Camper Van Conversion

I finally got some time to work on the van.  It has been 7 months since I last spent time working on it, so I'm quite out of the habit of working on it so it was nice to get back into the swing of things.  My plan was to finish the shower and the bathroom, however the best laid plans of mice and men etc.  All I really got built was the shower system.  As mentioned in a previous post I was using a camping shower kit as the basis for the system, so previously I'd dismantled the battery and switch box, extracted the switch and mounted it in a box. 

The first problem this time was that the water pipe bends and kinks a little too easily blocking the flow of water, so to prevent this problem I ran the pipe through a section of reinforced piping to stop the pipe from kinking.  Secondly the pump that was part of the kit had failed, so needed to be replaced.  Unfortunately it took quite a while to work out the pump had died so most of the day went building the shower system.

I've not posted for a while now, this project has slowed down some what mostly due to the pressures of work.   The problem is I need to find enough time to make a 5 hour round trip worth while, as 5 hours of travelling for 30mins of work does not make too much sense.  However once the work load drops down I should be able to find a free weekend so I can finish off the shower.

After quite a big gap between this new build day and the last (over ayear), it was great to finally do some work on the conversion ratherthan fixing something that was damaged.  While today was a shorter day than most (I started at 1:30pm), it was a productive day. For a while now some of the lining carpet has been up on 2 roof sections and some of the walls, today the roof finally got all it's sections lined (only the struts are now left todo). This means I could finally stick the lights up properly, so they will no-longer fall down randomly. We also managed to line both the back doors and the side door, which should really help keep us warm at night.

The best bit about getting the lining done is the interior is starting to look good, very little insulation is now on display and its starting to look as I intended.  The main jobs left now are, fit the shower, add the plastic bathroom ceiling, finish all the lining, and finally add the cupboard above the drivers cab.  So I hope only a few more build days left to go, so if I work at a rate faster then one build day per year it might all get finished.

My van was broken into a week ago damaging my passenger door in the process (there was a hole under the door lock). This damage needed repairing, and the security need improving so my van could not be broken into by a ****** with a screw driver. After a bit of research I found an armored lock cover made by a company called armaplate that would do the job of covering the damage and making the locks secure.

The web site said it would take 15-20 mins to do each door, I was not that surprised to discover it takes much longer than that, about 2 hours per door. Firstly their instructions are not a helpful as they make out, so example an of the instructions is just "remove window winder" no clues are given as to how this is done. The next time drain is doing up the blots inside the door, which are always in the most award of places. So after fitting all 4 lock covers my van is much more secure, and the damage is fixed. Opening up the door also gave me a chance to fit some insulation in the doors, which should help it keep warm at night and cool during the day.

Ialso took care of some of the rust spots that needed attention.  Therepairs are just to stop things getting worse, they will needed to besprayed properly at some point in the future, but at least they areno-longer rusting away.  

It's been a little while since my last post and to be honest I've done much work on the van. I've done little bits here and there, and prepared then van for winter. I have however got engaged, so wedding planning has taken over my life some what. I'm not complaining, not just because my wife to be reads this blog some times. However it's left very little time for doing the van. So the project will resume proper after the wedding. I will be taking one weekend to do some repair work, as some one tried to break in and damaged the lock. I think they got in and tried to start the van, but as a large number of it's relays where in a box in my house they where doomed to fail. So my locks are going to be reenforced, and my plan of keep parts the the van ignition system not in the van when it's parked up for a while will continue.

Well I finally got the van back after much waiting, and general uselessness of the garage who was repairing it.  Unfortunately work has started to pick-up, so not sure when I'll have time to work on the van.

The van is still with the garage, it is nowwaiting on a small pipe so I am told, despite telling me last week itwas only waiting to be painted.

By now I thought I'd be posting about how I'd been finishing off a few bits of my van, however I'm not. The reason for this, is that the insurance company is still fixing my van. After 2 months and every form of incompetents known to man, including claiming my van did not have a skin or cooker thus was not a campervan. They claimed this despite their own engineer having photographed them. The van is still with the garage, it is now waiting on a small pipe so I am told, despite telling me last week it was only waiting to be painted.

At some point I hope to get it back, I would like to go camping in it.

Well things when a little wrong with build day 25, on the way to my parents leaving the M62 an elderly gent pulled across in-front of me and slammed his breaks on.  Sadly the breaking distance of my van and his hatch back are not the same.  So the van took a bit of damage largely the radiator was the problem, so it had to be towed to my parents, while I waited for the insurance company to get back. 

The van has spent the last 3 weeks with the insurance company, finally I got the call from the engineer and the van is heading off to be repaired.  So day 25 was some what unproductive, but it will all be ok in the end.

I'vejust got back from spending 2 weeks camping in southern France withmy better half.  We did have a great time, even at this time ofthe year in southern France the weather is still really nice, innorthern France (which we spent a few days in getting to the south)the weather was just as foul as it is in England.  

Thetrip did not start all that well to be honest, when we loaded the vanin the morning we discovered that during the night the seal where theaerial joins the van had leaked in the really heavy rain that night. This rain water had run on to our bedding, but we did not havea lot of time to spend sorting out the problem as we had to be at thetunnel for a set time.  So we spread out the bedding hoping itwould dry and hit the road.  The traffic was hell all the way sono time to stop to buy some sealant.  When we finally droveaboard the train we had a chance to check the bedding, it was stillnot that dry, so most the trip through the tunnel we both spent withthe hair dryer trying to dry things out.  

Oncewe arrived in France I did a very temporary fix, as I did not haveany sealant, and we used a pan to catch any drips.  Luckily thebedding was more or less dry by the time we camped, but the leakstill needed a proper fix.  It would seem that on a SundayFrance is shut, no shops where open, certainly no shops that mightsell anything of use for fixing a leak.  By the next day wewhere desperately seeking a DIY shop as the drips where gettingbigger and the pan had to be emptied more often.   Luckily Sarahspotted one so we pulled in, and tried between us to work out thefrench we might need (it has been a while since GCSE french for bothof us). Once some sealant was acquired (for evermore there willalways be a spare tube in my van), I just need a way of getting up tothe roof, so the search for a low wall I could park next to was on. Finally having found suitable wall, the leak was fixed properlyand the pan was no-longer needed.  

Afterthe day of the fix it did not rain for the rest of the holiday, sofixing the leak did not matter too much, but I'm not going tocomplain about the nice weather.

Leaksa side the van did work out very well for the two weeks, and everything worked as it should which was great. We did not need theshower (which was good as its not finished), as every site had greatshower facilitates, in fact all the fascicles on every site wherereally good.

 

Well the bathroom is now looking quite done (there a still a few things left todo but it looks very much like a bathroom). The toilet is now fitted and connected to the water supply (but it still needs it's own pump so you don't have to turn the main one on to flush), the shower basin is now sealed and water proof. All the shower curtains are fitted, and so is the towel rail and toilet roll holder. I am now a man who knows where his towel is.

We also cut all the lino to shape, and refitted and cut the kitchen carpet that was removed a few weeks ago. As I had a little time remaining before heading home I also fitted a bit more of the lining carpet on the walls.

Time to work on the bathroom again, well build it. Lots of progress was made, all the walls are up and joined together. The drain hole for the shower is in, as is the water supply pipe for the toilet, the shower basin is now fitted but not sealed as yet. Still lot work came to came together to make what looks like a bathroom.

I spent most of the morning trying to find some where to sell me the plastic sheeting that I needed to finish the bathroom. After quite a lot of phoning etc, I found a supplier and managed to pick up the sheets. By the time all this was sorted most the morning had gone, which was a shame but we ploughed on.

We cut an fitted the plastic sheeting on the the van wall, then glued down the lino, and started to fix all the plastic tracking in place. This final fit of the track that the walls will sit in, requires the final triming and shaping of the wood which takes a while. By the end of the day all the tracking was done, and I'd fitted the all walls in to check every thing worked, however we then removed the walls as there would not be time to fix them in-place correctly before I had to drive the van back home.

After a bit of a break on doing any work on the van I finally got back to it.  The first order of business was working on building the bathroom. First task was to take up the carpet in the area where the bathroom is going to be and put down the lino.  Next we shaped the wood we are using for the front and rear walls to the bathroom.  With the van having no right angles or straight lines this is but hard than you would think.  Also one of the walls must go over a wheel arch which does not help.  One of the side wall to the bathroom is the side of the van which is curved, to make that wall water proof I using plastic sheeting, it is not too bad to fit, however I don't have enough to finish the job which is a bit of a problem. So a shoping trip is needed tomorrow.

To fit all the walls together in a water tight manor, I'm planing on using some plastic track, so far it looks like this might work quite well and hide some of the rougher edges to the wooden walls.  By the end of the day most the walls where bit a we roughly fitted it together to check the fit, so far so good.   It's not fitted permanently together yet as I still need more plastic sheeting to finish one wall and the ceiling.

 

Having been planing to install the solar panel for a while now the day has finally come, all the bits arrived so I loaded up the van and headed to my parents to make use of the drive and garage once again. As the weather was expected to be changeable this weekend I started off by doing the bits that would make the van no longer water proof while it was still sunny.  I started by making the cable entry point where the supply from the panel would come into the van, this meant drilling a hole in the roof (I'm really glad it did not rain at this point) feeding the cable through the cable entry box then through the roof.  The cable entry box was then sealed to the roof using silicone sealant, once that had dried the van would be waether proof again.  Then came the job of fitting the mounting brackets to the panel, dragging the panel up on the the roof and gluing it in place.  Some of you may be thinking glue, that does not sound like a good plan, well honestly its the best idea, it will hold the panel more than securely (it's going nowhere) and with no bolts and thus no holes in the roof there is no chance of a leak.  Any old glue wont do the job, I'm not encouraging people to try this with an pritstitk or anything, the glue I used is a glue/sealant called sikaflex which starts to cure when it's exposed to UV very strong stuff, don't got get it on any thing you don't wish to be permanently stuck to something else. One that was fitted in place I then fitted a spoiler in front of the panel to reduce it drag factor whilst driving, then set about wiring it all up.  Fortunate the sun stayed out whilst I did my wring thus letting me test if the whole thing worked, and it did.

There where a few other wiring jobs on the slate for the day, mainly getting some power to the passenger side of the van, currently all the power was on the drivers side but as the bathroom will be on the passenger side so I need to get some power over there under the floor and behind the ply lining before I can start work on the bathroom, so I got all that done and tested.