WHEELS-ALIVE APPEAL; CAN YOU HELP PLEASE?
Can anyone help us please? On the afternoon/early evening of Sunday 1st March an enthusiast’s Austin A30 van was stolen from his home near Welland, in Worcestershire.
The vehicle was locked and the owner, Colin Dolding, still has the keys.
This is an exceedingly rare Austin van, with just a small handful surviving (especially by comparison with the much more numerous, and later, A35 vans).
The vehicle’s registration number is OFK316 and the vehicle is finished in Westminster Green (a dark green). It has just one seat (the driver’s) in brown; the passenger seat was never fitted in this van.
The van was road-taxed and in use although the battery was not in situ.
No glass was broken.
The vehicle was totally original, has never been welded. The paintwork was oxidized (so not shiny), the only dent was in the left-hand rear wing.
The Austin has a Lucas electric screenwasher system (incorporating a glass washer reservoir) and the driver’s door was drilled for a door mirror. The inside of the rear door had been hand painted a different green (closer to Spruce Green in Austin terminology).
Colin says that the van was a bit tatty around the bottom but okay. It had covered just 26,500 ish miles from new; first registered in August 1956.
He adds, “I expect it will reappear with a different identification, and probably labelled as an A35 unless the thief knows more than average person!”
If you should see this vehicle, or see what looks like it being offered for sale, please would you contact the police immediately. Colin would love to be reunited with this lovely old Austin.