Transit Jumbo Camper capers…SOLD M8

[JJ0063]

Got the Melody riding properly today, throttle is fixed, stuck a new plug in it and replaced the top box for a super deluxe wicker basket. Oh and got some air in the tyres.

Oil light is stuck on so must have a dodgy earth somewhere, Speedo doesn’t work and the indicator relay is sticky. 

Getting there but plenty more to do. Progress is progress though!

[AnnoyingPentium]

On 4/18/2022 at 9:35 PM, JJ0063 said:

Believe it or not it’s liquid shoe polish from Poundland. However it’s not as shit as it sounds. 
 

There’s lots of videos on YouTube and even a Facebook group dedicated to people dying all sorts with it including dashboards and door cards. People have done bumpers and they’ve still looked the same 2 years later. 
 

This is the stuff, you literally buy a couple of bottles, take the tops off and pour it out into a container then apply it with a kitchen sponge.

Going to try this too, want to sort the plastics on the Fabia and the door handles on the Sandero.

[JJ0063]

Kind of hit a bit of a dead end with the Melody, really not sure what to do with it.

I bought it on a whim as the challenge of a shed find was appealing but to be honest it was very straight forward to get it to this state and I’m now at the point where I need to decide realistically do I want to move it on to someone who can tinker with it and spend some money on it to make it 100% roadworthy and recommission it or do I put it on the backburner and chip away at it myself?

The values of these seem to be all over the place. I like owning it but I think once the novelty has worn off it’ll just sit there, it doesn’t fit in the van under the bed like I’d hoped either. 

[JJ0063]

Took a deposit on the Melody today, he’s coming back with a van on Thursday to collect it. Nice little earner.

 

Decided to do something a bit different with the headlights today, something I’ve not done to a car since I was 17!

Split the headlights, painted the internals Matt black then colour coded some of it to the nato green. Tiger seal out and sealed them back up. 
 

Lenses are quite scratched/weathered but I’m happy with my handy work. Hard to get a decent pic. 

[JJ0063]

Amber has officially named it..

[JJ0063]

Made an investment in a 4/5G roof antenna, 4G router and a data sim 

Van acts like a faraday pouch in some areas, can only get signal outside the van.

Now got to try and drill through the roof to fit the antenna without having to drop the internal ceiling. Could be fun. 

[stuboy]

On 4/24/2022 at 2:01 AM, JJ0063 said:

Took a deposit on the Melody today, he’s coming back with a van on Thursday to collect it. Nice little earner.

 

Decided to do something a bit different with the headlights today, something I’ve not done to a car since I was 17!

Split the headlights, painted the internals Matt black then colour coded some of it to the nato green. Tiger seal out and sealed them back up. 
 

Lenses are quite scratched/weathered but I’m happy with my handy work. Hard to get a decent pic. 

loving the lights

[JJ0063]

2 minutes ago, stuboy said:

loving the lights

Thanks! I’m really happy with them. 

[JJ0063]

Ignore the fact the water pump is caked in oil, the vacuum pump is bolted to it and the seal had gone so I replaced that ages ago so no more oil leak however I’ve had a coolant leak since we went to Crufts in March.. finally got round to crawling underneath today and it’s the actual pump leaking, so rather than fuck about trying to repair it, I’ve just ordered a whole new water pump for the sake of £45 delivered.

 

Planning a trip over the Jubilee extended bank holiday up to the Peak District so want it mechanically sound for then. 

[Timewaster]

Thought I spotted you in a local layby yesterday, but that huge nato green transit still had the white patch above the windscreen. 

[wuvvum]

On 4/24/2022 at 7:58 PM, JJ0063 said:

Amber has officially named it..

You should introduce her to @barefoot, they'd get on like a house on fire.

[JJ0063]

1 hour ago, Timewaster said:

Thought I spotted you in a local layby yesterday, but that huge nato green transit still had the white patch above the windscreen. 

Yeah wasn’t me I’m afraid!

18 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

You should introduce her to @barefoot, they'd get on like a house on fire.

Do tell…

[JJ0063]

Water pump changed, what a shit of a job 

 

4G/5G aerial fitted, just need to hide the wires somewhere inside and mount the router somewhere, it works though

[JJ0063]

Melody also got collected today. £450 I got for it in the end, pretty chuffed with that.

[AnnoyingPentium]

On 4/24/2022 at 7:58 PM, JJ0063 said:

Amber has officially named it..

Followed yous on t'instagram.

[JJ0063]

Second camp site of the evening, much better than the first.

 

Alarm bells should have rung when the first one I booked was £10 a night on a bank holiday weekend. Turned up and it was a village football/social club which basically had half a football field that had a load of caravans round the edge. The ‘warden’ stunk of alcohol and was really proud to tell me that the karaoke in the bar starts at 7pm and it’s £3 a pint tonight.

 

As soon as we parked on our pitch we said shall we look for something else, this was the same time a woman next door to us said “the wine is out, there’s no stopping me tonight”…..

 

We now are on a farm with alpacas next to us, empty field to ourselves. More expensive but well worth it. 

[JJ0063]

Wi-Fi is proving it’s worth already. 
 

Vodafone on my iPhone has 1 bar of signal, van wifi is currently running iPlayer on the fire stick connected to the TV in the van and the internet speed test has 58mb download speed… on a farm in the middle of nowhere, really pretty good to be honest. 

[mat_the_cat]

What router and aerial have you gone for? I'm using an old mobile as a wifi hotspot, which is OKish, but signal not the strongest and I'm sure it's eating data in the background!

[JJ0063]

19 minutes ago, mat_the_cat said:

What router and aerial have you gone for? I'm using an old mobile as a wifi hotspot, which is OKish, but signal not the strongest and I'm sure it's eating data in the background!

I got a Huawei B535 router second hand on eBay, then managed to get his Poynting aerial off Amazon. Seems to work really well.

[keith777]

1 hour ago, JJ0063 said:

Wi-Fi is proving it’s worth already. 
 

Vodafone on my iPhone has 1 bar of signal, van wifi is currently running iPlayer on the fire stick connected to the TV in the van and the internet speed test has 58mb download speed… on a farm in the middle of nowhere, really pretty good to be honest. 

What aerial/ router did you get ? Got a link? Cheers keith

[JJ0063]

12 minutes ago, keith777 said:

What aerial/ router did you get ? Got a link? Cheers keith

Check the post above for details bud 👍

[keith777]

🤦‍♂️

[JJ0063]

Day two, walked for ages, dogs are fucked

[timolloyd]

On 4/30/2022 at 8:04 PM, JJ0063 said:

 

a woman next door to us said “the wine is out, there’s no stopping me tonight”…..

 

Sounds like my kind of camping neighbour…

[JJ0063]

Near Hunstanton tonight, favourite camp site so far. Top notch. 

[JJ0063]

When we got home today we decided to put the van on the back garden and put up the awning that it came with, we’ll never use it as we don’t tend to stay in one place for any length of time but I wanted to check the condition and that all parts were there to be able to sell it. Also handy to get pics of it up for the advert. 
 

Not bad at all for a freebie that wasn’t even in the advert. Looks virtually new - no fading or sun damage.

 

Going to use any money we make selling it to get some extra ventilation in the van, be it a roof vent or opening windows in the rear as it was a bit stuffy last night not having any form of ventilation bar the cab windows. 

[JJ0063]

Fixed the shitting ABS light!

 

Managed to get one of my OBD readers to show rear right speed sensor so I ordered a new one, fitted it and it didn’t make any difference. Checked live data and that sensor was just reading 0KMH when all the others were in sync. 
 

I then traced the ABS wiring all the way back to the bay, cleaned all the connectors and checked for damage.. nothing. Couldn’t find my multimeter either so was going by working logical. 
 

Went back to the rear end where the sensors connect to the body loom. Noticed that the sensor that wasn’t working wasn’t clicking right home into place, checked it, tried the old sensor, nothing. In the end I decided to cut the plug off the old sensor and just push the wires into the body side plug..

 

Fucker worked! 
 

My thinking is that the previous owner has for whatever reason had to change the sensor, firstly snapped the bolt that holds the sensor in and left the snapped bit in there so just pushed the new sensor in. They’ve then managed to do something to the socket body side so the light wasn’t going out.. gave up and covered the light. 
 

I need to get a drill bit decent enough to drill the broken bolt out as my cheap ones aren’t even scratching the surface. In the meantime I’ve managed to get the sensor into the hole tightly. 
 

Luckily the rear sensors have opposite connectors (male/female) so now if I buy a new left hand rear sensor, cut the plug off it and solder it in place of the one I’ve had to cut off the body loom.. that way I’ll have a properly repaired loom.

 

Happy days! MOT is 31st so let’s see what it fails on…

[JJ0063]

Excuse the mess in the storage area but decided to remove the back wall from the bed area today as we’re going to fit opening porthole windows in the rear doors for some extra ventilation

[Back_For_More]

Another bookmarked now the GF is on board for a camper build project........ typically - I'll be away for ages with work sh*t.

From way back I saw the location of the bottle - did you manage to move it and vent it? TBH I'd be p*ssed having to lug the damn thing into that corner over the batteries myself.......

Have you thought of or looked at a pull/roll out option for storage under the rear bed area? I've been pondering that for easier loading/unloading of the crap we'll undoubtedly be lugging around.

Excellent interior - very nicely done.

[JJ0063]

It’s on the list, I just honestly haven’t gotten round to it. I won’t be moving it but I obviously want a drop vent in there pretty sharpish. I’ve had this ABS issue on the forefront of my mind to sort before MOT time so now that’s done il get the MOT sorted next week then as long as that doesn’t throw up anything massive, the drop vent can be fitted ASAP.

 

To be honest where the bottle is actually works well for us, it’s such a big bottle that it’ll quite literally last us years - the only thing that runs on gas is the hob. 
 

I did wonder  about making something storage wise for under the bed but in all honesty how things are when it’s tidy works well. It’s only a mess as I had to move stuff about to remove that back wall. It usually just has 2 bikes, the awning, BBQ, and a box for odds and ends, then wet suit / dry robe etc for when we’re on the water.