Malcolm bought this van from a person in the Somerford Estate in Christchurch. He paid £15 for it and it could best be described as a wreck. The following morning he was unable to start the van but the crank handle got it going. Malcolm did once get caught out by the handle kicking back; a basic lesson to any car owner in those days. A new battery put the starting problem right and thereafter the van roared into life immediately. The edge of the canvass roof panel leaked so Malcolm fixed that with a mastic compound. The mountings of the driver's seat had come adrift so the seat tended to tip over which was made worse by the driver's door flying open at the same time. A small slide bolt fixed the door but the seat remained as it was.
The steering was slack and the brakes negligible but each weekend Malcolm made the journey between Camberley and Verwood where he had purchased an old cottage that needed restoration. Travelling down one very cold, snowy and blusterywinter evening, he was obliged to weat a track suit over his normal clothes and out a hot water bottle inside as the van had no heater. The windscreen wipers were operated by vacuum off the engine and were inverse to the speed of the engine so the faster you went the slower were the wipers. He was peering through the windscreen whilst crossing the New Forest between Cadnam and Ringwood when the wipers suddenly dissappeared. He stopped and got out to look only to find that the wind had blown them right round so that they were up in the air but still swaying from side to side.
During the seek, Malcolm would drive up to work in Chiswick but it was apparent that his employer did not like the van in the car park as it severeley lowered the tone. Coming home round the Bagshot bypass one dark eveing, Malcolm was confronted by unexpected roarworks and had to pull up quickly. However, as the brakes did not work, he went flying into the roadworks and was lucky not to finish up in a trench.
Malcolm was transferred to work in Southampton and initially lodged with Brenda's sister and family at Mudeford. A neighbour had a Rolls Royce and Malcolm had the wry pleasure of giving him a lift into town when his Rolls would not start. The man, Colin Lewis, was actually an insurance broker and Malcolm had insured the van through him. The van really became useful at this time as Malcolm was heavily engaged in renovation work on the cottage. The van was ideal for carrying building materials and it was not uncommon for him to be sent home with some 'goodies' from the building site on which he was working.
When Malcolm got married in 1967, his wife already had a car so Malcolm sold the van for £12-10-0 and used her car.
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