For this edition of Member’s Motor, we look
at Kirsteen’s Bay, called “Mou.” This is what
she had to say about it.

June 2015 – Mighty Dubfest, Alnwick, Northumberland… unbeknown to me, my brother (at the Dubfest with his T4 Autosleeper) informed Ron (my other half) that “she would love one of those” – a T2. My parents had owned a succession of 5 bay windows and a T25 in the ’70’s, ’80’s and ’90’s, so I had grown up with VW Type Twos! My 50th birthday was looming and we started looking, we thought we would
have to head down south on holiday to be able to actually view some. However, a chance conversation at the classic car show at our local heritage railway and I heard of a van for sale in Alnwick (5 miles from home). It was RHD with a pop top – my two must haves – only possible issue – it had a Subaru Impreza engine! My eldest son (petrol head) was concerned that as I always hear a water cooled engine approaching, I might be disappointed with the van. I decided that as my daily drivers for 20+ years have been Subaru Impreza turbos, that wouldn’t be an issue (can’t imagine where my son gets the petrol
head from!!)
So three weeks later Mou arrived, bought from the mechanic who had put the Subaru engine in. She needed lots of TLC inside, her Devon furniture had seen better days, but we cleaned and scrubbed her up and used her as she was for Summer 2015 whilst we decided what we would like to do with the interior. Externally she was painted ‘Landrover blue’ – the previous mechanic owner had done a lot of bodywork repairs which he then painted with what he had in his workshop.

In October 2016 we stripped out everything – furniture, panels, floor, roof bellows, passenger seat etc and I had a very noisy drive south of the Tyne to get her re-sprayed back to original – Orient Blue and Pastel White. We then replaced the roof bellows, the metal rods needed to be taken out of the old bellows and slotted into the new ones, I did this on the living room floor (the only place in the house big enough) during my Christmas holiday 2016. I had to cut the new bellows to put the metal rods in – I measured
many, many times before making the first cut!! I laid the floor tiles whilst Ron was recovering from a knee replacement (that meant I could escape to the garage!) Stephen, my eldest son, as well as being a petrol head, also likes turning his hand to anything, he made the cupboards and table (not bad for a scientist!). The cab seats, bed cushions, panels and headliner were all completed by a local upholsterer and we fitted them in.

I have taken Mou to a number of local classic car shows, in various states of completion, people are always interested in what you have done. We have enjoyed many holidays and weekends away – The
North Coast 500, the Welsh coast, annual visits to the Lake District, to name a few. Hopefully we will get to Skye in 2021 (postponed from 2020). We have been to the Mighty Dubfest, Beach Gathering,
Volksfling and Volkspower festivals regularly as they are relatively local. Tagged on the end of a holiday to East Anglia we went to Viva Skeg Vegas in 2017. On the end of our holiday around the Welsh coast we went to Volksfest Wales in 2019 where Mou won ‘Best Bay’. After 17 years of living together, Ron and I got married on 27th August, we were already booked to go to the Budle Bay Beach Gathering on 28th August for the bank holiday weekend so that became our ‘campermoon’ obviously!

Whilst looking through photos on Northumberland Transporters Facebook page I spotted a van for sale that had belonged to my parents in the ’70s – it wasn’t the original colour anymore but I recognised the number plate, so not content with owning one T2, February 2020 I bought a second; but that’s a story for
another time….