Our body work story.

[Plasticman]

yep thats it
mike

[ghost123uk]

Watching with interest, though due to lack of skill and space, I am paying to have mine done (come late October) - don't know exactly how much yet as the guy wants to give it a survey nearer the date.

[Cazz]

I now follow, clearly i'm a bit slow.

Yes a mask, we were, the picture was just taken quickly for the records.

The headlining is just around the windows, the roof is a flat board, not the normal curved roof, it's a Westy. I'll put some pics up of that and all the other bits and and bobs we've done, when I remember to bring the camera home.

She's coming home tomorrow, weather permiting, she currently has no roof. We then need to sort her insides out for our holiday on the 7th June, no pressure then,

[Plasticman]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ok..
no, no rush just have a nice weekend off and it will near do itself
mike

[StuM]

The headlining is just around the windows, the roof is a flat board, not the normal curved roof, it's a Westy. I'll put some pics up of that and all the other bits and and bobs we've done, when I remember to bring the camera home.

Thank you for that.

Good luck getting it back together.

Cheers,
Stu

[Cazz]

Right, a few pics and progress so far. If any more pics or information is needed on any area, then please let me know, I've taken loads.

All of last week was spent getting her ready to drive home, on Monday she was a bare shell, as on a previous pic, here she is ready to hit the road, there is still lots of bits and bobs to do and finish off. She came home without a rear window, 1/4 lights, bumpers, roof, dash coverings and for some reason the tail lights don't work, whether it's because the side lights arn't fitted I'm not sure.



The blustery, blowy, smelly, clattery wagen made it home safely, the journey was very exciting and I realised how much I'd missed driving her. I had many strange looks, not sure if that was because of the new paint or the many missing parts.

Here's the roof waiting patently to go back on. It's just typical that's it was very windy all of Saturday afternoon and rain was forcast for later on. But luckily it calmed down and a couple of friends came over to help lift it on.



Today, yes most of today we fitted the 1/4 lights and the rear window. The rear window just would not go in, it was a complete nightmare. In the end we had a neighbours help, and after about half an hour of his help it eventually went in. Not sure why it was so problematic, it is a different tail gate, but that shouldn't make a difference. In comparision the windscreen, after been prepared, took only 10 mins to put in.

HEADLINING.
As promised some pics of the head lining. The original was a bit stained and looked a bit drab compared to everything else, so something new was in order. I found a self adhesive vinly that can cope with high and low temperatures, it can be heated and stretched into position, it also didn't cost a fortune. We found it really easy to work with and the joins are hardly noticable. The company has many differnt colours and patterens available, they will send samples, I got it from http://www.vinyldepot.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; they also have an ebay shop where you can buy it by the metre.

A pic showing the vinly in place before the window went back in, I used the old one as a template. I'm also very pleased I chose a pattern that didn't have a grain.



This shows the roof/floor of the hightop taken from the side. The hole in the roof is for our new light switches for our nice new lights. Another steep learning curve for me.



I would like to point out that we've never done anything like this before. When we started I didn't even know how to drill a rivet out We've done all the stripping ourselves and all the putting back together, we've also done some of the bodywork prep. We didn't do any of the cutting out of the rough panels, welding or actual painting.

My biggest acheivment was putting the dash back in by myself, I only have one single spare blue wire not bad for a girl.

We now feel we know our camper even better than before, it is very satisfing to have a go yourself.

[Plasticman]

I( think I'd be inclined to






















give you 10 1/2 out of ten so far
mike

[Cazz]

Thanks Mike, at least we can now drive to our holiday, all being well the interior is going in this week. Somethings like the new door cards and floor will have to wait until later.

A couple of questions, Who sells chocolate brown and beigh tiles? Or even burgundy ones?

And can side lights be in the indicators or do they have to be with the headlights?

I hope she passes her MOT before the 2nd June, fingers crossed. .

[Plasticman]

Side lights have to show white/clear to the front at all times (and red to the rear) indicators have to show orange at all times, I leave you to work out how you will do it
tiles well most flooring companies , like carpet type places will do them, there are some nice floor coverings around, even (wash my mouth out with paint stripper,, b and q)
mike

[Cazz]

Ok. My headlights are from a golf, my side light bulb holders of course don't fit, I could get some bulb holders that do, but my indicators have two bulbs in them, the indicator and a spare, so if I wire this spare one to my side light connectors, I will had side lights, but lower down.

Or I could gaffa tape my side light bulbs into the holes in the headlights.

All the flooring shops we've looked in, don't do chocolate brown, I just get looked at strangely.

[Plasticman]

You havent said which indicastors you have, if they are clear and have 2 holders then as long as you use orange bulbs you would comply with that bit but Im not sure about the sidelight being in the same housing from an mot perpective, that is ,the sidelight will not be visible when flasher going?
tape it to the headlight for now, get your ticket then..................... fullsunian is a tester as are a few others on here, Id start a new thread on this subject , and get clarification.
I forget where my mate got his flooring for the narrowboat, it was amtico or one of those industrial ones, superb, costly yes but you dont want much,he he
mike

[sjmtlewy]

I wish I had friends like yours, with workshops and welders...

Out of interest, how did you renovate your wheels, the white looks excellent?

[Cazz]

The rain stopped play with the lights today, hopefully can have a look tomorrow. The rain was good for testing for leaks and I can confirm that no windows leak, result. The tailgate leaked a bit though, but that hasn't got a lock or catch on it yet, hopefully it's only because it's not closed enough, fingers crossed.

So today we wax oiled the insides of the panels and everywhere we could and couldn't see, put the insulation back in, replaced the door card runner holder edgy things, and connected the heater controllers back up, and mopped up a puddle in the back.


We also put the old interior panel back in, as you can see it looks well awful, those water marks on it are from when our rear heater matrix was leaking and we could'nt find the leak for a while, of course most of this card is covered with units. We are due to make new ones very soon, we needed the van to collect the wood.



We rubbed the wheels back with I think some 120, then 240, then masked the tyres up, that seemed to take hours, the painter then srayed them for us, they originally looked like this.



We've had some nice new hub caps on back order since November, , we now need them.

Here is some pics of some of the bits and pieces we've removed, they have all now been washed, cleaned and prepared for painting, (obviously we've not painted the the plastic stuff) I think we've gone mad, hopefully the attention to detail shows in the finished result. The grills have also been blackened with a heat gun, that worked really well.







Tomorrow we can start putting the units back in, we can then start to get our sitting room back. That is a 3 foot plus fish tank in the corner, the fish in there are cat fish which are nocternal, we never see them in the day time, I think they think they are in a cave.

[jamesc76]

Ahhhh a Timber tech's roof top choice there I have one loads of room and look about the best once on!

[Cazz]

Ahhhh a Timber tech's roof top choice there I have one loads of room and look about the best once on!

I totally agree, it is really airy, nice people too. It took us hours to remove it. We often checked under it to make sure no one had moved in, it would be a good place to shelter over night.