Rear Seats

Offside seat first.

Not particularly difficult job apart from remembering to put some rubber strip between wood and metal frame. I knew it would come in useful! Cock up in an order !

roof down orginal post August 2016

Out of sync picture!!!
 

 

Stage one, Out of sync date wise orginal 15/08/16

Finally finished stage one which was:
Poptop roof and bed
Solar panel
LED lights
( courtesy of Skyline Roofs Weston Super Mare)
Flooring
Pair of RIB Single seat/beds
Fit and wire Leisure Battery to 12v System
Wire in Solar Panel directly to Leisure Battery and it's control module
Wire LEDs directly to Solar Panel ( we'll see how this goes !)
Wire in Fridge to leisure system and test
Wire in mains electric and test.

Line pop top roof bed with "wheat coloured" lining carpet.
Line rest of van ( door frames , pop top roof frame and underside of upper bed ) with foam backed faux suede.
Panel off rear area with carpet lining I had left to tidy up and finish insulation.
Scrub floor and clean up!

Issues:
Many cuts and bruises
Sore knees!
Aching back
Still hate messing around under vehicles
Biggest worry that never was: dropping fuel tank! Piece of !
Biggest pain the faux suede I can see why most use carpet type more forgiving.

What's next:
Line the rear door frame
Seats re upholstered

Bike rack

Easy to fit not so easy to load!!
The ramp that is supplied is to narrow for my back wheel.
At home I used my own ramp which is wider worked fine.
On leaving the site I managed to over balance and dropped the bike no damage apart from a mirror.
Note of interest several "caravaners" were watching the antics none offered assistance! Luckily one of the staff came and helped!
On the continent there is a culture of help we needed a bit of a push to get the caravan into place, two families "French" were there in an instant to help us!
Upshot is need to rethink the rack to make it safer.

First try out

Abegeli Wales
Did well trip up returned 38mpg mixed traffic.
Also took the Ducati Scrambler on new rack no problems either.
Sleeping up top need a better mattress.
Lower beds will need to get the heater and battery boxed in, gives another 12" of room.
Not happy with the drawers need to rethink.
Fiamma roll out awning easy to use had some rain and the Very expensive length of rubber that seals the awning to the van worked well. So if we buy the awning that attaches to the roll out it'll keep things dry.
Not sure as these awnings are expensive and if we wanted to use the van all would have to be packed away, inconvenience mostly but the idea is to take the motorcycle to use for trips. Which also means we need a "shed"  so we're looking at a small easy erect tent for such things as chairs table etc.
Other than that it's pretty near finished and I enjoyed using the van.

DVLA

Mr DVLA he say yes!
Van is now re classified as a campervan first attempt!
Lots of stuff on internet about what you need and what to do.
But for once the DVLA site gives all you need to sort this.
Letter template
Required photography
Sorted.

Trip to Preston via Kirby

Took my wife to Preston to buy her new car. Went via my daughter's the night before.
Trip up was pretty boring as it's motorway most of the way. Van worked well comfortable and reasonable fuel economy at 38mpg. Definitely needs a bhp boost now the van is pretty much built tho!

Kitchen unit finished!

eeee what a palaver!
Cold running water ( boiling a kettle is easier and less weight than fitting a hot water system in a van conversion.
I've put two circular vents in the end of the unit for extra circulation of hot air from oven.
Now just a couple of drawers on the wardrobe / fridge side which reminds me to get over to screwfix to pick up drawer kits. Basically metal sides and runners, lighter than wooden drawers.

Running water

I have two 25ltr water tanks slung  under the van utilising the spare wheel cage and some metal strapping. I did not order the spare wheel but VW decided otherwise!

The fresh water tank I used what I had left of the bubble wrap style insulation glued with the upholstery spray glue. The where the strapping went I used what I had left of some stick on roof flashing!But fitting them this way I have easy access to removing them for cleaning etc. Just drop the tyre cage and undo a couple of nuts and slide them out. When we had our T25 it had a 11 gallon onboard tank under rock n roll bed. We never travel with a full tank and use campsite utilities so its there for convenience mostly whilst traveling we will just hafl fill it. Waste tank at the rear has just a gate valve for emptying if we're on the move over a drain or bucket on site!

Door cards & Blinds

Door cards done and blind pods done.
Blind pods we're covered with the faux suede but it just didn't look right. So recovered with the wheat coloured carpet. More rugged and easier to clean!

post from 15 august 2016

mainly for my info! The post ended up on my old bike build blogger!

Finally finished stage one which was:
Poptop roof and bed
Solar panel
LED lights
( courtesy of Skyline Roofs Weston Super Mare)
Flooring
Pair of RIB Single seat/beds
Fit and wire Leisure Battery to 12v System
Wire in Solar Panel directly to Leisure Battery and it's control module
Wire LEDs directly to Solar Panel ( we'll see how this goes !)
Wire in Fridge to leisure system and test
Wire in mains electric and test.

Line pop top roof bed with "wheat coloured" lining carpet.
Line rest of van ( door frames , pop top roof frame and underside of upper bed ) with foam backed faux suede.
Panel off rear area with carpet lining I had left to tidy up and finish insulation.
Scrub floor and clean up!

Issues:
Many cuts and bruises
Sore knees!
Aching back
Still hate messing around under vehicles
Biggest worry that never was: dropping fuel tank! Piece of !
Biggest pain the faux suede I can see why most use carpet type more forgiving.

What's next:
Line the rear door frame
Seats re upholstered

Table in

Dubtastic Designs
Supplied bespoke table for me to continue the Daffy Dub !

Kitchen and cupboards

Been a while but building the kitchen unit was easy enough but the tall units for the Fridge wardrobe etc was (is) fun ..........not!
Angles and narrowing of the van towards the back have been a pain but nearly there. I have bought Tambour Doors for the cupboard next to the oven, for the rear access cupboard and the one above the fridge, expensive but weigh nothing compared to using the panels! and being sliding no banged heads or trying to get around them etc as you would have to do with standard doors!

So below are the units thus far !

The Loo will be partly covered and a unit will be built above for toiletries and box in the electrics. The cupboard door will swing out to give a modicum of privacy! Porta Potti do a floor bracket for this model so it is secure as is but can be easily lifted out if needed. But it can be used in situ !

The carpeted wall behind the kitchen unti will be sorted last as we haven't made our minds up what to put there, maybe coloured perspex or clear so we can fill it up with photos from our meanderings!

Bit more work on the cupboards

Getting there just got a couple of "pelmets" to do to cover the roller on the Tambour doors. Weight saving allows a bit more drawer space over standard cupboard doors.

Fiamma Roll out Awning

When we had our T25 we always wanted one of these awnings but price was out of our reach!
As always things are never simple with this build. Many emails back and forth with Fiamma agent! We settled on the F45 S 300 in black so it would blend a bit!

Because of the scissor hinge set up on our pop top (it is fairly normal these days because it gives a bit more room at that end!) means the brackets do not fit at the end. A lot of cutting and re drilling is required which I felt on receiving the fixing kit made things weaker for such a long awning. In the end I fitted the front bracket as per instructions. The "end" bracket was fitted  as far to the rear as the OEM fixing would allow just over half way back. I also found that someone had done more or less this for similar reasons. Once fitted there was far to much "awning" to the rear of the middle bracket so I needed to make a bracket to stabilise the end of the awning.
Was a bit of a fiddle and I have not got the bracket as perfect as I would like but if it works with no stress factors I'll make another one! By bending it and having a couple of angles instead of just one it is pretty solid. The OEM brackets use 6 mm bolts, only one per bracket so I have used a 8 mm bolt and so far all is good!
I've still to roll it out in full as do not have the room to do it, but there is a business area close by so will take it down there to play

Rear bracket including yellow sand from overnight rain!

Front OEM brackets a lot neater but mine is tougher lol

A bit of bling

Fitted the running boards over the weekend, Instructions were complete rubbish! rear brackets were listed as front, nearside was offside etc etc so first one took hours sorting what went where it was a nondrill fitting set up which is good but means removing the plastic covers underneath. Thankfully I fitted the bars before cutting the plastic covers as again cutting to the instructions would have holes where I didn't need them. I accept that its a new van model but come on peeps!
Also bought a chromed stainless steel re hatch step cover and matching handle cover, the tread plate wont get fitted just yet or I'll probably scratch that as well lol

Underfloor LPG Tank

Finished fitting the underfloor tank today, was fun ......not, as in fitting the brackets to suspend it!
Downside was having to cut hole in the inside floor to facilitate fitting the bolts, "inspection hatch" thank god for my Bosch multitool!
I fitted one bracket then slid the tank into that and mounted the second bracket, very fiddly and not a lot of room for movement, read blind fitting one bolt!
Still bonus is a freed up cupboard space, which will be the boot!
To run the pipework I had to remove the rear plastic cover and the spare tyre, which was never wanted in the first place! I'm still looking to use the spare tyre cradle for the watertanks, but we'll see! Might be easier to remove it and strap tanks in place.
I'll leave it all to settle and joint cement to harden before putting a few ltrs of lpg in tank to test for leaks.
Pictures to follow when done.

Fridge in place

Got the carcass for the fridge in place today, glued and screwed where possible. Then fitted the fridge (Waeco CRX 65) Tested and working!

Also drilled the mounting holes for the underfloor gas LPG cylinder. They came up right in the middle of the gangway! So I will have to make an inspection hatch as will need to fit load spreading washers etc. And access will probably be needed sometime etc.

Forgot to wire in the 240/120v transformer for the fridge before fitting the fridge so I will need to remove top shelf and hope I can access the plug or will have to pull the fridge out!!!

It allows the fridge to run automatically when hooked up to mains on sites. it senses the mains and then runs fridge on that. useful when parked up for a while and using the motorbike to travel.

New Leather and cloth seats

New seats covers done by Vision Leather Upholstery
It has taken a while as the company that supplied the cloth inserts took months to send out the material.
It was a gamble colour wise but we are happy modern but a nod to retro in the colour scheme

Rear RIB single seats covert to two singles or a double 

First sight of new seat covers

Going for a sixties feel think they are enough retro !!!! Fitted next week !

One piece at a time!

Having decided to replace the gas cylinder for one under the van (forward of the spare tyre cage) it frees up a good space which can be used for servicing and access to the gas regulators and taps and stuff that would normally be in the boot!

I am still going to use the spare tyre cage for fresh and waste water tanks. Easy access​ at seasons end for cleaning. Tanks are 28 ltr not a lot but I've never seen the point of massive tanks just adds a lot of weight to the vehicle, and if were just travelling to a site a small gallon tank gives us a coffee and a bottle of water in the fridge!

this n that

Fitted front Drive and passenger door seals:
VW only fit basic door seals there is no extra seal so you don't get that solid sound when shutting. VW want around £60-80 per door, Car Solutions do a neoprene D seal which works out at £25 delivered for 4 meters! Does the job and easy to install. We know have a nice "clunk" ha ha

Drop the oven about 1" to give a little more between the top of the oven and the waste water outlet

Fitted Fire Extinguisher to rear o/s D post

Researched changing to underfloor gas cylinder couldn't get 20 litre tanks when I started this! At least never came across them! Frees up a large space for more onboard storage.

Some days

Today I've mostly been going backwards!

One of the days when nothing goes to plan, needed to move the gas box back about 2cm but that hit the wheel arch so I would have to dismantle the whole thing. So took it out to re assess what to do and finish the second cupboard. As I said some days! by doing this I have to move the gas valves and when I finally got the things sorted and made up new pipework I didn't have the right olives for the fittings!!!!!!!

Sold my old Skoda yesterday as it was on its last legs so will need to use the van so spent the rest of the afternoon sorting out the van to be able to use it (read: was a storage facility for stuff for the van!!

Kitchen second fit

Oven attached to unit, sink to do tomorrow and drill holes for water pipes and run 12v cable for tap.
Side cupboard to re cut as dropped it and scraped the corner doh!
Then final fitting when all in place
Oh gas pipes run for oven and hobs.

19/03/17 need to drop the oven about 2 cm as you can see to close to the waste pipe of the sink! 

just enough room to do it which will give me the right gap 

Kitchen

Starting to take shape now. Oven in position, not fixed and same with the three drawer cupboard.
I am waiting on new hob sink unit which should turnup monday 6th Feb.
So will get that fitted to worktop soon as!'
Then I can finalise where the drawers will be positioned  and secured.
Below oven and drawers will be storage pull out drawers

I will be using some of the gloss panels to hide the gas cylinder. The white box is a temporary measure whilst I'm building lined with 2mm mild steel. Which will transfer to gloss panels.........probably!

Then work out how to safely attach units from the back. Lots of putting in and taking out to look forward to!

Upholstery

Vans booked into Vision Leisure upholsterers second week of March.
Horrah!

Kitchen started

First mock up kitchen unit
Was a pain sorting shape of the back of the units as the wall is curved and also narrows to the rear it seems.
I also need to change the smev hob and sink as its to long! We wanted the washing up bowl towards the front of vehicle not happy having hobs and hot pans near seats. Also the last hob would sit under the rear upper bed panel, heat rising etc I have found a similar combi unit that is 20 cm shorter and brings the hobs  from under that panel. Novice mistake!
So we will end up with two hobs and sink, small oven and grill with storage below.
Also using a plastic drawer system in the small cupboard next to oven is lightweight and can be fixed directly to walls and again storage below.
Space below oven and storage is partly taken up by wheel arch, so could not run the drawer unit to floor.  
At the end of this unit is the gas locker which also will be covered by same cream gloss panel and have a small area above for a few tools etc.