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Tue Aug 01, 2006 11:28 pm

How many splitbus Dormobiles are out there with the Martin Walter Dormatic interior?

I have owned my original 63 MW Dormobile for 11 years now and I have never seen another one.

Martin Walter Dormobile owners please post pics of your buses/interiors in this thread.

And please PM me; I'd love to hear from other owners of Martin Walter Dormobiles.

Tue Aug 01, 2006 11:41 pm

Here are some shots of the Dormatic interior:

Martin Walter ID plate:

Dormobile pop-up roof and rear kitchen/cabinet set in Hammerited steel:

Dormatic seats can face forward in two rows; comfortable seating for four:

Or the front pair can swivel to face the rear for saloon-style seating around the folding table (missing):

Or all the seats can fold away to clear floor space for cooking in the kitchenette:

Or they can fold flat to make two single beds:

Or a double bed:

There are two six-foot folding bunks in the Dormobile pop-top (the plaid one is the original material):

The steel kitchenette/cabinet set in the back:

Chrome Dormobile emblem on each front door:

Wed Aug 02, 2006 3:52 am

That's really cool Fig!
How quickly do the seats move into the different configuration?

Wed Aug 02, 2006 4:10 am

Mr. Electric Wizard wrote: That's really cool Fig!
How quickly do the seats move into the different configuration?

It takes a few seconds. You just pull the little handle you can see in the front seatbase and pull or push and it's done.

Wed Aug 02, 2006 5:43 am

Definitely sweet to see one in such a good condition.
It seems like most Dormobiles I see have WEsty interiors - was that a dealer option, or just something that people have done over the years?

Wed Aug 02, 2006 5:56 am

Not a Martin Walter conversion, but a 'Devon' conversion.

Westy's also had Dormobile roofs as an option (although I've only ever seen one and that was in a magazine recently).[/i]

Wed Aug 02, 2006 7:30 am

I've only seen one Dormobile with dormy interior... a '63 in England, and it was missing the interior. Well, it had originally come with that interior, not the Westy or an English camper kit. I was told at the time that there were three dormobile interior dormobiles in the UK, this was about 10 years ago.

Seen a number of dormy roofed splitty westies... maybe a dozen. Susan has had hers "Zapper" for over 20 years. I think I have seen 4 dormy roofed bay westies. search the gallery for "dorm*" and there are pics.

Wed Aug 02, 2006 9:19 am

TeamSpatula wrote: was that a dealer option, or just something that people have done over the years?

MW Dormobiles were sold through the main English VW Distributor, VW Motors of Earl's Court, London. My Dormer still has its original owner's manual in a VW Motors plastic sleeve.

Outside the UK only Westafalia campers were sanctioned by VW. In the UK, however, several local conversions were sold through dealers in addition to Westies, including the Martin Walter and Devon campers.

My Dormer's M-plate shows it was ordered to be converted into a camper, being a Kombi with two-tone paint, chrome hubcaps, etc:

Wed Aug 02, 2006 11:28 am

DAMN! Add another bus to the "Like to Own" list!

Wed Aug 02, 2006 6:34 pm

What a fantastic bus. I've never seen an interior like that. Super ride!

Wed Aug 02, 2006 9:01 pm

I love Dorms! That's the first time I've ever seen that interior in one and I gotta say it looks like a really good use of space compared to the normal westy. Awesome bus man!

Mon Aug 07, 2006 8:45 am

Thanks for all the kind words about my Dormer.

Does the complete lack of response from anyone who owns a Martin Walter Dormobile imply that nobody else on this forum has one? Are there any MW dormers in North America, or are they all westies?

I'm still looking for pics of other splitbus Martin Walter Dormobiles and contact with owners.

Mon Aug 07, 2006 8:50 am

Yeah, obviously a very rare item indeed! :o

Considering that even the Dormobile factory will put a top on just about anything, a true original and working MW will be tough to uncover! :?

Sun Aug 27, 2006 2:49 am

Here's mine. Been stored for loads of years, had some crappy homemade interior in it. Has all the MW bits, roof idiot light, MW id plate, thin aluminium belt line trim with a dark red insert, still has both original bunk material and covers, the roof works like a dream. The best bit is the MW front rack and the strangest is that is has factory belly pans. I think I may have a lead on the kitchenette from a wreck, not sure about the seats, but I'm contemplating putting in a devon interior for ease and comfort.

You can just make out the beltline trim in this, goes all the way around like a deluxe, but fit under the beltline.

Sun Dec 20, 2009 11:22 pm

All the photos Fig posted up are missing now. Would love to see what everyone is talking about. I have never seen some comprehensive photos of the Dormatic camper. A video would be a fine treat. What you think Fig? Could you indugle us? :)

Sun Dec 20, 2009 11:37 pm

Wow I dig that top. just checked out the pics mentioned by Clara and those things are cool 8) would love to see the missing pics

Sun Dec 20, 2009 11:41 pm

i know of an original owner tourist delivery kombi painted 2 tone (same color as figs) that was supposedly picked up at vw by the owner and brought directly over to england to mw to have it outfitted,has all of everything,pretty decent condition.....

he showed up at a local vw meet a few yrs ago,had me come and take pictures to broker a deal,but in the end it seemed he was just playing games,its just like figs,very nice interior,some original paint,but the touch of boogerdom by the original owner....first a corvair swap,then back to vw,then slathering bondo (or god knows what) in areas and painting over it (albeit the right color) but got a little greedy and painted the whole nose

Mon Dec 21, 2009 4:35 am

kombipode wrote: All the photos Fig posted up are missing now. Would love to see what everyone is talking about. I have never seen some comprehensive photos of the Dormatic camper. A video would be a fine treat. What you think Fig? Could you indugle us? :)

All the pics are on the vintagebus.com galleries. It seems there's been some sort of url change; the old urls had the IP number rather than the domain name.

I've fixed the links above.

Mon Dec 21, 2009 5:24 am

Thanks fig!

Mon Dec 21, 2009 12:54 pm

go figger there is one FS in the classifieds right now with the steel cupboards in the back etc..

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=894990