Olive & Biddy - | Fantastic CamperJam weekend |

[Foz]

I thought I'd share this here as someone else may want to have the same done with their pride and joy one day.

An artist whos goes by the name of Steve Bird http://www.stevebirdartist.co.uk posted on Facebook a while back asking for people to send in their favourite photos of their VW's and he would choose 6 to paint for his #ipaintyourlife project. Whereby he paints pics of peoples lifestyle photos and tours various shows around the country displaying them, obviously trying to sell them to earn his living
I sent in a few pics of Olive and was thankfully chosen as a subject.

Its taken a few weeks for Steve to begin my painting, but it took just over 4 days to accomplish once he'd put pen/brush to canvas.

The finished article is truly impressive, I was blown away with the end result! Theres nothing quite like a good oil painting in my opinion.

Below is the original photo i sent in and
below that is the 4 stages of the painted picture.


Original Photo

Stage 1 - Rough sketch

Stage 2 - Background colouring

Stage 3 -Forefront colouring

Stgae 4 - Finer detail, finishing touches and glazing

Steve is showing at Stanford Hall this coming weekend where this painting amongst others will be on display, his stall is worth checking out just to see his other paintings and he's a really nice bloke to chat with.

 

[deux]

hello
i've a little question
where do you bought your protect front face ?
thank you
olive

 

[Foz]

Hiya mate, I purchased my Bra front cover from these guys :- http://www.volksheaven.co.uk/vunderbra/

Not cheap, but they hand make it to your spec completely! I have no regrets buying mine and its still as good as the day I bought it.

 

[StuF]

Does the bra protect the front of your bus from traffic cones? :msn4: :lol: :msn4:
You ready to rock and roll Wednesday?

8)

 

[Foz]

Har har! ;-)
Still having slight issue with my rear brake....off side. For some reason it keeps getting hot even tho its been adjusted I don't know how many times now! And had new flexi's put on also, as i hear they can collapse causing this issue.
Adjusted so it can be turned by hand, so it's free spinning, yet when its all put back together and taken for a run after 10 mins it's getting hot!! Needs sorting before SPA trip Wednesday!! So am I sorted?.....I was hoping so after today.....but not quite yet bro!!


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[StuF]

They do put out a bit of heat when dragging - have you checked your handbrake adjustment?
Might be that causing a little drag? Hows the play in your wheel bearing - you need a little or that could heat up too

I am sure you will get it sorted! Baz came all the way back from Ninove with one of his front brakes clamped off due to a fractured brake line so it can be done! :msn4:

 

[Foz]

So the latest update to my build thread and it isn't one I ever wished to post, however I think others should be made aware!

My 'Slamwerks - Air beam' I had fitted 2 years ago now has epically failed in quite spectacular fashion.
Luckily I was almost stationary and in reverse when it did! Had I been doing 65-70mph down the motorway I dread to think of the consequences, and whether I would even be alive to write this post right now!
Luckily I had just done a circuit of the famous SPA trackday!
Came back to park my bus with the awning, reversing into position, I lost all steering on 1 side, thinking it was maybe a track rod end sheered or suchlike, I was horrified when I took a look underneath!

If you look closely at the pictures below you can clearly see where the beam has failed where the air bags sit on the adjuster bars of the beam.
Its tore through the metal on both side, twisting the metal, the middle section of the beam, and the steering mechanism completely out of line.

All steering is lost, luckily I can still inflate the bags to keep the wheels off the arches (which aided the recovery over in Belgium this weekend just gone) however the metal is tearing still at a slow rate, and will eventually bite the bullet! I hope to have the bus back and in a workshop before that happens, tho nothing is guaranteed.

Speaking of guarantee's.....clearly now 'Slamwerks' cease to trade, there is absolutely nothing I can do to get this rectified under some kind of warranty by them or by T2D who have taken over Slamwerks copyright. I know they would have nothing to do with this!
I will be getting in touch with them tho in the near future, purely to point out their beams have a potentially major strength issue in the design and it needs to be rectified and upgraded before anyone else falls fowl of this with disasterous consequences.

I'm currently best part of £2,000 short in the pocket now thanks to the Slamwerks guys once again.....I'm now the proud owner of a scrap Air beam! (cheers Guy & Ted!)
Lord only knows what its going to cost to repair to a satisfactory conclusion, but safe to say my show season is well and truly over for this year!!

So if your running any kind of 'Slamwerks' beams be they 'Air', 'Shortened', 'Adjustable'......just take a good look underneath, have them checked out thoroughly, just to be on the safe side!

I would hate ANYONE to experience what I've just been through!!

I count myself lucky to still own a bus right now!!

 

[dazza1975]

Normally I enjoy reading your updates but not this time :|

Glad your safe and its only the van needing repair!

 

[mike202]

That's scary! :shock:

Glad you're ok.

 

[admwllms]

Jesus, scary stuff. Just glad you are alright.

 

[gas1man]

Good to hear all is well, however very scary stuff.
Into the garage, slowly catch a monkey, back to SPA again in a years time

J & P

 

[Aircooler]

That's really frightening! Glad to see you're allright!
Best regards
Reto

 

[slowmo]

Hi

Sorry to hear about your beam that's bad news, I have been looking at air beams recently creative engineering offer a decent looking air beam.
The airbag arms travel looks like they are only limited by the tube, Some strengthening around this region could have strengthened it up significantly and prevented this issue. I doubt much if any research and development went into the design of the air beam variant hence this issue. I would say this is a huge safety concern and slamwerks should be informing any other owners of these air beams
Id possibly be interested in the beam if you wanted to cut your losses and sell what remains, I'm local as I have seen your bus at the BCDC club meets.

Adam

 

[Clem]

MOD STATEMENT This thread has been edited due to some comments being posted, and then answered to, about a company not involved in this unfortunate incident.



Foz - hope you get things sorted as painlessly as possible Please keep the thread updated.

 

[Paul Weeding]

I would say that the torsional stresses placed on the axle tube via the steering system and the fact that the tube has been slotted for the airbag lifters is the main failure mode... Not the airbag lifters themselves

 

[mychatype3]

:shock: damn Foz, thats not good....... did you see me on the parade at Spa? You grazy brit with the mask :lol:

 

[Campmobile70]

It's scary to think what could have happened if this failed whilst driving, another good reason to stick with original Volkswagen parts, doesn't matter how good the company's are that fabricate these beams are they are never going to be up to the quality of original German Volkswagen parts, I know it's the thing to have slammed buses but this has got to make you think twice.
It's good news no harm was done to the driver/passenger, dread to think how bad things could of turned out if your family ended up in hospital (or worse) just for the sake of being cool.
Definitely sticking with what Volkswagen intended!


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[r73]

It's scary to think what could have happened if this failed whilst driving, another good reason to stick with original Volkswagen parts, doesn't matter how good the company's are that fabricate these beams are they are never going to be up to the quality of original German Volkswagen parts, I know it's the thing to have slammed buses but this has got to make you think twice.
It's good news no harm was done to the driver/passenger, dread to think how bad things could of turned out if your family ended up in hospital (or worse) just for the sake of being cool.
Definitely sticking with what Volkswagen intended!


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Couldn't agree more,
I love nothing more than a slammed bus (except for a slammed bug, ghia, etc!)
But I came to the conclusion a while ago that the safest way other than stock, is K&L.

 

[monkeyvanwestybike]

Also on this note
Please beware of so called "Rust free" Beams what looked ok on the outside turned out to be full of ginger nuts
so I got a Creative Beam
But none of this is helping the dude that this has happened to!

 

[Marriedblonde]

It's scary to think what could have happened if this failed whilst driving, another good reason to stick with original Volkswagen parts, doesn't matter how good the company's are that fabricate these beams are they are never going to be up to the quality of original German Volkswagen parts, I know it's the thing to have slammed buses but this has got to make you think twice.
It's good news no harm was done to the driver/passenger, dread to think how bad things could of turned out if your family ended up in hospital (or worse) just for the sake of being cool.
Definitely sticking with what Volkswagen intended!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Couldn't agree more,
I love nothing more than a slammed bus (except for a slammed bug, ghia, etc!)
But I came to the conclusion a while ago that the safest way other than stock, is K&L.

Oh come on guys really? There a 1000's of narrowed beams out there and all of a sudden you are trying to tell us they are all dangerous?

I know the guy that makes the narrowed beams for a lot of other retailers (not the ones mentioned above) and I can assure you the quality of them is a lot better than the mass produced beams that VW supplied. I am pretty sure a lot of other manufacturers are also producing quality kit.