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 ! :)