Unfortunatly, economy in our household has improved about as well as the UK economy - infact its starting to look more like the Greek economy so how exactly do we buy one .... well of course we gamble our 2002 perfectly reliable, sensible, 6 seater family car on it! So with a (very) small budget we began the search for our own VW. We quickly realised that any ideas we had about a T2 split screen or even a bay were far out of our reach and narrowed down the search to a T25 and we wanted one with 6 seats - this was harder than we thought but then one day trawling ebay we found her. She was brown and a little sad looking and she was still a bus - all 8 seats still installed - no cupboards - no kitchen - no surfboard shaped table but there was something about her. We instantly saw the potential to do our own camper conversion and as long as she "went" what could go wrong?!
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| Velma - before the work started |
The ad stated "VW Caravelle with large awning, tow bar and cycle rack", "Will carry 8 people in comfort", "Drives great", "Seats go down to a bed", "All tyres OK", "Seats could do with a clean". Sounded perfect - mucky seats? so what, no problem - so we bid...and won. And this is where the fun started.....She wasn't taxed so we asked the seller to tax it for us but they said they couldn't - being slightly suspicious we questioned how she ran and our response was the VW was driveable and roadworthy, nothing wrong with it. Being the trusting people we are we went ahead and arranged insurance so we could tax it at the time of collection and then drive her home. Collection day came and off we set - it was about an hour away and when we arrived we were forced to reflect upon the ad:
"VW Caravelle with large awning, tow bar and cycle rack" - Who knows whether the awning even stood up it was just dumped in the vehicle, was smelly with signs of mould, the bike rack was ancient and rusted and most importantly the tow bar had no electrics wired up.
"All tyres OK" - OK, OK!!! 3 out of four were completely illeagal and the fourth was questionable. One of them was so bad it was like a baby's bottom on the edges.
"Seats could do with a clean" - you're not kidding! Only one word can describe them "Minging!"
and finally, "drives great".... hubby did all the engine checking and it seemed not too bad - it was clear that the exhaust needed some work and there was a very small water leak, he was suspicious of this and wasn't convinced she'd make it home. Maybe we should have walked away, I don't know, it was clear she'd already charmed us and we were probably looking through rose tinted specs, but after some negotiation, and bringing the sale price down (afterall we now had to buy new tyres) we bought her, taxed her and set off....
.......we made it 4 miles and she dumped her water - we weren't surprised how could we be? We attempted roadside temporary repair, just to get her home but alas she only made it about another 6 miles and we resigned to the fact that we needed the fourth emergency service and called the men in yellow out. The hours we spent waiting for break-down actually turned into fun - we bonded with her, the kids climbed all over the smelly seats, I had a go in the drivers seat and we looked in all the nooks and crannies - we found a selection of tapes (yes! cassettes like off of the 80's) - although the tape player doesn't work and it was during this time we confirmed and christened our new addition, Velma Dub - or just Velma for short.
We finally arrived home late into the evening with our beloved bus on a AA recovery truck - she still had enough energy to be driven onto the drive, so with two very hungry and tired 5 year olds and two even hungrier and tired grown ups we said goodnight.
So today has been the first day of work and in one day we've cleaned and scrubbed and she now smells as fresh as a daisy. The mechanical problem (which we are hoping is just a thermostat replacement - watch this space regarding this) will be worked on during the week. We've removed the middle row of seats ready for conversion and even she looks happier.
Some might say we've bitten off more than we can chew but we'll not give up on her....Velma will ride again!
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| Nice and shiny after a good wash |
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| After an attack with the vax uphostry cleaner - those seats are fit for a queen now! |
She's so pretty!!!!!! I love her!
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