In 2002, after spending a night camping in a tent in South Devon and waking up surrounded by VW campers we decided it was time to reignite our affair with VW’s. Both sets of my Grand parents had VW’s when I was a kid in the ‘70’s, Campers, vans, notches, squares, fastbacks and beetles.
We’d bought our first van; ‘Blue’, a 1976 twinslider for £1k in 1993, and we had a single cab pick-up very briefly. Pics of Blue the 2slider
Me with lots of hair
Sue
Tara, our dog and best friend in her favourite seat
Sadly Tara and Blue are both now long gone. (if anyone knows the whereabouts of LHA751P send me a PM)
So, with £5k in hand I scoured the country looking for the right van. Most were described as ‘rust free’ or ‘restored’, all the ones I looked at were rot boxes. We couldn’t up the budget and buying a wreck full of filler was not an option. Finally in October 2003 and after nearly a year I found a van advertised on the VW Heritage website, described as a 1974 rust free former ambulance from South Africa, now with a Westy Continental interior.
For £2.5k!
It sounded too good to be true but I saw this as my last chance as prices were climbing. So I headed down to Essex, cash in the glove box. The guy was a trader with a yard full of vans, I drove past the nice white Kombi at the front hoping it would be that one, but knowing it couldn’t be. But it was; the van had been brought into Europe via Sweden and was still on Swedish plates. It had just passed its first UK MOT (with an advisory on the washer jets!), and was indeed 100% rust free. The front arches had been repaired with hand made panels, but these were respectable – this and the dent in the rear corner being the only problem with the body. It was scruffy, dirty and unloved, but the body was in fantastic condition – underneath looked like new. The engine was past it though, so on this basis I offered £2k and the seller said yes!
I left my deposit and from here the fun began!
This is how I saw it on that day
A memorable day for another reason too - see the man in the box?
Here it is just shortly after we brought it home in October 2003. After a good wash and polish, a new badge and registered
The following photo’s show our first trip out as a family after we’d registered the van, about a week later. I patched up the engine as best I could, and armed with an RAC membership we decided to venture out. We filled the van with fuel and I drove the mammoth 1 mile trek to show the in-laws the van. As we came out of the house fuel started to gush from the tank and down the hill!
The fuel sender had come off under the pressure, as had the filler pipe! The fire brigade were called – as you can see they all had a good laugh watching me gag as I attempted to siphon off the fuel!.
The van doesn’t like engines – we’ve had some ups and downs, some great trips away and some disastrous break downs.
We’re now on the 3rd engine in the 8 years that we’ve owned the van. Here is the only photo I have of the first engine - an AD1600
Here is the 1700 being installed by me in 2004 (looking a few pounds lighter than today!)
...and the newly built 1800 being installed after I built it myself on the dining room table, and being tuned on the rolling road in 2011.
Here are the new wheels, a trip out to Hay where we camped out in the van for the first time in 2 years and went to see Dara o’Briain, and last night, camping out with its new Brazilian friend.
Armed with a new engine and 12 months MOT (no advisories) we’re planning a long trip around Europe. I’m hooked on engine building now and am planning a firebreather, but as a family we all love the van so will own it for life.
I also currently have a 1972 Riviera on its way to me mid-Atlantic and am considering a new late late bay water cooled Kombi from Brasil as i've found someone who can get me one here on the cheap via the USA. If it comes off i'll be sticking a scooby out back
