Still Stoked Longboard Skates For Surfers

Diaries of a Surf, Skate, Travel Explorer

22 June 2010

Campervan Alchemy

Teleportation might be a little on the exaggerative side… I think the great big crane thing gives away that there is no actual magic involved!
After yet more stops and starts we were given the five minute warning last night and Donny rushed off with our boy Ocean to hopefully achieve the aim of moving the camper body from one van onto another one.
Red, just before surgery!
It is sometimes helpful to know people who know people who have great big lorries with lifts on the back. This combined with a piece of agricultural equipment seemed to meet the needs.
Lift Off
We did wonder whether the camper body, being nearly 40 years old might just buckle under it's own weight, but other than a little bit of bowing there wasn't any problems.
Tense moments as the van body flies through the air
With the camper body in the air the vans could be moved around into place.
Bringing it into land
A smooth landing later…..
Silver is born
and Silver (what an inspired name…) is born.
There is still some jiggling about to be done, the one side has fitted perfectly against the cab but the other side has a marked gap. Also the fixings to the chassis, which you would hope to be universal on transit 120s, don't all match up so we will have to adjust them somehow. But despite these few things the job has been a success and Donny can go to the Paddle Round the Pier at the beginning of July!

This entry relates to: [ Travel ]

Posted at 18:00:53

19 June 2010

Re-inventing Red

We were somewhat forced to sell the VW camper as our boy would not sleep up the top and even in the huge bed the VW had, there was not the room. We were at a loss as to where to go next camper-wise. With the ever increasing price of petrol (not to be whinged at, after all it is a finite resource) there was no way we could afford to run a Mark1 Transit with their top MPG of 18 but we love the space and layout of the CI Autohomes which were only put on Transits and Bedfords in the 70's.
So you can imagine how chuffed we were when we found a 1992 transit with the back we wanted. The guy said it had 11 months MOT and was in pretty good condition and did about 30-35mpg. So off Donny went to collect it.
New Old red, Transit camper van
Well, we're no experts, though sometimes I wish we were. We got it checked out at a garage when we got home, as there was something not quite right with the suspension and the guy went white and said he reckoned it was a right-off!!! What a complete downer. VOSA check showed 18 failures and another 13 adviseries. One of the failures probably would have killed the passengers as the seat and belts were only screwed down with wood screws!! Oh Dear.
Not wanting to right it off completely the only way wot go was to buy a better tranny and stick the back of this one onto the new one. Advice said it had to be a Transit Flairside and after a few false starts we found a great one.

After taking out (with some difficulty) the bolts that hold the back on, we got it off with the help of a mate's tractor.
Taking the back off the Flairside

The bareboned Flairside
Now Silver is a bare boned beast, all welded and sealed up to get it to last as long a possible. The next step is to under the camper body and the "easy" job of lifting the camper off and sticking it on silver. No problems! We will keep you updated how it goes.