nothing happening here folks work stopped play
just for tinker

eventfull week,spent a day up ,north collecting stuff for the build cant recommend Magnums enough so helpfull and an amazing wharhouse full of every thing you need even had time for fish chips n mushy peas on the front at Cleethorpes
Got the tanks made to measure by a company called GFG plastics in Hull ordered monday and collected on Wednesday got them made blank with hatches so i can fit tails where i want them
Van went well but does seem a bit juicey so will have to give it a service
.
Fitted the last rooflight for the toilet/shower today and got some batten stuck up on the roof to take the ceiling boards also stuck a lot of the insulation on one side

busy day today have insulated the roof using quatroturdo its a mix of air bubbles and foam with foil on both faces probably nowhere as good as kingspan but i didnt want to lose any more head room my rambler cant have much in the way of insulation in the hightop just glass fibre and carpet and weve always been warm enough in that once i get some battens up for the roof lining if theres any room i might add some thing else even if its only another layer of foiled bubble stuff every little most help.The ribs across the van ive foam filled with expanding foam theres only a few wires to go across the roof so i figure i can get them traped in the lagging in split conduit

Took the top of the battery box which is under the cab floor on a ducato sods law all the existing cable go out the opposite side to where i want to run mine
Looked at removing the plastic tray from above the cab only to find there not much under it just a couple of bars and the headlining so thats going to stay as i wont gain much space by removing it and it'll give me a big job to rebuild it
been watching a single passengers seat for the ducatto on ebay all week as usual i was all poised to bid for it in the last few minutes only to see the price rocket up to nearly £350 think my first idea of a day trip to france to see if i can find a second hand lhd drivers seat

Just bought an under slung gas tank from ebay so dont need a gas locker now so Decided to alter the bed so we can get an upright at the end both to stop peole falling out the back of the van when it used as seats and to give support to the lockers and were going to have the more traditional drop down table rather than a pull out i think this could change again so watch this space
first pic shows the entire fleet of vehicles the white through the door is my work van ,renee 1 old faithfull (saab) and my daughters multi colored (mostly black repair panels )car
spent most of today fitting the heki midi bit of a nightmare with the corugated roof had to make small spacer from a strip of hardwood for each corugation both under and under the steel fc 40 everywhere i used sticky sealing strips and black carbond to seal it all down the screws that came with the heki are next to useless had it all in place and realised that they need a small screew driver bit which i couldnt find so replace them with some i had that i could get a turn on
i used black seal as the van is navy but would use white next time as it doesnt realy show and less obvious when you transfer it to the white plastic on your fingers

well its done now both windows on the off side are in and glued had more trouble with the second one than the first bit of over confidence probably.
Made frame for the door window popped the center hole through and marked the line to cut but as the sun was disappearing Ive left cutting and gluing till morning
found this is the best way to mark out the windows mark inside find the center and drill a small hole then transfer measurement to masking tape on the outside this way if it clashes with anything or you want to move up or down /left or right the hole is in the bit that coming out

no photos today as didnt start till late made the frame and cut the second window in going to take them both out again tommorow and refit with some sealer one more to go and then its the dreaded rooflights

big day first window in

Fitted the first window today cutting a hole in a 10g van was definatley a heart in mouth moment but seems to have gone well although its only fitted and not sealed in yet.As the van side are not straight ive a choice to make tommorow do I even the gap top and bottom or go for larger gap top or bottom, bottom will be more obvious and top will be more difficult to seal but wont show gonna have another look in the morning and decide then.
seitz windows most have the worlds worst instructions lots of diagrams showing the cross section and not one showing the planso its lots or measuring to get the hole size right sietz say measure the instalation webs plus six mil but the webs seem tapered and the dont say which end to measure in the end i cut the size i ordered 900x400 which seemed about right although possibly a bit tight so willl open the next ones out a bit cut the other side of the line
screws that come with them are only good for a wall thickness of 25 mm and the screw size is 3.9mm ive used 2inch 8s which seem fine .
I've made a frame from 2x1 and roughly scribed it to the shape of the panel hopefully this will stop distortion of the panel when i finally tighten it up

not much to report this weeks so far did a bit more on the first bed box but mostly I've been sending my flexible friend rigid with purchases both from ebay, new thetford toilet,trauma water heater and a propex
windows and roof lights arrived this morning and have just unpacked them to check for damage my god the midi heki is huge when seen in the flesh its going over our bed to give us some star gazing opportunities
was going to make the bed bases pull out style but now ones nearly done i may change it to the more traditional drop down table
one thing i realy didnt allow for is the amount of space needed to store all the bits and pieces i realy need to get some faced ply soon but untill the windows are in im struggling for space
Did a rekkie on possible route for wiring today and it looks a bit of a mare to be honest batteries are under the floor and all the wiring exits on the opposite side to the side i want

bed box1

Managed to get half a day on the van today typically it was sunny whilst at work and raining when i got back to the van.Not sure i wouldnt be better building an ark
knocked up a simple frame for the first bedbox as i needed to know how low the window can go I would rather it wasnt behind the seat back,
I'm using my normal method for frame building using 2x1 timber and doubling it up to form 2 x2
I find this easier than using the larger size as i can make "joints" that look good ive got a cut saw so getting a straight cut is easy
of for the weekend now so no posts till later next week
managed to buy a second hand propex on ebay today so thats another bit got