Cinders travels Europe

After a frantic few days to get her ready she boarded a boat across the channel - destined for a few weeks of happy motoring! Here are the highlights:

Van in a usable state

The van has been put together but is far from a completed state. There is still LOADS to do! However it is in a 'usable' state - so i'm off to the continent to enjoy her company. After all isn't that the whole reason for being a T4 owner?

Bed from Ikea

I bought a single Lycksele futon bed from Ikea the other day. My plan was to simply add boards that were a bit wider, carpet over them and then add angle brackets to the four floor feet. So this is what I did:

I am in the process of sourcing some foam but due to time constraints will most likely buy a sultan mattress from Ikea and cut it to my own size. I have already bought the covering material from Ikea which was only 99p a metre in a sale!

Some other foam suppliers I have been considering are:
www.bespokefoamsupplies.co.uk
www.acefoam.co.uk
www.efoam.co.uk

My original bed plan was to make sure I could fit kayaks under it so I was going to ask a local welders to make this which I got priced up for under £100:

Electrics

I've been sorting out the electrical side of things with the van today, mainly as it was raining hard. I managed to complete all the ICE wiring, split charge relay, tailgate 6x9 speakers and extended the main battery wires (via butts and battery wire) to allow room for two batteries in the bonnet area. I did this by making a larger battery tray that still fits into the cornered off area. The design is on the VW books site. I bought most of the parts from vehicle wiring products.

I also fitted a Bonnet Bra (from eBay) to hide my scruffy bonnet and prevent further stone chips. The idea being it can be carried to a new van and have a bit of longevity. Looks great!

Carpeting

I bought 2m x 9m of black un-backed carpet from a eBay seller who sells T4 carpet kits. I also bought some red canned Evo Stick that is very heat resistant. It took about three days to carpet the entire van! The panels were pretty easy enough to do but the door posts and wheel arches required quite a bit of skill. I got the hang of it in the end but got some glue drips in places -DO NOT spray directly onto the carpet! I've also discovered that black shows up dirt way too well :(

Rust
As it's an older van i've been trying to stop the onslaught of rust to some degree. The immediate problem being the wheel arches! As i'm intending this to be a 'working' van for climbing/kayaking I simply painted the whole wheel arch with red oxide paint. I know this is a temporary measure but i'm not sure it's worth sanding and repainting them at this date. I'll have to have a think about it.

Swapped all doors

I swapped 'all' the doors from my last T4 today to try to save the tints and remove a few dents. Not a difficult job once you figure it all out and I was pleasantly surprised to find the door locks were VERY easy to remove and swap! Just two screws! I had the locks down as a nightmare.

The front doors are held on with the two visible hinges and a catch that holds the door in the open position. There is no need to remove the door card unless fitting central locking.
The side sliding door was also pretty simple by removing the two bolts at the bottom and sliding it back off the runner. There is a black runner stop that needs to be removed with a Philips screwdriver.
The rear tailgate was a bit trickier due to the weight and wiring. Again it's removed by popping the struts off and using a big screwdriver on the visible hinges. Make sure it's a good fit or you WILL round them off - I went to Halfords to buy a decent one that I quickly broke the handle off and put a spanner on to get the leverage. The wires will easily pull out but you will need patience and a wire coat hanger to get them back in again. As I also ran my 6x9 speaker wires down here I improved quickly at it :)

Bulkhead

Took the bulkhead out today with a different method from last time. This time I opted to drill out the spot welds with a normal drill bit. This was a lot quicker than the messier angle grinder method but made holes in the frame which will have to be covered up and painted with red oxide to prevent rusting. On reflection I think I should have bought the special spot weld drill bit i've heard all about as this would, hopefully, grind/drill flush with the metal frame.

Van bought and driven home

Well here we go again ... After crashing my last T4 on an icy road we decided to restart a new build. This new project is called Cinderella because although this T4 is a bit old and battered I reason that with a bit of TLC she can be the Belle of the Ball!

I have been looking for a new T4 project for about two months now with the main aim of ensuring I got a LWB and overhead tailgate at a reasonable price. An eBay retailer based in London provided the answer in the form of a VW T4 LWB 2.4D 1996 Transporter. The van had a solid engine, low mileage and decent bodywork. The main problems were all the dented/rusting doors and wheels arches. Something we quickly looked to fix ...