My first camper project The story

[jiffies]

Now where do I begin? I was going to keep this short but it sort of escalated… I’ve wanted a camper since I was about 17 but never had the funds or at the time supportive parents to allow me to park it in the garage or driveway. 19 Years later & all grown up an opportunity arose that I simply couldn’t turn down. A neighbour of mine had a T25 sat on his driveway for the past 8 years. He bought a shell of a van (Autohomes pop top) with good intention to bring it back to life. At the time he shelled out on a brand new 1600 diesel engine, new brakes & a general mechanical tidy up & 2 new rear wings. Shortly afterwards his job took him afar for a 6 day week so in the one day he returned home he couldn’t motivate himself to carry of the restoration. There it sat idle for this length of time, turning green with moss.

I then enquired to find out if it was for sale & basically although he desperately wanted a working campervan he simply didn’t have the funds & time to do it. Now my mechanical knowledge is about as bad as you can get so I got a mobile mechanic to give it a look over. His observations were noted “This van is rock solid underneath, it has a brand new engine with 30miles to its name, A bit of surface rust only. But best of all even after all this time dormant it started up first time. All my neighbour wanted was £500 for the engine & the van was FREE! The mechanic said to me “ if your prepared to put in the time & effort you’re onto a winner”

I then joined 80-90 forum & started reading, reading & reading Oh & asking questions. I then compiled a list on excel of all the things I thought needed doing along with associated costs. I naively came up with a figure of 5 ½ grand. Bearing in mind that although the van was mechanically sound, pretty much everything else needed doing. Full camping interior required & I was hoping for a larger pop top. So looking to convert the knackered Autohomes to a Viking.

I bought the van for £500 in Oct 09 & began the project. I booked a holiday on the ferry to Northern Spain a few days later for Aug 10 just to make sure it wasn’t one of these resto projects that just never gets finished. It passed the MOT with only new windscreen wipers required & a few cable ties for some loose wiring around the steering column.

Then the hard graft began. I decided that I would do everything inside the van myself with the help of friends & family but get a full respray done by an expert. Although I toyed with the idea of painting it with a roller for some time.

I was lucky enough to buy an un-required Viking roof from a fellow 80-90 member “Silver bullet” Who was an absolute gent by delivering the roof himself using his monster of a homemade roof rack for his car (There was a posting all about this) He then put me in contact with anoth fellow member “Steve” who had a Viking roof already & lived locally. Again he was a star by driving over So that I could get a really good look & take a million photos in order to restore as original as possible.

I then sourced new cab seats from a guy scrapping a van in Paignton. Where I bought his knackered old Devon kitchen unit off him for a mere £20 to use as a template to make new. My mate Darren who’s a chippy by trade made a sterling job of replicating it using ply & a really nice formica finish. I did cheat & get all the doors, worktops & Devon style table made by Stan at “Caravan supplies” along with all the latches & hinges. (He sells loads of camper interior furniture accessories) http://www.caravan-supplies.co.uk/

I then picked up the remaining Devon furniture & R&R bed from another club member “Rich Newton” Stripped all the old carpet & fitted with new & properly spruced it up. The rear wardrobe did need a bit of reshaping at the top as a Devon conversion doesn’t have tin top at the rear of the van, unlike a Viking roof.

There’s too much else to list but the usual suspects really after reading up on what was required for a good refit, here’s a few examples; soundproofing, insulation, propex heater, swivel seat base, new seals, tinted windows, full new Viking roof restoration (New bed boards, new canvas, insulation & headlining), we made a buddy seat to store the portapotti for the kids using a timber laundry basket from IKEA & using the left over formica & woodstain looks the business at a fraction of the cost of buying from some of the camper furniture shops. We made new interior panels from ply & upholstered with vinyl.

We also fitted a brand new underslung LPG tank from Gassure which should save us a few quid on gas in the long run

Thanks of course my good lady wife for putting up with all my tantrems & everybody else that put in some hard graft including any fellow club members who put up with my barrage of questions paticularly (Steve & “Turbo Komet” & a few local VW nutcases Jason & Spence) & a special thanks to my father-in law “Mike” AKA “Coconut Knight” who retired at the turn of the year & has put in endless hours of work on the project. Deep down I think he’s going to miss it.

It was pretty much finished about a week before we took it on the ferry to Northern Spain, we did manage a weekend camping locally as a testrun. Still odds & sods to finish

Hope you like it

Budget went totally out the window but sod it if we have 10 happy years or so camping in it what the heck. Oh & just made a nice thermal cover for the pop top canvas that saved me a fortune. Thinking of testing it in the snow next week. (Pictures coming soon)

Cheers

Jiffies

[jiffies]

A few more pics

[jiffies]

A few more

[armyphil]

Well done and make the most of it, good looking van you have

[ricicles]

that looks fantastic, what a transfomation

[Cazz]

Well done, enjoy. You must camp in the snow, looking forward to seeing the pics.

[scottbott]

well done looks really nice,should last you a long time