He had big plans for that Bug, but sadly he had to sell it in order to get a step up on the property ladder. It would be another thirty years before he finally bought his van. He is still a big fan of classic buses, but with two kids to ferry about, he decided a Split Screen bus wasn’t for him. His wife, Kirsty, simply said ‘whatever you do don’t buy a white van’, and taking that as the go-ahead, Robin started looking for the ‘full, perfect camper conversion’. But search as hard as he did, he couldn’t find the right one, and so changed his search parameters to a more basic van, one which he could then fit out as he wanted.
And then along came a 2010, T5.1, a T26 with the 1.9 litre engine and completely standard. It was a painter and decorator’s panel van, with side windows and had a full-width bed fitted. As Kirsty pointed out when he took it home, it was also white… Despite this awkward introduction, Robin was sure that she would love the van by the time it was complete.
The first things done were what Robin refers to as. ‘typical newbie stuff’: he got a lei, made a surfboard table for the rear of the van, and dropped it 40mm. There was then a discussion about the roof. Kirsty wanted a pop-top, but Robin wasn’t keen. ‘In my defence' he says, ‘a roof wasn’t a pre-purchase stipulation—and we all know how I paid attention to the purchasing rules!’ The very effective compromise was no pop-top, but a transformation of the interior of the roof, which is now a photo diary of the family’s travelling and VW trips and it looks great.
This story is from the Issue 99 edition of VW Bus T4&5+.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the Issue 99 edition of VW Bus T4&5+.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
The Evolution of Van
To mark 100 issues of VWBus, David takes a look back at how updating the humble ‘Box on Wheels’ has gone from concept to reality
Wild Times
Perhaps a sign of the wild times we’re in and a telling sign of how fast we’re adapting to the ‘new normal’. I decide to take a U-turn and zoom out on how things looked as that ‘new normal’ was taking hold, along with how that’s effecting our little sector
Story's Story
With The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden under our belts and barely two weeks on the road, we were heading to the ultimate van life destination; Norway…
Karmann-Go
When you own ‘The fastest motorhome in the world’,getting to the campsite on time shouldn’t be a problem
Gran Tourettesmo
This is a very cool and interesting project, but the question is,is this the ultimate eBay build?
CBBA
If there was such a thing as Cool Bus Builders Anonymous, then each meet in Leicestershire would start with the words. “Hello, my name’s Andy Stretton and I can’t stop building seriously cool buses.”
Honey I Shrunk My Bus
When Grant Gwyn walked into a VW dealership to buy a Viper green Caddy, little did he know his future was about to be very orange...
Milk Float Influence
Nicknamed Ernie, we discover this custom-created T5 pickup won’t be doing the early morning milk round any time soon
Impossible Solved
A while back we brought you a basic sketch of a proposed project, it was both wild and eminently practical. Well it’s finished now and already in service as a daily driver for a very special lad
An Alpine Summer
In the concluding instalment we pick up Richard and Jackie Pickles’ story of their eight-country Alpine summer adventure on the shore of Lake Como in Italy
