Cornwall - The full story!

Sorry for the delay in this post my main car decided it didn't like it's clutch anymore and wanted a new one so have been kept busy over the weekend changing that!

So Cornwall,

Friday evening came and the mad rush to get everything into the van and gone was well underway, somehow nothing was left behind and we got on the road in good time.

Amazingly the M26 and M25 were free flowing which was a miracle!

The journey went well albeit slowly!  We had a 9pm deadline to get to the campsite at Stonehenge and 8.55pm we arrived, phew!  Some of my friends live not far from the campsite so we managed to meet up with them a a local pub which was a nice end to the day.  That night was quite chilly (so I was told, I had to throw the covers off every now and again!) and Amy didn't get much sleep which didn't help in the morning!

We set off after a quick bite to eat and a shower for Cornwall another two or so hours away.  Again nothing on the road so a brilliant poodle towards our next stop at Tintagel, we arrived at the campsite amazed at the views around and decided to stop for two nights here.
A two minute walk from the campsite and we were greeted with the below view!

We had arranged to meet up with one of Amy's friends on the Sunday so Saturday was our day to explore the coast a bit and Tintagel itself.  With a scrumptious lunch in our bellies I begrudgingly followed Amy around the various local shops Tintagel had to offer.  After what seemed like forever we headed back to the campsite to start preparing dinner, out first try at using our new "Cadac Safari Chef" grill.  Chicken fajitas were on the menu for dinner and boy were they nice.  Sunshine, warm evening and spicy chicken not much more a man needs!  As the stars started to come out we retreated into the van for a marathon game of Scrabble, Amy once again defeated me in style I'm sure it was along the lines of 241 - 83!
We slept a lot better that night almost 11 hours...

Whilst waiting for Jane to arrive on Sunday Amy entertained herself with the resident hen...

 Monday morning came and we set off for our next stop in St Minver only a little drive away.  We managed to get a brilliant spot on the campsite, a large section of the campsite had long term caravan's parked up but fortunately their owners were not staying that weekend!

Monday was spent walking from the campsite to Rock and then we got the ferry across to Padstow, If you are planning on staying at Dinham Farm Caravan & Camping Park we would suggest you do the walk to Rock and Padstow, it was just stunning the whole way there and back but make sure you allow enough time!

The original plan was to stay at Polzeath on Tuesday night and then do the whole return journey on the Wednesday but we thought that might have been too much in one go, so Tuesday morning we went to Polzeath as it was glorious sunshine and watched the surfers for a couple of hours during which we had a massive American style breakfast on the beach!  

With the sun still shining we started the slow journey back but with a slight detour to The New Forest where we made our last camp.  We thought for good practice we should just try and find a campsite rather than using the internet to find one, we headed off the dual carriageway and into The New Forest.  We lucked onto a really nice campsite on the northern edge of the forest which luckily had two spaces left!

 We had a slight slope on our pitch so for the first time we broke out the levelling chocks that had come with the van and almost got her level, almost!
Amy was desperate to try out the roasting pan that came with the "Cadac" so we went for an easy option roast to begin with, although we cheated slightly and did chicken breast it was still easy peasey so roast beef is next on the list!

With our last morning upon us we sadly began our final journey home, the whole way Amelie had been behaving herself but so wanted to make things interesting so just past Fleet services on the M3 the temperature gauge stopped working.  Not a problem as she hadn't once got hot the entire time we were away so just to be sure we wacked the heating on full just as a precaution and trundled home.

All in all it was a superb 5 days out and although we didn't have any bad weather or problems we have definitely caught "the bug" and we cannot wait to get her finished over the winter and ready for next years adventures.

Cornwall

So we made it back from Cornwall this afternoon!

Amelie didn't miss a beat the whole trip other than deciding on the way home to not tell us her water temp.  Not a problem gives me something to fix, absolutely shattered so will do a big update tomorrow but a little teaser for now, we had fun with Amy's new/old Polaroid camera!

Almost ready!

So with Amy out tonight having dinner (well timed I thought!) it was left to me to give the interior a good clean up ready for our first big trip to Cornwall.

After coming to terms at the weekend that we would be going without the interior kitchen units we had a little less pressure on getting it all done in time.  Not much point spending quite a lot on the interior upholstery and curtains just to ruin it with a bodge job on the rest of the interior.

With the main bulk of the flooring now cured I trimmed the edges and flipped the floor over onto its back(?) and got the Gorilla Glue (*) out and finished the edging off.

* Amy's dad Adrian introduced Gorilla Glue to me about a year ago after telling me how much of their house is held together with the stuff, it has not let me down since using it so I am hoping it will make a good job of the underside of the trimmed floor.*

A couple of small jobs to finish off once the floor is in the van tomorrow, I need to fit a new breaker box as I am unsure of the age of the old one and it looks like it has seen better days, also to rig up a gas regulator and line to our new Cadac Safari BBQ (hoping to have a killer roast down in Cornwall on it!)

After the rush of the last few weeks since we picked Amelie up I am hoping that tonight and tomorrow is not the "calm before the storm" only time will tell I guess.

Flooring part 2

After Amy did such a good job with the PVA it was time to get the top layer onto the wood.

With the help of one of our friends Tim we had a trial fit in the van before committing to the vinyl, with everything looking ok I started the messiest job so far on the van and covered the wood with the vinyl glue.  Having never laid vinyl before I was going at it blind (winging it!) but about 15 minutes later it was on and the timer started.

30 minutes later was the now or never moment...

Having cut the floor slightly bigger than the wood it gave me some room for error, after a lot of rolling and smoothing out we called it a night and left it to cure.

Amy gets her hands messy!

So it's the morning after Busfest and while Amy was still running on a high after such a good day, she was out working before I was!

With the wood floor cut Amy got to work coating it with PVA to act as a sealant.

Now that they are done and dry we can get the top layer on and it can all go in, exciting!

BUSFEST!!

We had been looking forward to this for ages and it was not a let down!

It was better than we were expecting which made the early morning drive worth it.

We managed to get out new upholstery and curtains all order courtesy of VW Camper Curtains
You will all have to wait and see when it turns up what we have chosen.

We managed to get a new camper table, rear tailgate seal (still no hightop window seals though!) a nice flower garland to decorate the front dash and most importantly a new kettle!!

New Flooring

I'm not sure how much this will help but anything extra must be good right?

 

With the insulation all in it is now time to start on wood for the floor.

The interior

Now that I had finished all of the grinding and welding (much to the relief of our neighbours!)  It was time to start on the interior and getting everything going back in.

As we are pushed for time I am using the interior that came out as a template but instead of ply we are going to be using a tongue & groove effect MDF painted white.

I am hoping to be able to re-use some of the original shelves as they are in good condition and it seems pointless spending money for the sake of it!

Not ideal!

After a brilliant day on Sunday, cutting both the outer sill and the rotten bit of floor out I was all set up to start welding the new sill panel back.  I managed four runs and then I ran out of gas!! With it too late in the day to rush out and get some more it would have to wait for Monday.

With a phone call to dad (the first of many to come I think) I went out to get some gas bright and early Monday morning.  With it being a completely typical bank holiday the heavens were open and set on ruining everyone's day off, luckily we had a plan.

Some how we had acquired a outer tent for what looks like a small army so we threw that over the top of the van in order for me to do the welding.

I have to say it is not the best nor the prettiest welding I have ever done but hopefully it will do the job.

Luckily our makeshift awning held on through the downpour(s) and we managed to get the panel welded on and ground back ready for some filler.  Unfortunately by that time the tent sheet had become so sodden it was just dripping too much onto the van panel to even try and filler the panel.

Dad helped me with some odd jobs on the van before heading home rather soggy..

Thanks for your help dad, I'm sure you had better things to do than pretend to be a tent pole for a day!! :)

Making some noise!

What better way to impress the new neighbours by taking a grinder to our bus on the bank holiday weekend!

The Saturday was taken up with laying concrete in the garden for my new shed/store/workshop! 40 bags of ballast and some concrete later we had a base!

Sunday morning nice and early began with coverering as much of the fabrics in the bus as possible as I planned on making alot of mess!  With the clock hands pointing at a respectable hour to start grinding I began.

By midday I had most of the floor section out so lunch was called and my trusty grinder could have a break.

Fortunately for the neighbours the outer panel did not take that long to cut out so before long this happened!

With Amy off to do a wedding I was left to my own devices much to her worry! What could possibly go wrong...

With the outer sill panel now removed I was able to get a better look at the top part of the inner sill and decided that it would be better to cut that out as well.  A little while later I was left with two holes.

I managed to get every thing smooth and ready to fit the new panel with still enough time left in the day to make noise.  The panel

Bugger!

What started out as a hunt for some of the leisure battery wiring has turned into a 3 week dash to fix this before we go away to Cornwall.

When I first found the hole at my parents whilst inspecting the leisure battery wiring I had thought about leaving it until the winter, but Amy was so looking forward to having a fully functioning bus on our trip to Cornwall I decided to take the plunge and start ripping things out with the help of my mum & dad.


Luckily the cupboards didn't take that long to remove and within a couple of hours I was able to lift the floor to see the extent of the damage.

After the floor had been taken up I was able to inspect the area fully and soon realised I was going to have to make a hole in the side of the van... :(  The main floor panel was ok, with just surface rust in places.

Luckily the August bank holiday was just around the corner, so I got hold of a new outer sill panel from Cool Air VW and got started.

Going Solo!

With Amy working this weekend I decided to go back to my parents for the weekend and show off the van.

As they have a fairly big front garden it gave me a good excuse to put up the awning that came with the purchase of the van.
 

Possibly not the best idea to put it up on a windy day but the three of us managed fine.

Once it was fully up I thought that is was possibly slightly too big for just Amy and I, so if it is up and you need some where to stay feel free to stop by!

Amelie's first outing!

Yes we have named the campervan Amelie!

We were long overdue meeting up with one of Amy's friends Millie, so what better way of christening the van with a maiden voyage to a local country park?

Getting the van off of the drive proved a challenge for Amy as our "automatic" choke was not wanting to play properly.

I had taken the GoPro with us but it was all too much and I wasn't allowed to film :(

With Millie living out in the sticks we had a pleasant first outing, being that little bit higher than normal it meant we could see over the hedges and realise how many fields we have near us!

We pulled up outside Millie's and was greeted with laughter "It's not as pretty as I was expecting!" thanks Millie...

I was relegated to the back of the bus so Millie could enjoy the front seats with Amy, so much legroom! I could get use to Amy driving on the longer journeys :)

We made it to the local park and started up the burners, we decided to keep it easy for the first outing, on the menu tonight would be chicken & pasta.  No dramas whilst cooking having remembered the advice from the previous owners of moving the driver's seat all the way forward and tucking the curtains over the seat to stop them blowing into the flames!

Just as I was serving dinner the park ranger came over to investigate, we did offer him some dinner but he politely declined!

With dinner done we dropped Millie off and headed home fully confident that we had made the right decision and that we would thoroughly enjoy our time with Amelie.

The Van

After not actually viewing any vans at all in the flesh we headed over the water and into Essex to look at a 1986 T25 hightop 1900cc watercooled with 120k on the clock being advertised for £4,400, not the prettiest example to start off with, one because it was a T25 and not the Bay I had been hoping to find and two because of the hightop!  The whole way there I kept telling Amy to keep an open mind and we were not going to buy the first van we saw.

Love at first sight?

When we pulled up outside and saw the van sitting there I knew that as long as it wasn’t too wet underneath and was reasonable inside I would be happy in putting an offer in, however Amy had already decided!   

We had a quick look round and then we were taken out for a quick test drive, all went exceedingly well apart from a creak from the front suspension and the automatic choke not really well, being automatic.  We got back to the house and I got out the torch, I couldn’t believe how dry and solid everything was, it was a done deal as far as I was concerned.   

After a few mutterings between Amy and me we offered £4,000 if we came back the next day with the cash, with a bit of bartering back and forth we had a deal at £4,100, success!

We didn’t really think of how we were going to get that much cash out in one go as we found out that our banks will only allow up to £2,500 in one go, so frantic moving of money around and Amy moving her work lunch meeting to a restaurant that was close to a Halifax, we managed it.

The Big Day!

With our cash withdrawn successfully we headed back over the Thames to get our first joint car!  It was decided that I was going to drive it back as Amy couldn’t possibly deal with that much excitement and driving a new car at the same time...

After a nice chat with the owners and their last goodbyes to the van we left for home.  A rather un-eventful journey really, I discovered that the wing mirrors felt the need to fold in whilst on the motorway to make me more aerodynamic and that when driving into rain the cab floor got wet nothing exciting happened, just what I was hoping for!

 It wasn’t until we had parked up and saw this white monstrosity on our drive we realised, what have we done?  Our nice quiet pleasant street was now ruined.  Amy made me move it backwards several times as it made it look smaller if it was closer to the house… I think that night sleep eluded us both.

 

Campervan Fever!!

It has been an obsession for us both since we brought the van home, nearly every spare waking moment has been taken up by thoughts on the campervan.  Every lunch break at work has been spent trawling through all the different online shops and forums, trying to get as much knowledge on campervans as possible before starting on any work.   

Where-as I was researching on common problems and looking up how much it will cost to put together a small spares package to keep in the van, Amy on the other hand is doing what she does best and looking for shiny trinkets to buy!