Major move forward

As shown in the last blog i had removed the row of seats behind and taken out the table.




In place of the chairs i have put in the frame for the box that will be storage, a chair, and bottom part of the double bed in the main compartment of the van.



I then enclosed the box with plywood and put a lid on it.


Remember the hole that had been made by removing the seats

well it now looks like this,




The next step is to put a hinge on the lid so it opens and closes, and I need to put a cushion on top of it which will be approx 15cm deep which will bring it in line with the height of the remaining seats. Also the table will go back in with an adaptation to hopefully make it the third part of the bed.

I know i keep saying it but everything that you see done in the van has been done by me, and i am not a professional tradesman, so if you fancy a go, there is nothing to stop you.

Almost there ( I wish )

Well the bedroom in the rear of the van is almost complete! yeah



As you can see i have put some storage in , these are hanging storage from ikea which will ultimately be replaced by something a but more permenant. The wheel arches have been covered with material, ok they are not as good as the walls but remember I said at the start i am no professional at DIY just your average guy trying his best. The flooring has been finished up to the rear of the van and finished of with an aluminium edging strip for good old B&Q.



The new battery is in and thankfully all the electrics in the van now work for more than a minute and they are also surprisingly brighter than they were before. The sink now has running water and the waste pipe has been fitted so now the water runs and the van wets itself! (out the bottom of the van)



Then Next thing that has changed is in the main body of the van.

Remember this ,







well with a wee bit of rejigging it now looks like this,




This space is where the new bed come dining area is getting put in. First bolt was a pig to get out but with wedging a spanner on the bottom of the van and some brute force and ignorance, of which i have loads to spare, and all the bolts are out. Table took the angle grinder to cut out but its out and ready for construction to begin.

Finally back to the conversion

After the inconvenience of having to go to work again i have finally managed another week on holiday and that means more time for the van, yiippeeeee!

So here is how it has turned out so far

The van has had it's insides ripped out to put in the bedroom for the kids and this week my intention is to take out the middle section and create a sleeping area for me, ok and the mrs i suppose!


Monday has been another of those futtery, sorry akward for those reading that might not understand the lingo, i have removed my old sad battery from the back of the van and replaced it with a 115Ah leisure battery from Alpha Batteries, free plugs for you business guys, and that means that the lights and everything electrical will now last more than 90 seconds before going off.


The major achievement for today is that i have running water in the van, no its not a leak in the roof! i have fitted my water pump and the water now flows off the control panel. The water pump was not expensive and bought from Just Kampers, which looks to be for VW campers only but does supply other items.


sorry there are no photos but not much to take photos of, more tomorrow hopefully with pictures

First proper outing

Well it has reached that time and the van has had an outing in it's new life as a camper!


Sunday 7 march 2010 will go down in history as the first outing, although a long way from being finished, the basics along with some of my camping equipment lead to a fairly pleasant experience with great anticipation for how future trips go as the van draws nearer to completion.

As you can see from the picture, three families left Paisley and made the journey to Pollok Park, for a picnic lunch in our vans and a walk around the park.

The convoy consisted of my Transit, a Mazda Bongo, and the soon to be finished classic VW camper, and yes it is older than it's owner (just). We all have work in progress vans although some are more work in progress than others.


Even Mairi and Ella saw the enjoyable side of going out in the van, Nathan on the other hand was more interested in the bag of crisps in the bag on the floor.

With the first trip under the belt it now means that I will need to get a move on and get some more work done to secure cooking facilities, sleeping accomodation, and some more storage.

An Inside job

Decided to do some of the annoying jobs today, when i finally got my act together.

Do you remember the retro (aye right) kitchen unit that i got for a fiver? well it is not quite finished but her is a rough idea of how it will look.




looking a bit more modern with new tops and doors !

This change is happening after digging around Ikea's bargain basement, cost so far is £24

You can also see that my water bottle arrived today and is snuck under the table at the end of the kitchen unit.

i also found a multi purpose bathroom cabinet which is lockable and will serve as a toothbrush holder, cupboard to hide things in with the lock, and mirror as it is polished metal, fantastic multi purpose is the way forward when you are short on space.


Also in the picture you will see i have added additional metal sheeting behind the kitchen unit.

The thing that took the longest to do today was this



Not see it? for the observant of you the extra seat at the sliding door has parted company with the van and gone off in a huff! and after the fight to get it out it can go and stay in the huff as far as i am concerned. Held in by four bolts, first 2 were easy to get out, third involved wedging a spanner against body work and a bit of leverage, and the fourth was so bad that i eventually gave up and cut the bolt out! (dad might need a new blade...sorry)

Taking the chair out has opened up th entrance to the rear for better access.


Will end this blog here as battery has decided to say it is low and is going to shut m....e......o......f....f.