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[scooters]

deleted

[Richard]

Sometimes the guys at the dump will give you an empty gas bottle if you ask them nicely. It was well over £30 the last time I asked at a shop- and that was before you paid for the gas.

[Claypole]

Normally a bottle or two on Freecycle.

 

Or ask for one.

[scooters]

I've been taking advantage of the warm,dry weather to make some progress with the van.

 

I've started dealing sith some of the smaller rust partches and getting some rustprrofing underseal on them - not a permanent solution but it will slow the corrosion and tart it up until I can afford a re paint at some point. I am considering using some roll on rust paint on the bottom quarter of the van and perhaps chaning the colour to blue up to the window level whilest keeping the front wings and bonnet white. This insn't urgent. So yesterday, using a sharp grinding point on the drill I carved out the wing/body joints - the paint was lifting here and cracking with rust stains running down the wings - I was worried about the state of things underneath - fortunately, the issues were actually very minor and this has lead me to suspect that much of the rust coming through the paint is due to a pisspoor paintjob where the bare metal hasn't been properly cured before the paint has been applied in some places - other places where there is no rust coming through were obviously painted on top of the existing, primed, original paint - shocking bodge by a dodgey restorer - the folk who owned the vad 3 owners ago shelled out £2k for this work in 2007 - shocking really.

 

Anyway, back to the joints - BL....never ceases to amaze me - the panel fit is so bad that the port side (the camper has a nautical feel about it) one is tight and there is little gap - the starboard one however,the worst side by far - was so bad that they had to fill the gap with a sealant of some sort - its about 1/2 a millimeter - so I ground it down to the seanat - liberally applied loads of rustfproofer and worked it in with t he end of a brush and then painted in thick white anti rust primer. I did this in several places and across the top of the windscreen and front roof gutter which looked a bit like the metal work you sometimes see on a ferry - rusted metal with about 50 coats of paint on it - the rust isn't necessarily getting any worse when you consider 40 years of use and the layers of paint give it an additional nautical feel.

 

So, I've got 2 coats of this primer on and I am pretty encouraged that there won't actually be too many serious bits of corrosion as many of these places look a lot worse than they are. I'm painting them over in a different shade of whie so the areas are still visible upon inspection but look ok at a distance. This is so I know where to track the corrosion over the summer.

 

I then turned my attention to the pop roof - the autosleeper roof is the rolls royce of pop tops - no canvas jerry built westfalian affair here - no - hearts of oak indeed - You put it up by pushing the roof up and it hinges back on itself - it is then helt in place by the two siides that you push up to lock into place - like a cardboard box really - what is very cunning is that the sides can be put on 2 settings - the lower of which slightly angles them in thus improving the ventilation in the van. The roof is a very well built and solid affair and sits on a solid oak framed base that is very well attached to the roof of the van - if the BL assembly workers were slapdash the autosleeper guys were real craftsmen and one suspects that a lot of the initial sorting - ie the sealant between the wing was done on delivery - one can only guess what the carpenters at autosleeper thought of these vans on delivery!

 

Anyway, I had found a pot of weathershield that I had been meaning to apint the front door with for a while - well the doris has been nagging me for abour 18 months to do it - so in order to paint the oak frake and wooden roof bits (which are in good condition) I had to paint the fornt door first or the ballacking would have been extensive. Its always a really good idea to do a spring tart up - it helps you track corrosion and general wear and tear and yesterday I discovered that the pins holding in the wooden frame of the two oblong food windows are badly rusted and on the port side have actually disintegrated and athe windows are held in with paint. So the job for today wil be to hammer in a few brass panel pins anong side the old steel ones - Im suprised the autoslepper guys used steel - but probably kept the price down - there are quite a few fittings inside that are of steel or white metal that should really be brass and at some point I'm going to get along to the boat chandlers in South Queensferry and buy brass replacements....it'll add to the nautical feel!

 

I also took out the curtains - they'ss be getting washed and also we are going to take measurements and makes some new ones - fortunatley they are pretty simple so even I could probably knock them up in a morning with the sewing machine - just need to gey some suitable cloth thick enough to keep out the light. - We'll make cushion and seat covers the same.

 

The woodwork inside desperately needs a coat of varnish I am considering using exterior boat varnish which is very hard wearing and also very water resistant. The rubberised fabric covering the roof is grey and dirty I am considering painting it but I might give it a really good scrub first. There is a bit of damp on the oak at the top front of the roof which is the leading edge of the roof secion when collapsed and you can see that, as the roof seal is very old and a poor fit - the water will be soaking the wood every time it is driven in the rain - so a coat of ronseal exterior wood teatment will go on this. Speaking of roof seals, after a great deal of research I have found out that the excellent men at ratsport sell period autosleeper roof seal strips - better than the orininal as they are improved rubber- tougher and more flexible - but at £6 a meter not cheap - I will need about 10 meters of the stuff and can use the over cut to improve the rear door seals.

 

I've found a new tin of Hammerite radiator paint in white, this is good stuff because it is very thick, goes on smoothly and is a rust killing/proofing formula and retails a lot cheaper than other metal paints - so I'm going to liberally apply this to the steps after I have killed some of the rust there - the steps are very vunerable indeed.

 

The wheel arches are not too bad but the old underseal is now flaking and acting as a water trap so wire brushe and a good coat of somthing suitable will be a good idea.

 

the next steps will be to put in t he electronic ignition. I have been quoted £120 for a new radiator which is larceny - the problem is mine is a 3 pipe one whereas most cheap ones are 2 pipe ones - I haven't got any overheating issues since I sorted out the cooling system and replace the thermostat - however, the weather hasn't been too bad so what I am going to do is fit a big Kenlowe with a in line thermostat switch for the time being - it will make a difference anyway as the Sherpa fan is a pitiful affair and at the end of the summer I will have the radiator recored - the engineers told me they can do it for £40 but it would take a week to ten days and the van is in daily use and will be for some time now.

 

I have seen a seatbelt solution - the top mounts can go into the strong roofline and I think we could weld in some captive mouting bolts up there and they will be very secure - it is a box section of the van. the follor mounts are easy due to the ladder chassis.

 

So - slow but determined progress - a bit like the van really!

[scooters]

Given the number of small rust areas - there are only 2 or 3 major ones the angle grinder is overkill - the electric drill with a brass wire brush is effective but very difficult to control - so I am thinking about buying a dremel style tool - problem is that they are pretty pricey can anyone recommend a similar tool that is compatible with dremel parts but a lot cheaper - I have seen one by Draper that comes in at about 30 quid but I don't know if the tool attachments are universal like drill bits?

 

any ideas/recommendations?

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

What's DASRSS?

[pogweasel]

I think it's something to do with the military / government...

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

I've worked it out, it's German for The RSS(Really Simple Syndication).

 

Oh, wait, that also has FUGG ALL to do with Sherpas.

[catsinthewelder]

I bought one of the Draper copies of the Dremel fairly recently. Its alright, I actually bought it with model railway uses in mind but find it slightly heavy duty for that. Its been very handy in the shed for jobs slightly too delicate to entrust to the angle grinder. Regarding compatibility, I bought a large pack of extra tools from Aldi. They have a basic form of chuck with different inserts to grip a few different sizes of shaft, I get the impression that the tools are fairly universal between brands.

 

Best of luck with the camper, with old ones its great fun irritating the Caravan Club crowd with their brand new white Tupperware

[scooters]

I've worked it out, it's German for The RSS(Really Simple Syndication).

 

Oh, wait, that also has FUGG ALL to do with Sherpas.

 

 

Really Len, I would have thought a keyboaed hero like yourself would know that it stands for Double A*** Spit Roast Ski Sunday -

 

an act of contortion often found on the seedier type of 'grumble flick' involving a young lady and five big black dudes

 

I'm trying to figure out why I've been getting a load of attitude from you this week. But then again, I'm hardly unique on here as you do seem to get some perverse enjoyment out of being a total twat

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Soz, I'm just a bit confused by your numerous rambling threads that don't really go anywhere.

[scooters]

Soz, I'm just a bit confused by your numerous rambling threads that don't really go anywhere.

 

 

Really? I'm confused why you seem to feel the need to comment at all.

 

My threads are long and rambling but you don't have to read them. Unfortunately for the rest of us, as the sum of your contribution is your rudeness to others, the rest of us are denied this option.