Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Fire...I'll lead you to burn!
Well, what an exciting afternoon I had on Saturday. It's not everyday you get to be squeezed into your van in a boiler suit in 30+ degree temperatures whilst a man on the outside heats up the panels with an oxyacetalene torch.
Our friendly mechanic had asked me to come up and - as he put it - "firewatch" for him as he attempted to sort out the problem wheelarch. This sounded interesting.
I'd already stripped out much of the interior on the nearside - seats, insulation, curtains and the like - in preparation and it was with some trepidation that I took up my position crouched on the floor of the van with only a skooshy bottle of water (formerly home to some Mr Muscle oven cleaner) to save me.
The afternoon seemed to pass very quickly as I busied myself firewatching and being mesmerised by the little dots of heat appearing at intervals along the side of the van, where would one pop up next? I asked myself as spot after spot glowed then faded. Having put on the new panel, number 15 from Schofield's, it was time to sort out half a wheelarch.
Ah. Erm...
I'd not bought a wheelarch. Howie hadn't asked me to. "Oh, don't worry about that. It's all under control," he assured me as I looked on, already astonished at the transformation. In no time at all, he'd grabbed a piece of scrap steel from the workshop floor - as you do - taken it to the other wheelarch to take a radius size from, attacked it with tin snips and then it was out with the gas torch and the panel hammers & blocks. Less than 20 minutes later the wheelarch looked not dissimilar to how it must have done when it rolled off the production line in Wolfsburg.
There's still much to be done and the weather of late has turned from glorious to atrocious but I have high hopes.
The Bananabus may yet be ready to hit the Welsh coastline early in July...
Well, what an exciting afternoon I had on Saturday. It's not everyday you get to be squeezed into your van in a boiler suit in 30+ degree temperatures whilst a man on the outside heats up the panels with an oxyacetalene torch.
Our friendly mechanic had asked me to come up and - as he put it - "firewatch" for him as he attempted to sort out the problem wheelarch. This sounded interesting.
I'd already stripped out much of the interior on the nearside - seats, insulation, curtains and the like - in preparation and it was with some trepidation that I took up my position crouched on the floor of the van with only a skooshy bottle of water (formerly home to some Mr Muscle oven cleaner) to save me.
The afternoon seemed to pass very quickly as I busied myself firewatching and being mesmerised by the little dots of heat appearing at intervals along the side of the van, where would one pop up next? I asked myself as spot after spot glowed then faded. Having put on the new panel, number 15 from Schofield's, it was time to sort out half a wheelarch.
Ah. Erm...
I'd not bought a wheelarch. Howie hadn't asked me to. "Oh, don't worry about that. It's all under control," he assured me as I looked on, already astonished at the transformation. In no time at all, he'd grabbed a piece of scrap steel from the workshop floor - as you do - taken it to the other wheelarch to take a radius size from, attacked it with tin snips and then it was out with the gas torch and the panel hammers & blocks. Less than 20 minutes later the wheelarch looked not dissimilar to how it must have done when it rolled off the production line in Wolfsburg.
There's still much to be done and the weather of late has turned from glorious to atrocious but I have high hopes.
The Bananabus may yet be ready to hit the Welsh coastline early in July...
