Unusual German Minivan

[InimiaD]

The Van my friend has was built in 1973 and was indeed custom built by the factory to special order.
There is no provision for a rear seat.
There is an Alloy plate with all the kerb weights etc riveted to the inner sill along with extra steel plate in the sill box section
By all accounts this type of Mini van build became a factory option in around 1976.
The colour is Yellow (ish).
A very interesting commercial indeed.

[Tulka]

These vans had no side windows, but had a rear seat, they ran on cheaper roadtax.
I remember getting VERY sick, when sitting in the back, as you couldnt see out

Jens Christian,
You can not have been the only one getting sick in the back seat of Mini vans,
I remember a Danish Mini sales brochure where a small side window had been added,
retouched from the British original catalogue.

Tulka

[kwjcoopermk2]

Hi

Someone once told me that alot of danish Mini Vans and pick ups was exported to Germany, but i am not able to confirm this

Best Regards Kristian

[Stefan]

I remember a guy in Denmark who always added in a German classic car magazine to sell danish minis. One day I visited him and nearly could not belive my eyes. He had a barn full of Mk 1 Minis, Pick-ups, flatroof Vans, hydro MK 2 and all that.
All in a price region of 300 to 800 Pounds.
It´s about 20 years ago and one day all the cars were sold to a workshop in Hamburg/Germany. In those days Hamburg was the German capital of the Mini scene, and especially early Minis sold very well then.
Will dig out some pics of the barn I took those days.

A few years later, I bought a 1979 Pick-Up from a danish farmer during a local Mini meet. It was completely original and went like a rocket. Later I found out it had no coolant water........anyway. It made the 300 km trip home without any problem.

[Flying Finn]

This kind of Vans are very typical in Finland. It is easier to find a Van with Estate floor than with original Van floor. The reason in Finland was in tax policy. Commercial vehicles had smaller tax and you were allow to insert the back seat after a while.



Mine had a huge windows cut in the sides.



Here pic when converted back.

[almondgreen]

Someone once told me that alot of danish Mini Vans and pick ups was exported to Germany

I have a danish pickup here in Germany....

[mk1]

So it appears that the conversion of Vans to Estates was a fairly common thing to do across most of Europe. Up until very recently I thought it was only here in the UK that this silly policy existed.

[Stefan]

Andreas.....is your Pick-Up green? I sold mine to Frankfurt years ago. Not far from you, I guess.

[austinisuseless]

British Telecom didn't exist in 1969. It was all part of the Post Office (known as the GPO - General Post Office). The telephone business was split off about ten years later. All GPO vans were red, as the post vans are still today.

The back seat conversion makes sense, because in remote areas of the country, GPO vans used to double up as a taxi-service for country folk. That still goes on in the highlands of Scotland especially.

[mk1]

All GPO vans were red;

No they weren't









They were almost all either green or yellow. Check out Google Images by typing in "GPO Van"

[austinisuseless]

memory brain fade moment!

Post office van then, the one in the ad must have been an ex-UK post office van then since it looks red, or Royal Mail van as the post office was called then.



!?!?!

[austinisuseless]

Found some history to clear up this GPO/Royal Mail/Post Office Telecommunication/British Telecom confusion, mainly mine,

In October 1969 the Post Office ceased to be a government department and as a result, the GPO (also known as Post Office Telephone at this time) became Post Office Telecommunications, under the Post Office Corporation – a now nationalised industry. This nationalisation of the Post Office also saw another division emerge in the form of the Post Office Services [that is, delivering letters and parcels as Royal Mail, and Giro banking, etc., etc.], which had a separate Head Quarters from Post Office Telecommunications.

This all continued until 1980, when Post Office Telecommunications became British Telcom, although it remained part of the Post Office. In 1981 though, British Telecom became an entirely separate entity and became known as British Telecommunications, trading as British Telecom.

It must also be noted, that at this point the whole business of telecommunications was liberalised – meaning that other companies started to emerge in the field and challenged British Telcom’s services and products.

In 1984, the Government privatised the corporation and it became known at British Telecommunications plc, with the Government retaining the majority shareholding.

It wasn’t until the early 1990s that the Government sold off the majority of it’s shareholding and to bring British Telcom into competition with the global market, it became BT, the new trading name of British Telecommunications plc – which it remains to this day.

link, http://www.ex-gpo.co.uk/history.html

still a bit as clear as mud!

[austinisuseless]

Link where I got the photos from, you unbelievers. BRING BACK THE GPO, I say!
http://postalheritage.org.uk/exhibition ... troduction

[Gordon]

The wooden load floor van was available for export only according to the BMC body service parts list. Commercial vehicles were taxed at a lower rate in many countries. It's likely that BMC provided the wooden load floor van to take advantage of the tax break as they also provided a rear seat kit that could be used to convert the van into an estate. The local dealer would provide the side windows. There is one here in Seattle that spent most of it's life in Ecuador.

Kelley

Hi,
I came across this forum and topic quite by fluke while looking for something else. My first motor was a mini van that I bought for £200 back in 1977. It was a 1968 light blue van with a wooden load floor. It was first registered in Worcester and I bought it in Newport Shropshire having had some work done already and needing a bit to put it on the road. I used it for about five years, fitting a set of countryman seats in the back. I just had to fabricate a means of supporting the rear seat back. I loved this van to bits and had I known then what I know now would still have it tucked up safely in a garage. Sadly it became a donor of parts for my next mini project. I still have the front brakes fitted on a 1964 mini that I am currently working on again. I have been to many mini shows and seen loads of mini vans all over the place, but have never seen another like mine in the flesh. This is the first time I have ever seen this variant referred to. I wondered whether my van perhaps had a former life with the police or the like (panda car blue!!). Interestingly to, my van had the remote gear lever (cast type) not the magic wand that all other vans seemed to have at this age. The remote gear change looked to be original factory fit. I may still have some docs for the van somewhere so perhaps it may be possible to find out more of it's history.

Cheers