In 2015 I bought my second car. From a Mini Cooper 1300 to a Volkswagen Van T2. I was quite lucky when I found this precious on the internet. The van had been used by a French man who only drove from The Netherlands to France and back with the van every year. The van wasn’t perfect, it had lots of rusty bits, some dents and the most ugly colour ever. But the engine, which is the most important part, worked as ever before!
So, November 2015 (she just became 39 years) I bought the van. Of course I had a goal buying it. Not only was it a smart investment (these vans only increase in value) but it was an essential part of one of my dreams. That dream being; driving to China along the silk road. But before that dream could come true lots had to be done.
First we had to discover if we actually like sleeping in a van. Cause, well, it’s not a camper, it’s not a house on wheels, it’s not big. We travelled to Scotland, England, Wales. We crossed through The Netherlands and ventured into Germany. For four years we explored travelling with and in a van. And after five years living together in The Hague we felt it was time for the next step.
That next step being; it’s time for Alexine (yes she has a name) to get rid of the rusty bits, the dents and that awful colour. With some help of VW Airhouse we took care of her. The dent now being in our wallets but oh my is she a beauty. She isn’t perfect, but neither are we. Actually, who is? To us she is amazing. She looks amazing, she drives wonderful and we have so much fun in her.
Summer 2020 we decided before we can drive to China we actually need to know a bit more about her, so we joined a car maintenance course. A week full of lessons about the car engine, fixing tires, changing oil. We changed the break fuel, finally had time to start emptying the interior and changed the spark plugs amongst other things. It was a week in which we got to know more about our van but also met a great bunch of people with vans of their own.
In the mean time Alexine became 53, she might be old but she’s still going strong. She got a new interior, solar panels on the roof and a beautiful roof rack. We managed to paint her internally, got a new radio and new chairs. To ventilate her a bit more we changed the back windows so we can open them and put isolation so we won’t be freezing to death.
I was thinking of writing a lot of blogs about our work, about her transformation, about preparations but I found out that’s not really my thing. Even though I love working on her (sometimes) I do not enjoy writing every little detail. Besides, we did outsource a lot of the work. Call us lazy but I just want things to be done well and as I am not a perfectionist, neither is it my hobby to work on cars I figured this would save me a lot of stress, disappointments and frustration. And I guess I’m more the adventure type writer.
But, if you have any questions about our work, the van, the engine, solar panels, changing oil, breaks, fixing rusty bits etc. Send us a message!
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