Awning in Action!!

Rosie and I like to get away in the van as much as we can, but one of our favourite stops of the year is the End Of The Road Festival, this is an AWESOME folk and acoustic music festival set in the heart of Dorset at the Larmer Tree Gardens.

The festival starts on the Friday night but you can arrive on the Thursday afternoon (which is what we do!!) and the festival runs through to Sunday night and you can stay until Monday afternoon (which is also what we do!! - you have to get the best out of your money!!)

This year we had the awning to use which I have to say was awesome!

These are my favourite pics of Scarlet!!

Awning and Silver Screens in action

Hope you liked the pics.

Cheers

Tom

Rear Windows

After using the van for camping and surfing, I really wanted to have some more light in the back of the van, but they were not 1st on the list to do, that was until I saw that Kira Vans had discounted their dark smoke rear windows!!

I bought the windows and the fitting kit confident that I could fit the windows myself!

Before

Drilling the guide holes in each corner

Using a dust sheet to protect the rest of the door from sparks/spurs

Cardboard template of inner skin

1st hole cut :s

No going back now!!

Metal primer added, this is what the window bond sticks to

One window on. Repeat above steps to other door

Finished!!!

As you can see it was a pretty full on job (in my opinion) I used a jigsaw with a metal bit to do the main cutting job, metal bit drill bits to drill the holes and a sanding bit (which fits into my drill) to finish all of the edges. 

Cheers

Tom

Install Number 2 Part 2

From the last post you can see that I changed my install to include 2 cupboards and 2 drawers. This was because as I am sure you'll all agree when you get round to using the van you find more storage is really useful.

As you see from the pics I have some cushions on my bed the surfboard ones were made by my girlfriend Rosie. I also have rear windows now but that is for a later post!!

Cheers

Tom

Its been a while!!!! Install number 2 part 1

Hello all,

Sorry its been such a long time but with christmas, spending time with family, interviewing for a new job and doing a few things to the van I have not had the time to blog!!

Without further ado here is my 2nd install idea, or part one of it anyway. After much discussion with Rosie and my mate at work Andy I decided to go down the IKEA install route, because I needed to store surfboards in my van I decided to only use 2 cupboards and then use cupboard doors as blanking plates (hopefully all will become clear with the pic!!)

As can be seen from the pic I used 2 IKEA Faktum cabinets for the front cupboards, I cut a section out of the back of these so that I could slide a surfboard behind and then used IKEA Applad doors for the cupboards and then as blanking plates toward the rear of the van. I also cut the tops of the cupboard doors so that I could make them into drawers!

I will post a picture of the finished product soon.

Cheers

Tom 

Drive Away Awning

Isn’t it funny how you have a certain list of essentials for going away with that you absolutely cannot do without. But each time you go away that list seems to be ever expanding!

Rosie and I have been away a fair bit in the van and have got the technique down of traveling light, last year we spent 2 weeks traveling from Southampton across the channel and then along the northern and western coast of France and then to the Pyrenees. This year we have not been away internationally but have been on various trips to Cornwall, Devon and a few festivals near to our house. 

The one thing that you struggle with going away in a van is space and where to put things so we decided to put some time into researching drive away awnings, there are plenty out there to suit the T5 but we went for the Campershop Outlaw you can see it here. Its fairly big inside and comes with a groundsheet and an inner tent that can sleep 2 people, you could purchase another one to go on the opposite side but we are not fussed with that and prefer the space!

So around came my 25th birthday and my folks asked my what I wanted and the inevitable happened......I got my awning!!

This is a picture of when my dad and i set it up for the first time, (as you can see pictured my steels are back on as at the time my alloys were being sprayed!!) 

I must say since having the awning, we enjoy camping so much more as it is very easy to just put everything in the awning like the chairs table and cooking stuff etc and then you have the van free to use, also when you want to nip out for the day your pitch is saved and you dont have to worry about someone nipping in there when you are out.

I looked at a few ways of fixing the awning to the van; The reimo rail I don like because it sticks out from the side of the van and you either have to glue it or drill holes in your van. The VW one is good and fits in the channel on the roof but this seemed to be very expensive and hard to get hold of.  I used the funky leisure awning rail it is made of stainless steel and again fits in the channel on top of your roof and uses the roof rack bolts to fix down. See it Here.  I also bought from then the figure of 8 channeling to fix the awning on to the van.

Cheers 

Tom

A side note- Off Road Driving

My partner Rosie bought me an Off Road Driving Experience for my birthday back in June and I wanted to wait until the wet weather came so that it would be more fun!!

Rosie was able to come along for the (very bumpy) ride and she filmed most of my drive from the back seat. So without further ado here is the short film I made of the best bits!!

Cheers

Tom 

A change of colour

It had been a while since I had done anything to the van what with Rosie and I moving into our first home together. Where I live on the coast and spend most of my time in search of wind or swell and this takes it toll on polished alloys - they had just started to bubble and pit, so what I did was to put the steels back on for a while whilst I sprayed my alloys black. I know some people really don’t like black alloys, especially my mate Andy who seems to think they look like steels until closer inspection! But I really like them and the way they look on a red van.

The first thing I did was to clean them, then sand them first with 240 grit and then 400 grit to make sure all the laquer came off. Next I deflated the tyres as much as possible and then pushed back the sidewall of the tyre and then masked the wheel up. The next step was the primer, I used plastic kote grey super primer from B&Q, I sprayed 3 full coats on each wheel, making sure there were no runs, leaving 30 mins between each coat and then left for 24hrs to dry before flatting off with 400 grit very lightly.

After that it was time for colour, again I used plastic kote black super satin from B&Q, this time I applied 5 full coats to each wheel and again made sure I had no runs in the paint leaving 30 mins between each coat and then left again for 24hrs to go off. There was no need to flat the paint off but I did key the surface very slightly to allow the laquer something to adhere to. 

Here they are all finished and looking nice in 

my shed!! Now to put them back on!!