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 !