Charlie Brown The '71 Ex Dormobile...

[the_troupster]

Sanding down filler and getting everything spot on is very time consuming.....

Indeed it is. I gave up. :lol: Decided to crack on with refitting the doors and getting it ready for the MOT. This was a couple of months back now. It was booked in for an MOT a couple of weeks back, which it failed on 2 things. Handbrake wasnt working correctly on one rear wheel. Which I put done to lack of adjustment :roll: and the fact that it had only done 5 miles up to this point and the brakes hadnt bed in properly. Also the lack of mounts for the front brake pipes was a concern to the tester. These had been handed in to Transporterhaus when I exchanged my spindles. I made some more up. Job done and retest passed!

I had some fun getting it taxed, which I explained in another thread. The taxation code was incorrect on the V5.

Anyway, this is all about this pics isn't it! Here is some!...

Doors painted

Amassing all the door funiture and cleaning it all up

Doors on

The back starting to resemble a van

And so is the front

I've had a custom designed interior planned for a while. I made some templates so I could get an idea of how much wood/money I would need

Here's the start of the interior

And a shot from the rear

Also in my down time I decided to have a go at building an automatic switcher over of power thingy. It uses a 240v relay called a Contactor to switch the mains sockets from shore power to an inverter when no shore power is detected. Here's a pic of the inards...

The socket on the side powers a battery charger and the 240v side of the fridge when on shore power. Here it is powering what amounts to 100w of lights. Unfortionatly the cheap 500w ebay inverter would shut down when drawing any more power than this.

That's all for now. I'm currently using the van for the 2 mile commute to work to find any gremlins and also continuing with building the interior. I'm hoping to have a night away soon to test out all the camping equipment before Tatton Park. I hope to see you there!

Jim

 

[the_troupster]

Well, it's been a few months again. Time for another update...

We made it to Tatton after a night at a campsite about 15mins drive from there.

We also had a couple of wkends away in North Wales and Bristol. Think i've covered about 1600 miles now since putting it back on the road. Only issue ive had is a driveshaft falling off! I can only presume that I refitted them whilst the van was still on the chassis roller and thus was unable to tighten them up properly. Anyway, all was fine after an 90min unscheduled stop!

Me and thee...

I've also been continuing with the interior and fitting up some door seals now it's been getting cooler. Hopefully i'll finish off the remaining paint soon so that it'll be protected for the up coming winter. I've got an 72 bug in my garage so the van will have to stay outside :|

Not a breakdown as such, merely an unscheduled stop... :lol:

I've got a long weekend in the lakes coming up and then BusFreeze, so hoping to have the paintwork finished off by then

All the best,
Jim

 

[the_troupster]

Wow has it really been 20 months since my last update?! How time flies...

Anyway, to the pics. Quite alot has gone on in all this time:

Finished the paint (badly) I cant really complain though as ive painted inside and out of the doors and most of the lower half of the 'van for £100. In years to come, i'll save for a proper respray. When I brought the 2.5l is was only expecting to respray the doors and not the lower half of the 'van as well after repairing bad panels that had already been painted by the PO. Hence I ran out of paint!

Painted and detailed the wheels:

Sealed up all the interior panels, including sound deadening and insulation.

Made a buddy seat. This is big enough to house a chemi-kazi.

Took some arty pics:

It snowed this winter. This is at my new house.

Got a bike rack:

Had Sarah at VWCamperCurtains make me up some curtains. This is the first time ive had someone else work on my van! She did a top job.

In use in the Lakes last weekend.

Theres not much left to do now really. Just door cards, cushion coverings and headlining. This summer, i'll mostly be enjoying it!

All the best
Jim

 

[the_troupster]

Again, its been a long while since I put any pictures up. I've been busy working on my Beetle that I've owned for 14 years now. It's getting a full nut n bolt resto. Here's a quick pic

Anyway, back to the 'van. It's mostly been running maintenance over the last 12 months or so...

Finished trimming the buddy seat

Fitted a Berg shifter. Which handle would you of used? The other is for the Bug.

Spent a couple of weeks in Cornwall, topped off with a visit to Dubs at Castle on the way home.

Had a slight fuel issue at the top of hills where the fuel pump push rod had warn and so was not filling the carb properly after a long haul up a cornish hill.

This is at shot of the roof. It's slowly getting worse from a PO's respray job. Not pretty.

Fitted some Gaz coilovers. I still have a HD anti roll bar to fit.

Spent a few days walking in the lakes.

Had alot of filler cracking on the sliding door from a PO's patch panel.

So decided to cut it off and start again.

Passing inspection.

Rebuilt the rear suspension, going a click lower, new shocks and new rear tyres.

This is the next challenge. It's had Late Bay front arches fitted at some point in the past. For some reason the passengers outer arch had turned to dust, whilst the drivers is still rock solid. Anyhow, i'll get a OEM outer fitted next month.

I also got 5l of Savannah Beige delivered, so i'll start rubbing it down for a respray in the months to come. Will have to see how progress on the Beetle goes over the winter. One of them will need to be kept on the road.

That's all for now
Jim