Bobby the Bay's refit

BayBirmingham · 31-03-2009, 10:57 PM

I bought Bobby last year, and he looked like this:

He's a twin slider, tin top, late bay, non-walkthrough. So probably not most people's ideal van on several counts. But to be honest that's the appeal.

He had a pretty nasty white formica home-brew interior that was delaminating,

and some awful minibus seats,

but to be honest I bought him to use him, and thats what we did.

When he was SORN'd last september after Vanfest, I said I wanted to refit him, and also the 1600tp engine has about 2 miles of endfloat and piss poor oil pressure, so that has to go too.

Damson · 31-03-2009, 11:02 PM

Cool pics so far Ian ................ in fact, he doesn't look that bad to start with

looking forward to seeing what the end result is

BayBirmingham · 31-03-2009, 11:08 PM

I eventually got round to getting my arse in gear in January, after months of saving and procrastinating over how to refit him.

The interior was ripped out, and the mixture of matt black and red oxide primer has been painted over:

I've also put in some insulation:

and then the doorcards have gone back on:

and plywood has been laid on the floor:

I had the tricky issue of how to get cables from the soon-to-be leisure battery under the back seat to the front of the van, as I have 2 sliding doors, so I did this:

and I even found out where the spare wheel should go:

but now I need to work out how to make a hinged base for the passenger seat so I can get the wheel out when the seats are back in. The seats are leather ones out of a Volvo - the original seats are long gone, and these are quite comfortable.

Oh, and none of the rear windows were opening ones, so with a lot of help from rubbydubbys, I fitted a Westy Louvre to one slider:

and a sliding window to the other:

And that's about as far as I've got. Still a long way to go, and we're going on holiday in it in May, so I have to get a wiggle on!

BayBirmingham · 31-03-2009, 11:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Damson

Cool pics so far Ian ................ in fact, he doesn't look that bad to start with

looking forward to seeing what the end result is

Thanks, to be honest, he wasn't at all bad. When I bought him it was obvious that structurally he had been well looked after, and although a lot of welding has been done, it's all solid work by the looks of things, and that's what appealed to me. Carpentry and wiring I can do - welding, I can't.

BayBirmingham · 15-04-2009, 06:11 PM

Right, time for an update. I was on annual leave over Easter so I had about a week to make some progress with the interior. I've now done some cupboards down the side of the bed, but no photos as there is still a ton of junk piled into the van. They were a complete arse because I had forgotten to allow for elementary things like allowing the r'n'r bed to slide into place (d'oh!) so lots of swearing and alteration, etc.

Anyway, finished off the carpeting by doing a bit over the engine.

I have a hatch above the engine because this van started out life with a type 4 1700, so I wanted to keep access to the hatch, so I did this:

And it ended up like this:

Carpet on top, plywood in the middle, and a layer of that bubblewrap silver insulation underneath. And I kept the fibre mat (fitted by a previous owner) under that for good measure.
Fitted new seatbelts:

Laid the lino on the floor:

I also sorted out some of the wiring under the dash, which did look like this:

Replaced all those nasty quick lock things with proper crimped connectors.

Also, I had some textured black vinyl lying around, so I decided it'd look nice on the bumpers. So I took the front bumper off and did this:

I think it looks much better:

Did the same on the rear:

BayBirmingham · 15-04-2009, 06:15 PM

Still to do:

I'm putting cupboards behind the bulkhead, so still got those to finish, then onto wiring, then fix in the cab seats, then drop the engine for the engine change. Loads to do!!

dubman1972 · 15-04-2009, 07:11 PM

nice work mate looking really good

wobbly · 15-04-2009, 08:18 PM

Good work fella

D-I-Y is the way to go, sense of achievement and all that. Keep the pics coming...

BayBirmingham · 17-04-2009, 07:55 PM

Cheers for the comments - this is definitely a homebrew conversion, although I've pinched ideas from most of the major conversions - some of these will become more obvious as things get finished.

Only got a few pictures today, but they show what I've been up to for most of the Easter holidays - building cupboards. I'm nearly deaf from using power tools, and I've got about a thousand little bits of wood left over from chopping stuff up for the cupboards.

Cupboards down the side of the bad, pretty standard kind of thing:

But I've also built this to go behind the front seats as Bobby is non-walkthrough:

Cooker based on a Devon - I do have a Devon folding cooker hood, but I don't think I'll use it. The bit in the middle lifts up and the fridge/cooler goes in there (must remember to cut a vent hole.....)

And plywood + router + carpet = somewhere to put the speakers. The speaker grills were fucked, mainly because they's been kicked about at thousand times and looked really tatty.

Still got to sand down the bulkhead cupboards, then varnish them so they'll look like the ones down the side of the bed. I'm sick of doing woodwork, so I'll be happy to finish this.

18-04-2009, 09:06 PM

Looking very smart chap, cupboards work a treat, call if you need a hand.