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

Nina's Christmas Update 2012

Many apologies for lack of updates, it's been a while, mainly because since the rear side windows were fitted, not much else has been happening ! Lack of funds coming up to Christmas were partly to blame, along with weather and time.

So I thought I would write a quick post to fill you in on the 'little' things. Well, the little things and an amazing thing !

A couple weeks before Christmas, I used the roll of tint I bought from a tinting garage, and tinted the new windows in the back. Wow, what a difference ! When I did the back windows, it took ages with a heat gun trying to get them to adhere around the edges where the raised pattern was, the type you get on bonded windows. So I was dreading doing the new bonded windows. For the back ones I bought a small roll of tint from ebay, it came retail packed and from China, and as far as I knew, no different to any other tint. If you go back through the posts, you will find a timelapse video ofme fitting it.

Anyway, this new pro stuff, was £28 for a 10 meter roll of Limo Privacy tint, and was VERY different to use, it went straight on, stuck over the pattern without any problem, didnt have to use a heat gun at all !

Took me less than 15 minutes a window. They aren't perfect, I still haven't mastered the art of getting the windows REALLY clean beforehand, but they are good enough.



As you can see, not full of bubbles, and looking quite smart ! Did both sides, and am now a lot more confident when it comes to doing the remaining 4 windows, I should have enough tint left for them all too !.

Since then, I have replaced the speakers too. There are 2 in the roof in the back, and 2 in the dash in the cab, the rear ones are 4" speakers, and when I took the old ones down, the speaker cones were in bits, I'm surprised they made any noise at all ! The same with the ones in the dash, which are 5" ones.

I didn't go mad with the speakers, they are only to listen to the radio, so got them from Maplins. The 4" ones were £12.99 per pair, and the 5" ones were £14.99 a pair, can't remember what power, something like 80watts, good enough for the radio.

The dash ones were a little bit of a pain, as not much room under the dash, but managed ok. No more buzzing and distortion when someone with a deep voice talks on the radio yay ! :)

Ok, now for the amazing bit !

In traditional fashion, Jen decided to buy Nina a present rather than me ! This time, she bought Nina A BIG SOLAR PANEL to go on the roof :). Its a 100w model, roughly 4ft x 2ft, came with the fitting kit including the wiring, mount brackets and regulator. On a sunny hot summers day when the sun is out the whole day and Nina is parked so that the sun is hitting the panel, it should easily recharge one of my 70ah batteries fully from flat in one day, but with our weather in the UK, its more likely to just top the batteries up a bit, and keep them with charge in when Nina isnt being used. VERY pleased, thank you Jen ! xxx :)

So, yet another job that will need doing, once I decide where my batteries are going to be, once the rest of the windows are done.

Just before Christmas, my friend Rich accidentally bought himself 2 inverters from ebay whilst bidding from his phone, something about a dodgy 3g signal ! Anyway the upshot was that he only needed the one, and asked if I'd be interested in the other before he tells the seller he didnt want it.

They were Durite modified wave inverters, 1500w. Max at 3000w, but being modified, will give a constant 1500w, which will run a LOT of things :). These inverters still sell now, and are £400 new most places, got mine for a bargain £82 :).

This is it, its definately 'used', its been in a van, but works perfectly and the Durite inverters have a very good reputation for reliability. Good clean up and bolted in the storage area and jobs a good un :)


I think the next BIG buy now is the seating/bed cushions, which will be around £250, other than the windows which are around another £500, so getting there slowly. Its a shame the windows needed replacing, but I am determined to get it all done properly, so that all my hard work isn't ruined by water trickling in.

So, Nina is doing well for presents, and even though it doesnt look like it, progress is taking place bit by bit.

She had to be brought in to service a few weeks back, one of our Animal Ambulance vans died on us, it had done 174,000 miles, and we decided it was time to get something a bit younger, so the week it took us to find one, Nina had to step in as the second Animal Ambulance, and collect dogs for walking etc. She performed faultlessly ;).

One last thing, a while back I bought a couple of LED halogen replacement bulbs to replace the power hungry halogen bulbs that are in the door spotlights, they are fitted above the door openings and come on with the sidelights, ensuring that there is plenty of light to allow you to enter/exit the doors without problems.

The one on the side door will also make a good awning light as its aimed slightly outside the side door.

I did think about removing them completely, then realised that actually, they are quite useful. :)

So, the idea was to cut the old halogen bulb holder out, and somehow fit the new bulbs in, which are a completely different fitting, new ones are like the headlight halogen bulbs you get in cars, but made up with lots of cree led lights around where the halogen glass would be.

It was a bit of a fiddle and involved some soldering and chopping, but managed it.

This is with the new LED bulb fitted and the old halogen and bulb holder removed.






These next photos are with it all fitted back up in Nina again and showing the spread of light, which is brill from LED ! :) Perfect and hardly any power drain. All I need to do now is the one for the back doors, and supply with a different power source and switches so they can be switched on as needed seperately. At the moment they both come on when the sidelights are on and the door is opened.










Well, thats pretty much it for the time being, lots of plans still, and definately not forgotten, hoping to get the interior finished in 2013, so should have been tried out at least once by next Christmas, I would hope so anyway. ;)

I have been watching the stats for this blog, and its brill to see around 30 page views a day at the moment, even without a recent update.

I'm guessing that means there are loads more of you out there converting too ! Please do leave a comment with your blog address if you are writing one too. I love to look at fellow converters adventures !

See ya soon ! :)







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Gloucester

The Windows Saga

Ok, its been a while since my last post, which can only mean one thing, it didn't go to plan.

Sooo, I left you last time, having decided that I would take Nina to Malc and Jon to have the frame fixed, then it was just a matter of getting Dave from Five Valleys to come and fit the new windows.

Ok, what happened was......

I took Nina in to Bedford Street Motors that Monday afternoon, must be about three weeks ago now. Left it with the guys, and didnt hear anything until I went to work on the Wednesday morning, happily minding my own business, when I noticed a Renault Master parked across the road, and believe it or not, had a gaping hole in the side, just like Nina ! Slowly, it dawned on me that I was looking at Nina, on the opposite side of Gloucester to where she should be !


Of course, I couldnt help taking the above photo to send to Jon and tease them about using Nina for 'other' duties !

Apparently she was being used to get some new welding gas.

Anyway, I didnt get a clear look as I drove by, but the window frame looked completely white, which is better than the black and brown it was when I dropped her off !

I called Jon and asked if she was now ready to collect, and was told to come later that afternoon.

This is where things start to slide a little. When I got to Bedford Street and saw the window frame, the tiny feeling in the pit of the stomach that just seems to expand at a rate of knots, was happening. Where the bubbled up rust had been, was now flatter, but, still rough, and the whole frame was Hammerite White, including the dried drips and the splashes on the internal window sill and the surrounding bodywork.

Now here is the thing, Malc and Jon have been friends for years, since I worked with them, and I was actually Malc's apprentice back when I was 17 when we both worked for Julian Rogers Autoservices in Gloucester. I trust them implicitly, and they always do me and Jen a good deal on mechanical work, sort whatever problem we throw at them, quickly, at a moments notice sometimes, well most of the time. They got Nina on the road for me and through two MOT's since I got her.

I will continue to go to them for their excellent mechanical service, and would recommend anyone else to use them too.

But bodywork technicians, they are not.

I paid my money, and in my mind told myself it was to make up for all the times when they knew I was short, and charged well under their normal prices. Then drew a line under it.

I was going to have to be brave, and redo it all myself.

I haven't taken a closer photo of how it was, it wouldnt be fair on the guys, so literally went out, bought some flexible grinding disks, aluminium body filler, primer spray, renault white spray, sand paper, and wet or dry paper.

I ground all the hammerite off, re-ground all the frame, and part of the body around the frame, sanded the layers evenly, then started filling the rusty holes and metal with the body filler. I have barely done any bodywork in my lifetime, so it was never going to be perfect, but hopefully better than it was, and good enough for Dave to fit the window that side.

This is a reminder of how bad it was originally -






This is of it all ground out and the filler starting to go on, ready for sanding.











This is with the frame sanded to something close to its original shape, and the primer spray on.









You can see its starting to look half decent now, hard to tell where the original rust actually was. This is only the primer coat, so is a different white to the van paint. Each colour, incidentally, is from a spray can from Halfords. Around £6.50 a can.


This is with the Renault Top Coat Spray, which went on very easily, I used a handle that clips on top of the spray cans to make it more like a spray gun, which helps you spray more evenly, I bought mine in What ! for £1.00.





It was when I got to this point, last Friday, 2nd November, 2012, that I texted Dave and said that he could come when it suited after the weekend, which would give the paint time to harden sufficiently.

Now all through these few weeks, we have had pretty much constant rain, which has hampered progress. I have had to recover the aperatures a couple of times as the wind and rain have saturated the duct tape and made it start to peel away letting the water in.

So luckily, when Dave rang on Monday afternoon to say he would be here the following morning, the weather forecast was for clear skies to start, turning to rain later.

So Tuesday morning, (today), at 10.15, Dave turned up and for the last time, I peeled off the tarps and duct tape, to have the new windows FINALLY fitted :).

It was a crisp morning, the frost had well and truly started to defrost, perfect weather for fitting windows - apparently :).

Tarps off, first window (NS) prepared....


Dave starts applying the bonding glue to the 'good' side (passenger).



Then with Dave on one side of the window, and me on the other, we offered it up to the frame, then quickly stuck some Duct Tape down to stop it sliding downwards on the glue.



Yay ! I've finally got my first new bonded window fitted ! Once fitted though, we noticed this window had a manufacturing fault, a kind of ripple from the centre top, down, so have emailed Leisure Vehicle Windows just to let them know, in case anything happens with it.

View through the drivers side frame, looking gooooood :).


Its also odd, seeing a window in there without the vents at the top.

Then it was the drivers side turn, time to see if all my hard work on reforming the frame was good enough to receive the window.






Weirdly, this side, the frame seemed bigger, or the window looked smaller in it. The window was stacked against the window on the other side, and was exactly the same size, so it wasnt that, and the frame, although had been ground out and filled, hadnt had the actual size changed, so anyway, the window went in great, although much to Dave's disgust, once we had lifted the window on to the bonding glue, I decided in my head there was too big a gap at the front and promptly started to slide the window over on the glue while Dave frantically tried to stop me ! Result, one very stuck on window, but a little bit of a gooey gluey mess inside the rear gap. Only viewable if you look into the gap, but all the same, I learned my lesson ! Sorry Dave ! Will listen properly to you next time !

As you can see in the above photo, Dave taped up all four edges on both sides, just while the bonding glue went off and had the windows stuck on properly.

So Dave went, and I went off to work for the rest of the day, and left the windows to it. Dave advised to leave them taped up until 4.30pm at least.

I got home after 5, it had been raining a couple of hours before I got there, so I gently pulled the tape off in the dark, and checked for signs that rain had leaked inside. Guess what ? Dry !!!!!! :).





And they look great ! :)

The bonded windows look so much better than the rubber sealed ones, cant wait until I get the other four done now :).

Got one more decision to make with these windows now, and that is whether to privacy tint them from the inside, or, cover them in White vinyl on the outside, as the back is going to be storage, and the white will reflect the sun away making the back slightly cooler for whatever is stored in there, like the dogs in the dog cage !

Incidentally, if any of you are converting a Renault Master panel van, which still needs holes cut in the metal, I am selling the perfectly good windows that came out, which are vented. Just use 'S' type rubber and bead to fit them in. Bottom privacy tinted, top sliding vent has a clear green tint on both windows.
£40 each or £70 for the two. Ideal to fit on the same wall that you put the hob/cooker for ventilation. Message me at Damon(at)damoncannard.com if interested ! :)






Thanks for reading, come back soon ! :)

Location:Gloucester