Up On The Roof......

Great song :). Now its in my head forever :S.

Well, as promised, I did some more work on Nina today, although it didnt start until late afternoon, as I had a much needed lazy morning, then when I did want to make a start, I realised I needed a metal cutting jigsaw blade, all the ones I had, that I could find, were wood cutting.

So a little detour to enquire about a car at Nissan that Jen had seen on the internet to replace our Animal Ambulance, then popped in to Screwfix minutes before they closed to grab a pack of Bosch Jigsaw blades that also fit my Dewalt Jigsaw.

We got back home just after 4, and I quickly set to work.

This is how it started !


I must be mad, but this is a 230mm hole marked out which will have a 12v fan fitted over it eventually.

I made use of my brilliant platform multi ladder to gain access to the roof which is pretty high to someone that isnt keen on heights ! I configured it into an L shape and hooked it over the edge of the roof. I popped a foam floor tile underneath it to stop the ladder scratching the "very dirty" roof, grabbed all my tools and up I went.

I was very happy to find out that Ninas roof happily took even MY weight !!! Ok I did spread out very carefully :P.

I pondered for a while, as thoughts like "do I really need a fan in the roof" and "hmmm, do I know anyone that would do this for me", but in a flash made my mind up and drilled the entry hole for the jigsaw blade.

No going back now. I reasoned with myself that if it all went wrong I could scrap the fan idea and cut an even bigger hole for a large skylight :S.

It was ok, that section of the roof was quite bouncy as it wasnt ridged like the rest of the roof, but I went along bit by bit, let the blade cut once or twice then stopped to realign the direction of the marking I made. My Dewalt 18v jigsaw has a variable speed, so I can go as quickly or as slow as I like, nobody to blame but myself :). I was quite pleased with how neat the hole turned out ;).


Whoops ! Done now, definately no going back ! I had a little bit of trouble with that wooden roof brace, it was stuck to the plastic roof lining inside with some fibreglass cement, which was really hard and proved tough going for the wood jigsaw blade that I had swapped over to. At this point I asked Jen to come and help and push up with a broom handle from underneath to reduce the vibration of the plastic and wood as i cut from the top.

We got there eventually. Oh by the way, a tip when cutting from above like this, get yourself a strong black bag, and some Duct tape and tape it open to the roof from inside directly under where you will be cutting. That way all the metal filings and the cutouts drop neatly in to the bag and not all over the inside of your van. I also vacuumed up as many of the filings I could see on the roof, as when they rust, and they will, they leave nasty rust spot marks all over your roof.


At this point, I got a call from my friend Andy who had been on a motorbike ride all round Devon all day and had just got back. He must have been shattered, but he said to come on up and he would have a go at building the mount for the hoist. Thanks Andy, owe you one, and will arrange that Takeaway soon !

So I packed everything in to the back of Nina, still with a gaping hole in the roof, and drove up to Andys.

I am kicking myself now that I didnt get a photo of him working on it for the blog, sadly I didnt so you will just have to see what he built, bolted in to place. He did a fantastic job and made sure all the weld joints would NEVER fail me, especially when lifting my heavy marquee.


It is bolted to the side of the back using the existing bolt holes that previously secured the fold away seat belted seat, so they had to be strong mounting points. The foot of the post is just resting on that platform, but I will bolt it to that too for extra security. THANKFULLY, due to both mine and Andys dilligent measuring ("that look alright ?" "Yeah think so, maybe just move it over a bit" "That'll do!") everything lined up perfectly :). Whilst we were in Andys workshop, he constantly asked, "are you sure thats how you want it ?" To which I enthusiastically reassured him and prayed for it to be ok :P.

I popped the hoist arm on to the two lugs that Andy had welded on to the mount post, this is a great system as I can lift the hoist arm off when not needed and nothing sticks out, as Andys mount is very flush to the side.


This is the arm fitted and hooked up to a leisure battery. There is a little box with toggle switches that lift or drop the arm. As I said before, there is also a remote which would be useful, but its not working, need to look in to that and see if I can get it fixed. It lights up but I think its lost its channel or something and isnt talking to the box properly. The arm originally came with a second motor which moved the arm from side to side too, but in this design its not needed as I can manually push the arm in once it has its load. Where we have chopped the arms about a bit, I dont think it will work very well anyway this way round. So I have a really decent hydraulic arm to use on something else, all I can think of at the moment is what they would have used it for on MTV's Pimp My Ride, to lift a huge TV that is hidden in the seating :P.

So the big test, would it all actually hold the marquee up in the air without bending or breaking and dropping it. Hmmm, I was a little pessimistic here, as I have lifted that marquee, and it is so heavy I can only move it about a foot at a time, I cant quite believe that a motor that small and metal tubing that narrow could actually take the weight properly.

Well, naughty me for being pessimistic, I connected the lift arm to the ratchet strap that was holding the legs in on the marquee, switched the box on and through almost closed eyes watched it take up the slack then start moving the marquee. It did slow slightly under load, but that is totally normal for any motor, even your car engines, and to my astonishment, it lifted, and lifted, and lifted all the way to the top of its lifted height until the marquee was just swinging in the wind ! I couldnt believe it and was so chuffed ! :). IT WORKS !


As I suspected, attaching it to the orange strap, the strap moved up the marquee a little and didnt quite clear the floor at the back as you can see in the above picture, the good news is that the lifting arm above it has a huge gap which was slightly more than the lack of clearance of the marquee feet. I need to find a way to connect the lifting arm on a solid connection to the marquee. I think this will mean drilling a hole through the two middle legs at the top, putting a bolt through either side, and hooking the lifting arm chains over them so that there is no movement up or down, it will just start lifting.

The main thing is it works, there is some flex in the mount post, but hardly anything, I'm not overly worried about it, but I may get Andy just to strengthen it at some stage by welding a couple of triangle metal pieces to the thinner post at the top so it cant flex at all.

Thank you Andy, you are a star :). Hope your tea warmed up ok and you got to chill a bit.

Apologies, here is a video of me playing with it, I was just SO CHUFFED :).



Sooooo, after all that excitement and playing, I still had the rather big issue of a hole in the roof to cover over somehow before I stopped for the night. The best way was to get back up on the roof and drill the holes for the fan body and actually screw the fan down for now, until I got some rust treatment and could seal it properly tomorrow hopefully.


This is the housing that the actual fan part fixes to, which needs to be fitted first, this is the bit that I need to make sure seals against the rain etc, there is a big rubber O seal underneath, but I will need to put some extra sealer under it too especially on the ribs, after giving the roof a bloody good clean of course. For now it is just screwed down with the O ring and should stop a light shower, but I need to do it properly tomorrow as we are expecting lots of rain from Tuesday onwards according to weather reports.

Once that was fixed down, I fixed the fan housing down on top, and this is the finished result !





Its very low profile which I love, wont make a big difference to fuel economy, and will blend in more once I clean that roof, I promise ! :P. Should be easy to seal, famous last words ;).

This is what it looks like from the inside at the moment.


As I said before, it ended up directly over where the light fitting was, so I need to repair that rectangle hole, leaving just a round hole there, I also need to build a wooden frame to go in the roof cavity to direct the air flow straight down. At the moment it flows throughout the roof cavity as well as down wasting the air. There is a cover/grill that will fix up to the roof and make it look prettier which I did partially fit, you can just make it out in the picture below, the big black circle to the top left of the photo.


By the time I took this picture, and had tidied my tools away, and put the cages back in ready for work tomorrow, it was almost 11pm. As you can see, the two lights from Ninas previous existence that are still in there give lots of light still. The wiring that was left from removing the front light fitting, I connected to the fan, so when I turn the lights on, the fan comes on as well :P. It will get its own power source and switch on the dash, but for now it was a way to see it working and what the flow of air was doing. Have left it like that tonight, as there is a light switch on the dash in the front, so can switch it on if needed when driving, even though it means the lights have to come on too ! :).

The hoist came in useful for lifting the metal dog cage in to the back, this is the cage I hurt my back with last week when I took it out to do the windows.


You can see the shadow, just about, underneath the cage showing that the hoist has it suspended in the air here :). I know, boys and their toys, I think I may have said before, I was just SO CHUFFED that it worked ;).

Thats its for now, I ache a bit and bed is calling, its quarter past one in the morning, although Magic on DAB radio is playing some really good love songs at the moment, so tempted to sit here a while longer and listen to them, just right for this time of night :).

Goodnight all ! :).

Location:Gloucester

Anyone for a lift ?

The past couple of weeks have been a real strain, and very upsetting. We lost two of our dogs within a week or each other, hopefully they are together again at the Rainbow Bridge (Google it, its a lovely poem, but have your tissues ready !), and I had toothache for two weeks, despite two trips to my normal dentist, he wouldnt take the tooth out, so ended up seeing a new dentist who was happy to once I had a few days worth of Antibiotics as an abscess had started forming.

So all in all I really havent felt like working on Nina.

But, work must be done, so this weekend see's me starting again.

Before I start with a small update, any of you with larger campers out there ? Dont you just love it when parking spaces are like this outside your bank ? :)


Wish supermarkets were like this too. Often I have had to drive round the carpark a few times until two spaces come up one behind the other so I can get the whole length on !

My Fiamma Turbo Kit fan arrived, its really very good, it runs on 8x D batteries, or 12v. It comes with a 12v socket for your car, also another cable that has a removeable tip, this can be taken off and reversed to make the fan push air out rather than pull air in. It comes with a set of brackets that you fix inside your skylight, then the sprung hanger that is attached to the fan, attaches to these. You can also use the hangers to hang the fan vertically on a dog crate, it will grip top and bottom, ideal for fitting to a crate in a vehicle etc. Jen is using it at the moment on the grid window of the bulkhead in her Animal Ambulance, blowing air from the drivers cab in to the rear of the van. Its very versatile and actually more useful as a 'floating' fan that can be used as an when needed wherever it is needed. It also stands on a table as a normal desk fan, as pictured here in our caravan.


I am very pleased with it and we will get lots of use out of it with the animals.

Which brings me nicely into the next bit of news. As the Fiamma Turbo Kit fan is so useful to use between vehicles, I have decided to fit a permanent roof fan to Nina. I bought the fan online, it cost £146, and comes with a 3 way switch, which allows you to reverse the fan straight from the switch and expel air as well as drawing air in.

Now the roof of Nina is VERY ridged, and the ridges are deep, making fitting something flat to the roof very difficult. The good news, at the front of the roof, there is a pattern that I think must have been intended for a sunroof, the pattern is quite shallow and the best place to fit the fan, which needs a 230mm hole.


This pattern happens to be directly above the front overhead light inside, so have had to remove the whole light, so I used the fixtures to mend the back light which will now be able to light up the rear 'garage' space.


The light casing and workings removed, just the wiring remains, which will be reused for something else.

Tomorrow I am hoping to get up there and cut the hole and fit the fan.

We recently bought a caravan to use as a tea room at the field we rent for the dogs. It has seating very similar to my seating in Nina, so I thought I would borrow the cushions and see how the seating will look and work once I have ordered the cushions.


As a seating area, it looks very cosy and homely, and is comfortable to sit on.


Also looks great with the bed pulled out, and is equally as comfortable :) as Bruno here will testify to !


I'm really happy the seating works well as a convertible bed, all those hours of designing and working out the measurements and then the building were totally worth it. Must remember to finish them off soon !

You may remember me saying that I want to use Nina as a show vehicle, and that I needed to build a space into the back compartment for my industrial pop up marquee, which is very heavy, weighing in at around 80kg. I had been wondering how to go about fitting some help in the back for when I needed to lift it in and out when needed.

Well I hadn't really been actively looking for anything, far too many other things to do first, but while browsing Facebook Selling Pages last week, I found someone selling a mobility hoist, the kind that lifts mobility scooters and wheelchairs etc into the back of estate cars. Its maximum lift was 100kg, so ideal for my 80kg marquee. It asked for offers, so I sent a message asking what kind of offers the lady, Clair, wanted, and offered up £20 for it. I was quite surprised when Clair said she would accept my offer, as they go for a bit more on ebay, and I arranged to pick it up a couple days later. This was Clairs pic that attracted me to her ad.


Its a 4 way hoist, so as well as lifting up and down, it will swing in and out too, comes with a control box and a remote. These things are very powerful and very low profile for a hoist.

Anyway, I picked up at the agreed time and Clair was the nicest lady ! The hoist had been in the garage a while after being used in Clairs Dads car before he sadly passed away. So sorry Clair. Promise it will be put to good use !

Today, I got all the bits and pieces together, and realising I might need some welding done to change the configuration around a bit, I popped by and disturbed my friend Andys family barbecue to get his advice on how best to go about it. He told me what I needed to do, so I left him to his burgers and came on home. The hoist comes with two parts, the hoist itself, and a triangular arm that fixes to the car normally. Well the triangular arm was made for the right hand side of a boot, and I needed it to be fixed to the left side of Nina as that is where the bolt mountings are that were originally securing the fold up seats, and I needed to make use of those to secure the arms to for the hoist. Andy kept the one part as he needed to chop it up ready to be welded to a length of square steel tubing I had here that was to be the main support for the hoist arm.

I had to remove the fibreglass covering between the back and the wheel arch, which revealed a strengthener that the support could sit on.


That rust cloured plastic you can see has one of the bolt fixings in the middle which will secure the new strut. That little platform will be the base for the strut as you can see here in the next pic.


You can just make out in this picture a hole to the right of the upright, which is the second bolt hole that held the fold up seat, Andy will weld an arm coming out across that hole, and a bolt will be fixed through it. This is to prevent the strut moving when lifting. Part of the arm Andy has also has the lugs on it that the hoist arm sits on and allows it to swing out, that will be welded at the top of the strut you see in the picture, making it high enough to hopefully clear the floor with the marquee which stands at around 5ft tall.

As I left it tonight, this is the marquee up in Nina with the hoist lifting bar attached and the hoist arm attached to that and hanging down to the side. Once the new bits are welded in and the stabilising arm is bolted in, the hoist arm can be fitted to the lugs and should then be operational. Just hope we get the clearance right and it lifts enough to clear the floor on its way in. I am also looking forward to seeing if the hoist actually can lift it as advertised, as the marquee is bloomin heavy and I can only just about lift it an inch or so off the ground in a bear hug, and even then only momentarily.


I am thinking I may need to drill through the marquee legs near the top, and fix a bolt through either side that the chain can fix to, as I am doubtful that the heavy duty ratchet strap wont slide up as the chains pull on it to lift.

I think that is it for tonights update, more tomorrow hopefully. Oh, one more thing, I did buy some more 34x34 timber to start building the kitchen frame, and a box of 500 decking screws to fix it all together, so that will start happening soon too, although I wont be able to fix it in permanently until the flooring and walls have been covered.

I will leave you with a photo of Nina from the field today, she loves it down there ;)





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Location:Gloucester

Flooring ordered....

After the excitement of the past few posts, toothache, a pulled back muscle, and losing a much loved member of our family, little Lola to the Rainbow Bridge, (www.lolasheart.org.uk), nothing else has happened work wise.

I have ordered a couple of things though.

First thing, I wanted a 12v roof fan to pull in cool air for the dogs when the engine wasn't running and we couldn't utilise the Eberspacher Air Con unit that sits in the storage area above the drivers seat. I thought about changing the roof vent completely with a built in fan, but those 'turbo vents'are a lot of money and it would be changing something I already have fitted and have no reason to change at the moment. So I decided to go for the Fiamma Turbo Kit, which is basically a 12v fan you can hang in the opening of your existing skylight. It can also be hung across a window opening or even on the side of a dog crate, so would have multiple uses. My Ambulance skylight is bigger than most vents which tend to be 40cm x 40cm, mine is 50cm x 50cm.

This is a Pic from the Fiamma site of it fitted on a 50x50 skylight, so is goint to be ideal. It can be operated both ways, so can pull air in or push it out which will be good when using the Gas Hob that will be directly underneath.


Its going to be ideal for my use and all I need to do is install a 12v socket next to the vent.

Secondly, we ordered the flooring. I have decided on vinyl flooring, and the overall 'theme' is going to be a sandy beachy shack type thing going on. Aside from the turquoise/blue seats and blinds, which would represent the sea and sky, the walls are going to be covered in a sand/beige coloured carpet, and the flooring we decided on is an old driftwood/wooden floor effect. Should be able to pick it up in a few days. Decided to completely cover the floor in the back too, so have ordered enough to cover the full length of the back in one go, 4m x 2m.
This is the pattern on the vinyl, and the wood effect will go the length of the van as oppose to the width so will give the appearance of having more floor space than it actually will have.


This is a photo of the sample in the shop. Really liked it as soon as Jen found it. It looks like really weathered wood which is the effect that will go with my beach theme best. It cost £72, and we bought it from The Weavers Shop in Gloucester.

Need to buy the wall covering next, and that will need to be done first ao I dont get any glue on the flooring.

We had actually bought the wall covering in The Weavers Shop based on a sample of very thin and pliable cord carpet. The Sample we were shown didnt have any backing and was ideal for sticking to the walls.

Sadly after we ordered and paid for it, I went down the next day to collect, and the carpet they had cut for me had a foam backing on it, after telling them they had cut the wrong carpet, they then decided to tell me that all their carpet has a foam backing and the sample I had been shown was just that and didnt come with the foam as it was in a swatch style wallet. They immediately offered a refund, which is when we decided to buy the vinyl flooring and just have the difference refunded. So if anyone needs a 4m x 10m roll of carpet with a foam backing, they have one cut and may let it go cheaper ;).

Thats it for now, hope to have another update for you soon !

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Location:Gloucester

The Black Out

I left the last post with the windows that had just been fitted by Dave at 5 Valleys Windscreens.

That was Thursday, its now Saturday and I spent the afternoon and some if the evening working solely on Nina, and it was great :).
Only a short post as its late, I have terrible toothache and as a result of lifting the dog cages out of Nina to do the work, a bad back :(. Fingers crossed I get sorted soon !

Well, I now have 4 windows to tint, the three new ones and the rear drivers side that Dave had to refit last week.

Mostly straight forward, Im not afraid of tinting anymore, not particularly good at it, but can mostly get it on there without bubbles and creases. The odd pet hair and dust spots, but thats part and parcel of living here and to be expected. Saying that, my first window, the back one, I messed up while my brain was trying to remember how to do it, I forgot to spray the film as I was taking the clear plastic off and as a result had a crease, then tried to trim it too rapidly and cut too far leaving daylight coming through. I tried to ignore the crease and patched up the cuts, and carried on with the rest, but once I had done the rest, and saw I had plenty of tint left, I went back and did the back one again this time perfecting it, phew :).




The vented window which I had been dreading, I did in three parts. The sliding window with the window lock was tricky, but I cut the tinting film to the approx size of the window, held it up to get the position of the lock knob, marked the centre then cut a cross in the film, then when I applied the film I pushed the cross over the knob and squeedgied the film, then cut the little triangles off around the base if the lock. Its not perfect, but does the job, as does the small window next to it. I may go back to it one day, but with the window frame and blind there, it doesnt really notice and looks ok from the outside too.






It was very bright out today, it doesnt look especially tinted here, but it is 5% limo black and although you can clearly see out, its very difficult to see in :).
The new bonded windows look great tinted, they just didnt look right clear with a gentle green tint, you can see in the next pic how big a difference it makes to the look.



Essentially, it hides the wooden framework I fitted to enclose the blinds inside. What do you think ? Please comment, its nice to know that people are actually reading this blog, even though there are around 30-40 page views a day on average ! SOMEONE must be reading it ;).

Talking of the blinds and the wooden frames, I thought I would take a couple of pics of the sliding door window from the outside before I tinted it to show you how the blinds work behind the big frames.




As you can see, they work very well with my wooden frame idea :). You can also see why the tint is just as important from the outside, its hiding a multitude of sins ;).

Up until today, the sliding door was the only blind that had the wooden 'guides' that stops the blind rocking side to side, and creates a complete blackout when the blinds are down, so that people cant peek in around the edge of the blinds. Today I fitted wooden guides to all the other windows that have blinds too.




As you can see in the above pic, nobody is going to be able to look in around the edges of the blinds now. This is the drivers side front new vented window.
Once I had tidied up and was ready to go in for tea, I took a quick pic of the back, its rare not to have loads of junk in there these days, its easy to imagine my plans for Nina with it being so empty :). Come back soon, I think my next job is sorting the floor out ready for a vinyl covering.








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Location:Gloucester

They've been a long time coming......

Yesterday, I left you with photos and a very encapsulating video of Nina having her windows taken out, ready for new bonded ones to go in Friday morning, officially.

Dave from 5 Valleys Windscreens was coming out today (Thursday) on his way home from a job to see how it was going, which was going to be around 10.30am.

Well just after 8am Dave was outside shouting over the gate and had already stripped the sliding door tarp off ready to fit the new window before I even got outside !

He postponed his first job to come and do Nina's windows because the weather forecast was ok to start with heavy showers later. How good is that ? :)

After making him a cup of tea, I thought I had better take a couple of pics as things were moving along at pace.












Dave quickly moved on to the other two windows on the drivers side, and before I knew it, he was packing up to leave !

The vented window only comes with a trim, the rest of the windows are plain bonded, so ever so slightly different looking, though the same design and pattern through the green tinted glass. I love the vented window, it looks great as a bonded window, far more up to date than the vented windows I took out from the rear sides. Its also next to where the bed will be inside, so if its hot or we just need to let some of that holiday air in when waking up, the vent is only an arms length away :). It will also provide a good air flow from the vented window to the roof vent keeping the the air cool inside for the dogs.

This is how she looks now with the new windows on, the drivers side is now completely bonded, and the passenger side just needs the centre window replacing when in stock. Providing all the windows bonded ok, need a good rain storm now to test them, I now have a LEAK FREE NINA yay !!!!!! :).










This hasn't been a cheap part of the project, around £850 including windows, parts and fitting, but I don't regret it at all, aside from the fact there are no more leaks, they really improve the look of the vehicle.

So, onwards and upwards, NOW I can get started on the conversion proper, you can expect a flood of updates in the coming months as I tackle the internal work.

Starting this weekend though, I need to tint the new windows, which will be a challenge with the vented one, but I'm up for it !

Oh, also fitted the new DAB stereo today too, was happily listening to Absolute 80's right there in Nina :).

Thanks for reading, more updates soon !



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Location:Gloucester

At last ! An update ! :)

First of all, I would like to send my love and condolences to the poor family of the soldier that was murdered in Woolwich today, this world we live in is in a very sorry state, so much hate between people that should be supporting each other in difficult times. When will we learn that peace is the only way forward.

Ok, now that's said, I need to make an apology for the lack of updates, I'm sure some of you that are following Nina's progress, have wondered if she has moved on or something with the lack of updates since Christmas.
Well, I can assure you Nina's conversion is alive and well, and has only been on the back burner until funds became available.

As stated before, I needed to get the windows done before any more internal work could be done, as the sliding door window, off side middle window, and off side front windows were all prone to leaks, the sliding door window being the worst.

Nina has been stood on the drive since before Christmas, but last week, was called back in to service, as we sold one of our Animal Ambulances, leaving us short a vehicle for work. Until we can sort another van, Nina is having to fill in as a work van, or Animal Ambulance, and I am delighted to say, she started on first turn of the key, and aside from slightly sticky brakes, which soon freed off with driving, she has been absolutely brilliant. Not missed a beat :).

Well, one thing was wrong, the day she was called in to action, it was raining, and so was the new Off Side Rear window that I had fitted before Christmas. Water was coming in all along the top. I could push the top of the window and let even more water in. I rang Dave at 5 Valleys Windscreens and said I needed it looked at, but in about a week or so as I was using Nina for work. Well I pulled up on Holly and Jess's drive, and as I got out and pushed my drivers door shut, I was looking back at the leaky window, the bottom of it swung back and forth like a cat flap !



"Pulled up on Holly and Jess's drive"

On closer inspection, I saw that the window glass had actually dropped, and the bottom edge was hanging over the bottom frame lip ! I drove very carefully to pick up the next dog, Bruno, trying to avoid as many pot holes as possible, in case the window dropped completely out ! I called in to Morrisons after and bought a roll of Duct Tape, and taped all the edges up right there in the car park !




At least I could carry on with peace of mind, good old Duct Tape, never leave home without some !

I rang Dave back and told him it was a bit more urgent and needed sorting asap !

He came the next day and removed the window completely. The problem was that this was the frame that I had to repair and respray. It turned out the paint had reacted and had literally come away from the metal along with the window bonding glue ! Dave scraped the metal back to bare, then painted with his black primer solution to cover the bare metal and prepare it for the new bonding glue he was going to apply with the window.
All went on fine, and as yet, no problems, although we've not had any rain yet ! ;).




"24hrs with tape ensuring the window didnt move while bonding"




"Yay it didnt fall out when I took the tape off ;)"

As the tint was a little damaged, I decided to remove it and do it again.
While Dave was re-fitting the back window, we were discussing getting the other windows done, and he said he would get a quote, see if he could get them any cheaper than me. He rang me later and it turns out he could get them about £60 cheaper inc carriage ! I ordered them there and then, the sale of our Animal Ambulance meant that for now, we had the cash to get them !

Three windows were in stock, and were put out for delivery, but one of the middle ones was on back order.

Dave rang me earlier today to say the three windows had been delivered and that he could come tomorrow (Thursday) and fit them if I had the old windows out.

So tonight was spent frantically removing windows, cleaning up frames, ready for the new windows to be bonded on tomorrow !



This is a very boooooooring timelapse video of me taking two of the windows out as viewed from inside Nina, if you can force yourself to watch it ;).

And these are the pictures as I left Nina tonight, very bare looking with three windows missing, hoping the weather is ok through the night and the tarp sheets I taped on to the sides stay there.




The sliding door window, which was leaking the worst, was actually holding lots of rain water in the rubber seal, as I cut the seal, lots ofmwater dripped down. VERY lucky that the frame was still in good shape and didnt need repairing !




"Water dripped down as I cut the rubber seal"












These pictures are very different from one I took earlier when Nina was "home" to a bunch of happy dogs at the field ;)




Oh, one more thing, Nina did get a little upgrade today too. The stereo in her has some weird slot that isnt wide enough for a cd, and is too tall, I believe it was originally made for something called a 'cassette', I'm actually surprised it was stereo and not mono ;). So she now has a smart new DAB stereo with and iPod/iPhone connection from Halfords, which came with a free DAB aerial for the windscreen :). Not fitted yet, but looking forward to listening to my Camper Van Radio cd by Kludo White through it ! ;).


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Location:Gloucester