Transit Conversion

Continued ups and downs

2011-11-18T07:37:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since i updated my blog so i thought i should

Since 11 Feb (my last blog) a few things have happened.

Annie has been on a few trips. Firstly she has been to Aberfoyle which was beautiful, warm, and a great weekend even with the cycle trips we did, 25 miles for me and Ella managed 20 miles over three days which was excellent. Mairi had come off a night shift and missed half the cycling and when she did she just complained about her sore behind.

Annie in situ at aberfoyle

Some of the Beautiful scenery at Aberfoyle. Surprise is that this is approx 1hr drive from Glasgow!!

We then headed down to Wales and Annie took the miles without missing a beat. We broke the journey up with a stop at Warrington on the way down and at Preston on the way back up.

We spent 5 nights on the campsite at the Haven resort at Pwllheli in North Wales. The facilities were great and the entertainment at night for what it was (a bit of fun) was great and the kids were in swimming each day at some time.

After our Holiday Annie has been relaxing in the drive until November when she was started up and her battery light did not go out. ooooooooohhhhhh dear. She went for her MOT and passed with flying colours, but with every silver lining there is a cloud. The battery light meant......a new alternator was needed.

A new alternator is ...................................£250 + VAT + fitting. yes i did write £250 + VAT + Fitting.

Like a true wheeler dealer, onto the internet i go and manage to get a replacement Alternator for £46 inc VAT and delivery.. yipee.

So Annie is returning to Glasgow Commercials (in Paisley) to have it fitted for many more miles of travel.

Until the next post (whenever that may be) adios from Annie and me.

Finally made it!!!

2011-02-11T15:54:00.000-08:00

Short post but the most important one yet.

As of Tues 8th February the van ( Tranny Annie) is officially a Motor Caravan!!!!!!!

Yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaassssssssss!!!!!

After all the work done, I sent a letter along with 5 pages of before and after pictures and the log book to the DVLA and made my request to change from a Panel Van to a Motor Caravan, and just under 2 weeks later they have accepted the change.

It brings a tear to the eye thinking that the conversion is complete, but with all good projects I dont think it will ever be complete and will have minor changes made to her.

So I suppose this is the end of the blog but dont stop following as there may be more!!!!!!

Another year of use

2010-11-14T08:47:00.000-08:00

Well fir all those who thought the blog had finished, I do have a couple of more entries to make before I would say it is complete

The most important and scary day came last week when the van went for it's MOT, aaarrgggghhhh

I booked it into Glasgow Commercials ( in Paisley ) with fingers, toes, everything crossed to see how good or bad it would do. I knew it would fail as my horn was not working.

After spending the day playing on buses with Nathan , thanks greenerjourneys.com for the free bus journey tickets, we went back to the garage to find out the result.

The list was surprising, A new horn, a new tyre, and 2 track rod ends, that's it, yup that was all that was needed

YIIIPPPPEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

So it was booked back in the following week for the repairs and i now have a brand new MOT keeping me on the road and camping for another year.....

Next time hopefully i will have managed to change the van from a Commercial vehicle to a Motorhome officially with the DVLA

Jealousy !!!

2010-09-21T13:51:00.000-07:00

Well on Sunday we decided to get the vans out again, possibly for their last outing, and went back to Pollok Park, scene of the first outing what seems to be so long ago yet it was only this spring.

We recreated the picture, almost and set about making lunch.

After lunch we got kitted up with walking boots and waterproofs, and went on our merry way and spent 2 - 3 hrs walking around, letting the kids play in the woods, collecting conkers, then on to the play park. All in all a great relaxing afternoon.

We decided to go back to the vans to then head home.

As we walked towards the van my heart sank! I thought my eyes were deceiving me and that there was rain on the van.

NO !!!

As I got nearer the van it hit home that all was not well.

Some little cretin (excuse the spelling if not right) had decided that their parents had been bad to them and had not given them a white board for their bedroom, and decided that my van bonnet would be a worthy replacement to fill that childhood hole!!

So " DIV " whoever you are, i hope that replaces any therapy that you missed as a child !

Deep down I was gutted, after all the hours working on her and getting her to this stage, for someone to do this was heart renching, and yes I know it is just a van, but you ask any camper owner, It aint just a van!!

Now that you are hopefully as gutted as I was, I bring you good news.

" DIV " obviously didnt realise that spray paint usually needs a bit of wet n dry and some primer to stick to metal, so after getting home, Tranny Annie was treated to a white spirit nose bath and I am pleased to say that she is looking almost her good old self with a white nose, sorry DIV !

A bit of T cut and she should hopefully look as if it had never happened.

Untill the T cut is finished, adios for now

just a quickie

2010-08-26T12:15:00.000-07:00

Just noticed on ebay that if you are looking for something to convert, Fastline ltd have gone into receivership and the market has now been flooded with their vans.

Why does this matter?

It matters because these are usually full service history, well maintained and also there are now loads of vans for sale with the same trendy stand out yellow strips on the side !!!!!

Till next time.....

Holiday!!!

2010-08-18T14:11:00.000-07:00

Well the grand day came and we got all packed up and hit the road for our summer break away in the van. Yes break, not 1 day, 2 days, a whole 5 nights on the road in the van.

Our first stop was to the campsite @ Ravenglass in Cumbria (left hand side of the map) and after we found it, we were very impressed with the site.

From an ex works van to mobile home for a family of 4!!

Even space at the back for dinner.

A view from the awning into the van.

Now when away camping with children, they tend to get dirty, now with modern campsites they have laundry facilities to wash them and dry them, but what do you do when the washing is not quite dried properly

4 drying lines inside the van!!!

Now occasionally it rains when camping so what do you do? (keep it clean please!!)

Thats right, watch tv! (in the van)

We later moved onto Haltwhistle and unfortunately the heavens opened for two days ! not no matter what modifications i have made to the van, it doesn't stop the ground getting wet. As we packed up to leave, the tarpauline we were using got put in the bin as under it was this

Which does have a 4" hole in the middle of the puddle of mud.

I have kept this mainly picture based and short as it is a blog about a van conversion and not my holiday snaps, until next time........

2010-08-05T08:28:00.000-07:00

Today i started doing fiddly bits to the van to start finishing it off.

Firstly i decided the grey wood on the inside of the back doors had to go.

nice and white!

I have finally got some flooring down on the floor and if you remember in the last blog I said about grass in the van, well here it is

I could not make up my mind if i wanted carpet, )too easy to get dirty), laminate flooring,( i did not fancy trying to lay it under the seats) so i went for, yes you guessed it, astro-turf or artificial grass. Easy to brush out and it feels like bringing the outside in doors.

Remember this ?

after a few changes it know looks like this

This is the same unit although I have changed the sink and added a tap, I got the cooker from Go Outdoors at the ridiculous price of only £24.99, double hob and grill underneath and it fit the gap perfectly. I also shortened the doors on the unit as after putting the flooring down I realised that I could not open the cupboard doors !

Under the cooker is a campingaz 907 canister that is piped up into the back of the cooking unit, calor gas bottle was too big .

So the van is just about ready for holiday time and after a couple of overnights it is time for a week long holiday, so I will let you know when it happens.

2010-08-05T01:45:00.000-07:00

Now hands up who thought that i had given up on the blog and had finished the van?....................well no I haven't, just a slight lack of funds to get on with it.

The past couple of days has seen the van hopefully become a bit more camperlike.

After some internet searching I have managed to get the missus a bike, and a bike seat for Nathan we are already for cycling on holiday, just need to find space in the van for storage, or not

The bike rack is fitted on at the towbar ( A huge thanks has to go to Collins Tyre Services in Johnstone, after asking them to unbolt the towball they actually fitted it for me, so if you need puntures, tyres, exhausts etc, give them a look as the do offer a great service, no I am not on commission this time, just very very appreciative to them. ) and can take 3- 4 bikes on it.

I have since got a number plate made up and a lighting bar for the rear of the bikes.

Next time gas and cooker changes and i actually have grass, yes... GRASS inside the van (not the illegal type you smoke)

Getting ready to go!

2010-05-01T15:52:00.000-07:00

After getting the foam I got the number of an upholsterer in Yoker who had done some work on a friend's van and went to see him to get the foam covered and here it is..

Done to match in with the seats in the back of the van.

Now as you may have noticed the above picture, there are things hanging from the windows.

There are curtains on both side windows

We also have curtains at the doorway to the bedroom

There is also a dividing curtain closing off the cab..

And finally to keep the heat in at the back...

A full length curtain to keep my little babies warm in the back

Now a major thank you has to go to my mother in law, yes i did say mother in law and there will definetly be no jokes here just thank you, thank you, thank you, Margaret for all your work in making all the curtains from scratch.

Once I collected the van from getting curtains, and scrubbed from top to bottom by Mairi, Ella, Nathan (apparently), and Margaret, I got it home and started to load up for an overnight trip and then, DISASTER!!!! when i put the water bottle back in i managed to pull the power connection out of the water pump. Not a major problem you think, but remember i connected this before the kitchen was fitted to the van.

After a tight squeeze, yes no a small person, and having to remove the water bottle holder from the floor and it was reconnected and working again, thank goodness.

Van packed and ready to go yipee!!!!

I am still alive

2010-04-21T14:46:00.000-07:00

I am posting this, not because there are any major changes to the van but to prove that i do other things to keep the peace in the house.

Remember the bombsite of a garden i had left with the parts from the inside of the van ?

Yes rather untidy... well in good old conversion style it now looks like this..

Not bad for an afternoon, anyway no more non conversion blog, back to business as usual next time.

Somewhere to sleep!

2010-04-15T14:32:00.000-07:00

After the adjustments to the table in the previous blog, I needed to get a cushion for the box to level things out and to stop getting skelfs in my rear end, (no not a pretty thought). I didn't realise there are shops in the high street, well Jamaica Street in Glasgow, that sell foam for cushions in any sizes. So armed with measurements i went and got my foam, and it is now in pride of place on the box.

I am going to let the pictures do most of the talking on this blog as they are showing what the van looks like before and after the bed is put in place.

Another step closer to going away overnight, just need to get the gas connected to the cooker and the curtains put up.

Roll on next pay day!

No I haven't given up

2010-04-13T14:24:00.000-07:00

Just incase you thought that i had given up on the conversion as i had not updated the blog recently, then sorry but sanity has not returned and yes I am still going.

I have been putting off doing the bed but it has come to the point where it had to get done. I had decided that using the box that was added on the last blog, the chairs that are still in, and convert the table to drop down to be the middle of the bed.

To do this i had to change the table leg to two adjustable legs, just like so

Bed almost done just need to sort out the cushion for the box.

The other things that have been happening are lots of small jobs but necessarry ones.

I have put up curtain rails on the windows and the dividing doorway,

My curtains will arrive once measured and made

Remember this, My £5 special

Now looks like... And from the rear.....

The Last thing i did to the van was to finally give it a wash and white spirit shower, the rear doors were covered in tar spots and unfortunately once you start taking them off you find yourself in some sort of obssessive compulsive disorder when you start trying to clean off every black spot until you realise that that last one you rub is actually a stone chip that no matter how much you try is not going to come off.

During my time sorting out the small jobs, i did recieve an emergency call from Mairi to say that her and Ella had cycled from Johnstone to Lochwinnoch, major achievement for Mairi, saying that they could not make it back, so I ended up collecting them and bikes.

Due to 2 certain individuals not seeing the value of sleep,(Ella & Nathan) we decided to take them for a drive and all piled into the van, poor baby has not been out the driveway in three days, and went out.

Unknown to me there seemed to be monkeys swinging about the hills and one got in the van and started swinging around..

Finally, yes I am sad, but I thought i would ad another photo of the van as i thought it was looking quite good after its bath.

Until next time..........

Major move forward

2010-03-26T16:42:00.000-07:00

As shown in the last blog i had removed the row of seats behind and taken out the table.

In place of the chairs i have put in the frame for the box that will be storage, a chair, and bottom part of the double bed in the main compartment of the van.

I then enclosed the box with plywood and put a lid on it.

Remember the hole that had been made by removing the seats

well it now looks like this,

The next step is to put a hinge on the lid so it opens and closes, and I need to put a cushion on top of it which will be approx 15cm deep which will bring it in line with the height of the remaining seats. Also the table will go back in with an adaptation to hopefully make it the third part of the bed.

I know i keep saying it but everything that you see done in the van has been done by me, and i am not a professional tradesman, so if you fancy a go, there is nothing to stop you.

Almost there ( I wish )

2010-03-24T08:30:00.001-07:00

Well the bedroom in the rear of the van is almost complete! yeah

As you can see i have put some storage in , these are hanging storage from ikea which will ultimately be replaced by something a but more permenant. The wheel arches have been covered with material, ok they are not as good as the walls but remember I said at the start i am no professional at DIY just your average guy trying his best. The flooring has been finished up to the rear of the van and finished of with an aluminium edging strip for good old B&Q.

The new battery is in and thankfully all the electrics in the van now work for more than a minute and they are also surprisingly brighter than they were before. The sink now has running water and the waste pipe has been fitted so now the water runs and the van wets itself! (out the bottom of the van)

Then Next thing that has changed is in the main body of the van.

Remember this ,

well with a wee bit of rejigging it now looks like this,

This space is where the new bed come dining area is getting put in. First bolt was a pig to get out but with wedging a spanner on the bottom of the van and some brute force and ignorance, of which i have loads to spare, and all the bolts are out. Table took the angle grinder to cut out but its out and ready for construction to begin.

Finally back to the conversion

2010-03-22T12:39:00.000-07:00

After the inconvenience of having to go to work again i have finally managed another week on holiday and that means more time for the van, yiippeeeee!

So here is how it has turned out so far

The van has had it's insides ripped out to put in the bedroom for the kids and this week my intention is to take out the middle section and create a sleeping area for me, ok and the mrs i suppose!

Monday has been another of those futtery, sorry akward for those reading that might not understand the lingo, i have removed my old sad battery from the back of the van and replaced it with a 115Ah leisure battery from Alpha Batteries, free plugs for you business guys, and that means that the lights and everything electrical will now last more than 90 seconds before going off.

The major achievement for today is that i have running water in the van, no its not a leak in the roof! i have fitted my water pump and the water now flows off the control panel. The water pump was not expensive and bought from Just Kampers, which looks to be for VW campers only but does supply other items.

sorry there are no photos but not much to take photos of, more tomorrow hopefully with pictures

First proper outing

2010-03-07T15:00:00.000-08:00

Well it has reached that time and the van has had an outing in it's new life as a camper!

Sunday 7 march 2010 will go down in history as the first outing, although a long way from being finished, the basics along with some of my camping equipment lead to a fairly pleasant experience with great anticipation for how future trips go as the van draws nearer to completion.

As you can see from the picture, three families left Paisley and made the journey to Pollok Park, for a picnic lunch in our vans and a walk around the park.

The convoy consisted of my Transit, a Mazda Bongo, and the soon to be finished classic VW camper, and yes it is older than it's owner (just). We all have work in progress vans although some are more work in progress than others.

Even Mairi and Ella saw the enjoyable side of going out in the van, Nathan on the other hand was more interested in the bag of crisps in the bag on the floor.

With the first trip under the belt it now means that I will need to get a move on and get some more work done to secure cooking facilities, sleeping accomodation, and some more storage.

An Inside job

2010-03-05T15:22:00.000-08:00

Decided to do some of the annoying jobs today, when i finally got my act together.

Do you remember the retro (aye right) kitchen unit that i got for a fiver? well it is not quite finished but her is a rough idea of how it will look.

looking a bit more modern with new tops and doors !

This change is happening after digging around Ikea's bargain basement, cost so far is £24

You can also see that my water bottle arrived today and is snuck under the table at the end of the kitchen unit.

i also found a multi purpose bathroom cabinet which is lockable and will serve as a toothbrush holder, cupboard to hide things in with the lock, and mirror as it is polished metal, fantastic multi purpose is the way forward when you are short on space.

Also in the picture you will see i have added additional metal sheeting behind the kitchen unit.

The thing that took the longest to do today was this

Not see it? for the observant of you the extra seat at the sliding door has parted company with the van and gone off in a huff! and after the fight to get it out it can go and stay in the huff as far as i am concerned. Held in by four bolts, first 2 were easy to get out, third involved wedging a spanner against body work and a bit of leverage, and the fourth was so bad that i eventually gave up and cut the bolt out! (dad might need a new blade...sorry)

Taking the chair out has opened up th entrance to the rear for better access.

Will end this blog here as battery has decided to say it is low and is going to shut m....e......o......f....f.

5) Oh no snow!!!!!!

2010-02-25T13:38:00.000-08:00

Well just as i go back to work and have my first day off, the snow decides it would be a good idea to appear! For someone working on a convertion this is not good news.

As you can see it was not just a dusting of snow but what ended up approx 7" of snow.

Now for those who do not know transits very well, or vans in general, the bigger they get they change from front wheel drive to rear wheel drive.

Unfortunately my big baby is is like a dog on laminate flooring and doesn't know which way each wheel is going to slide. It went back to bed on thursday morning and the car went to work.

Nevertheless, snow did not stop play(convertion) and the tarpouline was out to continue work

Where there's a will, there's a way!!

What i did under the tarp was to fit the flooring to the rear bedroom. I have used aqualoc laminate flooring from B&Q. What i did was i took the insulation foil that was used on the walls and put a layer of that on the floor, i then used 2mm laminate foam on top of the foil and then measured the laminate to fit.

Remember that when laying laminate to lay it across the ribbing on the floor and not along it, as the laminate will likely break.

The pictures showing the new flooring in the van are not fuzzy, it is the snow falling in front of the lense.

I'll get some better pictures on soon.

Next time i might just have a complete cooker unit, who knows as my plans and order have become fairly mixed up

2010-02-20T16:03:00.000-08:00

4 ) Well today ended up a bit more constructive than yesterday with the beds now in the van.

The beds were bought off of Ebay and were kind of expensive by my standards but the were hard to find and there was not much else similar anywhere on the internet. They are originally designed for a caravan but as you see they fit like a glove (once cut to length), the ladders were extra pinched from my daughters old bunk beds (another freebie) cut to length to fit the van. All that is needed now is storage and floorcovering which will be in a future blog.

Latest on the light cluster is that it is now had primer put on it and it now shows all the bits i have missed when sanding.

At least it know looks a bit closer to how it should do.

Now I did say about saving money on your kitchen unit. These units can cost anything from £200 to £1500 depending on how big you want, whether you want equipment like cooker and sink, whether you want extra storage, the coices are vast.

Here is my unit as i got it

I saved myself a fortune on these and you can to if you are prepared to get a little dirty, and do some DIY in them as i have, and i am no expert.

This unit complete with cooker and sink cost the grand total of £5 pounds............ I'll say that again, £5, not 50, not 500,....... £5, how? well i got it from an old caravan in a scrap yard (hence the get dirty bit) scrap dealers are not interested in wooden items, it is worth nothing to them.

I have already made some alterations to the unit which i will upload when complete and you will see the final result and i think you will be surprised.

Next time i should be able to show you the storage for the back and possibly the kitchen unit finished.

2010-02-19T15:47:00.000-08:00

3 ) Not much to post today as i was carrying on with lining the van but i thought that i would put in a picture of the inside as it stans as you have seen the front, back, but nothing in between!

as you can see there is certainly more than nothing, the van is kitted out with five seats in the rear along with a table.

Chances are that these items will come out to create the main eating area and also my sleeping area.

Next i should be able to show you the rear bed complete and how to save a small fortune on your kitchen equipment.

2010-02-18T16:27:00.000-08:00

2 ) The last couple of days have seen me get brave and use a circular saw on the van and cut out the doorway that will lead to the back bedroom.

In the picture you see that the walls and roof have started to go black, this is because i have started to line them with carpet tiles, dead easy to use just a bit hard to cut.

Now you may be wondering what has happened to all the stuff that was ripped out the van, Well it is neatly piled up ready for someone with a van to take it to the dump.

Yes I am seriously pushing my luck the longer it stays there.

If you are following this and are thinking that this would be something you would like to do the a word of warning. Please, please, please do not use this as any type of instructions or way to do things as this is just how I did it, by all means take some of the ideas to products and design but every project will be different with different hurdles to overcome.

Coming soon

I buy a kitchen unit with a difference, bunk beds to be put in, and flooring for the bedroom.

1) Transit Conversion

2010-02-17T15:26:00.000-08:00

I have decided if somewhat late to document my conversion of my LWB Transit to a Campervan.....yes i am off my head !

Here is my new baby, well four weeks old now and has changed somewhat.

Firstly my beloved L2 KWD now has pride of place on the vehicle and I am now the legal owner

I bought the van from Ebay, yes i did say Ebay, no dealerships or warranties, from a seller on the Isle of Skye. Recruiting my Dad as some sort of sanity to the trip we left johnstone at 0615, got the train to inverness, then on to Kyle of Lochalsh, to be met for a trip to his house which was 1 hour on from there taking us to almost the most north western part of scotland.

We drove it home all the way until Hillington when the alternator belt fell off! Sounds painful and serious but not really although expensive it was not terminal.

As i said earlier this is a catch up of the work already done and then i will continue as work is done.

In the rear of the van was a toilet cubicle and sink, to which mairi demanded it was removed due to apparent health and safety reasons......her health and my safety. so it was removed to leave the next picture

all i need to do now is remove the units from the left hand side and take out the flooring, still a strong smell of some sort of chemicals.

Flooring is now out and metalwork scrubbed down with bleach, looking good.

OUCH!!!!

This is one of the cosmetic jobs that needs done to make the outside of the van looking better. I dig out my body repair skill from the depths of my mind, and remind myself of the smell of body filler, mmmm lovely.

Well not to bad, just needs painted

INSULATION

One thing that i would recommend is that the van needs to be insulated to try and keep my wonderful cherubs warm.

I have used B&Q Aluminiun insulating roll, which is as best described as metalic bubble wrap

This was easy to fit as it. I removed the wood panels from the inside of the van, cut the foil with scissors, and stick to the van with good old gaffer tape, does the job beautifully.

Replaced the wood panels and bob's your uncle. (well he is mine)

Coming next time I start cutting wood (oh dear) and lining the inside.