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.

Castle Combe Camp Over

It has been a quiet year compared to what was planned for Bijou.

So it was decided to take her for a night stay over for the Mini action day at castle combe near Chippenham, Wilts this weekend, all went well and she performed well on the motorway and country roads.

Period Tax Disc Fitted

Spent far to long making this for Bijou, I was well pleased with it until I noticed the mistake, the tax runs out DEC 65, but the water mark I have for some reason put JUL 65, no I dont know why either....never mind :)

Bijou gets a new Fuel Filler Cap in place

Here it is, fab, just need a new rubber filler neck now to stop the neck wobbling about...


16/02/08
New rubber ring sourced from a Mini shop and fitted, although it was a bugger and had to be modified. The neck is now firmly secured.

Bijou gets a new Fuel Filler Cap

Bought it off Ebay, paid £12.75. New, came with keys, fits well, nice new and shiny, nothing but the best, mostly?....

Old Lock, New Lock

Recently started and have nearly finished fitting a new lock on the back of Bijou.
The old lock was a Caravan item that looked more suited to an Austin Allegro! The lock was clonky and not nice to use.

A new lock was sourced in the form of a Mk1 Mini Lock, which took some installing to get it to work, fill the big hole and repaint. Much better! I am yet to get hold of a differant handle so that it can be locked from the outside, but the Mini lock has a lever that locks it from the inside so that can wait for now. The inside handle is a Bedford CA interior handle that fits the inside of the Mini lock shaft nicely, but is held in place with chemical metal.

Trial fitted a reversing light today, used a Morris Minor Bumper bracket and bolted it on the back of the rear bumper blade. Am yet to wire it up, and I will need a lot of it as well when I get around to climbing underneath to do it!

Bijou meets Morris

Took Bijou out for a spin in the country today, ended up at a small place called Dorchester in Oxfordshire I think, at least on the North Berkshire Border anyway?
Dorchester is a lovely place and the setting for a few episodes of Midsomer Murders.
When we were parking up I couldnt resist slotting Bijou next to a nice looking Morris Minor Lowlight to create a period parking scene, sad I didnt have my decent digital camera at hand, just my ropey old Mobile Phone Camera, never mind....

Parked up in the yard

Bijou is parked up in the yard. She was given a good going over and inspected for rust and work that maybe required in the future. She has 23 cupboards and it took some time to count them all as well!

The day we Bought Bijou

Today was the day we drove from Reading to Merseyside to collect Bijou. Well Bijou was what she was to become.

Bijou is a 1965 Bedford CA Martin Walter Dormobile Debonair Camper Van, the name was coined by my girlfriend Debi.

We left really early, but because of traffic, we didnt get to Merseyside until around 3pm.

We got loads of spares, loaded up the car and the van and left at around 5pm to head home, well the old girl managed to get there, Bijou is very slow, and Debi and I only made it to Stourport on Seven, the maps here:-

http://tinyurl.com/3xvlor

We spent our first night in the van, and it was freezing!

The following morning we made ourselves a cooked breakfast and left for home, making Reading at about 3pm, in all a very long weekend!