Harry the microbus, a story in several parts....

[hotrodthug]

Hi Al!

So this is Harry, according to my log book a '71 microbus deluxe, according to his little M-Plate a '72 microbus deluxe who had a planned production date of '71 and according to his official registration date a '76 microbus deluxe. Way to pull your finger out and build a car VW Still, he was registered on my exact birth date in '76 so VW knew to hold on right?

So let's start at the begining....
A trip 3 years ago to Kent to see a camper that was in the posession of his owners brother who was fed up with his sister dragging her feet and took it off her hands to sell. Along comes me and the missus, we take a look and there's some obvious tin worm but I'd have called the man a liar if it were rust free and sub £9k. Right hand drive, check. Microbus interior, who cares but not what I wanted. New 1641 engine, check. Pretty straight and started first time, check. Rag top sunroof, not ideal but again who cares for that money. Dammit I wasn't driving half way down the country to turn around on a vehicle registered on my birthday... we bought him and called him Harry!

A trip up the M1 with barely any horses under the hood to get us up the slightest of inclines, the vaguest steering one can imagine and braking so slight I had to brake in Kent to stop at J40 of the M1 but wait, that's all campervans from stock so what the hell was I moaning at. I taught the missus the mantra of the air cooled owner "What's that noise, why is it doing that, am I breaking down" and told her if she wanted to be warmer to get out and walk in the cold rain. Six hours later we rolled onto our drive extatic that we owned our first VW together (to go with her Golf, Late Beetle and my '69 and '72 beetles)

Anyhoo, here he is when we got him, the story and progress shall continue...

 

[hotrodthug]

Damn.... playing with BusSelecta and flipping between a '71 and a '72 and my photos and Harry is more '72! His vents and his filler cap are definitely '72, did nobody pay attention building my bus? Was he the legendary Friday afternoon special that they forgot about (for a year)?

In other news/puzzlers, what does it mean when your bus' destination was "Deployment Forces"?

 

[sparkywig]

Bought by a member of another countries Armed Forces stationed in Germany, collected by the new owner from the factory.
I would imagine it was bought new in 1971 by a British serviceman, driven around Europe for a few years then imported into the UK in 1976.
It's a 1972 Model Year, so came off the production line between August 1971 and July 1972.

 

[hotrodthug]

Cheers @sparkywig! Much clearer

 

[matty74]

Great story already, reminds me of our first drive back from Exeter in 2015. We’ve come a long way since then and we’re loving it. Looking forward to reading your progress