Winnie - Our 1970 Bay

[matty74]

We have sold our rental house where Winnie currently lives … retirement is on the horizon and we’re planning our forever home with garage etc to accommodate her there, Winnie not the Wife btw [emoji1787].

Anyway, we’ve owned the house 5 years and spent very little time there at all as we had a tenant in for the majority of the time. I have used the garage a lot and chucked some stuff above the rafters from our house, so have started to have a clear out.

I noticed a dusty plank in the far corner, obviously been there for years (well before our time of ownership), it looked familiar, then on inspection found it to be this

The panel from under the bed … what a coincidence [emoji3]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[gninnam]

Result

 

[matty74]

Seasons greetings folks, Quite a lot happened since last the update in May.

We had a fantastic 18 day trip around the top of Scotland, NC500 - Ferry from Ullapool, 3 Days on Lewis / Harris, then down to Skye, Fort William Loch Doon etc. We covered nearly 1800 miles without a single problem.

We then went to Tribfest in Driffield, Winnie was sporting a new screen cover, which I have to say is so much better than the last one.

Times were changing, our rental property sold to the 2nd viewer and our house sold to the 1st viewer so we needed to find a new home for Winnie as she was garaged at the rental and also ourselves.

I then got the nod for voluntary redundancy allowing me to bring retirement forward by a few years, so I was able to finish work at the end of September.

This coincided with the completion on our new home (circa 1651) in Llanasa Wales (beautiful village)

The garage (ahem) 8ft x 6ft 6” Up and over with a sloping front to back roof [emoji85]that was never gonna work.

But I had a plan [emoji6]

Winnie’s all tucked up … the house is full of boxes, the wife retires tomorrow and life couldn’t be better.

Bring on 2022 and as many days out as Monty and Mike [emoji106][emoji1787][emoji6]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Coda]

Great post. You two are way too young to retire! Envious!

 

[matty74]

Great post. You two are way too young to retire! Envious!

We are … but the last 2 years have highlighted that life’s too short, so we’re giving it a go [emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Coda]

Agreed, and good luck!

 

[gagvanman]

Good for you. I managed to retire early a couple of years ago aged 63, life is good with a VW bus...

 

[gvee]

Congratulations!

 

[mike202]

Great pics and well done for getting your bus in the garage!
No more trips for me at the moment, it’s too cold! Looking forward to the spring and getting out again in the new year. [emoji3]


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Ben72Bay]

seems like you guys are having a great time!
Do you have that roof rack just as somewhere to put stuff from inside the bus when parked up?

 

[matty74]

Thanks Ben, last years Scotland jaunt underlined that we want to do more longer trips away, we enjoyed it so much.

Roof rack depends on the trip really, used it a lot around Scotland (camping table, chairs, pop up tent etc) especially when doing our wild camping nights.

We have the cab hammock for piling stuff up inside and loads of space if we raise the roof. I just chuck the spare under the van.

If we’re taking the drive away awning I usually put that up there dependent on how much stuff we’re taking, we’ve been getting better at taking just what we need too [emoji106]

It’s easy to remove, having said that it’s not been off in 5 years


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[melvyndoo]

Hi all,

It all started for us in late January 2015, we’d been looking for ages for an early bay and saw one on Ebay that was the right price for us. We knew already that we were planning to go the whole hog on the restoration, so just needed a blank canvas that was solid enough. Winnie (previous owners naming) had been off the road since October the previous year so a few bits and pieces needed sorting prior to us collecting her from Exeter Airport in late February 2015.

Having never driven a bus , paid our deposit and wife full of a cold ... we flew down to Exeter Airport from Manchester to go pick her up from Simon and Amanda who'd kindly driven her up from Devon. When she arrived, she was clearly in a tired state but we instantly fell in love and knew we'd done the right thing.

The drive home was Baltic to say the least ... with no heat exchangers we had to resort to service station blankets ... but at least the 5 hours home gave us time to make our plans to restore this old girl to her former glory.

And so it begins ...

Looking good Dave

 

[leon]

Great thread and lovely bus. Congrats on retirement.

 

[matty74]

Had our first run out this year, down to Beaumaris for a picnic as we had the outlaws down for wife’s birthday.
It was great to get her out as she’s been neglected a bit with all the jobs that’s been going on at the house since our move … Winnie, not the wife of course

She’ll be out a lot more once we’ve reduced our fleet of cars and I’m using her as my daily around North Wales

Frankie was made up to be back on the road again as the picture clearly illustrates

 

[gninnam]

Top pictures and glad you are living the dream

 

[matty74]

Winnie was invited to a Jubilee garden party on Friday so it was only fair that she got dressed up for the occasion.

Surprisingly the bunting stayed in place on the journey there and back as did Frankie’s bow tie

 

[mike202]

Love Frankies bow tie

 

[matty74]

We’re on our annual trip to Tribfest at Sledmere house near Driffield for the weekend. Slightly longer drive than previously, now from North Wales via Chorley (to drop off the pets at the outlaws) but we had a great run all the way.



Oil and valve lash was done before the trip along with a carb & timing tweak now that she’s running high octane. Got up Garrowby hill no problem and the matching new boots on the front make the speedo as accurate as it’s ever gonna be. Nexen CT8 195/70/15 all round now, great tyres

 

[Journey]

Oil and valve lash was done before the trip along with a carb & timing tweak now that she’s running high octane. Got up Garrowby hill no problem and the matching new boots on the front make the speedo as accurate as it’s ever gonna be. Nexen CT8 195/70/15 all round now, great tyres

That sounds fantastic. Nice pics.

 

[matty74]

We promised ourselves a few more trips before winter, so after a long weekend near Nefyn last month we’re now down near Machynlleth on a lovely site near Pennal.

Been down to Aberystwyth and Aberaeron today, van’s running fab, joy to drive.

We’re really enjoying our new retirement life in Wales such a beautiful country