Inspired by GlenAnderson's Noddy van build, I'm going to start a thread on what is a lifetime's ambition/obsession to sort my Commer van - it'll be a fair of waffle, as my van is one of my favourite subjects, but from reading other threads on this site, this seems to be the norm!
So, a brief resume...
Bought in 1995 from a chap who had it parked up on a farm near Swindon, it came complete with a small caravan, which served as his lounge, with cooking and sleeping done in the van. Following it back down the M4 to Bristol, I remember being incredibly excited at finally getting my hands on a proper van.
The princely sum of £300 was exchanged and I parked it up in a friend's driveway on Broadway Rd (just opposite the Young Ones house), where I lived in it for a few months (the neighbours must have been more than chuffed).
Kitted out with a full kitchen (ie LPG gas oven and sink with foot pump), plus a German woodburner, which I filled up and then discovered had a crack in the rear casting... looked like the van was on fire, as smoke poured out of every crack! Decided having a woodburner was too much of a mess/faff, so managed to sell to a local chap for £75, so making the van a £225 purchase - bargain!
Soon after, it was legally on the road and off to London to transport some friends to a Bad Religion gig - two went to the gig and the rest of us were just happy to drive around London until we picked them up after the gig, carefree times!
A trip to Amsterdam followed, with the diesel to oil use roughly 1:1 - I'd been warned by the previous owner that it drank a bit of oil, but still a surprise when I checked the dipstick and found no trace! But it made it there and back.
Shortly after this I decided to get the engine rebuilt, which was done by an interesting place just off St Marks Rd in Bristol by a Cypriot family who weren't worried about what they took on. At the back of their garage was an old coach, which they'd rebuilt in to a motorhome , with a fair few modifications, including a replacement windscreen courtesy of a local demolished Tesco. To say they were quirky was an understatement - a friend was having some work done to his old Ford transit coach van (the big back body/small bonnet type you used to see everywhere...) while sleeping in his van outside on the road and used to hear the many heated rows over the engine rebuild.
Over the years, I used it to go on booze pick ups from Calais, a trip to Benicassim Festival, holidays in Cornwall, Lake District and then a furniture delivery van for my new business.
Then the kids came along and a modern Iveco for the business and the van got parked up in various places around Bristol, with not much being done for the next 10 years.
Come 2020 and with the kids that bit older, I had it ready to list on ebay, with the draft ready to go live... but a bit of persuasion (it didn't take much) from those on the commervanfan site (very specialist!) and decided I really couldn't let it go.
So had it trailered from a patch of grass at the back of someone's house in Filton over to Tom Day in Keynsham to get the IP sorted out.
Then drove it (clutch a bit flaky and rust showering down from everywhere) for the first time in 10 years to another parking space, up near the works warehouse - unfortunately too tall to fit through the warehouse entrance. Couldn't resist a picture of the works' fleet though.
There it sat for another year or so, until I finally had time to start doing something with it the end of last year (few months after the agreed time limit for it being parked up).
So, a brief resume...
Bought in 1995 from a chap who had it parked up on a farm near Swindon, it came complete with a small caravan, which served as his lounge, with cooking and sleeping done in the van. Following it back down the M4 to Bristol, I remember being incredibly excited at finally getting my hands on a proper van.
The princely sum of £300 was exchanged and I parked it up in a friend's driveway on Broadway Rd (just opposite the Young Ones house), where I lived in it for a few months (the neighbours must have been more than chuffed).
Kitted out with a full kitchen (ie LPG gas oven and sink with foot pump), plus a German woodburner, which I filled up and then discovered had a crack in the rear casting... looked like the van was on fire, as smoke poured out of every crack! Decided having a woodburner was too much of a mess/faff, so managed to sell to a local chap for £75, so making the van a £225 purchase - bargain!
Soon after, it was legally on the road and off to London to transport some friends to a Bad Religion gig - two went to the gig and the rest of us were just happy to drive around London until we picked them up after the gig, carefree times!
A trip to Amsterdam followed, with the diesel to oil use roughly 1:1 - I'd been warned by the previous owner that it drank a bit of oil, but still a surprise when I checked the dipstick and found no trace! But it made it there and back.
Shortly after this I decided to get the engine rebuilt, which was done by an interesting place just off St Marks Rd in Bristol by a Cypriot family who weren't worried about what they took on. At the back of their garage was an old coach, which they'd rebuilt in to a motorhome , with a fair few modifications, including a replacement windscreen courtesy of a local demolished Tesco. To say they were quirky was an understatement - a friend was having some work done to his old Ford transit coach van (the big back body/small bonnet type you used to see everywhere...) while sleeping in his van outside on the road and used to hear the many heated rows over the engine rebuild.
Over the years, I used it to go on booze pick ups from Calais, a trip to Benicassim Festival, holidays in Cornwall, Lake District and then a furniture delivery van for my new business.
Then the kids came along and a modern Iveco for the business and the van got parked up in various places around Bristol, with not much being done for the next 10 years.
Come 2020 and with the kids that bit older, I had it ready to list on ebay, with the draft ready to go live... but a bit of persuasion (it didn't take much) from those on the commervanfan site (very specialist!) and decided I really couldn't let it go.
So had it trailered from a patch of grass at the back of someone's house in Filton over to Tom Day in Keynsham to get the IP sorted out.
Then drove it (clutch a bit flaky and rust showering down from everywhere) for the first time in 10 years to another parking space, up near the works warehouse - unfortunately too tall to fit through the warehouse entrance. Couldn't resist a picture of the works' fleet though.
There it sat for another year or so, until I finally had time to start doing something with it the end of last year (few months after the agreed time limit for it being parked up).
