Ingredients per person 4oz dried pasta 1 onion Some mushrooms 1 tin of chopped tomatoes Dried mixed herbs 3 cloves of garlic 1 large sausage such as garlic sausage or venison or other strong flavour Small glass of red wine Oil or butter for frying
Cook the pasta and set to one side. Reuse the pan! Fry the onion until softened and starting to go translucent, then add the garlic, herbs, mushrooms and sausage. Cook all of this for 5 minutes stirring occasionally until nicely coloured. Add the remaining ingredients and cook for a few more minutes. Add the drained pasta to the pan.
Serve with crust bread and perhaps a glass or two of that red wine – it seems a shame to let the rest of it go to waste!
Spend since last report: £230. Total hours labour since last report: 9.75
A fairly brief update for what happened in November and December. Following the broken leg, I started walking again in October and was not really able to get around properly until mid November. The pain and swelling from the ankle was not expected and continues, with the Consultant now saying this may well continue for at least a year. Great.
Being somewhat weak of ankle, in discomfort and rather fed up has meant that only minor jobs have happened. The exhaust manifold has been wrapped in heat bandage to reduce heat under the engine as it will vent out of the exhaust rather than radiating underneath. The brake pipe nuts that arrived just before the AGM were fitted to new pipe from the front splitter to the flexi hoses for each front wheel.
More seam sealer was added on joints to really try to keep the metal from rotting and as I was there, I added some insulation to the central hot air pipe which is easier when Eric is on his side. Bolts have been checked, the clutch cable bracket on the torsion tube was advised by an ex-air cooled mechanic to be a little flimsy, so that received a further 2mm steel plate to make it stronger.
The discolouration on the lower part of the photo is where brake fluid was coming out of the reservoir during my convalescence! Brake fluid is a great paint stripper, so that area has been cleaned down, neutralised, rust proofed, primed and painted. Again.
Spending this time is a set of Fuchs alloys with tyres from an ex-club member and a load of Just Kampers bits for pedals, grommets, brake light switch and other little bits. It soon adds up!
Maybe I can get in the garage soon and start bolting bits on, but in the meantime, I’m going to put my sore ankle up.
The next edition of the club magazine has been finished by our Editors and looks fantastic. It should be arriving through your door soon! If you are enjoying the club magazine and have a story about a trip, an upgrade, a restoration or just a tip, send a contribution to our Editor at editor@vwt2oc.co.uk.
Have you ever been in the situation when coming up to a set of traffic lights and you have picked your braking point when someone comes up the outside of you and jumps in front then brakes hard? Stopping in a shorter distance can be difficult and that is why I decided to upgrade my brakes. Most people know that it is possible to upgrade the brakes on a late model T2 by fitting the Porsche calipers, but you must have 15 inch rims to be able to do that.
My van is an early model with 14 inch rims and I wanted to upgrade my brakes without having to replace the wheel and tyres, because this affects your speedometer, unless you keep the same rolling radius by fitting different aspect ratio tyres. Porsche callipers will not fit inside the wheel rims of an early bay. There is also the issue of caliper offsets relative to the disc. The offset from the caliper to the disc is different between early and late bays.
After a little research I came across a Company called “Fosseway Performance”, based in Gloucestershire. They make kits for both the early T2 and the Late T2 braking systems. Their kits consist of new calipers, pads, anti-squeal shims, flexible brake lines, flexible brake pipe clips, new mounting bolts and mounting brackets. The mounting bracket and bolts are what makes the kits different between the early and late bays. The supplied brackets also change the caliper offset to the disc. The bolts are also different between the early and late bays and so it is essential to correctly specify what you need. In both cases you need to replace the discs to the late model.
Each caliper has 4 pistons which improves the braking efficiency by 30% by being able to apply more pressure to a larger brake pad. The calipers are made from a single alloy billet and they are beautifully made. They are also lighter than the standard calipers which means it lowers the unsprung mass of the suspension system.
The kit comes with a comprehensive set of instructions and is relatively easy to fit. In order to fit them you will need to remove the dust covers from the discs and throw them away. To be able to do this you will need to remove the outer hub carriers. I found that someone had rounded the bolt holding the hub carrier to the stub axel and so had to grind this off and replace it with a new one. If none of this makes sense to you then I would suggest you get someone else to do the work but in reality it is very simple. You will need to bleed the whole braking system afterwards. Again if you do not feel confident to do this, take it to someone who does, as this is your life at stake.
If you do decide to upgrade your calipers it is essential to replace the discs as well. The new pads need a new clean flat surface to bed in to. The company can supply you with cross drilled discs but for a van which is not going to see high speed repetitive braking this will actually reduce the braking efficiency and I would suggest you just stick to standard discs. They will need around 300 miles to bed in and it is essential that you do not brake too hard during this period as it will glaze the pads. The pads come coated in a ceramic a compound. Once this happens you will not have an efficient braking system and will likely need to replace the pads.
My personal experience with the kit is that they are very well made and make a world of difference to the stopping of the van, especially going down very long steep hills when fully loaded for a camping trip. Cost? – well not cheap but how much would it cost to fix your van if you cannot stop??
The first van I converted was a T4 Caravelle. It came with all the usual interior trim so was left in place for a more professional finish. Saved a lot of lining out labour as well. The next project was a T5 panel van – a blank canvas. On looking at this blank canvas I was surprised at the amount of space within the panel cavities. As I was going to carry out a rear kitchen conversion, meaning less storage space, I decided to utilise all those cavities by constructing pockets and cupboards within the lining out panels.
The van was a barn door model. The nearside door was too full of door lock etc to be viable but the offside could be made into a good-sized hinged door cupboard. All the other panels could be used to construct door pockets in. The construction I used was the same for all except the rear door had a hinged door with a catch attached to it.
Panels were cut to fit using 3.6mm plywood. Covered with 4-way stretch lining carpet to match the rest of the rear lining and attached with a combination of panel fixings and s/s flanged bolts going into rivnuts. The plastic fixings not being strong enough to hold the panels to the van walls. Harrison’s trim and Megavan mats are good sources for lining carpet, adhesive and trim clips. The rivnuts need a rivnut gun to be fitted and a drill of the correct size to enlarge the holes where they will be used. I tend to use manufacturers bodywork holes – the less holes drilled the better for me.
For each panel I had to work out available cavity space and position it on the plywood panel. Access holes were cut, and a box frame of softwood battening was glued and nailed to the rear of the plywood panels. To the rear of this frame, I glued and nailed the backboard plywood. Before lining the panels, I took the hard edges out of the corners by gluing in some quadrant and beveling with a sanding wheel in a Dremel.
To finish holes were drilled at either end and a length of bungy cord passed end to end to help retain contents. This is especially needed on the sliding door as the last thing you want is something scratching the rear exterior paintwork as the door opens.
Don’t know what cavities are like in other models but with regards to the T5 I found the offside middle to be the most useful panel giving two good sized pockets. The sliding door gives three shallow pockets, the rear quarters are probably not worth the time of constructing and the rear offside door gives a very useful cupboard.
All in all, constructing these pockets was time consuming. I’m not the fastest and I’m sure others could come up with quicker methods but I did find them to be useful storage. Ironically my latest project is a T6 kombi conversion, and I have stored the table to the offside middle so no pockets there and I don’t want to risk bodywork damage on the sliding door side.
After purchasing our camper, who we have called Billy, during the Covid saga the idea was to go local for a few camps to see how we and Billy would go. Being complete novices with the campervan and camping scene, we are well out of our comfort zone. Billy has had a lot of work done but more of that later.
Well, having the invite from VWT2OC and a nice discount negotiated by Lorna, we decided to take the plunge and give it a go to Petruth Paddocks, after all the reviews were positive. A nice camp with people who have same interests (VW campers) would be a safer bet than other camps we looked at (in safe company) although a bit further than just local as we live in Tamworth Staffs.
With the help from Lorna and the VWT2OC committee we booked our pitch. After a week of deciding what we needed and a fair bit of shopping for our adventure we were set to go.
Having a few sleepless nights of how to manage the porta potty, the Elsan waste points and how the hook up works, we sorted just about everything we would need including the bus emergency breakdown kit. So much stuff, not much room.
Bus, camper, van now fully loaded (not sure the correct name to use) we were ready for an early start.
Friday morning 5.15 am and off we go. Me, Janet and Bella our Bichon on our way, M42 then M5.
Just a few miles on the M42 and it started to rain and rain and rain. Billy running just fine then just before a planned stop at Stentham, it had a little flutter/misfire on one cylinder for a few minutes, but felt like ages. My heart in my mouth hoping we weren’t going to break-down and Billy just perked up and started running OK again.
A quick stop for a loo break a coffee and a discussion, shall we turn around or carry on?
Carry on said Janet lets go for it. So off we go.
Traveling along and rain continues, the closer we got to Bristol the worse it was getting, so much rain.
Somerset within our reach and we got there early, very early. A drive to the camp to find it and see how we check in. “A bit early the young lady said”.
After a drive to Cheddar and find a car park, sat in the bus for a coffee and a bite to eat we ventured into Cheddar then to Petruth Paddocks at 2.00pm.
A quick camp induction from the young ladies in the office and the offer of “we will tow you out if you get stuck” was a bit of “oh dear is it that bad?”
Once directed and marshalled into our pitch we were greeted by Nick who welcomed us and gave us some great advice about the camp site and the VWT2OC activities.
A meet up at the local brewery to meet some of the VWT2OC members was a really nice tonic as being novices we were not sure what happens at a club camp. Introducing ourselves and meeting new people who made us very welcome was a bonus. Lorna told us that Nick is the club burger King and flips a good burger.
Well a few hours later, the smell of burger and onions was too tempting not to miss. Although the rain did put a bit of a damper on it.
Meeting Nick again on the grill and Val doing a great job on the onion pan the burgers were most welcome.
A chat to a few people during our camp was interesting and the bacon bap on Saturday morning was another bonus.
We had a good time, it was a pity there was so much rain but it has not put us off, we plan to do some more short stays but hopefully not in the rain.
So for our first venture it’s been a great experience, a bit of an eye opener to say the least, there are some things extra we need to bring especially a mat/grid for outside the bus as trying to get your wellies off without getting your socks all muddy is a trial in itself and maybe a small awning would make it a bit better.
For those who don’t know us this is LottyAnne a 1976 Devon conversion late bay. We bought her 7 yrs ago as a running wreck, but after a clean up and engine renovation she runs like a dream, but like most of these buses of age other work is needed, looks are deceiving!
Read about the front panel change in the last issue.
With all this done and 6hrs into the project we decided to cut away the passenger wheel arch.
No mean feat I can tell you, but from the pic you can see how much was rust. The new wheel arch was put into place and spot welded just to hold until we could get a better position to weld. Ie. Up on a ramp to seam weld up and over without showering ourselves in weld.
Day 2. Early start and straight to it! Checked all the areas welded from the previous day. All good and onto the assembly of all the ancillaries, lights, indicators bumpers dash top and dashboard. Believe it or not this is where the time was taken as new wiring was needed for a couple of items, a bit of fiddling about we managed to get everything back on and into place.
Yes I know some of you purists will not like the lights, but hey these vans are all individuals and have their own identity so this is mine and like marmite you’ll either love it or hate it!
With everything now in place, I noticed several of the dash lights were not working, having done all the usual checks, I had to remove the dash top again to find the main wiring loom to establish where I had gone wrong on the rewire. But patience is a virtue and after several hours managed to get to the root of the issues and got everything working as it should.
With still a few bits to do I’m going to take my time and work through them. The front was mainly done to head off any MOT issues that I was not aware of, plus I needed to stop the rainwater ingressing further into the front of the cab.
I will say the whole job has seen its ups and downs, as like many vans of this age the more you dig the more you find, but hopefully you hope you get through them all to have a decent solid van, but I fear I may never get to this as time and money will play a big factor in the renovation, and besides which I want to enjoy driving her as opposed to seeing it sat on the driving doing nothing.
If anyone is doing or about to do this work and want some pointers, help or general information at various points of the job, please feel free to drop me a message on our Facebook page and I’ll do my best to answer from what I’ve learnt doing it myself.
Now I’m just going to relax and take 5 as it’s been a hectic time getting her sorted, but looking forward to seeing some of you at the shows down south west way.
Spend since last report: £197. Total hours labour since last report: 28.2
Who knew two months ago what fate would have in store for me. I had planned to be away a lot in Lorna’s crossover Poppy and in amongst that, be in the garage working hard on Eric the Viking. Sadly, neither came to pass. In June, I managed to finish the cleaning of the outside of the gearbox, the top coat and the new input shaft seal as planned. The input shaft seal is a pain to remove and needed 3 self-tapping screws drilled through the metal collar and then a puller to bring it out as nothing else seemed to work. The new one does not leak which is rather nice.
The front gasket was also changed since I had serviced everything in there and with assistance from my able assistant (my wife), the gearbox was mounted onto the chassis when Eric was on his side. Which is not easy!
Tinware has been stripped for the engine and an impromptu clothesline affair put up for rustproofing and priming plus the inlet manifold and exhaust manifold were stripped as well. Then Eric was ready to go back on his wheels. This allowed some brilliant progress – the nose panel has been prepared and primed, the cab floor has been prepared.
As that was drying, the rear hubs and CV joints were cleaned, driveshafts built up and installed meaning that from the back wheel to the other back wheel is complete and painted. During assembly, there were a few areas in the rear wheelarch that were sub-standard and they received an extra coat of L90D pastel white paint which really makes it all look very smart against the black of the running gear.
With the rear brake shoes now complete, I could finish and double check the brake lines from end to end and then enlisted a neighbour with a brake bleeding kit and more knowledge than me (not difficult) to assist on bleeding. We cleaned the top reservoir in the cab (under the driver’s seat) and filled that down into the new reservoir on top of the new master cylinder that goes with the new servo upgrade. More brake fluid added. And more. Nothing coming to the rear brake – traced to it all coming out of the unions at the front. Further investigation showed that I had made all brake pipe unions with trumpet flares like old English classic cars instead of mushroom flares. Every single end and that is about 22 ends.
Having just got Eric on his wheels, he was dutifully turned once more back on his side and I spent a good number of hours carefully removing each brake nut in turn, snipping off the trumpet flare from the pipe and making a new mushroom flare. Some of the brake nuts were damaged, so for completeness these were discarded as they are around 50 pence each, renewed as I remade each joint. As I got to the front, I had 2 pipes left to make but no brake nuts and they were overdue as we packed up for the AGM. Finally arriving on the day that we left, they were put in the garage ready for my return, so that I can make the pipes that go from the central union to each front wheel’s flexible pipe.
That was the weekend that I dislocated my ankle and broke my leg. Everything is on hold until that is mended!
Purchasing this issue are mainly odd sundries – welding helmet, clutch bearing, brake fluid and hoses, and oil cooler mount and a rev counter for a boat. Obviously!
One pan, slow simmer as you enjoy the countryside or even just a glass of wine
Ingredients – serves 2-4
2 Courgettes of about 10 inches long
A similar weight of tomatoes
1 Onion
A small punnet of mushrooms
3 good sized garlic cloves
Passatta sauce or tomato puree (optional)
Some grated cheese (optional)
Herbs (optional)
Salt and pepper
Butter or olive oil
Heat the butter or olive oil in a frying pan or good sized saucepan and fry the onions and the garlic for 3 to 5 minutes. Once well under way and smelling wonderful, add the other ingredients except the cheese and simmer with the lid on for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Bring the heat down and continue mellowing the flavours for at least another 10 minutes but if you are low on time just simmer for longer! Once nearly ready to serve, add the grated cheese and stir in until it melts.
Serve with crusty bread or as a side dish to a BBQ. And a glass of wine of course!
John “Undie” Underwood did his own front end restoration – Part 1
For those who don’t know us, this is LottyAnne a 1976 Devon conversion late bay. We bought her 7 yrs ago as a running wreck, but after a clean up and engine renovation she runs like a dream, but like most buses of this age other work is needed, looks are deceiving!
So the time has come to bite the bullet and take on what I have been delaying for a while, the front end replacement. From the lower windscreen down to the deformation panel, new windscreen rubber and a few other bits along the way.
First thing was to remove all the ancillaries, lights, grill, indicator units and bumper. Bumper and grill were taken away and sanded back to the bare metal and filled and primed and painted while the other work was being carried out.
Now that everything is out and doors and windscreen (nerve racking moment to say the least!) have been removed we realised that the lower deformation panel was shot, so for an extra few pounds I bought a new one. The old one had to be cut off and the new one welded into place first for the main front panel to be removed, as we needed a datum point from which to work from for the new front panel to sit back in place correctly.
Cutting into the main panel was nerve racking but YouTube and the Haynes manual helped no end, especially around the grill area.
As you can see within the lower part of the internal main panel several holes were discovered, these were plated over seam sealed and Hammerited for protection. Now that we’re happy that everything is watertight the prep work and sanding down of the old panels could take place. This is probably the most important part as this determines whether the new panel fits snug or not.
With all happy the new front was positioned, and lower windscreen marked, cut and placed in position, so clamped and held we spot welded in place along the deformation panel, folded around the door pillars and tapped into place with a mallet and block of wood as to not distort the edge then welded the windscreen area. On sanding down we noticed the internal windscreen area had more holes, but instead of going for the expensive option of a new lower windscreen deformation panel we opted to plate the damaged areas, and again welded, seam sealed and painted.
Now that this was all done, we put the old windscreen in complete with the new rubber seal. It was so much easier with a bit of army rope, fairy liquid and 3 of us to hold and gently push down, but this went really well, and we were very surprised at how easy it all went. (I was waiting for something to go wrong!)
