The Classic Camper-van
How did we get here?
Following along from the last post, the “What do we do now?” question precipitated a discussion quite out of the blue about dreams Derek had been holding close to his chest about buying a Camper-van. A dream that had been shot down in flames by his then wife, a dream he had been thinking about sporadically since 1996. A dream that would take almost 27 years to become a reality. A dream he only admitted to having in 2022. We had been together at that point for about 6 years. The exact discussion has been lost to the annals of time and stroke damage, but the main idea remains. We were both wholeheartedly on board with the idea.
So we started looking for a suitable camper-van. Our budget was prohibitively small, given that Derek was working at the time at a little biker dive bar that ran and continues to run on mercy and goodwill alone. Georgina worked on a consultative basis for short term projects. Our budget was anaemic at best. Both of us prefer the more classic aged vehicles. The rationale being a) the cost of upkeep, b) being able to fix any issues out in the boonies without ending up severely stranded. Things break. Both of us are more or less au fait with how the internal combustion engine works and can read a repair manual without breaking out in hives.
Months of searching yielded 2 great options. The first was a large v6 powered VW Autovilla that had been gutted (all the bits and bobs for the interior at that point were apparently in storage somewhere), reskinned and rebuilt but not completed. It had space for a kitchen, bathroom, shower and reasonable space for sleeping and working. Problem? It smelled quite badly of rat droppings, the upholstery was in tatters, the aluminium skin was starting to pull apart, there were no roof vents, didn’t have a towing hitch installed and the floor had wood rot... The rebuild time would have sat in the 6 month range just to get it into a working condition, not to mention just how much we would need to spend to fix the rot. BUT it had one really big plus. It was fully licensed and that license was up to date. Side note, when we went to have a look at the camper, they couldn’t start it for us. So, we didn’t really know if there were mechanical issues with the engine or gearbox.
The second was in running condition, a little bit smaller (which frankly makes it easier to drive) and didn’t really have an indoor shower. The pictures looked reasonably good. Everything was in working order as far as we could see, aside from the truly dreadful 1980’s colour scheme. Biggest down side for this one? The license was behind... by a lot. Mother in Law came to visit and we hitched a ride back to Gauteng with her since the second Autovilla was in a completely different province.
And then things st#arted going a bit awry, wrangling finances out of fresh air and then a hospitalisation and emergency surgery had our plans ground to a halt. Scheduling a visit to see the camper took more than 3 weeks, since one of us was in the hospital and the new owner of the camper was working weird hours.
Finally we made it to a dust pan town in the middle of nowhere near Thabazimbi. As it stood there in the sweltering heat we were confronted with a choice. Take the 1982 VW Autovilla with the ford V6 conversion, as is. Or focus on the one closer to home. We took it for a short test(as it turned out too short) drive. Everything seemed to be working as it was supposed to. So we made the transfer to Maurice and the camper was ours. Our adventure had started, we were so very excited. Oh sweet summer child....
