June 2007 (2)

Can an H have woodworm?

Yep, you read it right, my H has woodworm.  I’m gutted. 

The french oak wood panel floor in the back of the van has woodworm.  I really want to keep the wood because it’s original, and it clearly does the job really well cos its been there so long, but I have suspended wooden floors in the house and I can’t risk it getting in there, not that I know how woodworm get into new wood......

I hot foot it down the local independent DIY store and ask for advice.  I’m given a big tub of woodworm killer and I spend the afternoon painting it onto the wood.  It looks like rain so I decide to put the pannels back in the van overnight.

The following morning I opened the van, and once the permetherin cloud had dispersed I inpected the results.  There were a considerable number of expired worms visible so I was pleased. 

June 2007

I get my hands on my baby.Simon confirmed when the van would be ready, and I arranged for a friend to drive me the 60 miles to Melplash to collect it.  The promise of breakfast swung it and we arrived at Simon’s garage at about 0930.

Simon asked if I have driven an H before and I confessed that I haven’t.  He gave me a few tips, including: if you are in the hedge, you’re in the right place on the road; brake early; and be careful turning left!

He then waved me out onto the road and I was off.  The drive home an experience.  I kept diving towards the verge each time something came the opposite way, and on one bend I learnt what Simon meant about break early.  I made it around the bend, but it was close!  Just outside Chard I experienced my first left turn.  I had the side door closed so when I got to the junction, I couldn’t what was coming.  Much to the annoyance of the queue behind, I opened the door and moved off safely.

Next was the A303 along that single carriageway bit past Ilminster.  I was impressed at the speed you can build up a reasonable sized queue behind an H.

Once I got to the M5, I relaxed a little, that was until the first HGV passed me.  I was minding my own business doing an impressive 55mph when all of a sudden I was sucked towards the middle lane by the air pressure gap created as the lorry passed.  It still takes me by surprise occasionally.

May 2007

I own an H!

I can’t believe it.  It was just a dream and it still didn’t seem real.  Maybe because my van, which I had only seen twice, is at a garage I had never been to in deepest darkest Dorset.  I hadn’t driven it, I’d only sat in it once.

Simon Doe is a busy man, and everyone wants their vans roadworthy for the summer.  I’m hoping that it will be ready for the H Van Rally at Melplash in mid-May.  As the month progresses however, it becomes clear that won’t be the case.  Simon confirmed we should be able to drive it across the road from the Garage to the Cricket Ground, so it will still make the rally.

Tragedy!  The rally has been moved to Axemouth.  My van won’t be there.  I can understand why, its been raining for weeks and the cricket ground is like a bog.

I went to the rally on the Saturday, and wandered around a bit and met John Sobey and Simon for the first time.  I felt a bit out of place, not having a van there.  Never mind.  I bought some window locks off Bob Kerby, my first spares.  Maybe a ride on the Tram at Seaton would make me feel better.  I went home past the garage in Melplash and introduced my family to our new van.  The kids loved it, treating it as a climbing frame, my wife just gave me that “you’re mad” look that I see so often.

Diagnosis

The call from Simon came and it wasn’t bad.  It wasn’t good either, but considering I had bought a 37 year old van without so much as a look under the bonnet, even though it have a bad misfire, it was ok.

It needed 2 new tyres, a new water hose, fuel filter, replacement carburettor, a windscreen wiper motor, wipers, and a couple of other bits.It would be ready when Simon could get the work done. 

I arranged with Ann and Mike to take a look at the van in person.  They didn’t have any pictures they could email me, something I think I would insist on next time.  I drove to their farm, just off the A34.  As I drove into the yard I spied the top half of the van over the barn door.  It had a white roof and was pale blue in colour.  My first through was “a least it’s not grey!”.  Mike jumped in it and pulled it out of the barn.  Starting proved to be a problem, but he indicated that it hadn’t been moved for 3 months.

Considering it was built in 1971 and hadn’t moved for 3 months, I was impressed it actually started.  He put what seemed like a huge amount of water into the radiator most of which leaked out of the bottom.  IT had a dreadful misfire, but it did run.  Ann took me for a short ride and I was hooked.  They explained that they bought it off another farmer who had imported it and they had taken it to France and Ireland.  It then lived at the bottom of their drive and was used to sell eggs out of.  (I think most of the barn was still inside)  They now needed the space and didn’t have time to use it.

Then the bad news, it didn’t have an MOT and had failed at its last attempt.  Nothing serious, but the brake pipes were questionable, tyres failed, and that water leak.  It needed to be trailered away.  I didn’t have a tow bar on my car.  However, it ran, was in reasonable condition so I put in an offer which was accepted.  Part of the deal what that Ann and Mike would trailer the van to Simon Doe’s for him to get it back on the road.

Here are the pictures I took at the time.....

I would really like one of those vans, you know like the one that Clouseau kept getting taken to prison in when he was arrested in the Pink Panther films.  I had always fancied one, the Gaelic charm appealed but I didn’t even know what they were called.  So my quest began.  Not so much a single minded holy grail type quest, just one that popped up a couple of times a week when my work was done and the kids were in bed.

It took me about a week to find out what they were actually called, an H Van.  Hurrah, now I surmised that it wouldn’t take long to find one.  Wrong again.  There aren’t many any in Autotrader, and the local free ad’s mag wasn’t much use either.  There were a number of sites on the internet who suggested that getting one back from France was straight forward, but several never responded to my enquiries, and the others promised that “they were going to look at a couple in France next week and to email or call back in a couple of weeks” but delivered nothing.

I began to get a bit despondent, the hvan website hadn’t been updated for a while I wasn’t sure if it was still active.  I emailed John Sobey the Citroen Car Clubs H Van registrar, and now I know, widely regarded as Mr H Van – UK.  I wasn’t expecting a response that quickly but within 24 hours John had emailed back and we had talked on the phone about the van, the joys of ownership and I had been given some useful pointers in my search.  John also confirmed that the budget I had was reasonable and he set my expectations about what I could expect to get for my money.  Most significantly he put me in touch with Simon Doe, who runs a garage specialising in H Vans.

Things began to move rather quickly, I called Simon, but he didn’t know of anything.  He suggested I call back.  A week later a second call to Simon uncovered a van for sale in Berkshire.  Not daring to hope, I called Mike and Ann who confirmed it was still available.  I had to see it, but that was no mean feat.  I had a day job which was taking me to Devon each day and a round trip to see the van would take about 4 hours.  However, it was a van, for sale and in my price range.