I have received an email from one of the previous owners of Lulu and he has given me permission to show it on here if anyone is interested.
I have a feeling that Davy could end up as a member as he's also into old cars, so give him the normal warm welcome if he does.
Hi Les,
I wanted to introduce myself and get in touch. My name is David Brown, the former owner of the Commer camper you own. I know from my Mum that you found some of our details in the van when you bought it - well done!!
I have had a look for better photos (which I have somewhere) but I can't find them at the moment. I will look again in some of my old backups.
I bought the van on eBay over 10 years ago. I have always been a classic car enthusiast, and wanted to put my effort into something that my ex-girlfriend and I could enjoy together. I love classic British vehicles, so it had to be a Commer! I knew I wanted the Autosleeper conversion, and after a lot of hunting I found one!!! The previous owner had restored a lot of the interior, and had installed the 240v hookup that I expect is still there.
I'm can't remember exactly what I did to the van myself apart from replacing brakes, and I likely put electronic ignition on it (I put that on all my classic cars). Three was no stereo in the van when I bought it so I installed one. One job I planned but did not finish was to install a leisure battery. If you have not done that I recommend it. I know I replaced a section of fuel line that sprung a leak but apart from that it was just servicing and running repairs.
I did source a set of larger carburettors and air filter but they wouldn't fit inside the engine compartment and I didn't want to cut out sections of bodywork. The automatic gearbox always worked well even if the selector on the dash was a little fiddly. The drivers door never sealed very well and I had planned to get a body shop to rejig the window frame to seal better but never did get round to it in the end.
The van was in good running condition and I really enjoyed it for the couple of years I had in in England. At that time I was living near St. Neots and we regularly took the van away at weekends. It had several trips to the Lake and Peak District and a weekend at the Farnborough airshow.
When I moved from St Neots I nowhere to store the van so decided to drive it to Ireland and store it at my parents house so that I would have a vehicle when I visited them. I also fancied the idea of driving the van around Ireland. Unfortunately trying to keep it in good running condition when I was only there occasionally was too difficult and I decided to sell it.
I placed an ad on eBay and the van sold fairly quickly. A couple from England (Devon I think) bought it. They planned to drive it back via Dublin but they managed to cease the engine on the way. No idea how - I never had any problems but I did drive her with care and never pushed her too hard. The chap who bought it didn't seem too concerned and said he would get a new engine and get it back on the road. I never did hear from him again but was often curious what happened to the van.
Do you have any pictures of the van now? I would love to see them if you did. Where do you live? I now live in Bury St Edmunds but travel around a lot and would love to pop in and meet you at some point.
I will do a trawl to see if I have any more pictures or parts. If I find anything I will let you know.
Kind regards
David Brown.
!] So best wishes Woolfy, let's hope the operation is a success.[^]
