More lights installed in Iris. Super bright in there now.
A small table made up for Iris. Max came out to do some watercolour while I made a start on the rear cubbies.
A little further on the van electrics over the past few weeks.
Leisure battery installed and Ctek battery to battery / solar charger installed. Only the b2b component is currently wired up:
Fusebox hidden away in the redundant spare wheel well:
And I’ve started running wires down to the components. Thus far I’ve done the fridge, propex, 2 of 4 strip lamps and the usb charger:
Sneaky peak of my late night activities sorting the electrics in the van. Only one light installed so far, more brightness to come!
The leisure electric gadgets for the van have arrived! Time to get the living area wired up.
Next set of cabinets finished for Iris. Rear storage bins for bed sheets and clothes.
Well what a year it’s been!
Looking back to this time last year I was in a mad rush trying to get the van back on the road for the end of March ready for summer. We just about managed it and have had a great year building up the interior and just enjoying using the van again after a long absence, as both our main vehicle and for a few nights away.
My main aim with the whole VW thing has always been to not let lack of experience get in the way of me trying to do all the work myself. Time and plain stubbornness always makes up for any lack of skill in my book.So what does the next year hold for us? I’ll be aiming to get the rest of the van finished for spring so we can go on some longer trips away (road trip round Wales anyone?). The baja project has well and truly started and my goal is to try and get most of the welding done over the coming year. Thank you Max for putting up with my obsession.
Onwards! #vwt2 #iriscamper #myrtlethebajabug #vwlove #vwbug #vwbaja #vwbaywindow
https://www.instagram.com/p/B6wDhyKp4Jj/?igshid=15z2eh3j8q09g
Front cabinets
The shorter evenings have meant the front cabinet and under bed panel have taken quite some time, with only a few hours of good light.
The cabinet carcass all cut and assembled:
Max helping me out with the iron on trim:
Shaping the top surface:
And all installed in the van along with the bed kick panel:
The last time we had cabinets in Iris was about 7 years ago when we first bought her.
Winter service
I had a day down the workshop today hoping to quickly service the van and then make a start on the baja.
Suffice to say I’d never get onto the baja as Iris had some bits that needed attending to. On the way to the unit I noticed the clutch pedal seemed lower than usual, and found this delight when going over the service items:
This is the gearbox end of the cable and the cable is only 6 months old! I’ve fitted my spare cable and all adjusted up now.
I noticed that pretty much all of the cv joint boots are starting to crack, again only 6 months of use! I gave them a squeeze and they’ll be ok for a little while but no doubt will need replacing before the MOT in March. These are the supposed good quality lobro boots.
Then while adjusting the rear brakes with the wheels off the ground one of the boots completely dettached itself from its mounting ring:
So it was off with the driveshaft to fit one of the original boots that I’d kept:
This will hopefully be the last time the van comes down the workshop over winter. We’re running Iris over the winter and the track to the unit can get pretty bad over the colder months. It was pretty sloshy today but the van seemed happy enough.
The driver’s door lock also decided to completely disintegrate in co-op carpark so I’ve spent this evening rekeying a spare barrel I had in the garage.
Hopefully I’ll have some more exciting updates soon as I’ve just about finished the main cabinet now.
We’ve been busy making a start on the cabinets for Iris.
First up the rear head locker. I thought it’d be an easy one to start with but it ended up being a bit of pig, needing lots of trial fitting and templating to fit nicely.
I’m working out of the garage to save me the trip to the workshop:
With lots of help from Max:
The skeleton put together:
Door on:
All installed now and looking pretty good:
