Buying a Vintage Campervan.

My first post on my new look journal and it couldn’t be any better than sharing about a dream come true. I’d like to officially introduce you all to Hetty, our new (but rather old) 1990 Hymermobil motorhome.

For quite some time now I’ve harbored a dream of setting off on adventures with my little family, all packed up in our own vintage van. Perhaps it’s the nostalgic, rose tinted memories of the VW T2 we had when I was a child and the wonderful holidays in France…

Having spent months and months scrolling through Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, Gumtree, AutoTrader, looking for “the one”, bedtime stories with my girls would often turn into group sessions perusing layouts, features, accessories and following leads on new hopeful contenders, my dream became their dream too. My eldest, Nancy, made a camper van from Duplo last year (using all the best parts) and refused to take it apart until we had found the van that would be ours! Stu was less convinced, being the practical minded one in our relationship.

I could probably describe every 1987 - 93 Hymer for sale in the UK right now (my target era for the older body shape I wanted, along with some other details), the pros, cons…I definitely made myself a little mad, looking for something that ticked all the boxes, doing my research via the amazing Hymer owners groups on Facebook, such as Classic Hymers - I was trying to learn as much as I could, so I didn’t make a mistake once I was ready to buy.

I was not the first in line to buy our Hymer, but I basically gave the seller no choice other than to sell to me!

Imported from Europe back in 2001, the van’s first UK home was Cornwall, it then went to live up country, but was brought back to Cornwall by the previous owners. After several years they moved to Essex, taking the van with them, it seemed only right that it should become ours and come home to its adoptive home county.

So, a few weekends ago Stu and I set off on a very long, hot and tiring journey to make my dream a reality.

Cornwall to London to Colchester to Kelvedon via train, where we were met by the van’s current owner. I had previously spoken with the seller via facetime, where he had kindly taken the time to give me an in-depth tour, run down of many of the details, he even crawled underneath to show me what lies beneath as I wasn’t able to easily pop over to take a look.

After the long journey to collect, having never driven a left hand drive (not inc hire cars abroad), column shift, rather large vehicle such as this, naturally it made sense to travel even further, to visit some of Stu’s family, on the Suffolk/ Norfolk boarder.

I’m not a great passenger on any form of transport so I always opt to do all the driving. It was definitely a baptism of fire, quite literally, as the temperature climbed up and up the futher North East we went, but I soon found my groove and began to learn the old girl’s temperament. It’s a fantastic viewpoint, no matter where you are in the van, perfect for appreciating the endless fields of gold as we traveled along.

We went to see Stu’s Aunts at their allotment, which was a real treat as I absolutely bloody love allotments. I think they’re some of the most fascinating places in the world, full of ingenious ideas, personality and seasonal excitement. I love to see all the different ways people interpret a similar plot, the quirks, the make-do and mend mentality.

We came away with armfuls of French Beans I picked myself, Broad Beans, the most delicious new potatoes…

The day got later and later, with nowhere to stay the night planned out, no equipment in the van and no desire to eat raw potatoes, we were fortunate enough to come across a sweet little pub, moments before they stopped serving food.

A lasagna and chips later and a cold pint of cider, after asking in the bar for ideas as to where we could get away with parking up to sleep, we struck lucky with one of the locals owning the next door marina/ small campsite, a stones throw from the pub back door. It was already dark at this point, so we parked up between an old tractor and a boat, I stripped off and went for a late night swim, to wash away a very long, sticky day of traveling. I was very much looking forward to a shocking change in temperature, but alas, the water was practically bath-like. Still lovely, but I do like a bit of cold water therapy to clear the mind.

We slept really well, the first night of hopefully many to come in this vintage camper and awoke to the most beautiful view. We had to leave early, but we’ll definitely come back and stay a while longer with the girls, when we do a UK tour.

For those interested, this is where we stayed. Ordinarily you need to be members of the Caravan & Motorhome Club (we may well join), but they kindly took pity on us and let us stay - for free too!

It was time to head back to Cornwall, a journey that took almost 9 hours, but it was so fun getting to finally introduce the girls to Hetty the Hymer.

Over 800 miles in 36 hours, quite the mission, but hopefully it will prove to be well worth it.

The first thing I did when we got back - apart from shower and sleep for as long as possible, was to remove the carpet rug that ran throughout most of the van. I'm not a big fan of carpet at the best of times, but this brown one needed to go pronto. I found what could possible be the original lino underneath, nowhere near perfect but totally passable for the time being. I’ll keep the carpet in the garage for now, it may be useful for making a template for what ever flooring we decide on.

The bathroom and it’s purpley details is probably my least favourite. We’re unlikely to use the internal shower, there’s a clever flip down access to outside, where you can pass the tap/shower head through, to form a heated outdoor shower! So the shower curtain can go, the tiles are stuck on so once I’ve formulated a proper plan I may well start in there.

The cushion covers are original and lets be honest, they could be a lot worse. I took the removable ones off and washed them, they’re in a worse state underneath and will be replaced, along with the foam, eventually.

There are a lot of brown tones going on inside, I love me some warm, woody vibes, but there definitely needs to be a re-balance in there, to make the best features pop and calm some of the less so wonderful things. Painting the walls a fresher white tone, rather than the dirty, beige it currently is, will freshen it up. I also think a lighter, non wood looking floor could lift it all, we’ll see.

The biggest issue to be sorted is that the van doesn’t currently have 2x 3-point harness seatbelts in the back for Nancy and Eula, or even a seat back/ headrests to offer sufficient protection. We will be having the back, forward facing bench seat converted, sympathetically to the look of the van, to accommodate them safely. This is a bit of an undertaking, once done I’ll talk about it in more depth, for anyone interested.

I’ve decided not to go too far into my design ideas in this post, instead I’ll save that for a journal post of it’s own, in the not so distant future. What I will say is that I’m really excited to use Hetty as a way to highlight and show off some of my most favourite pieces from the Alice in Scandiland Shop.

Practical, beautiful, functional pieces, such as the wonderful solid Birch peg rails, cushions which can be for lounging about in the day when parked up, for extra comfort at night when sleeping and so many more things.

And there we have it, a dream come true, but some work to be done for sure.

I’ve skimmed over a huge number of valid facts in this post, such as the responsibility of owning a vehicle the age Hetty is, there just isn’t enough space for every detail but we’re not naive to the realities, but very willing and eager to give it all a go. Please do undertake a lot of research if this is something you think you might be interested in doing.

I can’t wait to head off on adventures with my little family, near and far, year round, it’s a very exciting prospect and I hope you will enjoy following along as we do.