Absolutely sick and tired of stupid lowered VWs that I cannot drive to places I'd like to go (moors/beaches/enduro tracks/secret surf spots) I figured I needed some sort of vehicle that would suit my needs and be able to carry extra toys (bikes/boards etc) and maybe pass as some form of camper.
Initialy I looked at T25 and T3 synchro VW's but they were either rusty or overpriced or both.
Then my focus shifted towards the Delica, in no way influenced by a certain mystery machine I'd seen here and there.
The more I looked at them, the more I could see it was the perfect vehicle, so spent at least 12 months looking, I looked and looked, watched ebay, scoured forums and generally gathered as much info as possible until I was in a position to buy.
A lot of that info came via Bruce, either virtually or on the phone. I'm not one for talking but he was responsible for the longest telephone conversation I've ever made - so thank's Bruce, I'm very grateful.
I hung on, and hung on, waiting for the right Deli to come along and had a list of criteria that it had to fill. A few suitable ones cropped up but they had issues or I didn't have the cash. By now my Golf was up for sale and there were some very interested buyers; then the seemingly perfect Deli popped up on eBay.
Problem was, it was late Jan and cash was tight, I had to go cap in hand to the wife and ask to borrow from my kids savings.......desperate measures indeed.
I eventually scrabbled together enough cash to put in an offer on the eBay sale to end it early and bought myself a train ticket.
On Friday I took the train up from North Devon to Bognor Regis - a few hours and 4 trains later I arrived in a blooming cold Bognor and met up with 'Tee', who kindly picked me up from the station to look at his L300.
The 300 was pretty much as I expected, in good condition and well maintained but pretty dirty inside. Tee said the plastic covers were from having the seats valeted and they did look clean, shame the rest of the interior was so manky. - probably not that bad really for a 21 year old van.
Being my first Delica I was shown all the features and went for a test drive. All seemed fine and the deal was done.
It was a slow but very comfortable ride back and I absolutely loved it, smiling like a special person all the way home, I even took a detour to smelly ferret's house for a reason I'm not prepared to discuss in public.
It was gone 11 when I got home and it wasn't until the following morning that rest of the family saw it for the first time, the kids absolutely love 'the monster truck', even the missus thinks it's really nice which makes that 2 out of the hundreds of vehicles I've owned now that she likes.
I've owned it for nearly two weeks now and think it's fantastic, it's ugly but that's also it's beauty - a very underated vehicle except by them that know better.
I've a list of jobs and modifications as long as your arm, and they'll all be done in time for RRG 12.....
Initialy I looked at T25 and T3 synchro VW's but they were either rusty or overpriced or both.
Then my focus shifted towards the Delica, in no way influenced by a certain mystery machine I'd seen here and there.
The more I looked at them, the more I could see it was the perfect vehicle, so spent at least 12 months looking, I looked and looked, watched ebay, scoured forums and generally gathered as much info as possible until I was in a position to buy.
A lot of that info came via Bruce, either virtually or on the phone. I'm not one for talking but he was responsible for the longest telephone conversation I've ever made - so thank's Bruce, I'm very grateful.
I hung on, and hung on, waiting for the right Deli to come along and had a list of criteria that it had to fill. A few suitable ones cropped up but they had issues or I didn't have the cash. By now my Golf was up for sale and there were some very interested buyers; then the seemingly perfect Deli popped up on eBay.
Problem was, it was late Jan and cash was tight, I had to go cap in hand to the wife and ask to borrow from my kids savings.......desperate measures indeed.
I eventually scrabbled together enough cash to put in an offer on the eBay sale to end it early and bought myself a train ticket.
On Friday I took the train up from North Devon to Bognor Regis - a few hours and 4 trains later I arrived in a blooming cold Bognor and met up with 'Tee', who kindly picked me up from the station to look at his L300.
The 300 was pretty much as I expected, in good condition and well maintained but pretty dirty inside. Tee said the plastic covers were from having the seats valeted and they did look clean, shame the rest of the interior was so manky. - probably not that bad really for a 21 year old van.
Being my first Delica I was shown all the features and went for a test drive. All seemed fine and the deal was done.
It was a slow but very comfortable ride back and I absolutely loved it, smiling like a special person all the way home, I even took a detour to smelly ferret's house for a reason I'm not prepared to discuss in public.
It was gone 11 when I got home and it wasn't until the following morning that rest of the family saw it for the first time, the kids absolutely love 'the monster truck', even the missus thinks it's really nice which makes that 2 out of the hundreds of vehicles I've owned now that she likes.
I've owned it for nearly two weeks now and think it's fantastic, it's ugly but that's also it's beauty - a very underated vehicle except by them that know better.
I've a list of jobs and modifications as long as your arm, and they'll all be done in time for RRG 12.....