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!

First few jobs

With our first trip out in the van booked and Amy busy with her wedding photography it was down to me to get some of the small easy jobs done ready for out dinner with Millie. 

First on the list was to give the inside a thorough clean, it was not dirty by any stretch of the imagination but it was nice to know everything was clean and tidy ready for us to use.

 

It wasn’t until we were parking it up on the drive did we notice that both reverse lights were not working (shows how much of an inspection we gave it in Essex!) Not a problem it gave me a chance to blow the dust off of some of my tools.   

First thing to check was the bulbs, removing the lights on the van is nice and easy, I find removing the four screws that hold the lens on is much quicker and less knuckle grazing than going from the inside!

The bulbs looked ok but to check a quick swap of the two reverse bulbs with those of the indicator bulbs proved their operation.   

So onto the fuse box, the van had come with the original owners handbook which was very interesting to read.  I eventually found the wiring diagrams which was very easy to understand and quickly found the correct fuse, again all ok.   

The only other thing I could think of to check fairly easily before starting the task of hunting the cable was the reverse switch.  Out came the trusty voltmeter and under I went.  It was quite easy to find although the connectors were quite corroded they came off no problems, with the van in reverse I checked for power going to the switch, all ok next was to check for continuity across the switch, nothing bugger!  A quick trip online to justkampers.com and I had the new switch the next day, to change it was very simple just unscrew and then screw in the new one, I gave the connectors a quick clean up and job done. 

With the first "mechanical" job now completed I only hoped that everything else on the van would be so easy!!