Car Sold - Things Moving Quickly With Norman II

Ok good news on the car front, thursday after getting Norman II (as it has now been named after Norman, our T25 from last year), the ad that was online on Trade-Its website must have gone in the paper, as I had 2 phone calls, one from a guy in Bath, who said he'd ring back at the weekend to view (he didnt), and one from a guy in Cheltenham, Matthew, well I say one, he rang about 10 times in all bless, anyway he ended up buying the car offering me more money than I had agreed to sell it for to the guy in the forest, so was very happy about that, so now its gone, and what I had begged and borrowed has now been repayed :). So Norman II is now my sole vehicle apart from our Ambulances and Jens MG (Jen you should start a blog for that !).

Took NII (Norman II) to the chinese last tuesday and wednesday nights, and he went great, didnt use excessive fuel, was easy to get around in, and I enjoyed driving him. Wednesday night Id got my act together and set the LED projector up on a board on the interior box opposite the side door, closed the side door and gaffer taped a piece of white vinyl against it and sat on the seat and watched an episode of 24 through my ipod on the projected 25" or so screen, how cool :) Had the ipod audio going through the stereo. Really enjoyed that, it re-enforced my thoughts on how useful a camper will be to us.

I have now designed how I want the interior to look, I have decided not to go for the traditional rock and roll bed design with hob and sink opposite side door, but go for a more caravan look and feel, I got the idea from the red transporter we went to see in caerphilly, he had actually used some donor caravan seats and chopped them about, i intend to make mine from scratch, made to measure. I have done a crude diagram of how the back of the camper will look when viewed from the back of the front seats, so you are looking down toward the back door (Yes that is a flip down LCD TV hanging from the roof :) ). With this design you can have 2 or 3 people sitting and chatting or watching tv, with some floor space left, rather than 2 people sat side by side on one seat with the more traditional rock and roll seat. Also this one you can just go in and lie on the long seat without pulling anything out into a bed. The seat going down the length of the van will have a fold out top which will foldout across the van and form a double bed as in a caravan.

Hope you can make that out ok, its just a picture of a drawing using my mobile phone, will maybe try and scan it properly sometime. *update - Now Scanned :)

So thats the design, I went and took some photos of it for this blog, whilst I was doing that I had a look underneath and what I could see was solid, not a bit of rust anywhere, rear floor looked solid and like new, and the sills were solid, so no idea what the MOT report was talking about, maybe find out when I put it through an MOT myself, but my mind is more at ease about it now. Just in case I am on the security camera tapes of Wingets in Gloucester, and someone is reading this, just want to say thanks for the use of the rear car park at Wingets for my "photo shoot", even though there was no-one there to ask permission from to do so.

Here is what I came up with from that day -

These are some exterior shots, trying to get that Top Gear look :P. At this point I had done nothing to the van, the following pics are of the interior as it was given to me -

As I didnt intend to keep this interior and had designed the above interior, rather than throw all this interior into the shed and let it rot and mould, thought I would try selling it on ebay, ended up with lots of questions and 10 watchers ! Started it at £50, thought that was fair and anyone looking to do something similar wouldnt have been able to buy all the wood, foam and material for that kind of money, it would be some more much needed cash to put towards something for NII and it would be out of my way. Anyway Sunday James from Wales rang and asked to view it, haggled a little, I told him I would end the auction early for £80 if he decided to have it, he came back with £60 but I stuck to my guns and sunday afternoon he drove up from Cardiff and paid me the £80 for it, we took it out there and then, took us about an hour and he went off with it to put in his own SWB T4. Good luck with that James, hope you finish it off and dont just leave it in your garage or shed :).

So now I have an empty T4 van, or maybe a better way to think about it is a blank canvas. Itching to get started on building the interior, but a couple things to sort first.

Tomorrow morning (27th - Happy Birthday Brian and Mike !), Jen is taking it to Discount Tyres in Gloucester, they are supplying 4 new budget tyres (195/70/15) for £38 a piece, £48 cheaper than the quoted price from Formula One Autocentre, who were price matching my fictitious quote from Bathwick. I have ordered some funky looking Chrome trims from ebay that are known as "Spinners", as in they carry on spinning when you stop driving! Tacky, maybe, naff, maybe, Steve like them ? Not at all, but its my camper and I like them :) Well at least on ebay, may be a different story when they are on my van !

Friday I have booked 5 Valleys Windscreens to come out and cut big holes in the sides and fit 2 new windows over the holes :) To do this myself, parts come to approx £60 per side, and I have all the worry and hassle about cutting big holes in my van and not knowing what I am doing, a quote from a recommendation from the guy at VW Vans in Cheltenham was £240 plus vat, which is getting on for £300, Five Valleys are coming to my house, and supplying the parts and cutting the holes and fitting them for £100 per side all in, result :) I will tint them to match the back window and also makes the van more private when sitting in the back during the day, also darkens the back slightly if watching tv or my projector :).

Have also ordered a towbar from ebay, just the bar, not the ball or electrics, can get those anywhere, it was £53.25 delivered. Hopefully that is being couriered here for tomorrow. Will take pics while fitting. Apparently no drilling or bumper removal nescessary, so thats good.

Also played with the heater controls, it was stuck on hot air, the lever that the temperature cable acts on was broken, so need to look out for a new 3 way heater control.

Gear knob has been a problem since I picked NII up, very loose and feels like it will come off, took it all apart and it attaches to the gear stick but 3 little worm screws that bite into the stick metal, 2 werent screwed in at all, only one was holding the knob on, (which is a posh brushed aluminium type thing that lights up with blue led's), so tightened all 3 and now its solid as a rock and not going anywhere, just need to sort some new batteries out for the led's in it and its good to go.

Sorry its been a long entry this time, but havent had time to sit down and do this as its all been happening.

See you soon ! :)