How to date a Portafold/Ansfold

[txfsealord]

Hi all, just got back from the Morris Minor club national rally. We encountered fellow Portafolders Lawrie & Christine Newton from Southampton with their Minor-towed 1965 Porty. They told me the last 2 digits of the chassis number was the date of manufacture - simple, isn't it? Apparently they knew, or knew of, the bloke who originally designed it but he had dementia & couldn't remember much about the van. They couldn't remember his name - I'll ring them later this week to try & get that. They aren't on the internet but they are members of the Airstream club so maybe anyone who knows other Airstream members could ask them to corroborate?

If it's true that makes our Ansfold a 1978! Anyone know when production ceased? (I've only just got back so apologies if that info's in our History). When I've more time I'll blog how we got on - it was our first time out with ours!

Steve

[Neil]

Yep the last two digits are the year.

By coincidence we went to a Powderham in our portafold this weekend, and when we were folding it down a guy was watching, afterwards he inquired how many were left as he didn't think there were many if any surviving

He then said how it was good to see some still about, then he told me his father made them (Brian James) Small world

[Admin]

Steve,

I wouldn't go chasing the chap your talking about (Lionel Abbs) he's in a home and way beyond any talk of Portafolds I'm afraid.

If you PM me or email me at matthew@portafold.co.uk with your full chassis number I might be able to give you more than just your year of manufacture. Plus I'll add it to my database where I'm collecting numbers of the surviving. When I've got decent stats on the years of manufacture I'll publish them on the site, but at the moment 1973 is very popular!