60 replies to this topic

[maryquant]

Hi All,

Well the bedford has been in the garage getting its new engine fitted for..... 6 MONTHS! Whilst waiting I decided that the sensible thing to do would be to buy another camper as a donor vehicle ready for the rebuild. When I found one on eBay it was a little small for us to actually camp in but the panels looked in good condition so I bought it anyway.

When it arrived the wife and daughter fell in love with it straight away (which they will later regret when they see the state of it) so we have decided to rebuild this one first to hopefully get away in this summer and next summer whilst I 'seriously' rebuild the other one.

Here she is arriving at the unit. I already have a bedford bambi and an Austin mini in here so space is getting tight now - and the big camper isn't even here yet.



More pics to follow shortly when they upload.

Edited by maryquant, 19 April 2012 - 07:26 PM.

[Bungle]

if you think that's small what do you think of our old VW camper

[Criptix]

Cant wait to see updates on this, what are planning to do with it

[maryquant]

@bungle - I love yours, and unlike mine yours is being repaired properly by someone with skills I have to actually bribe my assistant so bought a Bedford Bambi for him to restore while helping with mine. Now the bambi really is tiny.

@criptix - This one will have the rot removed, be relined, re-sealed and then have new cabinetry etc installed. The vehicle itself is in pretty good shape with minimal rust etc. The other bedford we have will be much bigger - extended by a few feet and be a complete custom back

Photobucket is soooooo slow.

[maryquant]

On first inspection everything seemed manageable...

Not much rot above cab.



Start to see the area where the majority of the wet stuff got in...



It was clear by this time that the wardrobe would need to come out...



And this cupboard...

[maryquant]

Some damp further along the wall... not a good sign



Cupboard doors off and its really starting to show...



These cupboards etc had been installed to a fresh piece of timber which had clearly been attached to the rotten stuff behind, so a larger job than I first expected.

We removed the worktop, and utilities - the gas is all coming out anyway as I hate the stuff, and the electrics are being replaced and wired in with RCD trips



Proof my assistant can work...



Organised chaos

[maryquant]

The corner really is damp, the construction is basically exterior metal, with polystyrene glued to it, and then a chipboard glued to that - its a nightmare to get off and is very very damp (I could squeeze water out of the polystyrene)



Paloma water heater ready to go up on eBay, along with the fridge, cooker, sink/grill etc I should be able to get a couple of hundred toward rebuilding.



The nice headlining was covering the old damp headlining so unfortunately that will be removed too



More destruction ensues.

[Bungle]

Proof my assistant can work...

isn't he just peeing in the corner ?

[maryquant]

The over cab box is fibreglass - so shouldn't be any problem there, but it is attached to the van with screws into rotten wood - ill take it off probably and recon all the window seals before refitting.



No fuse wire left in tool box so will replace this with RCD trip board



More stuff for eBay (poor mary in the background)



Im going to have to find a better way of separating these layers without damaging the exterior aluminium



Damp goes right to the back of the van, this whole wall is now getting redone.





Two batteries wired in parallel - will replace this for a proper leisure battery with split charge system

[maryquant]

So 5 hours into the rebuild and we've gone from a semi-useable camper to this



Will get some more done tomorrow evening when I have some tools at the unit.

[maryquant]

isn't he just peeing in the corner ?

Nah - if his past work ethos is anything to go by then he is probably just trying to make it look like he is....

[maryquant]

This gives a good comparison between the size of both campers, the one in this project thread is this big...



The one that should be here in a few weeks is this big...



And to that I will be adding probably another 2-3 foot in length.

[Criptix]

Well it looks like you got your work cut out for you, good luck

[maryquant]

MAJOR update today and its only day 2 of the rebuild...

Whilst the photos update to photo bucket lets just say that the rebuild has taken a severe turn, the damp was a lot worse and a lot more 'everywhere' than I first imagined. To make matters worse we discovered the van had a little secret which has meant even more bodges/work to do.

Pics in a bit...

We started to see how easily the polystyrene would come off - whoever stuck this section down really used some strong stuff.



This proved exceedingly difficult, which was odd because some of the polystyrene practically fell off - just these panels were sticking

Edited by maryquant, 04 April 2012 - 11:07 PM.

[maryquant]

Starting to see evidence of a poor repair...