Wow....what a change !

You really dont realise as you go along week by week, month by month, all the little jobs you do make big changes.

Location:Gloucester

OMG....Nina's NAKED !!!

.......but not in a way that's wrong :P

Yesterday I left you with a photo of the back doors with the last of the decals on them.


Last night it poured down with rain and I really thought today would be rained off. Luckily it was dry but very overcast and the threat of rain was minimal, so made a start.

Back in April I bought a Multifunction Ladder that you can fix into lots of configurations to suit the job you are doing. One thing about Nina is she is very tall, and knowing I had some work to do at roof level, one of the configurations is a platform, ideal !

PS, Mike.... It works a treat ! You wont be sorry you bought the last one after mine ! ;).


So today I set it up and it was a perfect height for the roof line and removing the lettering at the top of the doors.


I got to this point, and it decided to start raining, so down I came and unplugged everything, only for the sun to come back out, so quickly set up again and removed the last of the decals, while I was up there I removed the glue too using the same method as the video, bar one change, and thats using a scourer to remove the glue. Yes ! A scourer :). Asda do a non scratch scourer that effectively removes the glue but doesnt damage the paintwork, although I wouldnt like to try it on a highly lacquered finish or metallic paintwork, you do that at your own risk ! The only reason I tried it in the first place is that I reasoned with myself that I'm going to be T-Cutting the paintwork anyway so should be able to remove any light swirls on my solid white paint job. It definately sped up the process of removing the glue, although it was still hard work !


These are the doors with the last of the graphics gone ! Yay :). I also had a quick go at the right hand side below the window to see how hard the glue underneath the red foil backed vinyl was to remove. It was fairly 'easy', not that the glue removal is easy, but in comparison to some of the other areas it was :P.

So, all thats left for the bodywork for now is to remove the glue from the passenger side, the rest of the glue from the back, and some on the front of the roof, then a big T-Cut all over and she will bear no markings that would give away her past. Kind of sad in a way, Ambulances do an essential job, but as with every job in life, one day you have to retire from it, so maybe becoming a leisure vehicle, ie a campervan is a fitting retirement job :P.





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Location:Gloucester

Here Today, Gone Today......

I'm determined to put the decals/checkers behind me, it's a job I've been dreading after my first attempt last Autumn. As you know, in the last couple of posts, I've been doing just that.

Today's job was to clear the difficult green foil backed rectangles from the drivers side. I had done around half the side, but these were proving difficult up to the normal yellow vinyl rectangles which pretty much pulled off in one piece, after a bit of heating.



I promised Graeme, (who is following Nina's blog and has his own Ambulance Camper project !), that I would post a video of how I removed the foil backed vinyl, so I did take some video, 2 to be precise, one normal video that ended up around 7 minutes long, but does impress the work that goes in to removing just one vinyl rectangle and its glue. The second one I made with all you people that get bored easily in mind lol, its a Timelapse video that is around a minute long, so a bit easier for you to bear :P. If anyone would like to see the 'long' version then let me know :D.

Just to let you know, the 'tools' needed for this job, or the tools I used in this video, are some Swarfega Brake & Clutch Cleaner (in the squirty bottle), a plastic scraper (something like you would get with a tub of body filler, mine came from a friend at a sign writers, used to apply vinyl graphics normally), a cheap Tesco micro fibre cloth, found near the dusters etc, and a hot air gun, the kind you would use to strip paint, a hairdrier will probably do the job too, but would take longer to heat the vinyl. I heat the vinyl until it bubbles, but you could probably get away with stopping just short of that. Be warned, when you heat the vinyl, you are also heating the metal body panel, if you go too far with it, the metal will start to become pliable, and will be easy to push in and create a dent, if allowed to cool in that position, the body panel may be left with a permanent dent, so if it does pop in, tap the metal around it until it pops back out. It happened to me twice !













I still have lots of glue left to get off on the passenger side and the back doors, and on the front of the roof, but hoping its not the horrible glue that was under the green stuff !

Decal wise, all thats left is this ....


Which shouldn't take too long, then once all that is done, Nina will need an all over T-Cut to try and match the weathered body with the shiny surface that was revealed once the vinyl was removed.

Hoping to get some more things done this weekend, so come back soon ! :).

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Location:Gloucester

Just a quick update....

Its been a hot weekend here in Sunny Gloucester, sadly I didnt get much done with Nina, Saturday I was recovering from my All Day Photography Shoot at Cotswold Wildlife Park (http://www.damoncannard.com/CotswoldWildlifePark.html) and only managed to cut the grass and cut a tree back that was overhanging the public footpath outside our home.

Today, I woke up with a whopper of a headache and dizziness which still hasnt really gone.

Anyway, I waited until early this evening for the temperature to drop slightly, as I wanted to use the heat we've had all day to carry on getting the checkers off.

I discovered the drivers side was very different to the passenger side as from the back to the front drivers door, the checks had been replaced at some point, and unlike the front end and the other side, which had had a strip of the yellow vinyl put all the way along, and then green rectangles put on top to make the pattern, which was relatively easy as the yellow stuff heated up easily and was very pliable to pull off, this side was made up completely of small rectangles, meaning you have to heat up all the individual bits of vinyl one by one and pull them off. Great for the yellow pieces, they came off straight away, the green pieces which are the reflective rectangles, have a silver backing to them, and wont pull away in one go, instead, breaking in to lots of tiny pieces and leaving lots of the backing glue behind.

So as I didnt have a huge amount of time I concentrated on the yellow.

The back doors were a mix of the yellow, and foil backed reflective red vinyl, again I was just going to get the yellow off, but thought I'd give them a go too, to my surprise, although they were much more sticky and harder to pull off, they did come off in one piece too, although the red vinyl seems to be a lot thicker than the green. If you got a corner up and pulled it all away quite quickly, it didnt leave a massive amount of glue.

Graeme, your comment about not heating it up too much was spot on, although when I was doing it before, the weather was cold and would have made a difference, but the past couple of times ive done it, if you overheat the yellow vinyl, it leaves big patches of glue behind, if you quickly and evenly heat it, and pull it away at about a 30 degree angle from the body, while keeping your fingers under the vinyl as close to the stuck edge as possible so that the vinyl appears to be ballooning out as you go, it leaves quite a small amount of glue, which is obviously a lot better and loads less work afterwards.

Anyway, little bit if before and after here. Hoping to get the glue off over the next week kr two, but its very time consuming and really takes it out of your hands and arms rubbing it all away, in my case with brake cleaner fluid and a cheap micro fibre cloth from Tesco. Usually a small spray of the cleaner and a rub of the cloth, keep repeating until the glue disappears. Will tackle the green rectangles too if the weather stays warm.



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Location:Gloucester

What's Missing ?

Whats missing here ?






Yes !!!!!!!!
The green and yellow Ambulance Checkers :) !










Its been such a hot day today, when I finished work I decided I'd tackle them, intending to just finish off that first unfinished panel, but got carried away ! I ended up removing them from the whole passenger side and finished off the bonnet, leaving the back and the Drivers side still to do.

Before I get too excited though, there is a lot of glue and residue left behind, so still looks a mess, so a lot of hard work yet, but, hey, NO CHECKERS ! :P

If you squint your eyes you can see what she'll be like all cleaned up :).

This week is going so well with Nina so far, best few days in a long time !

Just shows what the nice weather can bring ;).


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Location:Gloucester

Second day of work in a row ! :D

So so pleased ! Managed some more work on Nina for the second day running ! Thank you weather and free weekend :).

Today I decided to tint the back windows, I bought the tint a while back, and its a job I would like to have done before I start work on the interior properly. Working out on the driveway does feel a little like being in a fish bowl at times !

I did tint the two new side windows on Scooby (the T4), but today I was going to find out this was a VERY different job !

The roll of tint I bought was enough to do both back door windows, but that was it, so no room for mistakes.


I did wonder if the pattern on the inside of these windows was going to be a problem, its kind of raised or embossed, you can see it in the dark edging around the window in the pic above. What I didnt realise was that the curve of the windows was going to be such a pain !

I cleaned the first window thoroughly using a spray bottle filled with a teaspoon of baby shampoo and water. You need to use baby shampoo as it doesnt contain the harsher chemicals that normal soap has. You need to make sure the window is completely clean and clear of dust and bits. Sadly I didnt give the inside of Nina a good clean first as well, as I now have the odd dog hair entombed under the film ! A good way to make it totally free is to run a blade from a stanley knife or something around the glass. Once it was all clean, I cut the film to size, carefully peeled the clear backing away, spraying a small amount of the shampoo solution onto the tint as I did it. Once all the backing is off, I sprayed the window too, then put the tint on with the glue side obviously against the glass, as everything is wet, you can easily slide the tint in to place, the start carefully squeedgying the excess water from underneath using something like a credit card that has a very straight edge and is slightly flexible. Mop up the water as you go. Trim around the edge once the film is sticking using a hobby knife. I bought a pack of 4 knifes from the shop What ! for around 90p which worked perfectly.

Now, on my T4, that was it, no bubbles or creases, I just had to leave it to dry. Not so with Nina ! Grrrrr. Once I'd pushed all the water out with a squeedgy, lots of 'finger creases' kept appearing all the way around the edge of the window, as quick as I was scraping the creases out, they were reappearing. I tried everything I could think of but nothing was working. I thought I'd sprayed too much water on or something.

Time for the iPad to do its magic and find out what the hell to do on the internet. I was surprised to see it was a common problem :S, caused by the curve of the window mostly, not helped by the pattern. The solution was to use a hot air gun to literally shrink the film to fit. Luckily, I still have Clives hot air gun here, so tried it out, and it got rid of the fingers ! The finished tint isnt perfect, but its good enough for someone like me. It looks mostly good, with the smallest dust spots or lines that dont really spoil the overall look of them from the outside. We've all seen the vans going around with the back windows tinted and looking like a spiders web of creases, well mine doesnt look like that ! :P.


First one done, as you can see, no major blemishes :). Its Limo tint, and as you can see, is a huuuuuge difference to the non tinted window.

Who would like to see a time lapse video of me doing the second window ? Knowing what I was doing the second time, I did it in 40 minutes from start to end, not bad for a non window tinter lol. Ok here ya go !

So thats it for today, back windows are lovely and dark now, and look great from the back ! Once I've debadged the back and its plain white, will look really nice with the glossy black spare wheelcover too :).

Once the back end of Nina has been converted to a kitchen, dog crate, and storage, the limo tint means that the stuff I put in storage wont be easily seen from outside, which is GOOD :).

Hopefully more jobs coming soon ! Make sure you stop by again :).





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Location:Gloucester

Well, it seats me ........

Well, finally I have a free weekend and some half decent weather to do some more work on Nina, as it was dry I thought I'd try and finish the seating/bed off as much as possible. Bought the last few bits of ply a while ago now and am fed up of it just sitting their in Nina waiting to be used ! :P

The jobs left were as follows......

The inside part of the converting seat needed the left seat storage box finishing, some more 34x34mm wood to strengthen the seat top and as a base to fix a hinge to.


Also, the front facing panel cutting and fixing so that it looks like part of the seat box when pushed fully in. This pic shows the job after it was done as I was a little slow (rusty?) and forgot to take pics as I was going along. :S.

The top of the boxes you can see there, are actually in two pieces, at the back you can just make out the lines where I cut it. This is so you dont have to pull the seat box completely away from the outer box to lift them to access the storage space underneath. I have a Dewalt 18v Circular Power Saw which I use for cutting long straight lines, you need a very steady hand and good bold pencil marks to follow ! When using a circular saw or jigsaw, take your time, dont let it run away with you, if you think you might be going off the line, stop with the saw still running, then slowly guide the saw back to where it should be.

The next job was to make a cover, or door, for the Chemical Toilet compartment I showed you before. I'm leaning toward a cover with some kind of twist lock to hold it in place.


Its a 34x34mm frame that fits exactly in the side aperature, and a piece of ply that covers the hole side, tacked together with a nailgun to start with, then screwed. It will need a handle of some kind too. This will also act to strengthen the end of the seat when its sat on, especially by me !


This is the cover, and the side of the seat its meant to covering. Thats where the chemical toilet will live, in case you havent read the earlier posts.

Once this was all done, it was time to fit it all back together and make sure it works as intended !


Here it is, all back together, its really starting to look like a decent seat/bed box now ! its fully functional and has made maximum use of its storage capability :). All those hours of tearing my hair out trying to come up with a useable design that would take my weight and make the most of storage came good ! :)

This next one is of the bed section pulled out, just need the seat cushions and we'll be sorted !


It does stop short of the fixed seat, but when the seat cushions are in place on top, this wont be a problem, there was no other way to do it, as it had to fit inside the outer box.

Talking of it fitting in the outer box, when I push them in, there is a really strong blast of air that comes out the top ! I appear to have made a really efficient air pump ! I may have to build some vents into the back and sides to reduce the resistance the air gives ! :D

This pic is of the toilet cupboard open and one of the storage compartment lids being held up on the seat box.


Our cat Tiz is sitting there being 'helpful' showing you some scale or something :S. As you can see, the toilet fits in there absolutely perfectly :), and easy to access, even if the bed is made up. The storage compartments are pretty big and will store quite alot. Must remember to measure the space.








The boxes will all be lined with the same carpet that I'll be lining the walls with, so will blend in nicely, and will eventually have a blue/teal coloured seating cushions to match the blinds. The floor will have a laminate wood covering, so its going to look really nice when done :).

Well, time for sleep, lots more jobs to do, tomorrow I might have a go at tinting the back windows, they are the only windows that are clear.

Come back soon ! :).


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Location:Gloucester