How did it all start?
I'm not sure but on the 24th Feb1971 I bought a second hand Dyane 6. I think that it was a year or two old and I paid £410 for it. I used it for everything including collecting cement bags from the local Jewsons. They used to laugh. I would arrive empty, with the back end in the air, and depart, with 5 or 6 bags of cement, with the front end in the air. I was renovating a cottage at the time and used it for transporting all the materials including towing a trailer with 1/2 ton of ballast (gravel).
When the family arrived I sold it and bought a second hand GS estate. (I'm not sure why?) But eventually it started rusting faster than I could mix the epoxy resin so I traded it in for a new Dyane 6 (MAK ??? ?). I eventually sold the second Dyane. (Again, I don't know why.) Since then my main cars have been Astra Estates.
When the kids left home I sold the second car (Golf) and cycled to work. I play in a band and the wife was starting to complain because I take the Astra to each gig with my equipment leaving her stranded. She said we needed a second car again. Mmm! This started me thinking. What would I really like to drive. I had being eyeing up a Lotus Europa Special which was parked in a garden locally. As I play bass and not a piccolo it was out of the question.
A van, then.
What about one of those corrugated things that French Farmers drive? A bit of research on the net and I discovered that probably what I wanted was an AK400. I dropped a few requested around the internet and eventually some one emailed me with one. But it was 180 miles away. (Further than France!). So after much emailing, telephone discussions and downloading of photographs I decided to buy it blind!
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