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...
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
There's no substitute for quality
Recently, when I thought the bodywork & mechanical issues with the bus might be terminal, a friend suggested we look at a different van, "the Transit's a good vehicle, you could do a lot worse than one of those as a camper conversion." I won't say you could have knocked me down with a feather because plainly that would be silly but I was certainly shocked. This to me was a heresy! Campervanning in a - whisper it - non Volkswagen? The thought had never occurred to me. When we initially bought the bus we knew right from the off we wanted a VW, the only issue then was to Bay or not to Bay(window).
It got me thinking though...
I'd never countenance a non-VW for campervanning, it just doesn't seem right somehow. The original and best, as BARR'S IRN BRU used to say. My thinking started stretching to other things on which one just shouldn't compromise: tea for one, being something of a serious tea drinker, for me there's none better than BARRY's which thankfully we can get in Glasgow at Mellis' - must be leaf tea mind! - and when we run out there's the almost equally excellent Twining's Everyday, as championed by Stephen Fry. On the coffee front, I'm afraid instant will simply never do. Thanks to our good friends Sue & Davy we have a lovely GAGGIA Espresso machine for which any of the excellent LAVAZZA roasts seem to do the job (especially the "Crema e Gusto" blend my wee sister brought back from Torino a few months back).
I thought that was all on the "accept no substitutes" front until I had the misfortune over the weekend to run our of Gillette Sensor Excel blades and I had to resort to using the emergency Tesco razor (bought when staying over in Glasgow one night recently having forgotten the Gillette I've had for about 13 years now). Well. It was a painful experience to say the least. I put a brand new blade on and was still almost shredded. In the end I went back to the knackered Gillette blade and still ended up with a better shave. This is all a very trivial and by the by way of saying I've learned another valuable lesson - if you can afford it, don't compromise.
Transit vans indeed...
Recently, when I thought the bodywork & mechanical issues with the bus might be terminal, a friend suggested we look at a different van, "the Transit's a good vehicle, you could do a lot worse than one of those as a camper conversion." I won't say you could have knocked me down with a feather because plainly that would be silly but I was certainly shocked. This to me was a heresy! Campervanning in a - whisper it - non Volkswagen? The thought had never occurred to me. When we initially bought the bus we knew right from the off we wanted a VW, the only issue then was to Bay or not to Bay(window).
It got me thinking though...
I'd never countenance a non-VW for campervanning, it just doesn't seem right somehow. The original and best, as BARR'S IRN BRU used to say. My thinking started stretching to other things on which one just shouldn't compromise: tea for one, being something of a serious tea drinker, for me there's none better than BARRY's which thankfully we can get in Glasgow at Mellis' - must be leaf tea mind! - and when we run out there's the almost equally excellent Twining's Everyday, as championed by Stephen Fry. On the coffee front, I'm afraid instant will simply never do. Thanks to our good friends Sue & Davy we have a lovely GAGGIA Espresso machine for which any of the excellent LAVAZZA roasts seem to do the job (especially the "Crema e Gusto" blend my wee sister brought back from Torino a few months back).
I thought that was all on the "accept no substitutes" front until I had the misfortune over the weekend to run our of Gillette Sensor Excel blades and I had to resort to using the emergency Tesco razor (bought when staying over in Glasgow one night recently having forgotten the Gillette I've had for about 13 years now). Well. It was a painful experience to say the least. I put a brand new blade on and was still almost shredded. In the end I went back to the knackered Gillette blade and still ended up with a better shave. This is all a very trivial and by the by way of saying I've learned another valuable lesson - if you can afford it, don't compromise.
Transit vans indeed...
Friday, June 02, 2006
Fun places to be...
The isle of Skye is one. So is an excellent campervan friendly website called, funnily enough, funplace2b. Not only is it a great resource, but you can add stuff you've enjoyed with the utmost ease.
This could almost be an advert for the site couldn't it? Well it's not, but here's an advert for another (camp)site...
Glenbrittle, memories from an old trip.
The isle of Skye is one. So is an excellent campervan friendly website called, funnily enough, funplace2b. Not only is it a great resource, but you can add stuff you've enjoyed with the utmost ease.
This could almost be an advert for the site couldn't it? Well it's not, but here's an advert for another (camp)site...
Glenbrittle, memories from an old trip.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
The always excellent Volkswagen Camper and Commercial has a great feature on a 59 Devon this month...and a wee bit about taking a big yellow bus around the North of Scotland...
