squareweave
Well-known member
Well if your like me you're always looking for a cool little part or rare VW while out and about. It's what make this hobby fun. I find tons of enjoyment in finding an old heap of a beetle and I find that it has a Hirshman red tip antenna to be had. I really like the fine details of an old car, wether it be a working am/fm radio or wicked patina that only mother nature can produce. Well a friend and I go on a parts hunting trip every year usually around January/February as thats the only time he can get away from his job. We were chatting the other day about where we may go this year when the topic came up that one year we should drive one of our bay campers. We always seem to have a hard time finding a clean decent place to stay some trips when cruising through small towns in rural areas. If we took our van on the trip we could crash at a rest area and carry on in the morning scouring for the next find.
Somehow our conversation morphed into finding a camper that we could buy together and drive on our trip. I remembered driving through a small town about 30kms from my house and seeing an unusual camper sitting in a driveway that was in really nice shape. We both have bay campers but something a bit different would be fun for the trip this year coming up. Soooooo we went for a drive. It took three trips to see the bus before we could find anybody home. I didn't want the neighbours to think I was staking out the place so I never really got to close to the bus. We finally spoke with the homeowner and asked if the bus was for sale (cold call
) he said it was his sons camper and he said that they had talked about selling it as he now drives a 90's BMW. My friend and the father exchanged numbers. The next morning my friend received a text from the son and he said that if we wanted to come take a look at the bus we could. He was given the bus from his grandma's friend in her will. It had been sitting in her garage and she had not used camping since approx. the mid 80's. He had the brakes done and drove it for a summer and then the fuel pump gave out and he parked it again for a few years. He had been stored inside again in his neighbours garage until they recently parked it in the driveway. Thats where we found it!
Now onto the bus. The bus was originally delivered to Vancouver BC Canada as a Montana Red walkthrough panel van. As with a lot of countries we had a company that was converting VW vans into camper vans. This bus was converted by Hanover Mfg in North Surrey B.C. when new in 1970. I actually work in Surrey so it was cool to be able to buy a local bus in such good shape with local provenance. The van received an exterior respray many years ago in the factory Montana red. The original owner really loved this van and back then OG paint probably wasn't the rage. The interior is all OG and the van still has the original striped awning with it. It is equipped with a sink (that works), cook top (that works) and a gas fridge that I am not sure how to start yet. The pop top canvas has no holes and the original owner has put tape on the inside of the pop top canvas where the mechanism touches the canvas to ensure that it doesn't wear on it. It has tons of storage, sleeps two below and has two cots up in the roof. It still has the original lino flooring and also the original laminate counter tops which are in really nice shape. The body looks to be real nice with a bit of wear and tear over the years. I was super stoked when I realized that it still has its original windscreen!!
I personally have only seen one other Hanover camper and it was a parts bus and in disrepair, there are a few others that I have seen online but I don't think they were complete
The plans I think are going to be to clean it up (it's going to get correct grey commercial caps), find and mechanical deficiencies and take'r on our trip next. After that we will decide on what we are going to do but we may have to end up selling it as both of us already have a few VW's
Anyways enough of the long winded intro here it is.
These pics are the day we brought it home last week just after a rinse.
Somehow our conversation morphed into finding a camper that we could buy together and drive on our trip. I remembered driving through a small town about 30kms from my house and seeing an unusual camper sitting in a driveway that was in really nice shape. We both have bay campers but something a bit different would be fun for the trip this year coming up. Soooooo we went for a drive. It took three trips to see the bus before we could find anybody home. I didn't want the neighbours to think I was staking out the place so I never really got to close to the bus. We finally spoke with the homeowner and asked if the bus was for sale (cold call
) he said it was his sons camper and he said that they had talked about selling it as he now drives a 90's BMW. My friend and the father exchanged numbers. The next morning my friend received a text from the son and he said that if we wanted to come take a look at the bus we could. He was given the bus from his grandma's friend in her will. It had been sitting in her garage and she had not used camping since approx. the mid 80's. He had the brakes done and drove it for a summer and then the fuel pump gave out and he parked it again for a few years. He had been stored inside again in his neighbours garage until they recently parked it in the driveway. Thats where we found it!Now onto the bus. The bus was originally delivered to Vancouver BC Canada as a Montana Red walkthrough panel van. As with a lot of countries we had a company that was converting VW vans into camper vans. This bus was converted by Hanover Mfg in North Surrey B.C. when new in 1970. I actually work in Surrey so it was cool to be able to buy a local bus in such good shape with local provenance. The van received an exterior respray many years ago in the factory Montana red. The original owner really loved this van and back then OG paint probably wasn't the rage. The interior is all OG and the van still has the original striped awning with it. It is equipped with a sink (that works), cook top (that works) and a gas fridge that I am not sure how to start yet. The pop top canvas has no holes and the original owner has put tape on the inside of the pop top canvas where the mechanism touches the canvas to ensure that it doesn't wear on it. It has tons of storage, sleeps two below and has two cots up in the roof. It still has the original lino flooring and also the original laminate counter tops which are in really nice shape. The body looks to be real nice with a bit of wear and tear over the years. I was super stoked when I realized that it still has its original windscreen!!
I personally have only seen one other Hanover camper and it was a parts bus and in disrepair, there are a few others that I have seen online but I don't think they were complete
The plans I think are going to be to clean it up (it's going to get correct grey commercial caps), find and mechanical deficiencies and take'r on our trip next. After that we will decide on what we are going to do but we may have to end up selling it as both of us already have a few VW's
Anyways enough of the long winded intro here it is.
These pics are the day we brought it home last week just after a rinse.
