Tiff
After a good few years of "doing Europe" on motorbikes and various cars, we thought it was time to have something a little comfier and self contained. We went to the Italian lakes last year in our Saab 95 estate, sleeping in the back a few times and preferred that to sites and tents.
View attachment 51240
Done the caravan thing which isn't for us so the hunt was on for a van. Wanted something compact, older and easyish to convert. I had a newer Vito for work as a breakdown van,which had done 260 thousand hard miles, and I dislike VW's so Mercedes seemed to be the answer. I found a rough old 638 on Ebay which needed lots of work, but had 2 of the necessities that we had to have- a night heater and air conditioning.. It was an ex council wheelchair bus which had all the adaptions removed very well, and had very basic camping facilities already, but also had a split charge system,new leisure and main battery and a zig unit, so money saved there.
As it came a month ago.
View attachment 51232
View attachment 51231
View attachment 51230
I got on the internet and got ordering. Wooden rock and roll bed, MDF furniture,Waeco fridge Smev 6222, along with other odds and sods- central locking kit,stereo etc and got to work. It had Unwin rails sunk into an 18mm ply floor, and the decision was made to leave this and board over it. This was done,then some carpet tiles stuck down I didn't want vinyl as the dogs would slide about everywhere!
View attachment 51233
View attachment 51234
Cut out the rock and roll bed and extended it slightly,hinging the rear part for access to storage, then built up the units that arrived in the post. I'm not great with wood and they are a long way from being perfect, but who needs perfect!
View attachment 51235
Got some vinyl from a sign place and covered the units with it, fitted the Smev and hooked up the Zig and switches,starting to look like a camper a bit now! Got a cheap 4ft Futon mattress off Ebay for cheap. Foam seems very pricey for what it is and then there is the problem of covering it!
View attachment 51236
Got a fridge cheaper off Ebay as the guy had bought it for his project and never got round to it. Finished off a few other bits and bobs, made a table to go on the Reimo rail and tidied up the gas and water, then made myself my first camper coffee..luxury! Few odds and ends still to tidy up but I can do that between work calls- I'm a recovery driver and work from home so this has been fitted between calls.
I got loads of spares with the van,including 4 doors,new sills,arches and a new bumper- Fitted the 2 front doors as they were rotten but saved most of the rest- most of the pain has been done with a brush, not too fussed about cosmetics- don't want to be precious about it- it's for fun! Vito's do rust so at least it'll be easy to touch up...
View attachment 51238
And here it is as of today, a month after getting the van. Need to send off and try to get it classed as a camper, and MOT then start looking for ferries to take us back to the Alps!
View attachment 51239
View attachment 51237
View attachment 51240
Done the caravan thing which isn't for us so the hunt was on for a van. Wanted something compact, older and easyish to convert. I had a newer Vito for work as a breakdown van,which had done 260 thousand hard miles, and I dislike VW's so Mercedes seemed to be the answer. I found a rough old 638 on Ebay which needed lots of work, but had 2 of the necessities that we had to have- a night heater and air conditioning.. It was an ex council wheelchair bus which had all the adaptions removed very well, and had very basic camping facilities already, but also had a split charge system,new leisure and main battery and a zig unit, so money saved there.
As it came a month ago.
View attachment 51232
View attachment 51231
View attachment 51230
I got on the internet and got ordering. Wooden rock and roll bed, MDF furniture,Waeco fridge Smev 6222, along with other odds and sods- central locking kit,stereo etc and got to work. It had Unwin rails sunk into an 18mm ply floor, and the decision was made to leave this and board over it. This was done,then some carpet tiles stuck down I didn't want vinyl as the dogs would slide about everywhere!
View attachment 51233
View attachment 51234
Cut out the rock and roll bed and extended it slightly,hinging the rear part for access to storage, then built up the units that arrived in the post. I'm not great with wood and they are a long way from being perfect, but who needs perfect!
View attachment 51235
Got some vinyl from a sign place and covered the units with it, fitted the Smev and hooked up the Zig and switches,starting to look like a camper a bit now! Got a cheap 4ft Futon mattress off Ebay for cheap. Foam seems very pricey for what it is and then there is the problem of covering it!
View attachment 51236
Got a fridge cheaper off Ebay as the guy had bought it for his project and never got round to it. Finished off a few other bits and bobs, made a table to go on the Reimo rail and tidied up the gas and water, then made myself my first camper coffee..luxury! Few odds and ends still to tidy up but I can do that between work calls- I'm a recovery driver and work from home so this has been fitted between calls.
I got loads of spares with the van,including 4 doors,new sills,arches and a new bumper- Fitted the 2 front doors as they were rotten but saved most of the rest- most of the pain has been done with a brush, not too fussed about cosmetics- don't want to be precious about it- it's for fun! Vito's do rust so at least it'll be easy to touch up...
View attachment 51238
And here it is as of today, a month after getting the van. Need to send off and try to get it classed as a camper, and MOT then start looking for ferries to take us back to the Alps!
View attachment 51239
View attachment 51237