Tia was purchased in November 2007. She is a Volkswagen Type 25. Mum and Dad had wanted to get a Bay but their pockets wouldn't stretch to getting a decent one. So instead they bought this metal vented aircooled van which is an early example.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As soon as we got her, mum set to making new curtains and Grandad helped to recover the seats.

The fridge was dead, so we got a new one through a friend. It was much bigger than the old one so 'the parents' set about making space for it, but retaining the original sink unit and cooker.

They've also recovered the side walls and door cards because the original material was missing and had been replaced by a nasty shade of brown paint. Hopefully we can one day source the proper material to replace all of this. The floor has been done in laminate too, much easier than carpet with us children about!

 

 

 

She's cost a bit of money so far because the front nearside brake caliper siezed. So off Dad went and got two new shiny calipers for the front because when dad checked the other side wasn't working either. He fitted them both and we thought we were back on the road .....

We had a smell of petrol and someone on a forum called Club 80-90 suggested that we check the fuel line. It was mostly missing, but the bits that were there were completely perished, so dad replaced the whole lot. Whilst doing this he found that the offside front anti rollbar link arm had sheared off and looked like it had been that way for a long time, so he has replaced that - with a few naughty words!

Dad has replaced the starter motor because it was 'ticking' when trying to start her up and (touch wood) it seems to have solved that problem.

We found a lovely man called Leon at Concept Poptops in Poole who made a new canvas roof for her. The one shown is of the old roof, the new one is much much nicer. Mum and dad have also removed the head lining as it was very damp and if there were any mould spores in the material and I breathed them in I could become poorly. So mum went off to Zebedee fabrics in Southbourne near Bournemouth and bought some headlining. Their automotive fabrics are very cheap (compared with others on the internet) and good quality, they are worth a look if you are needing anything. They have an ebay shop as well as their premises in Southbourne.

We also got a roof bar made for her. This was something else that was missing when we bought her. We also found that where it had been taken off and the holes not filled up that water had got into the wood inside of the fibreglass which had rotted. So this was all stripped out and replaced.

 

Dad replaced the push rod seals on her. We had been told that these had been done before we bought her, but they were leaking badly, so dad did them properly including replaces some of the pushrods and tubes! He also put a working thermostat in her because the wire on the old one had been cut.

It's MOT time soon, so she's off to a local man next week to have both front wheel arches sorted out. Dad's also got to look at the handbrake because that was an advisory note on the last MOT. We uncovered some nasties when we took out the floor and the units to make the welders life a bit easier - a huge hole under the units in the floor and the B Pillars had rotted out. All was fixed and after a few bits more welding which the MOT tester found, she was given a years ticket.

We've been out having fun camping in her - I love it!

During 2008 we took the old girl to a VW Show called VanWest which was held down in Yeovil, it's moving to a new site this year so I don't expect we will go. We also went to a couple of meets through different clubs and have met some really lovely people on our travels. They say you can chose your friends but not your family - how true is that saying!

We went to France in the summer holidays and spent a glorious 10 days in the Loire Valley staying at a lovely little site called Camping De La Touche. We all had a fabulous time and did about 2000 miles whilst over there. The van ran incredibly well and didn't miss a beat. The only problem we encountered was that the heater channel came away underneath and started to flap around - a bit of string soon fixed that problem.

On our return to England we came home for a few days and then set off for a weekend camping in Devon. Tragedy struck on our way home. A girl pulled out infront of us without looking to see what was coming from her right. Poor old Tia suffered front end damage along with a nasty scrape down the passengers side where Dad had swerved to avoid the girl and had hit a temporary road sign.

The insurance company wanted to write the van off, but mum knew how much I love her. After she had explained things it was agreed that we could have her repaired up to the Agreed Value we had set.

After weeks of trying to find a restorer, we found someone local who was willing to take the job on. It took quite a while to source the parts because some are obsolete, but we got there in the end. We had to fund some of the repairs ourself which were uncovered when the accident damage was being fixed, but we got there in the end. The end product is amazing and I am so proud of my wonderful shiney Tia the T25. Mum has yet again changed the curtains and seat covers, she will add a picture when she has finished. Mum and Dad have als sourced lots of original parts which were either missing or were wrong. We're still trying to find an original double bed cover for in the Viking Roof.

We're all very much looking forward to the 2009 camping season as we missed out on so much we had planned last year because of the accident.

Pictures of the new Viking Roof canvas made by Leon and of Tia now in all her glory.