My vans making me very happy

[monkeyboy]

I have put my van up for sale but have had a change of hart and we have decided to keep it. So i thought i would do all the bits that i thought needed doing. Windscreen out fix little bit of rust remove engine do a little tidy up and a bit of a re wire rebuild the carbs that sort of thing. So far i have snapped the windscreen in half threaded the stud on the head for the inlet manifold blown my battery up and just broke more stuff tan fix it .I feel like i have had enough and on top of that if it did work it keeps pissing down with rain!!!!!

So Fooook it all (until i get my motivation back at the weekend if it dont rain)

thanks for listening :?


(rant over)
much love

 

[marcher]

keep the "Riviera" love fella. theres not that many of us :lol:

 

[antoine]

i know the feeling, iv been trying to get the engine running right for bloody ages now, everything i do seems to cause 3 more problems, and the box of shiny parts is still sat there, the temptation to just make it look nice fill it with plants and use it as a greenhouse is almost getting the best of me.



but its an old vehicle, that most of us fix ourselves, if it was easy would we be that interested?

 

[junkyardjim]

I know the feeling monkeyboy!

After getting my van ready for a weeks camping we eventualy set off,

Smoke started coming out of the dash on the first day (burnt out from light switch behind dash)

The poptop blew up on the way to Penzance snapping off a roof toggle bracket rivets

The brakes then started pulling to the left dispite being spot on when have them checked on an MoT
brake meter days earlier!!

and to top it off my choke element (fitted 6m months ago) packed up the day we returned home! :roll:

still had a good time though

 

[baz1875]

my van was bought with dreams of going to a show every other weekend camping trips blah blah ,

in reality every time i even think of working on it, it rains and everytime someone else works on it my wallet crys.

however i have realised pretty quick that im not the only one in this situation and its not just my bad luck its just a quirk of loving these old annouying lovable buses.

so on them brief occassions when the its not raining and i havent F@*ked something up you'll find me at the front of a que of pissed off lorry drivers smiling like a small child.

 

[KevH]

It's a labour of love and love never runs smoothly; it is unpredictable, expensive and damned frustrating. But sometimes you just want to give your bus a hug and all is well again.

It really will be worth it in the end and, who knows, it might, just might, stop raining too.

Chin up mate.

 

[68_early_bay]

Chin up fella :mrgreen:
It happens to us all, it will come together and when it does you'll be driving round with a smile like a cheshire cat, and you won't even remember the bad times

Just have a couple of days away from it, chill, watch a bit of footy (if it's your thing) , then have another go and it will go a lot smoother

Shaun

 

[KevH]

Chin up fella :mrgreen:
Just have a couple of days away from it, chill, watch a bit of footy (if it's your thing)

Shaun

If you are REALLY fed up, don't watch the footy...it can only get worse :lol:

 

[68_early_bay]

If you are REALLY fed up, don't watch the footy...it can only get worse :lol:

Didn't think of that :lol: but if we get through to the quarters. We either get Spain or Italy , so we've got that in the bag :msn4: .................... :lol: :lol:

 

[Clem]

Even with the work done, the weather has scuppered most plans Ive had for getaways this year ... the next couple of weekends are doing non van stuff so it'll be July (Camperjam) before my next use of the van ... during times like this motivation can be tough.

Hang in there though, when the good times come, they are very good!

 

[rickyrooo1]

hello from the darkside.... i'm having exactly the same discussion on our site, general feeling is it's the weather.... 3 and a bit weeks til camperjam and bits off everywhere as i 'thought' i could easily get it back together in time, having found a massive water ingress due to new seals not fitted correctly and all this bleedin' rain i'm miles behind, i'll be there but unless it dries up one weekend it'll look like a tramps den inside! keep the faith.

 

[easy]

Chin up dood! if in doubt go and sit in it, dont work on it and right a list of everything you need to and want to do with the bus, by the time you get to the end of the long list (as it always is) it should spur you on to get the things sorted and give you the satisfaction of doing everything you want or need to do and seeing the list reduce. 8)

 

[sidecargezzer]

boy can I relate to this, I don't have rain, only 105 heat and blowing sand...... I dont have a garage I work out in the yard under a joshua tree, been trying to find the source of a oil leak, looks like it might be the rear main,,,,oh goody, I get to pull the motor one more time :evil:

 

[cotswoldiver]

It's a place so many of us have been to and it is not always down to the total cost spent on the bus to date either. There always seems to be something else you want to do to it, but I've now taken the view that I want to enjoy what I've got and put on the back burner extra plans.

I wasn't going to do campervan this year, but with so many events already cancelled I've said sod it and booked, so combined with a weekend at the Cornbury Festival at the end of this month, WOMAD at the end of next month I hope any underlying issues will show their hand because either bravely, or foolishly I've booked a ferry at the end of August and will spend 10 days in France.

What have I learned? - the sensible bit, not try to cover too many miles either per day or in the 10 days but with enough of a reason to visit parts of France to chill instead of staying in the UK.

This was instead of heading to almost guaranteed sunshine in some debt encrusted part of Greece as I honestly reckon the westy will give me more of a smile on my face than lying on some 20 euro a day beach lounger..... and it owes me, big time and if all else fails no matter how much pre journey prep I've done, how many of the right parts I've replaced the - European recovery will kick in and bring me home and no doubt minor depression will kick in, I'll curse for a while, swear I'll never do it again, threaten to put the bus up for sale and just agree to rent a T5 when I want to go away next time .... but in the end I know I will eventually smile, then laugh and plan the next trip ... it's certifiable this bus ownership but I just can't give it up :lol:

 

[sparkywig]

Don't worry about the rain, we've been away every weekend we planned and had a good time whatever the weather.
You won't melt if you get wet.

 

[marco]

I know the feeling, bought my van in April, thinking a quick fix and mot and use her this summer???.
So far every job seems to uncover 2 more, South Africans seem to have imaginative ways of fixing things :?
So it's still parked up, I've run out of funds at the mo' and I still need a few bits before I can get her mot'd, and every free moment seems to correspond with the rain :|
Still it could be worse, I could have bought a mazda bongo :lol:

 

[monkeyboy]

Well I managed to fix everything just waiting for the screen .I drove to Gsf in my Passat to get some bits for the bus and my turbo went dropping 1 1/2 litres of oil in to my inter cooler so if it ain't one thing it's another I suppose (Vw) gonna fix that tonight deep Down i know it will be ok

 

[gibzy76]

Why does it always happen when youve got something planned as well. Just come back from a week in Cornwall strewn with mechanical difficulties. Carb linkage came loose on the way down, then, for no reason at all, the sliding door decided to drop out of alignment and wouldnt shut. Once we'd managed to get it shut, I snapped the accelerator cable (luckily only a mile from our campsite). Once I sorted this and, to top it all, the clutch decided to play up on the way home making it virtually impossible to select gears. Managed to limp the van home though. Next weekend will be all about sorting the clutch issue before camperjam.

Still makes me smile to look out the window and see it there though

 

[monkeyboy]

my faith has been restored i am now a happy man again fitted my window tuned up my engine (again )fitted my tac drove it and all i could do was smile i fooking love it!!!!

Here comes the summer