So, a bit of an update.
Hope Im not boring anyone with this thread. To be honest, its more of a reminder for myself as to what I've done than a build thread as I know there is a lot of bodges on this (temporary I hasten to add)
The other half has been putting more pressure on to get out camping this year and as much as I want to I don't think she realises how much time it all takes but I plod on and if its done, its done, if not then we will just have to wait a year.
I finished one full side of the van. Yes I know the wheel arch is still dented but I wanted to get it covered until I get time to fully repair as there is no way I will get any welding done this year.
I am pretty pleased with the finish so far, there is still a lot of work to do flatting and polishing but as least I can pass traffic and them not wonder what the hell is going on!
Now the outside is looking better I turned my thoughts to the inside. The upholstery was going to be redone and I wanted to be as sympathetic to the original material as responsible but every one that I kept choosing was working out incredibly expensive and not practical to have young kids and there messy feet all over so I went a different way and chose a vinyl/leatherette finish in brown and beige.
Now this might offend the purists amongst you but I had to look at budget and practicality. Besides, there is nothing that says I cant change everything back later? I want to enjoy this van for a good few years rather than it be a show stopper and I think this will work out. The seats are now with the sister in law and progress is being made but as she is doing them for free I cant rush her. Will get pics up when they are back.
So my focus then turned to the workable interior of the van, the utilities. A new pump was bought for the sink but this is still unpredictable. The hob works but the fridge had had it.
I tried all of the tricks of turning it over in different directions to get everything moving but this fridge hadn't been used for 16 years. The more I struggled to get it working the less faith in gas fridges the other half had so I admitted defeat and bought a new one from Just Kampers. One more job ticked off
Then there was a change of plan in the sleeping arrangements. Originally the plan was to have me and my little boy (3) in the roof with my other half and the twins(9 months) in the rock and roll bed. The more thought I gave to this the more I thought it wouldn't work.
a) As much as my boy seemed excited to sleep in the roof I knew that as soon as he realised he would be up there on his own for a few hours until I came to bed that he would be freaked out.
b) if either him or me needed to go to the toilet in the night then we would have to climb down onto the r and r bed waking everyone, not easy to get twins back to sleep.
c) the twins are starting to move about and probably would crawl off the end of the bed anyway.
So, the new plan involved buying and modifying the Argos camp bed so now the boy will sleep in the cab. Secondly we purchased travel cots for camping and these will go either end of the pop top so that we can get to the twins without disturbing anyone else. They may look liked caged animals but they are safe and secure. They will be secured down too to make sure there is no Hamster Ball effect from them moving
Another nice weekend meant that the other side of the van got done and now im finished with the exterior for the time being.
Im not sure if I mentioned before that seatbelts were an issue with the kids because of lap belts and child seats etc so the van went in to VW downunder on fobbing to have the safety worked on.
The buddy seat was replaced with a bolted down cab seat and three 3-point belts were added. There has been a lot of talk that the buddy seat was fine to put a belt on but I wasn't prepared to mess about with the safety and I didn't feel secure with it. Now we can add three kids car seats with peace of mind.
And finally, for now, it was time for a trail camping run of the equipment and new awning!
