We went camping !

Nothing else has been done since the last post, well almost nothing :) We had a weekend away, only down to Brean, and we used our trailer tent to stay in, but the camper was the tow vehicle, and the dog vehicle, and the luggage vehicle, and performed brilliantly :). Didnt know we had the trailer tent on the back, and the sheer amount of stuff I can pack into this camper is amazing !, I didnt think the 2 seat storage areas would be enough, but they hold loads !. We decided to put the bed out, which was the main reason for getting the bed cubes made quickly, so that we could put the giant dog cage on it, with the seat cushions piled up behind on the fixed seat, this left room to store things down the side, and on top of the kitchen unit, and on top the pile of cushions, and we STILL had some room on the floor at the back where the 2 12v cool boxes were, which I ran off of the 12v socket that I fitted last week, using a 2 way adaptor. Leisure battery lasted all the way down there, all the way back, charged the laptop and mobile phones and ipod whilst down there, and I've just come in from work at the chinese, and have been watching tv with it on and off all evening. Good job as I havent fitted any other electrics to charge it yet !

These are a few pics from the weekend.....

This is the camper loaded up just before we left, dogs on board, and you cant see it in the pic but trailer tent is attached too, thankfully my towbar held well and the electrics :), the blue boxes are the 12v cool boxes, excellent fridges, keeping food and drinks icey cold all weekend.

And this is on site, trailer tent set up and camper in pride of place next to it ! What this picture doesnt convey is the 3 hrs it took us to get the tent up, we bought it a year ago off of ebay, and this was the first time we unpacked it and put it up ! It didnt help not having the space at home to test it first, anyway we now know and luckily the ebay auction was honest and genuine, so no nasty surprises with missing parts !

This is on the saturday night, it was pouring down but we had a barbecue planned with friends, so we rolled the awning out and put the camping table underneath with the barbecues on in metal stands, I was a little worried that the heat rising would damage it, but it didnt even get warm ! Next worry was with the rain was wind ! I worried that the awning wouldnt handle the wind, but neednt have, once out and adjusted, and legs pegged down, this is a VERY solid awning which would have taken some pummeling to damage, so in a practical sense, I actually made a very good choice when I bought it, and its a great size for the van, just wide enough and extends more than enough for shelter or shade.

You might have noticed the camper has changed a bit between the last 2 photos :) My good friend Jamie cut me a load of vinyl pawprints, based on my dog Barney's pawprints, I took a photo of the bottom of his paw, put it on the pc, then took the shape of the pads, and these are what I got, so they are extra special :). I took them down with me and spent an hour or so putting them on in wind and the odd spot of rain, but love them, thank you so much Jamie, will call you soon re Chloe :).

Well thats it for now, I will soon be getting on with the cupboard for the electrics, but first I want to sort the kitchen cupboard doors out as they are still scraping the floor and starting to leave scratches, which means that one day im going to be so fed up with them that I will be ripping them up and replacing them ! For now though I will get the doors sorted. I also want to set the bed up with the bedding on to see how it looks :) So may get a pic of that soon too.

Took a quick pic of it tonight on the phone, was getting dark and as I went to sit in the back, noticed how cosy the lights made it look in there :)

Some polishing off .......

Well spent the past couple days working on the camper, yesterday (sunday) I got a message from Tracy to say that her and Rob had the curtains back and were going to drop them down, so we quickly went out to the caravan shop on Bristol Rd in Gloucester. Not having much to spend, we settled on some caravan shower curtain rail and fixings, this is thin plastic rail that is flexible and will bend to curves, at only £8.60 per strip, it was less than half the price of the metal gliss curtain rail, and does the job, it still cost about £40 all in once we'd bought all the brackets and hooks.

Anyway once Tracy, Rob, Dusty and Harvey had come down and wrecked the camper whilst delivering the curtains (see dirty floor in pics !), :P, I set about cutting the rail to length and fixing them above the windows. I am very impressed with the curtains, Jean, Robs mum did a fantastic job on them and they sooooo match the interior :). See for yourself below.

Late into last night, ummmmm 1am to be exact, I glued the carpet to the remaining rear roof panel and the side loading door panel, and refitted them, I was holding off on the roof panel until I decided what was happening to the tv, but even if I knew, the panel would still have had to be covered, so did it now, makes a big difference having the whole roof yellow, much neater.

Today, I decided I would finish off the seats, still had a few jobs to do on them, and as Im not going to get the cupboard built before we go away or the electrics installed, I thought it best to finish off all the jobs that need finishing.

Seat wise, the seat opposite the kitchen unit, I still needed to cut some more off so it fitted past the kitchen unit when folded out into the bed position, I also had to fix the metal trim I had made for it on, I also wanted to change all the hinges I had put on for thinner flush fitting ones, and then I needed to carpet the top of the seat board to hide the wood and hinges that were showing. Once I'd done all that, Jen said that we needed some kind of 12v power at the back of the camper for the 12v cool boxes we have ready for thursday when we take it away, so whilst the seat was out and on a bench, I fitted a 12v socket to the front of the seat, and wired it ready to connect to the leisure battery. You can see a pic of it and the blue carpet beneath the seat pads and the metal trim in the pic below.

Once that seat was finished, I had to take the other one out. Needed to make the metal trim up for this one from scratch as I hadnt done it yet, then fitted a lid "stay" so that when we lifted the top up to access the storage space, you dont have to keep hold of it it just clicks and stays in the up position, you then push it back slightly and it releases to fold it back down. Then I needed to carpet the top like the previous seat. So all in all there was alot of work really just on those couple of things.

Its actually starting to look nice now and homely, something you could maybe ohhh I dont know, sleep in ? :P

Next job is to sort the kitchen unit doors, that are still scuffing the floor when they open. I also have to decide what wiring I am going to be doing before we go away, I dont need much, but as said before a socket for the cool boxes is a must to keep the barbecue stuff cold on the trip down etc. Would also like to get the seat/bed cubes done quickly just so I can try them out and see if they work, but these arent essential to the trip so will see what time I have left. Oh and would like to sort out a shelf in the kitchen unit that will house the gas bottle safely. Apart from that, I dont think there is alot else I can start on before thursday, will update the blog again hopefully before we go.

One last thing, the outside of the camper is going to look a bit different soon, I asked a friend that works as a sign writer, if he could make me up some vinyl pawprints to put on the camper for now and for a bit of fun when we go away, he agreed to in exchange for some pet photography, which I will gladly do ! :) Today he came up trumps and brought them round, they are going to look awesome ! :) Thank you so much Jamie !. Hoping to put them on on wednesday, so look out for a pic wednesday night :)

Safe and sound .....

Nothing else has been done conversion wise, but my brake parts did turn up the next day, so after cleaning the antirust stuff off the disks, fitted those, then found that the brake pads were different, so ended up putting my old ones on and ringing Vern and asking him to order the correct ones. Once I'd built it all back up I took it up the road and the brake pedal was awful, like there was air in the system, so parked it back up to wait for the correct brake pads.

Next day rang Vern and he said the VW guy that rang him insisted they were the right pads but that they had been modified, and sure enough I stripped it all back down this evening and they slotted in fine, built it all back up and took it up the road and a completely normal responsive brake pedal, result ! :) Another job out the way thankfully.

Not going to get alot done before Thursday, had wanted the cupboard built and the electrics done, but that wont be happening now, just not enough time. So will concentrate on carpeting the remaining 2 panels, and general tidying up and finishing off of the seats, which also need to be covered on the seat boards. Also want to make the bed cubes, and if I can get all that done maybe make a start on the cupboard framework. Then that will be about it until we come back.

Sorry forgot to take pics again, and im not taking the wheels off again anytime soon :P.

Oh talking of wheels I may have found some alloy wheels thanks to Chris, he owns a 2 litre turbo Golf, and is looking to change his wheels, and I really like the look of these. Have been speaking to another friend tonight, and he says the low profile tyres that are on it are a no no for a van, would make the ride way too hard, so would need to get normal tyres put on them, so I now have to come up with an offer thats good for both me and Chris, so speak to you soon Chris ! :)

This is Chris's Golf with the wheels on, they are 17", and I think they would look great ! What do you think ? Opinions please before I go ahead and buy them ! :)

Good News, Bad News.....

Well the show went great, the camper was brilliant, the awning did a great job, and with the side door open and the tailgate up, on a very hot day sitting inside was nice in the slight breeze that blew through. The limo tinted windows did a great job of keeping most of the sun out, but the curtains as well on the window opposite the side door would have made it that much cooler, so looking forward to getting those. Hoping they will be ready soon ! :)

The photography went well, wish I'd said I would do it officially now, had a few people come and ask how much I charged when they saw me working, next time, if you are reading this Jan ! :)

This is the camper set up, the white background you can see was pulled out each time I needed to use it and rolled back when not in use to stop it getting marked.

And these are a couple of the pics I managed to get with the above setup on the day :) Really enjoyed doing them !

Now the bad news, I drove it back home after the show and it stood for 2 days until I took it to work at the chinese, it felt sluggish on the way there, and after the first delivery I realised the rear brakes were seized, when I got back to the shop I went round and touched the wheels, and the drivers side rear was red hot, so I knew which brake was seized. Took it all apart today expecting to have to get a new caliper, but the caliper was fine, it was the handbrake lever that works the caliper when the handbrake is pulled on that was seized. The disk was very scored and had a rusty strip where it obviously wasnt being acted on by the brake pad. So I ordered a new set of rear disks and pads, and stripped all the brakes down, freed off the handbrake caliper lever, and its currently sat on the drive awaiting the new parts, hopefully they will come tomorrow. The parts were actually fairly reasonable. The disks were £21 each plus VAT, and the pads £20 plus VAT, all in all £71.30, so once I have bought some more copper slip grease, I guess £75. Could have been worse, and at least now I KNOW the rear brakes have been serviced, will check the front brakes if I get a chance tomorrow too. This camper is getting towards being totally rebuilt if it goes on much longer like this ! I am getting a bit fed up when each problem comes up as it takes money away from the conversion, but I guess its gonna be as reliable as I can get it once im done. I did think to myself when this happened, thats it, im giving up and going to see how much I can get for it and buy a cheap car instead, but I have gone so far with it, and when it is finished, it will be worth alot with all the new parts and the conversion, and at least with it all being done, I wont have to expect trouble from the new parts for a while.

One thing that is niggling me, is that the clutch thrust bearing is noisy, and its brand new !, bought a complete clutch kit when we replaced the engine, and Im not sure what to do about it, getting the gearbox off to replace it is going to take alot of work, its all very well claiming a new one under warranty, but I would need to claim the cost of the work to replace it too, and im not sure I can be bothered with a fight for it, will see how it goes and if it becomes a big problem in the near future. Might ask Vern, who supplied the clutch kit what his suppliers are like in this situation when I go pick up the brake parts tomorrow.

Thats it for today, will photograph the new parts in place when fitted tomorrow, and post up later, the good thing about this blog is that its a good reminder of all ive been through with this conversion, but also if i do decide to sell it further down the line, it creates a history for the camper for all the time ive had it, with pictures and prices proving its had all this work done, so any potential buyers can have a read through and see what a good buy it will be !!!! :)

Im NOT thinking of selling it by the way, but the reason I am doing everything properly and not cutting corners, is that I want it to be safe and the work to last, and it will add to the value just IN CASE I sell it one day.