it has been part restored and used for days out commuting and holidays. Now we have driven it 42000 miles and it has only needed two AA callouts. One loose alternator wire and a totally flat battery and one disintegrated rocker arm clip. As I predicted to my wife when we bought it , it has used a lot of my free time in tinkering and fixing and improving. But even after an engine rebuild on the druveway behind the bus, we still love it and prefer driving it to our other cars.
Not sure how I ended up where I am now (am very happy where we are though!). Started up by being fed up of having to get the train to client sites when I was a contracted IT consultant. Spoke about getting a little run around and somehow ended up getting Iris (we'd spoke about buying a camper for years). Went camping in her once over that summer and used her as the run-around. Come the summer after I started to appreciate a bit more that I'd need to do a bit more work on her myself if I stood a chance of having any spare change. However the manky roof was a little beyond my skills so the following year the roof came off and a new roof was grafted on, along with a pop-top. This year we've managed to go camping again in her, sleeping in the pop-top without any interior. She's now SORNd for the winter as I start some restoration work of my own on her. I seem to have gone from an extremely naive, "never worked on a car" type, to trying to do as much of the work on her myself as I can. Working on it has given me something exciting to focus on, which I think I need to keep me happy.
It's cheap (lpg/tax free/low insurance) and fun, it's safer cos I can go as slow as I like (daydreaming) with 50 cars behind....nobody beeps, if it was a Corsa I'd be crucified. It's a proper Tin box on wheels so good for storage, sleeping, filling with stuff and kids. I can fix lots of things easy, and ignore the rest until critical. Bits are cheap for it. I'm slowly getting familiar with how to do everything. It's been 15 years. I'm a bit claustrophobic, and it's a great view. Car seats do my back in, my Bays is a driving machine. eg. 8 hours and no back problems. Depreciation has happened long ago, so now it's just money in the bank. Young girls actually look at me in it (I'm invisible the rest of the time). That stops me picking my nose too, everybody is looking. Win win. Stops me getting fat, since it's not a run around. I tube/cycle/walk round town mostly. Unless it's raining. I still do 10-12k in it in a year, my only motor. I like having a 40 year old car that works fine, I'm a bit of a greeny, so,it's the best ecological statement possible whilst still having a combustion engine. Tricky one that. .....and I'm getting a Propex installed next month, this winter will be the best one ever, and I mean it!!!
It all started for us when my then 3 yr old son went to a friends for the day, and they went shopping in the local Morrisons Apparently he and his friend were very well behaved and were told they could go and choose a Matchbox car that hang in most isle's He came back with a camper..... and the rest is history !
