Stripping, dealing with rust, and scary power tools.

Good day today, stripped out the seats, window boards, plastic panels, and roof panels to get a good look at it. It's in pretty good shape throughout I'm glad to say. The floor on the drivers side has corroded a bit (quite a bit actually), and the passenger side a little bit as well. I've wire-brushed, sanded, and Hammerite-ed the floor, though it's probably a futile effort with rust. Hopefully it will slow it down a bit.

Glad to see there's so much space behind the panels for insulation, it needs to be a warm van for some 'extreme camping' in the winter. However, I can't put the insulation in yet because I need sort out the wiring. I'm intending on having a leisure battery (12v) a mains hook up (240v) and I'd like the alternator and mains to charge the leisure battery, but only draw from the main battery when starting and running (I've gone cross-eyed). I've really no idea how to do all this but I understand there's a clever little gizmo called a 'Zig unit' that effectively does it all for you. You just have to wire it up correctly (ulp).

Also, I got to use an angle grinder today. That's a scary tool. There was a couple of bits of metal welded on to the wheel arches accomplishing very little (I think maybe they held the jack or something), so, boom! The angle grinder got rid of them whilst simultaneously turning me deaf to the sounds of complaining neighbours (and everything else) for a short while afterwards: textbook.

It begins...

Introducing 'Sundown' my Camper project...

I've decided to try to convert an old post-office minibus into a camper because i) campers are cool - fact; ii) I want to learn to surf in Wales (fellow snow / wake boarders - for cost-effective (i.e. free) boarding, surely wave power is the future!!) - look at that, brackets within brackets and we're only in the first paragraph; and iii) campers are cool - fact. I'll be recording my successes and failures here throughout the build, so if that's something you might be interested in then subscribe!



So 'Sundown' is an LDV Pilot (2000) 1.9l diesel minibus that I bought today for the wrong side of a grand, and which safely brought me home from Newcastle with only minor crunching of gears and minimal fluid loss. It's a bit smelly inside and a quick look under the seats reveals why....damp and rotten. Still, they're going pretty much straight in the bin.




First jobs are to strip the whole thing out and have a look at the body work. I'm hoping that welding will not be needed but better to find out now than further down the line when furniture and gas bottles etc start disappearing out of holes at 70mph.


More exciting pictures of a filthy old bus to come (could that ever be exciting? Answers on a postcard).