Engine In !

At last the engine is fitted and running, but not without a couple problems along the way.

The engine came out reasonably easily, we took it out the top, although if we could have lifted the van up enough or had a ramp, it would just as easily have come out the bottom. One thing that struck both Jon and me is how well made and thought out these are. One neat little trick they have built in, if you undo the front grill panel and remove it, then undo the top 2 13mm bolts, this allows you to pull the radiator up and forward from the engine, but still be attached, so you can get to everything that is down the front of the engine, which would be the fuel pump, the alternator, the starter etc, I just thought it was well planned.

Anyway as the engine was coming out, the engine was tipping forward, so it was snagging on all sorts of things, this was because the hoist mount points are both on the front of the engine, the only badly designed bit I could see, although it may be more useful to have it tip forward if dropping out the bottom, so maybe this is why.

Jon built the new engine up with the turbo etc, new timing belt kit, and clutch and swapped any sensors over that were missing, whilst I was working, when I got home, it was done and ready for me to help him get it back into the van, this proved difficult, for 2 reasons, one was trying to get the right angle for it to mate up with the gearbox and push onto the gearbox spline, if the angle is slightly out you might as well be trying to shift a stubborn elephant, the second really annoying thing was that the hydraulic engine hoist decided it was going to constantly creep down no matter how much we turned the valve screw, which ended up in Jon working the top of the engine, me working underneath trying to get the right angle, and Jen pumping the hoist furiously trying to keep it at a stable height, the feeling when it finally popped onto the spline and Jon managed to get a couple of gearbox bolts in and started was great.

Jon then connected all the leads, hoses, cables and fuel pipes etc back up in lightning quick time, and Jen called me at work (I was working the chinese delivery job tonight), and told me that Jon had left it just needing the fluids putting in and the battery putting on, and that "it would be running tomorrow", hmmmmm.

Well tomorrow came and went, and unfortunately I just didnt have time to get it done, so resigned myself to waiting until Friday to finish it off. Friday came and I finished work, had a bite to eat then went out and with alot of hope, put all the fluids in and connected the battery, popped the key in and turned it over, and turned it over, then turned it over again until the battery started fading. Diesels are renowned for being a pain to start due to air in the fuel system, but I was sure that it should have started in the time I was turning it over. I rang Jon who kindly popped round on his way home from work, got it running on some brake cleaner straight into the inlet manifold which made it run albeit very noisily and only for a few seconds, but it proved the engine did actually work ! Nothing obvious showed itself, so he promised to come back saturday dinnertime and have a longer look.

Saturday came, and so did Jon, Martine you were a star waiting for him all that time in that heat !, after trying lots of things, and rechecking all the connections etc, we were stumped, and my mood wasnt getting any better, as Jen will vouch for, I was finally getting fed up with the whole thing, the amount of money I have spent on everything so far I dont want to think about. The engine replacement, including buying it, all the bits fitted whilst the engine was out, and giving Jon a few drinks came to around £1000, maybe just under, so understandably I was considering my options if it just didnt work.

Anyway whilst me and Jon were outside just about deciding that the problem was actually the fuel pump, which came with the new engine, we decided that the pumps black box was actually coded to the ECU, and obviously this new pump wasnt being recognised, and I had just agreed to pay Jon a little more to come back next week and swap the fuel pumps, not an easy job and lots of work !, Jen was ringing round any vw related garages in the hope that one would be open on a saturday afternoon, she finally got through to Blake Services in Stroud, and spoke to a guy called Richard, who was very helpful, knew his stuff, and told us that if we broke the black box off the back of the fuel pump that was on the van, we could run a live wire to the fuel cut off switch that was behind the box, which would allow the fuel through, this black box is very tamper proof, and took alot of persuading to actually come away from the pump, the reason for this is that it is the vehicle's immobilizer, the chip that is in the ignition key speaks to the ecu which then speaks to the fuel pump and tells it it can open the fuel shut off switch because the right key is being used, only it coulnt recognise the new pump so couldnt tell it to. Doing away with the black box meant that all the electronic circuitry that was preventing it from starting was no longer there, and using the live feed that went to the black box, which only works when the ignition is on, it now starts and stops perfectly, it just doesnt have an immobilizer at the moment, something to fix at a later date, probably with a switch hidden somewhere inside the camper.

As soon as it started, Jon went on his way and I tidied up. Started putting all the bits back together and fitting the metal engine cover that sits along the bottom of the engine to stop any road debris from being kicked up and damaging things. Started the engine again and realised that the oil light was flashing constantly andit beeped like mad to start with, well by this time I was getting used to disappointment, so rang Jon who was still on his way home and asked if he had any ideas, he didnt, so went and moaned to Jen that we now had another problem and that I was going to scrap the bloody thing ! I went back out and tidied up some more sulking. Meanwhile Jen looked on a few forums and this problem has come up a few times before, most of them had traced the fault back to the alternator, and one of its 2 small wires being damaged, so off came the metal protector underneath the engine again, and I had a look at the alternator, the lower plug with the red wire looked damaged, so I went to pull it off and it almost fell away in my hand, shone a light and used a mirror to see into the plug recess on the back of the alternator and saw that the single pin was bent over, so obviously making no contact at all with the plug, bent the pin back straight, pushed the plug back on and tried starting it again, this time the oil light went out and stayed out :). So well done Jen, for the third time in a couple days you did a great job :) x.

For the final time I put the cover back on and built the front and radiator back up and started it again, oil light went out, drove it to the end of the road and back, and it ran fine :), darent take it any further until its back off of SORN, ie taxed, but looking forward to giving it a proper drive and seeing if it goes as well as the old one did before it blew.

So thats it, its up and running again and for the first time in 3 months is sat in a slightly different place on the drive :).

Today (sunday) I was supposed to carry on with the seating, only problem is that the tubing I bought allowed very little clearance when putting one inside the other, this is very important to the design and i was really disappointed to find that the tubing just doesnt fit, which is a real pain as Andy has already welded the main structures together, so am having to rethink the whole seating and try and incorporate what I have already and get it to work as a pull out bed. Nothing is coming to mind at the moment, so tomorrow may be covering the sliding door panel as the carpet has turned up along with the extra yellow to finish off the rear roof panel. BUT I really need to figure this seating out asap.

Thats about it for now, the windbreak and shower have turned up, so getting there.

This is the new engine fitted :) Come back soon ! :)

Some Better Pics Of Interior & Seat Pads

Just a couple more pics of the interior, obviously the seat pads are just placed inside for now to show the seat configuration, next inside job, (inside job ? that sounds a bit dodge doesnt it :P), is to build the seat boxes, the seat in front of the wheel arch will be fitted over the wheel arch when the carcass is built.
Today I picked up the last bit of metal for the bed pull out frame, this will be fitted over the wheel arch seat box, and will pull out to make the bed. Once all that is done, I can see for sure how much room I will have for the cupboard and the kitchen unit.
These pics were taken with an ultra wide angle lens, so if it all looks a funny shape thats why :) (thanks to Tammy for lending it to me whilst she is on her holidays !)

The Doorstep on the side door will eventually be finished off with a blue plastic door step from Volkswagen, I believe they are about £35.

Also have to mention the engine, the new engine is in now, and connected up, just need to put the fluids in and the battery, see if it starts and runs ok, then replace the bottom engine cover and pollen filter that goes above the battery. So more to come tomorrow (actually later today), a big thanks to Jon for all his hard work getting the engine sorted, lots of new parts, a big thanks to Verns Autoparts in Tredworth for those, so check back later and see if the engine was a goodun or not :) (PLEEEEEEEEEASE all keep your fingers crossed for me, if I have to I will get another engine, but please dont let me have to !) :)

Engine Started and Sneak Preview of Seating Cushions...

Today we started the engine replacement ! Yay ! :)

Jon arrived about 2pm, and we got stuck in, I was just helping doing the odd bits and fetching carrying and coffee runs, I just dont have the memory to remember where everything goes anymore. Anyway all went pretty well, nothing too hard to report, until the engine was all disconnected and sitting on the trolley jack supported by the engine hoist, there are 2 ways to bring the engine out, from the front with the radiator removed etc, and from underneath, but you then have the problem of lifting the van off and over, so that way is best done if you have used of a ramp, either way the radiator has to come out to allow access to all the bits and pieces behind it. Anyway, Jon was loosening it from the gearbox, and it suddenly dropped forward and ended up wedged on its front, managed to lift it back up with the hoist and trolley jack, and after a lot of wiggling and jiggling it came out around 6pm tonight, so 3-4 hrs to get it out, not too bad :) Its suspended on the engine hoist in the carport now next to the new engine, Jon will be back in the morning to swap all the bits over and replace the clutch and timing belt with pulleys, whilst I am working, then hopefully it will be almost ready to put back in by the time I get home to help again.

Some pics below show it coming out and on the hoist next to the new one, sorry about he quality, my phone seemed to be playing up today, not focusing properly, but you get the idea :)

Engine In Place, Front Panel & Radiator Removed

All Disconnected And On Hoist Ready To Lift Out

Its A Big Hole Where My Engine Used To Be !

New Engine On The Left 89k, Old One On The Right 195k :)

Went to Focus on my way back home and bought the Aluminium strip to finish off the back of the laminate flooring, wasnt hard to fit, used chrome collets and steel screws, finished it off nicely :)

The Aluminium Strip To Finish The Laminate Flooring

Well here it is, the sneak preview as promised, delivered quicker than promised, havent had a chance to make the seat carcasses yet ! :) Martin, will email you the details of the company, just havent had time to reply yet :) This seating is made from 4" fire retardent foam, covered in blue leatherette, I wasnt sure about the colour when I first saw it in the box, but when I put it in the van, and pictured it with similar coloured curtains, I think they will do fine :) Obviously better photos to follow when the seating has been installed, have to pick up the last of the metal tomorrow so that the metal bed pull out frame can be finished, then just need to build them up and bolt them in :)

Thats it for an update today, as well as what I just said, have to go back to Vern's tomorrow and get a new battery for it, the old one flattened and wont take a full charge anymore, so may as well replace, Im thinking nearly everything has been replaced now !

Talking of which, when we were taking the engine out today, Jon thinks that the starter motor, front exchaust down pipe, turbo, and alternator have all been replaced in the last year or so, so thats really good news, when its all done I should have a van to last ! :)

Important Safety Message and Flooring...

IMPORTANT SAFETY MESSAGE

When fitting the foam underlay that lays beneath the Laminate Flooring, and cutting it into the edges, DO NOT wave the Stanley Knife around whilst paying no attention whatsoever to what your other hand is doing and end up slicing the end of your index finger.

----------------------------------------------------------

Back to your usual programming.....

Yes yes it was me I did it, and now have a very sore poorly finger to prove it. Im such an idiot sometimes. Anyway.......

Today I was so tired from yesterday and really aching, so had a lazyish morning after which we popped out for an hour or so, so didnt actually get started on the camper until late afternoon.

First job was to take up the carpet I had stapled to the floor the day we went to Wales and the engine blew, so quite a while ago now. Took quite a while as when I pulled the carpet up the staples just broke the fibres and stayed stuck in the wood underneath.

Once this had been done, I swept the back out clean, then hoovered all the linings etc, making sure all the dust and loose debris was gone.

Next job was laying the foam underlay, this is when my 'accident' happened, on the first cut, which was good in a way, made me take notice and pay attention to what I was doing ! I layed the first strip then started laying the laminate.

This wasn't actually as hard as I thought it was going to be, thanks to Mike who lent me his laminate flooring fitting kit, I did quickly watch some videos on You Tube first to pick up a few pointers, then got stuck in. It was pretty easy to do the cut outs, I used a Dewalt 18v Jigsaw, it went through it easily, and luckily barely made a mistake the whole time. One of the first pieces I laid down, the one looking from the back of the camper, going round the right hand or drivers side wheel arch it didnt seem to click into place properly, I carried on but once I'd gotten towards the end and realised that that first one hadnt actually worked properly, I shifted the flooring over slightly and took the first row back up again and redid it, looking more closely at the strip of laminate, I found it hadnt been machined properly, and the very end was discoloured, once i'd cut the new piece out and put the row back in, it all sat down properly and clicked together positively, I'm glad I went back and did it as even though that piece would have been underneath the seating, it would have always been in my mind.

So that was it for today, and it has really made a difference to the look inside, its all coming together, to finish off the flooring across the back door, Focus do an aluminium angle strip that I am going to get and fix down to hide the end of the wood, and the side door opening, I will order a plastic door step cover from Volkswagen, they do it in blue, this will finish off the step and has a lip that will finish off the bare wood from the cut around the step, pictures to come when done :) This is how it looked today when I finished, I was a little bit pleased :P.

Wow what a day ! :)

What a lovely day, it was so hot, maybe a little too hot at times, but the weather allowed me to get on with things.

First job of the day was to fit the awning rail to the van, it was the first job because where the camper is parked, the sun was beating down and I needed some shade.

I didnt have the correct size drill for the screws I had to use, so ended up using a slightly bigger one, drilling in so far, then using a big long screw and hammer to pierce a hole big enough for the small screws I was using to start screwing into. Because of this it took a while longer, but saved me a few pounds buying a new drill bit. I fitted the rail so that the opening was almost facing skyward, after placing the awning in its bag on the side of the van, i moved it round toward the top of the roof until it cleared the sliding door, then moved it on another inch or so to be safe, marked it then taped the rail using some cellotape onto the van, then fixed it down. Slid the awning bag in and unrolled it, it worked a treat, although because the plastic lugs in the bag that hold the tension bars were almost facing the sky too, I ended up resting the bars on the side of the awning rail, which seemed to work ok, once upit was solid.

Second job of the day was to finally get the insulating done, thanks to Martin's guide, I went and bought a sheet of 50mm Kingspan and a sheet of 25mm Kingspan, both were 8ftx4ft, the 50mm was to go in the lower half of the van walls where the cavity is wider, and the 25mm was for the top half. Its very easy to cut with a hand saw, and the following pictures speak for themselves. I used Hard As Nails glue to stick them to the walls, in Martin's guide he taped up all the gaps that were left, but on doing it, I decided this wasn't nescessary in my case, so left it as you see in the pics.

I did do the back door too, bit forgot to take photos, and Im not getting all those clips out again ! :P The side loading door is to be done too, but as I still have to line the wooden panel, decided to do it all at the same time when the carpet arrives. It was good to get this out of the way, I was tempted to shortcut for now and do it another time as time is short and so is money, but my conscience wouldnt let me and if we are going to be using it in a couple weeks overnight, then anything that reduces the condensation needs to be done.

Third job was to figure out what Im doing with the TV bracket, the idea is to fix the bracket I bought with 4 bolts to the rear roof brace, with the bracket length going from the back of the van to to the front, so quickly fixed some bolts in place and put the bracket up, then fixed the tv to it, it was fine, it worked, but as the 4 bolts form a square across the brace, the bracket has a tendency to bounce, so am now thinking I am going to put the length of the bracket along the brace, drill a few more holes so it fixes front and back which should stop the bouncing. Only thing is when the tv is in its up position, it has to be turned to the side of the van then flipped up, Im not sure I will have enough room if I fit a tall cupboard, so will have to do some measurements.

This pic is where the bolts are at the back of the van. I will use them again in the new configuration so for now they are still there.

As you can see, the roof still hasnt been lined, which brings me to my next job of the now evening.

I had to take the roof lining down, and remove the LED light that I had fitted over where the "kitchen" is going to be, and move it to the front roof panel to form a square of lights, the reason I changed my mind about that light is that it was very close to the tv, so all the lights are in the front roof panel for the time being, and I will look out for a strip LED light to go above the kitchen part.

Once the hole for the 4th light was cut out from the front panel, I covered it in the yellow carpet, and unfortunately realised I didnt have enough yellow left to cover the rear roof panel in one piece, I could cover in it a couple pieces, but it would look rubbish, so am going to have to order another meter or so as I did with the blue, lesson learned this time and will order from the same seller I bought my other yellow from. So the rear panel is yet to be covered, the front one is now covered, but another lesson learned, when you are covering panels, dont do it then turn it over onto a dirty table top fold it round the back of the panel, I now have dirty drag marks across it which I am hoping will come off with some electro foam. Once covered I cut all the holes out in the material for the lights and plastic clips that fix the panel to the roof.

Once the material was fixed and almost dried, I started fixing the lights in, and running the cables, just used a bit of gaffer tape to fix the wires to the back of the panel to keep them tidy.

This was the final pic of the night, it was dark, and I had just put the roof panel in place, not an easy job for one person as im sure all you other T4 owners out there know ! Its very awkward. Anyway, connected up the LED lights, and you cant really tell from the pic, sorry about the quality, all these pics from today were taken with my phone, but with the roof yellow too, the effect is very good, will take a better quality one tomorrow when its daylight.

So thats it for tonight, the rear roof panel will have to wait now, so tomorrow will be about repostioning the TV bracket, doing the flooring, and hopefully making the seat boxes, I think tomorrow it could start looking a bit different :) Alot of todays work is hidden stuff so there werent any drastic changes to see apart from the awning and the roof panel. The flooring, I have chosen a maple laminate, is quite light so will really brighten up the inside and give it a more finished look.

Tuesday the engine replacement is starting, so hopefully by the end of the week it should be running again if everything goes to plan ! Oh yeah that reminds me, I charged the battery that had completely flattened, put it in the van to power up the lights and it was pretty much dead, I ended up powering it with my booster power pack, so need to buy a battery for it too now. Hoping the flow of money out starts to tail off soon, when I think about what I have spent already it isnt pretty reading ! I think I said at the beginning of this blog that I needed to do this for a hobby and to use, as if you did it to make money on, it wasnt worth doing !

The Awning

Managed to get the awning fixed up to the carport today to see what it was like, and also as shade or shelter when we replace the engine, very impressed :) It doesnt look that big in the photos, but there is plenty of shelter underneath it, its going to be amazing on the side of the camper.

Dont regret buying this before the conversion was finished at all ! :)

Metal Bed Frame

Just a quick piccie of the metal placed together on the ground, the large piece will be the frame that fixes to the top of the seat box, and the smaller one will butt up against the front of the seat with some smaller tube attached but inside the seat tubing, so its telescopic, when we need the bed out, just pull it out and fold the seat board out and over the top of it. Confused ? Honestly it will work, I think :)

Lots of bits turning up .....

Well nothing else has been actually done still, this weekend I am aiming to crack on and get a lot of stuff sorted, but the preparation seems to be going on and on.

The battery has turned up, went for a Lucas 120 amp leisure battery in the end, I was looking at the 180 amp ones, but when I saw the physical size of the battery was around half a meter long, I thought it was going to be a tad too big for where it was going.

Also got the 12v Wii lead for when we take the Wii away !

Rich told me to get the garage consumer unit from screwfix for the electric hookup, at £38, before I went ahead I had a quick look round ebay and found one that had a best offer on it, new stock, it was at £16.99 buy now which was way cheaper anyway, the seller settled for £15 plus postage, so looking at around half the price screwfix wanted, so am pleased about that. Should be nice and safe now.

Got the blue carpet I needed to finish the interior, only I didnt, the auction said Bright Blue, unfortunately its not as bright as the carpet I have already used, its quite a bit darker, so am going to have to order some more from the original seller, he didnt have any when I looked earlier in the week, should have waited I guess and seen if he listed some, but on the auction it looked just the same. Not to worry. I can use the darker carpet to line the wooden boards that will top the seats.

Talking of the seats, have decided to make the fixed seat out of wood, and the converting seat from a wooden base with a metal frame top and a metal pull out frame to convert to a bed. Picked up most of the metal today, but the smaller size i needed to fit inside the main stuff, they ordered round tubing instead of square, so have to pick that up wednesday, so cutting it fine, but still doable. Bought the wood from B&Q earlier, they are doing a special deal on some, about £3 off per length, bought enough for both seats, and then 4 extra lengths in case i decide to build the tall cupboard myself.

Oh I fixed the awning rail to the front of the carport tonight to see what the awning was like, its very good and gives a good amount of coverage, was pretty big on the carport, will be very big for the van, give plenty of shelter or shade, only problem was I fixed it too low so the leg rest point has nothing to sit against, will fix it higher tomorrow. Will try and get the van rail fixed on tomorrow too, looking forward to seeing what it looks like on that.

Thats all for now, hopefully be a few pics of my progress over the weekend, so make sure you come back and check :).

Getting it all together ......

A few things happened today after the cheque for the lens cleared, had spent half of it before I went to work this morning :).

Ordered the leisure battery, some more blue carpet to finish off the lining, some inline fuse holders, 12v power lead for Wii etc.

After work, went and picked up the bits needed to fit the new engine, which is hopefully being done next tuesday. I am pretty much replacing all service items, so the bits ordered are -

Clutch Kit / Timing Belt Kit / Power Steering Belt / Alternator Belt / Oil / Oil Filter / Air Filter

If it goes wrong after having all that replaced, then I give up ! I'm hoping to have quite a few thousand miles of trouble free motoring !

I had intended on buying foam and material etc to make the seating cushions, which would have cost about £150 for materials and then I had the hassle of putting it all together into seating, last night Jen found someone on Ebay that had the exact seating I needed for my seating structures, exactly the same size and layout, so she rang them this morning and negotiated a blue leatherette covering, which will wipe clean easily after the dogs have been sat on it !, with delivery the middle of next week, all professionally made up and delivered for just short of £240. So about £100 more than I intended to spend, but a much more professional look to it. This picture is of a grey and white material version of the seating -

Nice isnt it :)

Now all I need to do is make a decision on how Im going to build the seating structure, I want it to work independantly of the rest of the camper, not rely on the bed having to rest on other bits of furniture to form the bed, so we went and had a look around some motor homes yesterday and they use a mix of wooden and metal framed structures. None were really what we wanted though, so when we got back, Jen thought of a way we could do it with metal square tubing. I worked out all the details, how much tubing we would need etc and exactly how it would all fit together, rang Andy and asked him if he would be prepared to weld it all up, he agreed bless him ! :), then Jen rang a local metal works firm this morning, all the bits and lengths cut to size ready to weld, came to £150, now this would be great, very strong, and give maximum space inside the seating for storage, but £150 is another big dent in the money, and we already don't have enough to finish it all off, so may have to look for a cheaper alternative, Ihave designed a wooden structure that is based on a drawer system, where a big drawer pulls out of the main seat which has a double top to it that will foldout over the "drawer" to form a 6ft x 4ft bed, could probably build this for about half the price and it would be lighter than all metal which would save a bit of fuel, so is likely to be the way we go, although it would mean less storage space as the wood frame would be bulkier.

Will try and post either a plan of what I want to do or the finished pic of the structure to show you what i mean.

Bought the laminate flooring on the way home too, 2 packs = to 5 m2, which should be more than enough, maple effect to match the worktop, need to find matching units now for the cupboard and kitchen unit.

Bought a strip of awning rail whilst we were at the motor home shop, need to get another for the camper, going to put this one on the front of the carport to give Jon a bit of shelter when he fits the engine out on the drive. One 12ft strip cost £14.40.

Thats about it for now, waiting for the ordered bits to come, and need to sort out some wire and electric sockets etc and a few more bits and pieces, got to be really careful with the money so will look for the best deal.

Need a sink/hob too, and actually saw a nice one on the T4 Forums, but got there a tad late as it looks like it has already been sold, shame because it looked really nice and would have fitted my kitchen unit just right.

Check back soon, as things are going to be moving along quite quickly now, so lots of pics to come ! :)

Awning....

Well while I've been waiting for Jon to come and make a start on the engine, I sold my long lens to fund the rest of the conversion, many thanks to Sarah that bought it, I hope you have a great time with it and take some fantastic photos through it. I have ordered the Timing Belt kit, Clutch kit, Oil, Filter, Air Filter, Alternator Belt, and if it uses one a Power Steering belt, but I think it uses the same belt as the alternator, anyway I have left that to Vern's Autoparts in Tredworth who is doing me a good deal on it all.

I have been searching the net for an awning for it, one that fixes along the roof and pulls out when needed, decided to go for a bag type one as opposed to a cassette style one mainly because of the size difference, the bag ones are far smaller in profile, and dont have to stick up from the roof, and also easy to remove as they just slot into a normal caravan awning rail. Anyway after searching through Ebay, finally found one that I liked the look of and emailed the seller, Paul, it was based in Redditch, and had been fitted to a Sprinter van, I believe used for motorcross events, these awnings come in 2 colours, blue or grey, this one is grey, it was advertised as 3.1 meters which is a little too long for the camper, but when I looked at the pics, it just didnt look like that length to me, so texted Paul and asked if he could measure it just to be sure, and sure enough it was 2.8 meters, apparently when he bought it it was advertised as 3.1 meters and he never had any reason to question it, hey Paul it happens to us all :), which is a difference of a foot, which meant that it would fit the full length of my T4 with a couple inches spare, ideal :). These awnings are £184 new, and Paul kindly said I could have it for £90, and even agreed to deliver it from Redditch to my house for £10, Paul i'm sure you spent more than that on fuel, so a very big thanks for that, and it was pouring down when he came so loads of kudos to him !

So all in all a bargain I think, and will be very useful when using the camper, may even fit a rail to one of the ambulances and use it at shows too so will definately get lots of use.

These pics are from Pauls advert on Ebay, hope you dont mind Paul, will post some up of it attached to the Camper when I get the rail attached. Also thinking of fixing a rail to the front of our car port so can use it on that to work under too, as I said it will be extremely useful.

Also managed to find a work top to go on the sink and hob unit, decided on Beech coloured laminate flooring, and have found a worktop to match that, got a really good deal on that too, in Focus, they had 4 of these worktops, discontinued, selling them off for £10 each for a 3 meter length, obviously wont need all that but for £10 when they are around £90 normally, I wasnt going to say no :).

Talking of the laminate flooring, Focus do a pack of it that covers 2.5 m2 for around £10, will need 2 packs, the underlay is about £18 a roll and they dont sell it any smaller, when we were in Tesco the other day there was a pack of the underlay on the ad cards on the way out, the person had overbought, cost £18 selling for £5, so quickly popped round and got that too :). If I can keep getting good deals on the bits needed, I actually may be able to get this camper finished ! :)

Be great if I could get a sink and hob greatly reduced, at the moment the lowest price for a Smev one is about £160 plus delivery, so a big chunk out of my lens money, will have to see what I can do !

Yay !

Met up with Dave at Reading Services on Wednesday, he came from West Sussex, I'd taken one of our foldup tables which I made a bridge with between vans, and we slid the engine from one van to the other, seems ok, Dave seems a nice bloke so hopefully its a good one and I havent been ripped off !

So Yay ! I have an engine finally :)

Just have to get a cam belt kit and a clutch kit and some oil and a filter, and we can start fitting it.

FINALLY I have some motivation back to crack on with the conversion :). Its been such a downer having it sat on the drive broken. Be great to start using it again, once the engine is in, it has to be MOT'd, and taxed, so a way to go yet, but at least things are moving along again. :)

Small Ray of Hope.......

Today Jen found an engine on Ebay, its from a W reg Transporter, done 89,000 miles, and comes complete with the Turbo, have contacted the seller, and am hopefully meeting him on Wednesday to buy it, it will be around half the price of the recon, the seller swears it has no problems, he has heard it running in the van it was taken from, sometimes you just have to place your trust in people and hope they dont disappoint you, it looks ok from the pic, no sticky black marks around the engine, looks fairly complete, so with a bit of luck the camper will at least be running again sooner rather than later. I recently SORN'd it, as the MOT ran out last week, and TAX ran out the end of April, so once the engine is done it will need MOTing and Tax, then I can at least drive it again :). The conversion hasnt gone any further, I just cant get the motivation whilst its not running. But hoping soon that will change when its on the road again and to be honest, now the carpet has been done inside, just need to buy some bits and pieces and it wont be long before its a working camper.