1975 vw camper van £5000 ono

Reluctant sale as we really need a bigger van….

She’s a 1975 vw camper. 12 months MOT with no advisories. Taxed until october 2010. Named Topsy, after the elephant that Thomas Eddison electrocuted in his efforts to prove his theories of electricity… 2 berth, but could easy be 4 (I have the poles for the hammocks that go in the pop-top, but no hammocks, though these could be easily bought or made), seats 6, all with seatbelts. Good family van, complete with 240v hook-up, a new leisure battery (which the interior lights run of), and an inverter for on the go charging of mobiles, laptops etc. She’s ready to go, complete with everything you need for a fun family summer holiday….

ENGINE & MECHANICAL
Standard 1600 petrol engine, recently serviced by a mechanic friend, has new points and plugs, fresh oil, timed and tuned…
Last summer she had a new clutch and handbrake.
Excellent runner, she’s my daily driver, no problems starting in winter. Cruises well at 65mph on the motorways, though we generally go between 50-55 mph for economy. Mpg is around 25-30, slightly less when fully loaded for camping. All the heat exchangers are present and she has new air intake hoses, so unlike some vans you actually get warm air out of the vents in the dashboard.

INTERIOR – CAB
Cab has two seats with 3 point seatbelts. Standard dashboard, I’ve also had the very useful underdash tray with cup holders put in that runs the full width of the van.. The cab interior roof is painted with flowers and elephants, though I do still have the headlining bars if you wanted to put that back in. All paintwork can be covered by the headlining. There is a black fitted carpet which has had very little use since we’ve owned the van as we take it out for camping as we also have the black fitted rubber mats underneath for ease of cleaning. All door cards and kickboards are covered in fire retardant cream material with a beige/brown hibiscus flower design on (nicer than it sounds!). Seats are upholstered with a green fire retardant material that has a gorgeous gold fleck in it. The cab doors and kickboards also have vintage tin signs on, which give the cab a funky retro feel. Topsy has two speakers in the front doors. There is a panasonic stereo fitted, that plays mp3’s/cd‘s, but if you wanted to save yourself £50 of the sale price I could put a retro vw cassette player back in. The aerial needs a new conector where it plugs into the radio, other than that they both work fine and boom quite nicely! Will include 8gb memory stick if you take the panasonic one, store loads of music or talking books for the lazy summer expeditions… The doors and the front of the van has been insulated with that silver bubbly thermawrap, excellent for keeping the van toasty in the winter. There are also some silver screens for the windows for reflecting/retaining heat and privacy when camping.

INTERIOR – REAR
The rear of the van, including the floor, is fully insulated with thermawrap. The floor in the rear is a very stylish black vinyl with sparkled flecks in, which looks fantastic and is very easy to keep clean. Just behind the driver and passenger seats are two rear facing seats with 3 point seatbelts. These are reclaimed vw golf seats that have a professionally welded sub frame, and are securely bolted to the cross beams of the chassis. Underneath the seats are storage cupboards. The rock and roll bed/bench seat is a ¾ one that works perfectly, it has 2 lap belts, and is very comfy to sleep on. Underneath there is a large storage area and also the fuse boxes for the leisure battery and 240v hook-up. There is 12v led lighting installed that runs from the leisure battery that use very little electric (we’ve camped for 5 days and they’ve stayed on all that time without running the leisure battery flat), 2 fitted 3 point plug sockets for 240v hook-up use, and 1 plug socket that runs from the inverter. There are 2 further speaker in kickboard of this seat. All seats and cupboards are covered in flame retardant material, dark green with flower patterns on, that compliment the cream/beige, sliding door and walls have the same material as the front door cards. Again there are lots of vintage retro metal signs for that fun factor feeling. In the drivers side rear facing seat cupboard there is a fully functional propex heater, professionally fitted with sound copper piping. This is probably the best addition I made to the van, as she is warm enough for a t-shirt even in the depths of winter (if you want to save your self £250, I will remove the propex heater). There is a large cupboard which houses the green two ring stove and grill, the gas bottle, and also all the plates, cups, cutlery, pot, pans, tea, coffee, and the obligatory whistling kettle. There are curtains for all the rear windows, made out of a fabulous white material with a large pink and green flower pattern on, also flame retardant. There are also net curtains for privacy, with a cool green sparkly star pattern on. The pop-top roof works fine and does not leak, and means you can comfortably stand up. The roof of the pop-top is decorated with original 1975 maps pasted to it, and the rear of the bed/bench seat has pages of an original 1975 motoring magazine featuring vw beetles and campers. All the decoration, materials, patterns and signs (quite a few collectable vw one’s, will remove all tin signs if you want to save yourself £25 of the final sale price) in the van make it have a very funky vintage retro feel, but aren’t too overpowering as the colours compliment each other nicely. The general theme is elephant, flowers and retro advertising.

INTERIOR – “BOOT”
In the boot the is the top part of the bed, the same curtains as the rear, and the overhead cupboard, roomy enough to store several sleeping bags in. The spare wheel/tyre in the boot is unused.

EXTERIOR & BODYWORK
The van is a medium to dark green colour, funked up with lots of flower stickers, as well as stars – these do remove easily with a hairdryer if they are not to your taste. However, she does get a “smile a mile”, and seems to cheer everyone up who sees her…Also, I have a contact who can respray the van for you for £300. She recently has had a new front passenger door step welded in, and a small amount of welding near the door (it’s a slightly different green in the photo’s). Generally, there are some rust patches coming through, as you would expect for a vehicle of this age, but there are no major areas that are concerning that I know of.

EXTRAS
With the van there are 4 decent sleeping bags, 4 camping chairs (2 with cup holders), 4 each of plastic plates, bowls and mugs. A frying pan, two camping aluminium pans, and the whistling kettle. Also cutlery for 4 people. There is a travel bbq that stows away easily, a bbq rack for toast, and 2 fire logs for chilly evenings round the bbq.
There are a few toys with the van, outdoor one’s include giant inflatable bowls, giant chess/draughts, giant baseball, regular baseball, a giant meter wide beachball, a giant frisbee, and a few spades for the seaside. There are a few wet weather toys, including travel connect 4, a travel compendium of games in it’s own vintage leather look brown case, and various top trump games. These all stow neatly in the cupboards under the rear facing seats.
There is a large drive away awning I will throw in with the van, though this does need about 12” of stitching where it meets the van (once you’ve fixed it, don’t go camping in 90 mph winds in scotland!). There is also a small 2 man tent for those late pitches when you can’t be bothered to put the awning up for the kids! Plus two camp beds, easliy stowed away behind the passenger seat, oh, and a parasol. (Knock £50 off the sale price if the extras are not wanted)

KNOWN FAULTS
The rev counter works intermittently, most probably an easily sorted loose connection somewhere.
Front passenger door sticks slightly, it just needs the latch adjusting.
There is a knack to closing the sliding door, but it does function as it’s meant to.

TERMS
Viewing welcome and recommended at a mutually convenient time. You’re welcome to a test drive providing you show proof of fully comp insurance.
No guarantee or warrantee given, stated or implied. Payment by cash or banker draft only, and must be paid during banking hours.

CONTACT

email: [email protected]
phone: 07507611367

Please get in touch if you have any questions, I will answer all honestly.

Many thanks – and Happy Camping!…..

She now has cute little eyelid/eyebrow headlight surrounds!

for pics just copy and paste into your browser

http://s281.photobucket.com/albums/kk225/topsy75/topsy%20van%20pics/