What year did you join the MV hobby?

[Jack]

Question of the week

 

What year did you buy your first mv? Was it dirt cheap? Was it a struggle to find like minded people and what is the difference in the hobby now as to when you first joined it?

 

What member of HMVF has been in the hobby longest?

 

Best wishes.

 

Jack.

[Rick W]

About 2 1/2 years ago.

[Tony B]

Full time 2000, before that it was ex military Land Rovers as work tools. Intrest, well I ter lad, back when you couldn't carry 6 penneworth 'o chips, my mam bought me a matchbox truck at a shilling tha knows........:yawn::sleep:

[abn deuce]

I got involved with helping restore Halftracks with a couple of friends back in 1985? or so . I found my CCKW 353 H1 air-portable in January 1990 . And I thought for as rare as I thought it to be and as complete as it was, that the price was very low under $4000.00 as I had thought it would have been much higher , closer to $10,000.00 guess I was 10 years ahead of the game

 

The discovery of Military Vehicle owners clubs came first and fairly easy then MV publications and then through them the network of dealers and finially Ownership of my very own piece of history.

Edited October 18, 2008 by abn deuce

[Jessie The Jeep]

Got the Jeep on Saturday 16th April 2005 at 2:15, so almost three years and over 6000 miles ago.

 

Cheap?? well that's all a matter of perspective!

 

Plenty of like minded people up here.

 

Difference now? there were a huge number of 60th anniversary events I went to in 2005, most lottery sponsored, but still plenty of places and events to go now. Many of our local group have become heavily involved with re-enacting and dioramas now compared to three years ago when it was just about the vehicles.

 

Steve

[snowtracdave]

3rd October 1981 I bought my 80" Series One for £495 which seemed reasonable at the time although fortunately I don't have a record of how much I spent rebuilding it & it's still around although badly damaged in a barn fire when I last asked after it . Big gap then until Snow Trac arrived in July 2004 , Mog 1 turned up three years ago & Mog 2 last year . Always been a large contingent of friendly and helpful green related bods in this part of the world but I think I would have to say that the biggest changes for me have been the advent of national magazines - CMV in particular - and without a doubt the biggest single event was reading about and discovering HMVF which has turned out to be so good yet soo bad at the same time .

[LeeEnfield]

Vehicle ownership wise started in the mid 80's with SWB landy,........moving on to 2/4 stretcher ambulance in '87, for a while before frightening meself silly on a side slope,.........:shake:

 

A period of MV's less followed, although the saving and interest were always there, to finally (well, maybe ) being realised by the purchasing of my Bedford. :-D:-D:-D in late '06.

 

Certainly, as Snowtrackdave has already said,........with the demise of the sadly missed Wheels and tracks, and emergence of CMV and MMI, .........along with forums like the excellent HMVF :tup:: there is certainly no shortage of material or infomation available, now.

 

On a side point,.........have a look at the early CMV's, and see the prices being asked for stuff;..........compaired to today,....in a comparatively short period of time.

 

Andy

[miss jeep]

My father in law started collecting Miltary vehicles in 1972, Rob helped his dad to restore vehicles from then. I started being involved from the time i met Rob at the tender age of 16 going to my first show was at Yeovilton (Festival of transport). But I have only been driving the Jeep since 2006.

[croc]

My first motor was a Bedford CF250 4x4 in April '91, it was originally Scottish Hydro then a Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Ambulance, I bought it off a Ski School in Aviemore. When it died (although I still have the 4x4 bits of it) I had a car for a few months until I got my first Gipsy (a Police Moblie Column one) in October '93. I bought a "Home Office" AFS Gipsy in April '97 from the sale at Measham. Five of the Gipsys I have got are Ex Home Office which I suppose makes them as military as a Green Goddess, but it is the Green AFS one, with its fire pump trailer that got me involved with the "military" scene.

For me, the interest has always been the utility side of the vehicles that has held the interest rather than the history, what they can do - not what they did. (In the case of AFS stuff what it did, most of the time, was sit in a store.)

 

As I have said to a few people over the years, it's not a hobby, it's an affliction.:-D

 

AFS Gipsy, Brockhouse trailer, Fire Pump.

 

Letting the cadets have a go, Montrose '02 (you can just see me operating the pump.)

[cripp]

Bought my Jeep on 6th June 2004. Didn't know anyone else with any sort of vehicle, but through forums, dealers and shows got to meet some decent people. Just today I met someone with a fantastic collection of GPW's MB's trailers a GP, dodge command car and a couple of harleys, not to mention many many original spares and accessories. :wow: I think the main difference in the hobby now is the prices. I couldn't afford to start now.

[Tony B]

As for cost, most of the vehicles we now own are either antiques, or were limited production. My Dodge is 64 this year and the 101 only had about 2266 to start with. More importantly i think is a genral re awakening of intrest with the various 60th and now 65th anniversarys. I have to say my vehicles have got me into a lot of intresting places, run me ragged, lead to me meeting a lot of good people, and allowed me some unique experiences. Who needs a forthnight in Benidorm when every show or event is and adventure? My real chance was during one of my last conversations with my mother, she said to me 'When everything is sorted out, don't save all the money buy something you have always wanted'. Well I did and never regreted buying either of them (Except posibbly the 101 electrics)

:tup::

[Joris]

I bought my dodge in November 2006.

[Grasshopper]

I was brought up on the rally scene, in fact most of my baby pictures are of me in old busses! Bought my first Matador at 18, and it's all been downhill since then. Started "assisting" with tracked armour about 5 years ago and now full time (when not asleep/at work/drumming) "fleet mechanic" for whatever Mike and another friend own.

[DaveP]

6 september 1966.Thats when I joined up and and was taught all the ins and outs of military vehicles, 2 yrs at AAC Carlisle.:readbook:

2 yrs later posted to 3 RGJ in BAOR equipped with new 432,s:wow:

32 yrs later end up owning one of the actual vehicles I worked on there,earie or what:shake:

I appreciate it far more now than I did then,although I really regret not being interested in taking photos then.:-(

Somewhere someone has a picture of it in service 17EA69 or the 434, 01ED15, that spent all its life at 32Armd Engrs

DaveP

[Paul101Clark]

1985 it was a landrover 101 sold without engine and gearbox and then you want another then another etc.

[Lord Burley]

21 years me.

[Lord Burley]

 

1985 it was a landrover 101 sold without engine and gearbox and then you want another then another etc.

You boght either a PRB one.Or Ian Middlehurst example???.Around the same time that Trevor Boreham had the immaculate ex Saudi example,and Steve Wright had one of the magnificant 7 from the LTWT centre?.

[Richard Farrant]

Bought two BSA WDB40 motorcycles in 1972, one Army and the other Navy.

 

Joined Military Vehicle Conservation Group in 1978 (now MVT), first WW2 vehicle bought in 1980..............been on the slippery slope ever since :thumbsup:

 

Richard

[Jonny666]

i bought the land rover in 2005 for £750 and i have spent easily £1000 doing it up and its still not finished lol

 

as a student its hard to get into this scene on a limited budget with the only things you can normally buy for say £500 are complete rust buckets needing thousands spending on them so it becomes a pointless exercise lol.

 

the club wise there arent thats many if you think about it here in yorkshire we have one which is the yorkshire MVT i know of no other and i have looked for 2 years to find others saying that the IMPS which i am a member of seems to only concentrate its focus "down south" and if you look at some of the new members that they are getting are lincolnshire and yorkshire plus the imps mag's editor lives in doncaster so personally if it wasnt for the net i wouldnt know of any of the groups that are out there.

 

i think in all the time i have been in the MV interest since i was about 8 so thats 12 years now lol i think the actual interest in restoring and preserving vehicles has grown alot but it seems to be only the WW2 vehicles (opening a can of worms i feel here) people seem to be forgetting the post war vehicles but it might just be the sites and forums i go around on that are giving me this impression.

[Snapper]

I'd sniffed around other events through the mid eighties and nineties - but going to Beltring for the first time in 1998 got me started. I started doing stuff for CMV from the second issue in 2001 and am more or less still there, but have had a flat year since last Beltring thanks to a host of negatives - knees etc. Joining HMVF has made a huge difference to my life. My wife thinks I have become really sad as opposed to an......anorak (sorry). I got my Iltis in October 2003 and have not used it anything like as much as I hoped or done enough to get it up to original standard. It has just been sold (more or less). Moving on....

 

mb

[Paul101Clark]

Mark

The 101 was a PRB one, I remember trevor and his Saudi 101, he used to hang around Steve Wright with the Pinky.

[Adam Elkins]

About 4 years ago. My uncle's had several military trucks, At the time i owned a landrover and needed parts. My uncles mate owns wiltshire landrovers so poped round for parts, when i pulled in the yard my attention was grabbed by a flying pig. I didn't know wot it was at the time but i wanted one. so he sold me the MK2 Ambulance he had O3 BK 20 for the bargain price of £600. since then i have been well into military vehicles.

[Tony B]

That'll teach you to go bargin hunting!

[Lord Burley]

Mark

The 101 was a PRB one, I remember trevor and his Saudi 101, he used to hang around Steve Wright with the Pinky.

I bought Trevors old LTWT prior to him buying the Saudi 101

 

 

This one infact.Its funny as they were both prominant on the MV scene for a few years.Then both dissappeared altogether.Just a note but Steves old Pinkie is currently up for sale by Barry Pocock in the classifieds.

[Willyslancs]

We bought our first vehicle (Dodge weapons carrier ) off Pete Gray in 1980, He drove it up from worthing to blackpool for the price of his dinner.Then a Dingo costing£800 and needing no real restoration in 1983(sold few years later to a dutch guy £6000. Bantam trailer new years eve 1983 £120. Finally Willys Jeep with a garage full of spares.(engine,diffs,axles,mechanical stuff!)£500! Would not like to start collecting today .Silly money now!