Holiday Nightmare

Just came back after spending one night out of a planned three in the New Forest. Went down during a lovely afternoon Thursday....
Got down in good time, considering the van developed a misfire, seems its spark plug.
Anyway, set up camp, made dinner and relaxed and watched the sun set. Had a great night to, woke up at 6 with my work alarm call though which was annoying, but it was then we were hit by a torrential rain storm and high winds. We stayed it out for a bit, but then our gazebo blew away followed by wind breaks and tables and chairs. In the van, water leaks developed that had never occured before as a result of the horizontal rain! after 5 hours in the van, we got out and cleaned up the mess then realising that the van was parked in a 5 inch deep puddle and everything was seriously wet, but in the back of the van it went, we were now very wet, then 10 minutes later having got changed it stopped raining and the sun came out! We were packed up and ready to go then friends asked us for dinner outside Brockenhurst. En route following them, with the van missfiring, it then developed a horrid bang under the drivers foot plate when going over bumps and small pot holes, thought it might be the drivers wheel wheel bearing playing up again. Got the AA out in the lovely sunshine and he said it was fine and couldnt see anything obvious, but that the steering idler might be worn to excess, after the MOT 2 weeks ago!
Having had that done, we both decided to head home, everything was wet, including the bedding as the door leaked unexpectedly. Leaving the new forest with misfire at low speed or putting the engine under load, the knock banging away underneath, we went over a cattle grid at Lyndhurst and a tinkleling noise started, we thought what the hell was that now, we then turned a left bend and noise started again. Further up the road underneath a bang occured and I heard the tinkleling get quieter - we stopped as soon as we could, looked on the road and around the van, the tail pipe extension had popped off with the chrome end peice attatched!
Oh well, what else could go wrong, well nothing much more than that, we made it after 2.5 hours. Saturday will be spent changing plugs and checking for the knocking underside.........

Parts

Finally have got the parts I needed, there was a big delay as I was working in London.
I got them from this chap, here is his website, just read and learn!

http://www.collectorscarparts-heathrow.co.uk/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/

MOT Time

Bijou went for her MOT last Saturday and failed, although not miserably. So far she has had new rear tyres, front steering and suspension grease up to stiffen up a little free play. She also needs two front wheel bearing, two offside wheel cylinders and two front brake hoses. Hopefully that will do. Am getting a local light commercial vehcile place to do it for me as im working away alot at the moment and I know they will do it properly!

To DO list, and what a list!

In order of priority I think.

1) Paint and refit front bumper
2) Check Van over for MOT 6th March (grease steering, check brakes)
3) New Screen rubbers (special double width for upper and side screens)
4) refit fog lights and wire up
5) New wiper blades needed as metal rusty
6) Check rusty patch drivers side under dash area
7) Repair new passenger door and fit
8) Fit new door seals all round
9) Reinforce both steps with heavier duty angle iron
10) build new fresh water box
11) clean up rear outiggers, replace with galvanised channel section
12) Replace carpet with heavy duty lino
13) reupholster seats
14) Fit radio
15) Fit twin lucas horns
16) repair radiator surround
17) repair front inner panel work
18) rebuild heater assembly
19) make new passenger heater assembly using mini parts
20) Fit halogen headlamps with built in side lights
21) Strip front panel and repaint
22) Repaint van
23) Repair drivers door
23) Fit new door channels
24) Fit Wing mirrors
25) Reinforce wardrobe and cupboards
26) remove battery tray frame and gas bottle frame and strip and paint
27) replace exhaust
28) replace wiring loom and sort out charging system
29) Fit factory Brake servo
30) Make new curtains

Phew that will do for now, im sweating just writing this lot!

Bijou gets new Sunvisors

When driving later last year and at the moment when the sun does appear in the evenings low in the sky it can be bloody painful when the sun is shining, and I know, sun glasses would probaly help but I dont wear glasses and sun glasses can effect my otherwise perfect vision.

Years ago I bought some perspex visors for a Mini and never used them, they are tinted green and thought would be ideal for the van.

The original's had been lost god knows when, so fitted these to an already existing hole and drilled a new one for each side.

They look really good and even though modern have a period look about them with the chrome hinges.

Oh dear - Damp

Having spoken to the old man about worries that Bijou was a little exposed to the elements, he reminded me that Mum would empty the Danbury Camper of all fabric material not nailed down and store it in the airing cupboard over winter.

Sure enough on checking, and re-checking and more discovery I found that the van was covered in mildew. I hadnt actually driven the van for around 6 weeks due to my bad back and not being around. were Bijou is parked up. I then proceeded to use bleach based mildew remover only to my horror to bleach myself and also some of the loose upholstery! I now have some nice yellow spots on my new sweater and on some cushions and seat bases.

Anyway, that aside I also discovered that in the toilet cubicle the camping chaires, initially appearing ok in thier bags were however coated in dust and fluffy material. Ask any botanist and they might be able to tell what this wildlife is actually called!

More bleachy spray employed and also to the walls of the loo. The card like wooden panels had blistered with slime and no amount of cleaning could restore it so that was dealt with later with anti mildew undercoat and cream household gloss paint.

Oh, I then said, what about the sleeping bags, the pillows and the duvet that was used on that cold night in Wiltshire back in September? Almost a complete write off thats what, but after several hours of over using the washing machine almost all was fixed. The 25 year old sleeping bags were fine however being made of a nylon material. The duvet looked like something that a tramp had lived in or on for some time and that ended up at the dry cleaner albeit still retaining much of the stains afterwards.

Bijou has now got a cheaply acquired anti damp device, a tray of white chalky stuff thats supposed to suck up moisture, I have my doubts?

Stripped and painted rear bumpers

Decided the rear end needed a bit of a make over and removed the rear bumper blades. They should be chrome I think but had been painted with many coats of grey or silver paint. One coat appeared to have been some horrid chrome paint. Anyway, paint stripper soon finished them off and I was down to bare metal. The original chrome was well gone. I bought a tin of spray hamerite in white and started to spray a first coat only for the paint to blister almost straight away. You might say that the surface was still covered in nitromors but it had been well cleaned and wiped with white spirit. I tried again after cleaning off the first coat and it went really well. I applied the fourth coat of hamerite thinking it would be the last but after a few minutes I noticed that it had almost entirely blistered again. The paint was returned to B&Q and exchanged for Platicote white, I started again. This stuff is really good and I achieved a good glossy finish. Both blades were refitted and finished off with new coach bolts and a red reflective strip on each.

At the same time I also bought a new set of plates and a chrome number plate light to finish off the job.