My van history Part 1

After previously owning three T4’s, the first was bought off eBay unseen as a shell without an engine not a recommended way but they were so far out of my price range budget dictated it, I had sourced a caddy 1.9 engine and fitted it with my dad within a week and got myself on the road.

It was great having a van to climb into after a surf and soon forgot all about those times with hands and feet so numb changing was not an option and having to resort to driving home in my wetsuit. It lasted a few weeks as a van until my first attempt at a day van build, in the back I built an L shape bed that pulled out to a large double bed this had storage space below for all my surfboards and wet gear and a small worktop opposite with a sink and a portable stove.

I had a great time in this van and it went out in style on a surf trip to Spain / Portugal the timing belt slipped and the engine blew on the longest bridge in Europe obviously not having any breakdown cover etc.. We had to leave the van and make the long trip back via buses. A great trip with good waves but a bit of a shame about the van.

This obviously put a little hole in the budget and meant vans were going to have to wait a while. Until I spotted the next van in line a lwb twin slider with high mileage and a little rough around the edges but I saw it’s potential and snapped it up. Again this van did not last long until I started fiddling with it. First I thought it couldn’t be to hard to fit windows, so bought two genuine side windows from VW cut the holes and bonded them is such an easy task with great results inside an out. Then a set of wheels cropped up, a bit of filler and some paint and they looked okay and suited the 50mm drop nicely.

This was my first experience of the lwb model and it is surprising just how much extra space you gain over the swb, which meant I had a lot more room to build in the back. Again I utilised my space under the seat / pull out bed for all my surfboard storage and also lesson learnt from the previous van that storage space was valuable so I put as many cupboards and storage spaces in as I could.

I then sold this van on to its happy new owner and replaced it with a bike.