WARNING.— The person in whose name this vehicle is displayed may or may not be the current owner of the vehicle. Readers are warned, therefore, that this entry is not proof of ownership.
Details
- Registration Mark
- GNI 894
- (a) Type:
- Type 2
- (b) Year:
- 1964
- (c) Colour:
- SEA BLUE
- (d) Paint code:
- L360
- (e) Engine CCs:
- 1200
History
- (a) Country of origin:
- Ireland
- (b) County first reg'd:
- Wicklow
- (c) Current or last known location:
- Wicklow
Model information
Split Bus and Split Window Kombi
Info
GNI894
The story that I was told when buying the bus, as per the past two owners.
This CKD bus was bought by a man called Stanley Nolan on the 9th of July 1964 from the VW dealers in Bray/Greystones area in Co. Wicklow, where Stanley owned and operated an electrical shop repairing TVs on the main street of Bray.
Stanley originally wanted a panel van for the business, but the dealers had none in stock. The result was that VW dealers stripped the interior out of this 64 Kombi and sold it to him as a commercial van. Stanley used the bus daily making house calls to repair TVs and running the shop until 1972. Stanley sold the bus to a man in Kilcoole Co. Wicklow called Charlie Keddy in late ’72.
Charlie, the second owner, used the bus as his daily family car and used it to ferry the Kilcoole junior hurling team to and from their games on the weekends. There is a photo of Charlie’s parents standing beside the bus one Sunday morning before they all went to mass. Unfortunately, Charlie did not get much use out of the bus. He told me that between the years 1976 and 1980 (he can’t quite remember) the bus broke down and Charlie pushed it into the corner of his driveway, where the bus sat for many years unused and unloved.
Charlie told me that some time in the late 80’s to early 90’s he sold the bus to a man in Kilcoole called Kerry Lawless. It is my understanding that Kerry bought the bus with the intention to restore it as a camper for him and his son Andrew to go on motocross weekends. When I met Kerry, he confirmed that this was in fact a true story.
Kerry (the 3rd owner) later told me that he spent his life buying old VWs to break for their gearboxes for grass track racing, keeping the rear running gear and scrapping the rest of the cars. With family and work commitments he never quite got to restoring the ’64 bus that sat in his yard for many, many years. Kerry told me that over the years a lot of people came to him asking to buy the bus but for one reason or another it he refused them.
In July of 2019 my wife Eibhlín and I went to meet Kerry and his family and discuss the bus and his plans for it. He showed us around the very sorry looking bus and told us all the old stories about it and what he had planned for it. As the evening passed buy, a deal was made, and Eibhlín and I became the 4th owners of the bus. Later that evening I was looking through the photos we took of the tax book and realised that the date was the 9th of July 2019. We took this as a good sign and on the Friday evening of the same week we enlisted the help of some likeminded mates and brought the bus home.
Eibhlín and I are now 5 years into its restoration and have big plans for the GNI’s future.
Submitted by: Andy Kelly
Additional Photos
