What seems like years ago (but in reality, was a few months ago), I received a call from a good friend of mine, telling me about a Toyota Coaster that sounded like it could sell cheap. Apparently in good condition, with the interior needing some TLC. There was no way that I could afford it, but I thought to myself maybe Mum will be interested.

A couple of chats to-and-fro, and Mum seemed to be changing her opinion. Initially there was very little interest, but now the idea had been planted in her mind, it seemed that she was warming to the idea.

This bargain never came about, but I did happen to stumble across another while I was on the internet researching the ins and outs of such a beast. A casual glance at a Toyota Coaster advertised in Charleville turned into me making some enquiries, and reporting on my findings back to Mum.

The Coaster looked great. A 1977 model, with reasonably recent Holden 202 motor transplant, a workable fitout, petrol and LPG and some recent upgrading to various parts of the interior. And even better, the owner was pretty keen to do a deal on the price. A few phone calls back and forth later (and as much as I deny, some gentle coaxing from me), and Mum was writing a cheque.

Of course, since this whole transaction was my idea, I got given the job of trekking out to Charleville from Brisbane. I somehow talked a mate of mine to come along, so off we went.

After a long day's travel, we got to meet this much anticipated Toyota, by now affectionately known as Felicia. A general check over was completed, with all things checking out to our satisfaction. There were a couple of small spots of rust that we discovered, but took this in our stride and decided that a day's work on her rusty bits would see her good as new. So the cheque was handed over, and in I climbed.

After getting lost in Charleville, we got onto the highway (with my friend in his trusty ford following in tow). Once on the open road, I put the foot right down and not much happened! The engine was running smoothly, but the bus just seemed incredibly... well... SLOW. Now I know that these machines aren't built as speed racers, but still, this didn't seem right.

We were only 5 minutes out of town, so we turned around back to town to fill the bus up with petrol (thinking that maybe this would give us more power than gas to get home). At the servo, an older man approached us wanting to have a look at the bus. It turned out that he had owned it before the people we had purchased her from! He gave us a bit more history on the old girl which was great to know, including his tales of regularly sitting on the highway at 110kmh with ease.

Off we went again, by this time it was approaching 5pm. Running on petrol instead of LPG didn't seem to be helping very much, but we decided that getting home slowly was better than not getting home at all, so we pushed on until it started to get dark.

The dark hit us a bit sooner than expected, and it was soon dark and no reasonable place to stop in sight. What a time for us to learn that the headlights weren't working!! With the threat of roos at the forefront of our minds, we drove in convoy the trusty Ford right in front of old Felicia to give us light. Thankfully, approximately 20km later we stumbled across an old country pub, complete with small caravan park off to the side!

The crew at the Mungalalla pub were a great help. They gave us a powered site for $11, and a reasonably priced pub meal. The drinks weren't as cheap as we would have liked, but we felt that we deserved one anyway!

We tinkered well into the night to try and get some more speed out of Felicia, and perhaps a little light as well, but to no avail we set off again in the morning with Brisbane in our sights.

Felicia was slow (and slow seems a whole lot SLOOOOOWER when there's no radio!) but didn't skip a beat. I started getting excited once Toowoomba was only 50km away, thinking we're on the home stretch!. Then it started to rain. I wasn't comfortable driving in heavy rain without headlights, but on we pushed. And then (I should have learnt to expect this by now) the windscreen wipers stopped!

But there was no way I was stopping now. I wanted to at least get to Toowoomba, and thankfully (for reasons I will never understand, but am forever thankful for) the visibility through the rain even without wipers was pretty good.

Once arriving in Toowoomba (after having a kind gentleman at an intersection in town politely point out that my side screen door was open and swinging in the breeze) I stopped for fuel, Andrew in his trusty Ford right behind. It was getting late, and I wasn't confident about reaching Brisbane before dark so I decided to stay a night here as well.

While in Toowoomba, I struck up conversation with a young man named Troy. Him and his partner seemed quite friendly, and they disclosed that they build 5^th Wheelers for a living. Anytime you want any work done, or want to get some wholesale priced parts, give us a call! he said. Of course, I made a point of filing his phone number in a safe place.

After a stressful trip down the Toowoomba range (I'd never driven something so large, and was aware of the potential for an issue with brakes Felicia had done little to instil me with confidence by this point!) I FINALLY arrived in Brisbane! As I was approaching home, I was patting Felicia on the steering wheel and telling her what a good girl she was (I was quite delirious by this time, again NO RADIO!). As soon as I complimented her, one of her cupboard doors promptly fell off and crashed to the floor. An omen?

I finally felt the sweet relief of pulling into Mum's street. However, I did make one crucial mistake I trusted my dear old Mother to guide me into the carport. There was plenty of room or so she thought, until the deafening CRUNCH when the ventilation hatch on the roof met an untimely end upon meeting the carport. Another omen?

After a coffee and a rest, I realised that I had the phone number of Troy in Toowoomba, who may be able to assist with a reasonably priced replacement hatch. I made the call, and he agreed to come and visit and have a look at Felicia's new 'sunroof'. He arrived, and started making throwaway comments about how easy it would be to build this in that corner, and install one of those over there, and to construct one of those thingys in that other spare space. Far too much talk later, and we had agreed on a very reasonable deal to do a whole new fresh fitout!

So off I went with a large hammer and mallet, ripping out everything inside Felicia other than the kitchen (which was newly installed already). Troy and his other half came down and started work, installing 2 new single beds. Upon their leaving after that day's work, we realised that the beds were shorter than originally measured. An omen? Noooo, I said. It's easy fixed, anyone could make that mistake, right?

Slowly, the excitement of this amazing new fit-out seemed to fade, as the work (we'll have it knocked over in a weekend) fizzled to a stop. During this down time, Felicia had her rust repaired, a shiny new paint job, and new registration! I'd also discovered a teeny tiny issue with the throttle in the engine a two minute fix and she was able to be driven much faster than before! So, I decided to take Felicia to Toowoomba for the boys to finish their work in their own workshop, hoping to have the job finished faster this way.

Felicia powered up the range, and we spent a whole weekend on building overhead cupboards, fixing the length on the beds, and building a pantry and some seating. A lot of work was accomplished, but alas, Felicia was still not complete. Still no wiring, no cupboards on the doors, but it was time to go home the boys promised to visit soon with doors etc and to finally finish the job.

The trek home, however, was not as smooth as the drive to Toowoomba. Felicia was emitting an alarming amount of smoke out of the engine hatch inside the bus (not to mention the amount of smoke coming out the back!). She was using oil like nobody's business. By the time I finally nursed her home, she had used almost 2 bottles of oil, and I could barely see out of the windscreen for all the smoke inside. Obviously, some further investigation was going to be needed!

Alas, the rest of the fit-out was never to be. Several phone calls, text messages, emails but no response from these professionals. Finally, with Mum dying to finally USE this dear old bus that she'd paid for months and months ago, we both got sick of the waiting, told them not to bother wasting any more of our time, and set off on finding somebody else to finish the job. Thankfully, we were able to make contact with a retired cabinetmaker, who will soon start on finishing what was started.

After having some mechanics look over the engine, it was decided that the only thing for it was to replace the engine entirely! At great expense, of course. But, the bullet needed to be bitten and Felicia now sits in a workshop in Brisbane in some state of disassembly. We are patiently (I use the word loosely) waiting for her return.

So in short, this bargain with a great engine and a good fitout with next to nothing needing to be spent has turned into a gigantic, white money pit. In hindsight, we could have bought a much newer model with the money that has been spent. But on the same token, we wouldn't have learnt anywhere near as many lessons as we did and we now at least say that pretty much EVERYTHING has been done to this old girl, and will give Mum years of worry free motoring from here on in.

I will post updates from here on in but fingers crossed, Felicia will soon be joining the rest of you on the road!