I ain't finished yet

It's been a while since I have updated the blog. The van has been used for weekend trips at the end of the summer and has been used to haul various big bits around Brighton and Hove as well as the second vehicle in the household for regular journeys. It is running really well and as a reward has a few mods coming in the new year. Over past few months minor adornments include a flower garland for the front window and a sticker for the offside. Here are a few recent shots:

Summer holiday

This is what I really enjoy, over two weeks in the New Forest , Isle of Purbeck and South Hams in Devon. On the way down we stopped in Southampton to show the previous owners what we have done to the van, we were invited to stay for tea and cake, they were really pleased the van was being well looked after and used. Here he is reunited with the van.

After a few days in the New Forest we stopped briefly in Poole.

We then caught the ferry to Sandbanks, makes me feel like we are going abroad.

 It was then a short drive to Corfe Castle where we stayed for five nights.

After Corfe we headed for the South Hams in Devon, we stayed on a site near Hope Cove, this was the view from our pitch.

It was a tight squeeze down some of the lanes in South Devon, the van behaved well though and the conversion worked well in practice for a protracted period.

Used, abused, fettled and fiddled

Been away in the van a few times now and learned a few lessons. First off it is much more comfortable that the T4, very little road noise either. The bed occasionally squeaked when you went over a bump but I have cured this with a couple of rubber feet cut from an old rubber car mat. These go under the front legs. I have also fitted a heavy duty 12v trailing socket which I am much happier with than the usual car accessory one. I have had to buy some meatier magnets for the blinds, they now hold really well. The JK front exterior blinds are a bit skimpy in their cut in my view, they are ok but only just. I am glad that I haven't bothered with a kick board under the seat. I use three crates under here, it's not beautiful but it is practical.

The double front seat is great:

• we can all sit up front, 2 adults one child one little dog
• you don't have to faf with the belts when you set up the bed
• you can afford to be less precious about storing stuff in the back (although you need enough space to sit and make/drink tea)
• the folded seat with the kitchen top on it makes a great table
• or a seat for kids with a rug
• or storage for our clothing holdalls at night
• there is loads of space underneath for storage

There is less room under and behind the rear seat than with the bluebird seat in the T4 but the cannons forge sits further back so there is a little bit more floor space.

The rear o/s bumper has gently kissed a brick wall. This has led me to the colour coding debate. I have smoothed it but the scrape is still there. I can get a new rear bumper through ebay for £100 (£190 from dealer!). Colour coding is £250 min plus I'll need a protector for the rear bumper. Coding looks good but the bare plastic doesn't offend me.

Then there is the suspension. I'm too old to be a boy racer but would prefer a lower stance and less wallow. I am considering H&R springs. The wheels will stay until the tyres are worn out.

Scrubs up well

Over the past few months I have really focussed on the interior as I wanted the van to be ready to use to camp in as soon as possible. Luckily it was ready just a few days before the hot Easter weekend when we managed to get away in it. The great thing about camping is that you have time to reflect. Looking at the van I realised I hadn't washed it properly since January! So after I refurbished the wheels I gave the whole van a proper clean. The metallic green paint is quite forgiving of dirt but it looks much better clean!. Here's a standard 3/4 view:

Step in style

You will see in an earlier post that I needed to sort out the side step. The panel van step didn't cover the new floor as its about 1-1.5cm higher with the insulation, ply and then carpet. The answer is a new step designed for the VW Shuttle which is deep enough to go over the three layer floor. Ordered from VW for £30+VAT came the next day and not too expensive. I had to trim back the fins on the rear upright edge to get it to fit and it comes with an apeture for a courtesy light which I have blanked off. Looks much neater:

Wheels of steel

The steel wheels and tyres that came with the van are all in good shape and I just can't justify changing them at the moment. The wheels themselves are pretty poorly painted by VW. It looks like they spray a very thin layer of silver over a black base coat. The black base coat was visible in places on all the wheels and they all had minor rusting from stone chips.
I have considered having them powder coated but when I looked into this the costs mount up to about £50 per wheel. I have previously painted steels with hammerite enamel finish from a tin with reasonable results and longevity so it I thought I'd have a go with smooth hammerite from a spray can. Here's how I did it:
One by one each wheel is removed, cleaned, rubbed down properly with wet and dry and then cleaned again. I then let the tyre down so I can tuck masking tape under the rim, I carefully tape the valve and weight and then mask the tyre with paper. Each wheel is then treated with 4 coats of paint.
This is a slow time consuming process, as I write I'm on the third wheel. I enjoy the actual spraying, it is rather satisfying seeing the old marked wheel disappear slowly under fresh paint, here is a masked wheel and the result on the van.

First camp!

Easter Saturday 2011 will be remembered for the weather and the first night out camping in the van. I finished shaping the silver screens in the week and this was the last job I needed to do before we could comfortably camp in the van.
We decided to stay local and went to http://www.blacklandsfarm.co.uk/. Hadn't been here before and we were pleasantly surprised, loads of space and quite informal.
Things went well, we didn't forget anything major, the weather was hotter than July and evening was warm too.
In the picture you can see the new Quechua pop up awning/tent. I have a full awning but it takes a while to put up. Previously if I didn't put up the awning I used a pup tent as a shed to store clobber and mark the pitch when off site.This awning literally pops up, you have to wrestle with it a bit to put it down but it beats threading poles any day.
The night in the van was comfortable. All in all a great first trip.

In the evening we were joined by family

Screens, kitchen pod, mains sockets

I have looked around and full set of silver screens for a T5 is really expensive. The cab internal screen in my T4 was always awkward to fit and left sucker marks so I have gone for a set of JK external screens for the cab. For the rear I have used silver bubble insulation cut to size for each apeture and held in place by magnets. Seems to work ok on this test as shown below but I think I'll need some more/stronger magnets especially for the tailgate.

The kitchen pod I kept when I sold my T4, I was expecting to sell it with the van and build another which I was quite looking forward to. I built it myself and I have had it a few years so it's therefore tried and tested. A Camping Gaz cylinder feeds the hob. There is a fresh water tank, 12v tap and a waste tank. I have a smallish 12v cooler that fits in under there as well. The handles at the sides make handy vents for this and the advantage of having it in there is you can hardly hear it at night. The whole thing lifts out if necessary. The top just lifts off and one day I'll work out how to use it as a table. I knew this would be a tight fit with the Cannons Forge bed and indeed it is. I have to move the drivers seat forward, push the unit up and then there is just enough room for the bed. If I was building another it would be slimmer.

With the pod in the cover is removed from the rear of the drivers seat to access the mains and 12v socket. I am also storing my 240v to 12v transormer there which I use to power the cool box on mains. Here's the mains unit down the side of the pod. It might be better to have it behind the pod but I'll see how it goes in use.

Electrics

I have kept this as simple as I can. 12v is a direct fused feed from the battery to a temporary socket under the front seat. The 240v input socket is under the bonnet, the best of a limited range of options for siting. Both cables then come through the bonnet release cable hole with a bit of persuasion. The cables then go under the matting and under the drivers seat. 240v is terminated with a pukka camping mcb and rcd three way socket. There is cable to spare and the whole lot tucks under the front seat and the plastic rear cover hides it when not in use.

Rock and roll bed

Having completed the insulation, lining and carpet I was at last ready for the bed. It is made by Cannons Forge. I took my second long drive in the van (the windows were fitted at Vansport in Penzance) up to Worksop to have it fitted. It is definitely quieter on the road now the rear is done. The seatbed bolts down on the lashing points and Dave at Cannons Forge fits it for free if you collect. He fitted it in about 20 minutes and showed me how best to operate it. It wasn't cheap but it is a well made, substantial bit of kit.

Compared to the the bed in my T4 there is less storage space so packing for camping is going to be a bit of a challenge. I had to buy a new loo to fit under the seat, my old one I knew would be too big. You can perch on the rear jump seat with the boot open if you felt so inclined.

Carpet and step

I used the old carpet as a template but I cut slightly on the generous side then had to trim back in parts. You can see the wheel arches covered in this shot as well which shows how much the carpet trim can be worked and stretched. 

Not sure what to do around the step as you can see the ply.

Insulation/sound deadening

Flashing tape on the bare panels to reduce panel noise, this is the ceiling prior to thermo bubble wrap.

For the sides I decided on Celotex first then thermo bubble wrap held in place with aluminium tape but not sealed in like the slider I did earlier. I should then be able to take a panel off and look for condensation if I really want to. I am hoping to get some insulation benefit from this but without doing the cab and having windows all round I think its always going to be compromised. The floor already has what looks like laminate insulation under the (very good) ply. Rubber backed carpet is going over the ply.

Carpet trimming

I took some time off work to properly trim and insulate the rear of the van. Materials are from Megavanmats, easy to use and recommended. I was looking forward to doing this work but I had some doubt over my ability to do a decent job. I started on the nearside, from the rear with one piece. The ceiling panels came down first off as I wanted to carpet right up to them. To start I glued the top so it would hang and allow me to push it about into the various curves - and there are plenty. Then I started gluing one area at a time eventually reached my most feared area - cutting round the windows.

 

This is the result, not too shoddy. I found it essential to change Stanley knife blades really regularly using a combination of hook and standard blades in two knives. I cut the carpet trim with about 5mm spare that I was then able to persuade under the edge trim using a flat bladed screwdriver and an old cutlery knife with varying degrees of neatness and effectiveness. This is the first window I did. The end of the handle of the knife was invaluable for pushing the carpet into the tighter curves particularly round the window. Gluing a bit a time was definitely a good idea. I still got into a bit of a mess with the glue but the glue remover supplied was very good at cleaning up the carpet trim where I over sprayed. I pulled the seals off the doors and trimmed to the edge of the metal. The seals then go back over the carpet and the metal, make sure you glue right to the edge or the carpet will roll back when you put the seals back on.

The next job was to cut apertures for the cavities in the panels. This is much easier than the windows but you still need to concentrate as it would be easy to misjudge where the finished panel covers sit.

Here's a few more photos from the offside. On this side I had to work out where there would be joints as the area is just too big.

Carpeting panels

Okay, this was my first attempt at carpet lining. The panel is ply, fixed with self tappers with screw covers. The little panel next to it is fixed with orginal fixings. I think I prefer the original fixings, this panel needs to come off again as the next job is the metalwork. I look forward to this with some trepidation as there are loads of compound curves and the windows to cut round. Below is a close up of the different fixings. 

Insulation

To insulate I started with the sliding door. I am not sure how much difference it will make but it's cheap to do so why not. I started with a bit of flashing tape to help deaden panel vibration.

Then I cut Celotex to fit, I had to leave a few gaps as I didn't want the Celotex to interfere with the door mechanics.

Then I whacked in some thermo bubble wrap and sealed it with aluminium tape.

Exterior bits

A bit of debadging and clear repeaters, easy mods.

I don't know what VW paint their steel wheels with but its rubbish. I can't afford alloys at the moment but I will have to repaint these.

Windows

After a good deal of thought I settled upon Vansport for my windows. They are specially made for van conversions and their quality of fitting is renowned. I took the long drive to Penzance and I was not disappointed. Ian the fitter did a top notch job, he also tinted the tailgate glass to match and fitted Climair deflectors to the front windows.

Stock

This is my stock VW T5 T26 84bhp it has the electric pack, a glazed tailgate, the fold down twin seat and aircon.
This blog is my record of the van's development into a camper/day van. It's my third van having previously owned a T25 hightop and a T4 2.4 Caravelle which I converted. I intend to keep things fairly simple and economical. I would be grateful of views and advice from anyone with sufficient motivation to comment!