Cris bought the bus as an imported but not registered rolling project about 10 years ago from a friend who he'd known for many years, he was selling it 'in lieu of debt'. Cris did the usual total resto, registered it and used it for 4 years. The van became the club's camp centre at many shows.
Snag was the friend turned out to be a total shark and had no right to sell it and Cris had to hand it to the rightful owner. Cris, at this point, vowed that one day he'd get it back.
He missed out on it twice after that, each time it was too expensive for the condition and each time it looked a little worse. It was last seen on the South Coast looking very sad.
Then it was found by rickyday33 and brought to Cris' attention by Dannyboy, one of his customers.
At this point we decided that we had to give it a serious go at getting it back. Cris rounded up a budget and we kept an eye on the Salvage website and on the various VW forums - hoping that most people would be put off by the pictures.
On the day there were about 3 other bidders and we let them battle it out. It went above Cris' limit but not above mine so I stuck my hand up and we got it.
At £4500 plus commission it's expensive for a damaged bus but Cris has been collecting parts for it since he lost it, has the facilities to repair it and has the personal tie to it so we weren't going to lose it this time. More importantly he had the wife's permission!
