The sump was ½in off the road and it moved up, down and from side to side. I had a Bedford HA, Renault 4s, Morris Marina vans and an Ital version that I fitted with hydraulic suspension. Among these were various commercials the bug was in me. Having been handed the keys to my brother’s Hillman Hunter after passing my test, I kept it for more than 10 years while other classics came and went. Just one panel that needed filling and sanding down. But it was that suspension that made mum feel sick and so he had to sell it. Many a time I spent lying on the floor between the bunks looking upwards as the van just rocked gently over the bumps, and the odd occasion when the narrow front track got stuck in road undulations and thumped hard. Part of this was due to the fact that we lived in Rugby until 1977, so the factory at Ryton-on-Dunsmore was always a special place to us all, as was Coventry.īefore my 16th birthday in 1988, the previous handful of years was really the ‘Rootes period’ and, among the vehicles I remember were several Commer PB camper vans which dad owned. Sure, other cars came and went, but it was always the ‘Arrow’ series of cars that both my dad and brother often returned to. Having had a family which, since the 1970s, stuck with cars from the Rootes family, it was probably always natural that I would follow in these foRootes Groupotsteps once I was old enough to drive. But how many of us feel the same way about our past cars and commercials? Have you ever shed a tear when you watched your beloved classic drive off with another owner or, heaven forbid, on a banger truck? This is the story of just one of my past loves, and how I restored it on a budget. 1979 Dodge Spacevan: The Dodge as bought from Keith Maunder and at the ‘restore or scrap’ stage.Īre we a sad lot or what? It’s bad enough when we lose a loved one and even though time passes, you understandably never forget.
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