Looking for my grandparents '76 late bay

Hi there.
I should start by saying that i dont own a late bay, infact i bought into the vw california club last year and love it. My love of campers however does go back to a two tone green and white late bay owned and sold by my grandparents probably 30 years ago. The reg began PLJ9** and i was surprised to see it was recenty taxed in may 2020. The van was first registered in October 1976 and previously sold in 2017, so i thought this forum might be a good place to start the search.... ive got pictures from 40 years ago that i can share with the owner and itd be great to see photos of it now. Many thanks.
James

 

Looking forward to those old photos.
Hope you have some joy with the search.

 

You can get the ownership history from DVLA. You could try doing that, writing to the recent owners and seeing if they have the details of the current owner.

 

Why not provide the full reg and photos?

 

Happy to, just didnt want to compromise the plate for the current owner and thought the registration details might be enough for skmeone to recogbise it. Ive attached one photo of me washing it circa 1980. Its the greatest of the van but my mum has more that ill scan and share... i still love washing the california!

 

They look like happy times.

 

Thanks @nobayinhell, my wife did suggest that and i may do it but started here after getting all nostalgic after a couple of thatchers

 

You can get the ownership history from the DVLA (or used to be able to), but you need to be the registered owner of the van. They won't give you any info if you're not.

 

I thought the DVLA binned that off due to GDPR?

 

I’d put the plate ID in your threat title, people often google their vans number plates, I’d also rename the pictures with the numberplate...it helps Google’s indexing.

The number plate is public record, and as I understand it actually owned by the DVLA....you’ve not added any personally info to it.

 

I think there's an issue with the site ignoring the rotation tag in the EXIF metadata in images...

 

Maybe. I did my search about 10 years ago.

 

Indeed it is. If you "buy" a cherished registration you simply buy the right to display it, and this can withdrawn at any time, for example if you space it incorrectly and a Police officer sees you a repeatedly tells you to make it "half sensible" or I'll, erm they'll take it off you.

 

This site?

 

Yes. Post #5. I'm sure people are not intentionally uploading photos 90 degrees off.

 

It happened after the security cert work was done.


I think it was the man behind the curtain, not the mighty @bernjb56

 

Will do that then, thanks @Moons