We're definitely getting close to being ready for adventures
One thing that was said very early on when we got Katy was the bunk beds needed to be converted into a double so the good lady would be able to give me a dig in the ribs when I snore
Luckily with the removal of a single bolt and the addition of 2 brackets this was able to be achieved using the bed that was already fitted. The left over wood from last weekend has been turned into a nice new table which needs varnishing.
Wa also managed to get the electric hookup working this weeked with the purchase of a 13amp to commando adaptor from the local DIY shed
We got the gas bottle properly fitted back in and connected, found the internal gas taps and tested the cooker which works just fine. We also got the electric hoolup working and tested the waterpump and taps so we can move on to the water tank which needs a good clean before we're happy to even wash in the water)
And lastly as part of another good session of cleaning we found yet another cubbyhole (there are so many in a Landrover!) which had the wheelbrace I thought I may have to buy and a heavy duty bottlejack and a few more spares
It's still scary owning a Landrover when we've never had one before but it's getting less scary every time we acheive something
Sunday, 13 March 2011
Monday, 7 March 2011
A Bit of Nifty Woodwork
The old rotten boards holding the gas bottles in place are now replaced with shiny new 18mm Waterproof ply which I will paint for added protection as soon as I get a moment.
A nifty side benefit is that the left over piece exactly fits the broken table which saved me another job
Now all I need to do is polish and varnish the table piece and get the gas bottle in place and we'll be ready for dinner
A nifty side benefit is that the left over piece exactly fits the broken table which saved me another job
Now all I need to do is polish and varnish the table piece and get the gas bottle in place and we'll be ready for dinner
Repair or Replace?
Now I can see some of the problems that were hidden under the slime
The 1st one is an easy decision I'm going to need to replace the plywood at the bottom of the Gas bottle store on the back as it's rotten. This should be a straightforward job of cutting a new piece of ply and fitting it. I will "upgrade" from the current piece by actually painting it so it doesn't get wet and rot away again
The second is a little harder to decide. The door pillars on the front are obviously rusted as you can see in the picture below
I need to decide whether to patch with filler, get panel welded in or have a section cut-out and replaced. It's not straightforward in my mind as I have no welder so I would need to pay for someone to do the job.
I will find out whether this is structural and whether a replacement section is easy to fit so I will ask around before making a final decision
The 1st one is an easy decision I'm going to need to replace the plywood at the bottom of the Gas bottle store on the back as it's rotten. This should be a straightforward job of cutting a new piece of ply and fitting it. I will "upgrade" from the current piece by actually painting it so it doesn't get wet and rot away again
The second is a little harder to decide. The door pillars on the front are obviously rusted as you can see in the picture below
I need to decide whether to patch with filler, get panel welded in or have a section cut-out and replaced. It's not straightforward in my mind as I have no welder so I would need to pay for someone to do the job.
I will find out whether this is structural and whether a replacement section is easy to fit so I will ask around before making a final decision
Sunday, 6 March 2011
Cleaning up & Learning about Katy
We're starting to clean up our new camper van and finding out some information about her
On the passenger side body you can see this plate which has unfortunately been defaced ( probably deliberately) and is covered in green slime around the edges
I posted a question about this on the Land Rover Addict forum and the response was absolutely superb and now I know that Katy is a 1987 Marshalls (MCE) bodied ambulance.
Manfr. M.C.E. is Marshall of Cambridge Engineering
Serial No. The actual production number of the vehicles bodywork [non land rover]
REG No. The parent vehicle military registration number
M.O.D use a completely separate reg system from DVLA.
Con No. The contract the vehicle/body was built for.
On the passenger side body you can see this plate which has unfortunately been defaced ( probably deliberately) and is covered in green slime around the edges
I posted a question about this on the Land Rover Addict forum and the response was absolutely superb and now I know that Katy is a 1987 Marshalls (MCE) bodied ambulance.
Manfr. M.C.E. is Marshall of Cambridge Engineering
Serial No. The actual production number of the vehicles bodywork [non land rover]
REG No. The parent vehicle military registration number
M.O.D use a completely separate reg system from DVLA.
Con No. The contract the vehicle/body was built for.
It's taken about 3 hours with a pressure washer to clean her up and strip all of that awful farmyard algae off the bodywork and accessories. It was quite fun up on the roof standing there looking over the hedge at the passers by wondering what I was doing
So now the drive is a right mess and the land rover is clean. That doesn't sound right, but is a good step forwards as it was actually unpleasant to do jobs on Katy with all the slime.
Other good news is that some of the camper electrics are working as I've managed to turn a few things on
I need to get the interior sorted ASAP so we can go play together
Friday, 4 March 2011
First job and ... I Need Bigger Spanners
When I said I was getting a Land Rover to Malcolm Stewart, editor of Walking Wales Magazine and an old caving friend his first words after listening to the description were the 300 TDi engine is the best that Land Rover ever made, his second were "You'll need bigger spanners" if you're planning to work on it yourself
Now this already proved to be somewhat true when I got a new battery fitted at Halfords ( you can read about that and the reason I didn't do it myself here ), but I thought that was just because they only seemed to have a toolkit of 2 spanners
So now I get to doing a couple of jobs myself, and guess what I Need Bigger Spanners well not actually yet, but I can see the problem.
I have to store the spare wheels on the roof and the bolt downs were totally rusted and I needed my largest but one spanner and a lot of WD40 in order to remove them and I can see that most of the other bolts on the car are bigger than these
Now this already proved to be somewhat true when I got a new battery fitted at Halfords ( you can read about that and the reason I didn't do it myself here ), but I thought that was just because they only seemed to have a toolkit of 2 spanners
So now I get to doing a couple of jobs myself, and guess what I Need Bigger Spanners well not actually yet, but I can see the problem.
I have to store the spare wheels on the roof and the bolt downs were totally rusted and I needed my largest but one spanner and a lot of WD40 in order to remove them and I can see that most of the other bolts on the car are bigger than these
First new spend and an unexpected treasure
Having had a cuppa when er arrived at home we decided that with a probably poor battery we were going to have trouble getting Katy moving again and calling out the breakdown twice on the same fault would be silly
So we headed off to Halfords for a quick battery check and possible replacement
We DID have fun ..
At 1st request - he bashes the registration into a computer to determine what the right part is.. "Computer says NO" so they will need to actually look at her
1st young lad set to check the battery arrived before I did and confidently opened the bonnet. The look on his face was priceless. No sign of a battery. So not many Land Rover Owners in Halfords then
I open the door and lift the passenger seat watching his mouth open as he sees not one, but 2 batteries. At this point I climb into the drivers seat as the rain comes on hard...
He makes a quick check and we're at less than 50% capacity after about 5 hours of driving so decide it's better to replace it
"Do you want us to do the job". I take one look at the rain and gladly take them up on the offer, but he's going off-shift so calls on another colleague who finds a battery the same size and comes out to fit it.. Ah - he needs a bigger spanner
By the time he's completed it he did look QUITE grumpy
Whilst all of this is going on Rhian is looking in all the cupboards and suddenly discovers a real treasure trove as one of the lockers is full of spares
A headlight, 2 full bulb packs, 2 pairs of brake pads, Battery terminals, electrical connections, timing belt, fan belt, 2 oil filters, 2 fuel filters, 2 air filters and much more
We have our whole first service for free !
So battery finally in place and we're ready for off again with a renewed optimism
So we headed off to Halfords for a quick battery check and possible replacement
We DID have fun ..
At 1st request - he bashes the registration into a computer to determine what the right part is.. "Computer says NO" so they will need to actually look at her
1st young lad set to check the battery arrived before I did and confidently opened the bonnet. The look on his face was priceless. No sign of a battery. So not many Land Rover Owners in Halfords then
I open the door and lift the passenger seat watching his mouth open as he sees not one, but 2 batteries. At this point I climb into the drivers seat as the rain comes on hard...
He makes a quick check and we're at less than 50% capacity after about 5 hours of driving so decide it's better to replace it
"Do you want us to do the job". I take one look at the rain and gladly take them up on the offer, but he's going off-shift so calls on another colleague who finds a battery the same size and comes out to fit it.. Ah - he needs a bigger spanner
By the time he's completed it he did look QUITE grumpy
Whilst all of this is going on Rhian is looking in all the cupboards and suddenly discovers a real treasure trove as one of the lockers is full of spares
A headlight, 2 full bulb packs, 2 pairs of brake pads, Battery terminals, electrical connections, timing belt, fan belt, 2 oil filters, 2 fuel filters, 2 air filters and much more
We have our whole first service for free !
So battery finally in place and we're ready for off again with a renewed optimism
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
Oh What a Day
From Preston, onto the M6 and South we headed, nothing to write home about in the first section of the run other than I had the heater working this time and it was wonderful to have some warmth instead of my teeth chattering it was the fuel pump and injectors.
The fan works well and after about 15 miles I had to start divesting the layers of warm clothes I had put on to start the day.
Knutsford soon came into view and off I pulled with a little anticipation of whether Katy was going to start again or whether GEM and I were going to become close friends today.
Soon we had £100 of diesel on-board and were ready to go. One turn of the key and SHE STARTED!
Rhian was just leaving ahead of me as we'd agreed there was no need to run in convoy any longer as things seemed to be going well and I my confidence was increasing. We agreed to meet at Stafford for lunch as we''d not got off as fast as we'd hoped this morning (see http://landroverkaty.blogspot.com/2011/02/oh-what-morning.html if you want the full story)
60-65 seems the optimum cruising speed so Rhian spend off to our next stop. Arriving there I parked up in the caravan and camper section and could see Rhian reading her Kindle in our Suzuki in the car section and wandered over... Knock Knock. "Oh You're here already. I wasn't expecting you so soon"
Lunch was soon consumed and we headed off again. This time agreeing to meet back at home in Cardiff
So we set-off again and I made my way back out in to the traffic.
It should be noted that I was not the slowest thing on the road as had been my worry. I had in fact been overtaking quite a few trucks and even quite a few cars, and I now know how truck drivers feel when someone slows them down as Katy doesn't have the acceleration of the Grand Vitara I'm used to driving
As I came into Wales there is a steep hill down into Monmouth and with a bit of lining up and preparation we reached a massive 70 MPH ! The sound from the engine and the wobble in thesteering was a bit too worrying so settling down to reasonable we headed home for a well deserved cuppa and a 1st attempt at reversing a large Land rover onto the Drive.
Oh What a Day indeed, but it wasn't over yet !
The fan works well and after about 15 miles I had to start divesting the layers of warm clothes I had put on to start the day.
Knutsford soon came into view and off I pulled with a little anticipation of whether Katy was going to start again or whether GEM and I were going to become close friends today.
Soon we had £100 of diesel on-board and were ready to go. One turn of the key and SHE STARTED!
Rhian was just leaving ahead of me as we'd agreed there was no need to run in convoy any longer as things seemed to be going well and I my confidence was increasing. We agreed to meet at Stafford for lunch as we''d not got off as fast as we'd hoped this morning (see http://landroverkaty.blogspot.com/2011/02/oh-what-morning.html if you want the full story)
60-65 seems the optimum cruising speed so Rhian spend off to our next stop. Arriving there I parked up in the caravan and camper section and could see Rhian reading her Kindle in our Suzuki in the car section and wandered over... Knock Knock. "Oh You're here already. I wasn't expecting you so soon"
Lunch was soon consumed and we headed off again. This time agreeing to meet back at home in Cardiff
So we set-off again and I made my way back out in to the traffic.
It should be noted that I was not the slowest thing on the road as had been my worry. I had in fact been overtaking quite a few trucks and even quite a few cars, and I now know how truck drivers feel when someone slows them down as Katy doesn't have the acceleration of the Grand Vitara I'm used to driving
As I came into Wales there is a steep hill down into Monmouth and with a bit of lining up and preparation we reached a massive 70 MPH ! The sound from the engine and the wobble in thesteering was a bit too worrying so settling down to reasonable we headed home for a well deserved cuppa and a 1st attempt at reversing a large Land rover onto the Drive.
Oh What a Day indeed, but it wasn't over yet !
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