Irritable Owl
:hammer :Some of you old enough to remeber a program voiced by Willie Rushden called trapdoor will know what Drutt.. was.. a funny ugly ungainly critter.. and thats what my camper has become, funny, ugly and ungainly. It was cobbled together from an Old Sprinter costing £500 and a damp rotten caraven costing 300 and has been several months in the making..
As you can see from the photographs its just about complete...but if you want the story read on.
Drutt was born of neccessity. as we were told we were going to loose the use of our trucks at night and that we would have to organise digs for ourselves. I dont like the thought of digs.. dirty expensive and inconvenient, especially in the london area so the concept was born, by a van, kit it out, sleep in in down london 4 days a week...as the meercat says Simples
It had to have a permanent bed, as I didnt want to be folding things down and setting them up again especially at 3 in the morning and I Hate sharing showers and toilets...UGH so it has to have its own shower and it had to be cheap as chips becuase I dont have a lot of money. A friend told me about a van going cheap..a sprinter from a catering company, high top, very high mileage but only 600 quid. I offered 5 and got it..
Hard Lesson No1
Make sure you have a sound vehicle.
It looked ok, a bit rusty..until it rained and the water poured in around the windscreen..if you pushed gently on the screen you could feel it move and see daylight round the edges..And the brakes were non existant...but thats not a problem as long as you forward plan... as were the bottoms of the doors..but the engine and box were sweet...Game on.. I cut out the old windscreen, and then cut out the old windscreen surround then kept cutting back to bare metal. I would up welding in a complete frame, lead loading all the joints cos I dont like filler. Same with the rear doors and several other holes that were where they didnt oughta be.. then I painted it.. four litres of two pack primer and 4 litres of mercedes van white.. again in two pack..you can still get two pack cyanide based paint if you know where to go..
Then the brakes, skim the drums on the lathe, rebuild the calipers (parts not available...recon units only available...wanna bet.. you can get anything if you know where to go) £5.00 for the seals to do two calipers..if you know what your doing..
After 4 weekends van was water tight, white and went through a MOT with only two advisories..
Hard Lesson No2
Make sure you have a plan...
I didnt have a plan, a rough sketch on the back of an old envelope and a week off work that got me started. I dont do plans when I build things..just make it fit..
Dissassemble a caravan...some useful parts and a couple of windows...and an awful lot of junk...what do you do with it all..the scrap man dragged the mess away but I was left with a Carver cascade, an oven, water pump , shower tray and a fridge that didnt work plus some odds and ends in a dustbin of bits that just might come in handy...let me tell you that dustbin of bits I just might need was a godsend.
Hard Lesson No3
Use new materials if you can.
I couldnt, I scavenged as much wood as I could and bought some ply from jewsons.. the heavier bits of wood that I needed were cut down from a stack of old floor boards that I had lying around..ohh and some 2 x 4 posts that were about 7 foot long..
Insulation was the polysyrene sheets you can by..horrible to work with and very messy..we wound up wading through white snowy polystyrene balls for a couple of days... watch the fun when the wind blows
Hard Lesson No4
never trust anyone to do a job..do it all yourself..
I wont go into it but an aquaintenece offered to do a bit for me while I was at work... worst mistake of my life..caused more work than he saved... he shall remain nameless but it is my fondest wish that the fleas of a thousand camels shall take up residence in his underpants.
Hard Lesson No5
Nothing is ever free... there is always a cost or an accommodation to be made....Parts that were free needed reworking, repairing or modifying.. I was given two leather seats from a honda prelude... it took me 4 days to make swivels and get them to rotate..and still meet the requirements for the mot.. they didnt turn out half bad.
Anyway I have bored you enough.. All told I think Drutt has cost me about £1300 in total but I have lost count of the man hours.. about five months would be abaout right. It always sounds easy, mark it up, cut the hole and dress up the edges. Each window took about 8 hours to fit and the seat swivels took about a week.I am lucky, as an engineer I can turn my hand to almost anything and having a lathe, milling machine , welder, compressor and a lot of tools gives me an advantage. I am really proud of some things like the solid piece of oak that i scavenged for the table..
Would I do it again....yes, but not this week. There were times when I wondered if it was worth it but it has brought me tremendous satisfaction.
but i think I will enjoy Drutt for a while.. All that is left is the curtains to do and then she is ready for her maiden trip..
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As you can see from the photographs its just about complete...but if you want the story read on.
Drutt was born of neccessity. as we were told we were going to loose the use of our trucks at night and that we would have to organise digs for ourselves. I dont like the thought of digs.. dirty expensive and inconvenient, especially in the london area so the concept was born, by a van, kit it out, sleep in in down london 4 days a week...as the meercat says Simples
It had to have a permanent bed, as I didnt want to be folding things down and setting them up again especially at 3 in the morning and I Hate sharing showers and toilets...UGH so it has to have its own shower and it had to be cheap as chips becuase I dont have a lot of money. A friend told me about a van going cheap..a sprinter from a catering company, high top, very high mileage but only 600 quid. I offered 5 and got it..
Hard Lesson No1
Make sure you have a sound vehicle.
It looked ok, a bit rusty..until it rained and the water poured in around the windscreen..if you pushed gently on the screen you could feel it move and see daylight round the edges..And the brakes were non existant...but thats not a problem as long as you forward plan... as were the bottoms of the doors..but the engine and box were sweet...Game on.. I cut out the old windscreen, and then cut out the old windscreen surround then kept cutting back to bare metal. I would up welding in a complete frame, lead loading all the joints cos I dont like filler. Same with the rear doors and several other holes that were where they didnt oughta be.. then I painted it.. four litres of two pack primer and 4 litres of mercedes van white.. again in two pack..you can still get two pack cyanide based paint if you know where to go..
Then the brakes, skim the drums on the lathe, rebuild the calipers (parts not available...recon units only available...wanna bet.. you can get anything if you know where to go) £5.00 for the seals to do two calipers..if you know what your doing..
After 4 weekends van was water tight, white and went through a MOT with only two advisories..
Hard Lesson No2
Make sure you have a plan...
I didnt have a plan, a rough sketch on the back of an old envelope and a week off work that got me started. I dont do plans when I build things..just make it fit..
Dissassemble a caravan...some useful parts and a couple of windows...and an awful lot of junk...what do you do with it all..the scrap man dragged the mess away but I was left with a Carver cascade, an oven, water pump , shower tray and a fridge that didnt work plus some odds and ends in a dustbin of bits that just might come in handy...let me tell you that dustbin of bits I just might need was a godsend.
Hard Lesson No3
Use new materials if you can.
I couldnt, I scavenged as much wood as I could and bought some ply from jewsons.. the heavier bits of wood that I needed were cut down from a stack of old floor boards that I had lying around..ohh and some 2 x 4 posts that were about 7 foot long..
Insulation was the polysyrene sheets you can by..horrible to work with and very messy..we wound up wading through white snowy polystyrene balls for a couple of days... watch the fun when the wind blows
Hard Lesson No4
never trust anyone to do a job..do it all yourself..
I wont go into it but an aquaintenece offered to do a bit for me while I was at work... worst mistake of my life..caused more work than he saved... he shall remain nameless but it is my fondest wish that the fleas of a thousand camels shall take up residence in his underpants.
Hard Lesson No5
Nothing is ever free... there is always a cost or an accommodation to be made....Parts that were free needed reworking, repairing or modifying.. I was given two leather seats from a honda prelude... it took me 4 days to make swivels and get them to rotate..and still meet the requirements for the mot.. they didnt turn out half bad.
Anyway I have bored you enough.. All told I think Drutt has cost me about £1300 in total but I have lost count of the man hours.. about five months would be abaout right. It always sounds easy, mark it up, cut the hole and dress up the edges. Each window took about 8 hours to fit and the seat swivels took about a week.I am lucky, as an engineer I can turn my hand to almost anything and having a lathe, milling machine , welder, compressor and a lot of tools gives me an advantage. I am really proud of some things like the solid piece of oak that i scavenged for the table..
Would I do it again....yes, but not this week. There were times when I wondered if it was worth it but it has brought me tremendous satisfaction.
but i think I will enjoy Drutt for a while.. All that is left is the curtains to do and then she is ready for her maiden trip..
View attachment 9625View attachment 9636View attachment 9635View attachment 9634View attachment 9633View attachment 9632View attachment 9631View attachment 9630View attachment 9629View attachment 9628View attachment 9627View attachment 9626View attachment 9637
