How long have you owned your current bus?

[KevH]

Had mine 7 or 8 years and only been off the road for around 6 months while i did a quick resto. Apart from the paint ive done it all myself on a rolling resto/improvement.

I suppose im bucking the annoying trend as mines been featured twice and its still not for sale.

Woohoo...good for you Clyde . I have a few back copies of C&B which came with my bus; which issue are you in?

 

[gninnam]

Think I have had mine about 8 years and many a time I have been tempted to sell but still plodding on with the resto (will it ever end....)
It's great when you hear of peeps who have had the van for 10 years plus - thats true dedication :mrgreen:

 

[ebby]

going on 4 months now, it's been a testing 4 months but early issues are being ironed out...really can't wait for next srping now!!

 

[Tofufi]

Bought mine more than 6 years ago

Been on the road for more than 5 years, as my everyday(ish) vehicle.

 

[KateLovesPurple]

Trailered it home 9 years and 2 days ago and put it on the road 4 years later! 5 years later and I still haven't finished the interior, but I should have the interior ready to camp in very soon now, maybe before the end of the year!

 

[Trikky2]

Bought my Dormy in 1973 (when I was but a youngster with hair) :lol:

 

[K@rlos]

Had mine 5 years December. Should be how I want it by next summer and I will NEVER sell it

 

[67westy]

Had ours about 2 and a half years now. No intention of selling it yet, especially as it's only just been restored was off the road for about 5 months earlier this year.

 

[KevH]

Bought my Dormy in 1973 (when I was but a youngster with hair) :lol:

This will take some beating. Now I understand how you know so much. :lol:

 

[Trikky2]

Bought my Dormy in 1973 (when I was but a youngster with hair) :lol:

This will take some beating. Now I understand how you know so much. :lol:

I worked for VW :lol:

 

[RichardAlexander]

Bought my Dormy in 1973 (when I was but a youngster with hair) :lol:

This will take some beating. Now I understand how you know so much. :lol:

I worked for VW :lol:

BIG UP TO TRICKY a 39 year old bus with one owner thats love

had mine 8 months don't think i will ever sell, i think the grandson has dibbs on it anyway (hes 4) and always asked if he can help fix it "cos its rusty isn't it granddad" "no its just old"

can now understand the wife's fixation on inanimate objects

 

[tomedwar72]

Had mine since October 2010, here it is when I saw it parked up locally with a for-sale sign:

Here it is 2 years later with front end near the end of my diy "rattle can resto". New screen bulge, lower front inner and outer, new arches & tubs. Now for the back end :roll:

After all the work I think I'd sell a kidney first. At least I got a few months driving around in it before work started!

 

[RICH-I-AM]

Four years and two months.
Nearly finnished :mrgreen:

Nice one Tricky 8)

Rich

 

[type2tattoo]

No one can beat Tricky but I have had mine 23 years Got her for a days work in October 1989 (£50) went through 3 or 4 engines and had a fire in 1996 then she was off the road for 13 years 3 years restoring her from a wreck and now she sits on my drive watching TV through the lounge window.

I drove her while pregnant with my youngest and even considered giving birth in the back lol Youngest is learning to drive now and wants her Its pretty cool to drive the vehicle you were in before you were born

 

[gninnam]

No one can beat Tricky but I have had mine 23 years Got her for a days work in October 1989 (£50) went through 3 or 4 engines and had a fire in 1996 then she was off the road for 13 years 3 years restoring her from a wreck and now she sits on my drive watching TV through the lounge window.

I drove her while pregnant with my youngest and even considered giving birth in the back lol Youngest is learning to drive now and wants her Its pretty cool to drive the vehicle you were in before you were born

Great story

 

[Trikky2]

No one can beat Tricky but I have had mine 23 years Got her for a days work in October 1989 (£50) went through 3 or 4 engines and had a fire in 1996 then she was off the road for 13 years 3 years restoring her from a wreck and now she sits on my drive watching TV through the lounge window.

I drove her while pregnant with my youngest and even considered giving birth in the back lol Youngest is learning to drive now and wants her Its pretty cool to drive the vehicle you were in before you were born

Great story

Yes agreed - a great story - I do enjoy reading these.

Theres a lot of good stories on this thread.

 

[Trikky2]

Thanks for the kind comments.

In view of some of the comments I will add some more detail;

I have had a lot of other vehicles in the intervening years including exotics like Porsche, Morgan, 1934 Wolsley, Healey 3000, jag mk2, Etype etc. and I even kept a 1938 Citroen for 18 years before finally selling it about 6 years back - but the bus is the only one that just never got sold. I think it was because it was so useful and i never found anything I liked better.

The first time I drove a bay was when I borrowed one from work, it was a mini bus with about 1500 miles on it. I drove it from south London to the south coast and back along roads I knew well and I was amazed how much nicer everything looked compared to driving my sports car (that had you looking up at dandelions on the verge). I thought to myself "I gotta get me one of these"....


For the first 6 years of ownership it was my everyday transport and I drove it to work each day. I remember in the heatwave of 1976, each drive home after work was an adventure because with the heat it would sink down into the tarmac and by 6 pm it had set again making pulling away from rest "difficult" and the racket of driving down the road with chunks of road surface stuck to the tyres was alarming.

At the end of the seventies I got a company car after which the bus got used only for leisure (holidays, family outings, picknics etc. and for carrying stuff that wouldnt fit in a car like a bunch of paving slabs that had the suspension flat on the bump stops one time.

On the rare occasions I took it to work I several times got asked "What are you driving that old thing for - dont we pay you enough?" and occasionally "If you must drive that thing, at least have the decency to park it out the back" :lol:

My kids grew up with it, though that was a close call at one point because, once they were no longer babies, space got tight and I nearly bought a new transit based Autosleeper coachbuilt to replace it. Fitting a "Super Viking" elevating roof in the early eighties solved the issue.

When I moved to France at the end of the 80's I took it with me, despite the steering wheel being on the wrong side, because it had virtually no value by that time.

For ten years it then served as a mini bus during the season (I had a campsite) doing various runs and wine tasting tours, when there were not enough clients to fill a rented coach; plus it still served for holidays - though these were now in winter time - brr.

Its darkest period was when, after selling the site, it served as a works/light building van which rather wrecked the upholstery. So at the end of the 90's it was treated to new upholstery and a total strip down and re spray in original pastel white was done at the same time; because the paint had gone so flat that when washing it it seemed like watered down milk was running down the gutters - and the mrs was not a fan of the faded look. :lol:

Its now done 140,000 miles and, having been wax injected and maintained by a borderline OCD owner, it has never needed any welding and is about as close as you can get to "as new" without doing a full concourse level resto. I have all the history and receipts going right back to the original delivery note from VW to the Dormobile works.

We still regularly go away in the bus. For instance we did a 3 week tour right round Spain and Portugal and the year before we went through Italy down as far as Naples - but I have to admit that getting older I now do eye up up some of the modern large van based conversions that offer much higher levels of comfort and space.

 

[68_early_bay]

Thanks for the kind comments.

In view of some of the comments I will add some more detail;

I have had a lot of other vehicles in the intervening years including exotics like Porsche, Morgan, 1934 Wolsley, Healey 3000, jag mk2, Etype etc. and I even kept a 1938 Citroen for 18 years before finally selling it about 6 years back - but the bus is the only one that just never got sold. I think it was because it was so useful and i never found anything I liked better.

The first time I drove a bay was when I borrowed one from work, it was a mini bus with about 1500 miles on it. I drove it from south London to the south coast and back along roads I knew well and I was amazed how much nicer everything looked compared to driving my sports car (that had you looking up at dandelions on the verge). I thought to myself "I gotta get me one of these"....


For the first 6 years of ownership it was my everyday transport and I drove it to work each day. I remember in the heatwave of 1976, each drive home after work was an adventure because with the heat it would sink down into the tarmac and by 6 pm it had set again making pulling away from rest "difficult" and the racket of driving down the road with chunks of road surface stuck to the tyres was alarming.

At the end of the seventies I got a company car after which the bus got used only for leisure (holidays, family outings, picknics etc. and for carrying stuff that wouldnt fit in a car like a bunch of paving slabs that had the suspension flat on the bump stops one time.

On the rare occasions I took it to work I several times got asked "What are you driving that old thing for - dont we pay you enough?" and occasionally "If you must drive that thing, at least have the decency to park it out the back" :lol:

My kids grew up with it, though that was a close call at one point because, once they were no longer babies, space got tight and I nearly bought a new transit based Autosleeper coachbuilt to replace it. Fitting a "Super Viking" elevating roof in the early eighties solved the issue.

When I moved to France at the end of the 80's I took it with me, despite the steering wheel being on the wrong side, because it had virtually no value by that time.

For ten years it then served as a mini bus during the season (I had a campsite) doing various runs and wine tasting tours, when there were not enough clients to fill a rented coach; plus it still served for holidays - though these were now in winter time - brr.

Its darkest period was when, after selling the site, it served as a works/light building van which rather wrecked the upholstery. So at the end of the 90's it was treated to new upholstery and a total strip down and re spray in original pastel white was done at the same time; because the paint had gone so flat that when washing it it seemed like watered down milk was running down the gutters - and the mrs was not a fan of the faded look. :lol:

Its now done 140,000 miles and, having been wax injected and maintained by a borderline OCD owner, it has never needed any welding and is about as close as you can get to "as new" without doing a full concourse level resto. I have all the history and receipts going right back to the original delivery note from VW to the Dormobile works.

We still regularly go away in the bus. For instance we did a 3 week tour right round Spain and Portugal and the year before we went through Italy down as far as Naples - but I have to admit that getting older I now do eye up up some of the modern large van based conversions that offer much higher levels of comfort and space.

8) 8) 8)

 

[gninnam]

Yet another great tale Trikky. thanks for sharing.

 

[gninnam]

Yet another great tale Trikky. thanks for sharing.