hmmmnz

well all is going well with the might merc, about 2500km travelled so far with out incident, used about half a litre of oil and had to top up the brake fluid, averaging about 380miles to 60litres of fuel (6.3 miles per liter, about 10km per liter, wow thats actually pretty good, as good as my old delica was and it was a third the weight) any way, now in germany, bloody big place compared to belgium and luxembourg, and beer is sooooo so cheap, i bought few wheat beers from the supermarket, 8 cents for 500ml bottle, fuck how they even make beer that cheap, and it was really good beer as well, i think im going to really like germany heres a pic of the camper we are at koblenz where the rhine river joins the mosel river, cool place, not much happening, but thats cool with me, any way some 8cent beers and one of my favs a dark wheat beer, almost oxymoronic this one was 20cents ..... lol and my old friend franz, who is also dark, normally hes white very un-german of him to want to be black thats it, off to dusseldorf today, the mrs has to fly home for a funeral, i guess ill have to drink beer for a few days,

ok some photos, actually none of the van, very friggin slack, mostly beers which is good some photos of the kiwi bit of tynecot graveyard basically just a list of name of missing soldiers whos bodies were never found , so many graves, mostly commonwealth soldiers buried there, but a few brits, and a couple of germans, yeah sad shit, any way, canals and castles and some nuns getting ice cream, a kiwi bambina yeah yeah hmmmnz, beer, ok my trappist friends he was quite a delightful fellow, kicked arse at 10.5% a van beer that i had to share then to delirium bar in brussles, best thing in brussles some of the taps, just some, over 50 different ones on site and a few tasters 2004 beers, i wish i could have just parked up in there for a few weeks and made my way through some of the delicious stock and the ghost in the beer better in the beer than in the machine yeah in luxembourg now, went to an ace fairytale style castle, and drove about randomly, at a nice little camp site now, will stay here tomorrow as well, got to do all the laundary, fix my flat on the bike (fucken bikes,) and see if i can get some larger hose for the shower, so it has enough flow to keep the boiler on (it kind of flares up and switches off, then flares up etc, having to run a second hot tap to keep the hot running smothely) and im sick of driving a bum day will do me good, if i can find any decent beers, seems to be stinkin largers here, grrrr, not even 50km from the border and beers gone to shit

just left belgium, awesome place, not to impressed with brussels, friggin bastards even make you pay to use toilets in fast food resturants, the main squre was incredible though, and delerium beer cafe was fantastic, over 2000 beer available and about 60 on tap, i was whacked after 2 or 3 before lunch, friggin 10-14% beers kick arse, ive decided if i ever have to run away, im going to become a trappist monk and brew beer (my previous threat to the mrs was, i was going to run off to bangledesh and dive for rocks in rivers (saw it on tv) but brewing with trappist monks is far more my style ) out of the belgiun cities, gent was my fav, much like brugge with the canals and all that, but less the tourists and tourist prices and a wee bit rougher around the edges, its a bit of a wellington style in belgium, the mrs liked brugge though, currently in luxembourg, also pretty nice, in diekirch, random little place, at a cheap camp ground, needed to do the washing, post some pics later (not of my washing)

well the camper being pretty much done, headed away via leister and alton towers, had our first sucessful sleepover just outside alton towers, where i also discovered my battery was gubbed, contacted the seller and arranged t get it swapped for a good un' sweet then headed down to winchester where a mate from the ski season was playing at a folk music festival far too bloody hot for me, well into the 30's not my cuppa tea, but winchester was ace, stopped off at te oldest bar in england and got a brew and breifly met a guy from the bikechatforums who had also seen the build, picked up a couple of retro german fold up bikes (keeping in theme with slow german vehicles) and headed to the train tunnell, awesome engineering feat that, off the train in stinkin' france and headed to mighty belgium, amazing how 50 miles can make a bunch of cockuckers into some really friendly people, well its perobably more a border thing stayed the night not far from the border, and had my first belgium beer in belgium went to yepres to watch the 8pm ww1 thing, which was cool, had some canadians doing there thing, and a whole group of ozzy kids pitched up, must have been a thousand people there considering it happens every night it was pretty damn impressive, off to visit some ww1 kiwi graves in the morning, and bruges next

cheers man, hopefully heading off tomorrow, just got the waste tank in today, yesterday i waterproofed the roof with a fibreous paint type stuff, and the skylights (cause of all the previous damage), all the cupboards are now lined, bathroom door on, basically the whole week has been doing annoying little shit, be good to head off, im frigging sick of working on the thing

not quite finished yet, but pretty close, just some body work and some plumbing to do, low, im just south of edinburgh city by 7 miles or so, eh223el, umm all te borders are nice, especially when youve come up from the chaos of england, hit the border and everthing goes quiet, which is a releif if othing else, its got the matamata rolling hills feel about it

right took the old girl in for her mot (wof) and passed no advisories or anything, the tester was pretty surprised, looks a bit rough on the outside, but underneth is mint. any way proof had my first proper drive today, funny as anything, its like driving an old 8 speed truck, changing through the gears quick as anything, you reach 5th gear by 45mile an hour as a treat to the old girl, she got an oil and filter change, both fuel filters done and the whole brake system got flushed and new fluid just random pics old diesel donk and the milage its done less than 1000 miles in the last 10 years, shame the fuckers didnt keep it under cover a veiw back wards pulled all the old badges off but left the old aa badge, as its just ace, old girl in the drive and the moment you have all been waiting for.... dun did did dun.. BEER OF THE DAY (in a really deep voice) a nice kentish stout, britians oldest brewer apparently, not as good as the oat stouts ive been drinking, but very tasty indeed

bugger, ill switch to another photobucket account

sorry my bad

bed area mostly done, all the rotten timber replaced, and used an foil backed carpet underlay under the bed to hopefully stop any future condensation based rot coming through the bed floor area, pulled all the timber out around the window and replaced it with treated stuff all the wall stuff is done, and the mrs finished all her curtins and the cusions and stuff also fitted the table, which was the spare timber left over from the back bench, that wil fit perfectly between the seats and make another bed if needed boiler is all connected.. well mostly none of the actual plumbing or gas is hooked up to the pump or gas manifold as yet bathroom walls all done, bastard shit to work with, with all the angles and stuff in the bath room, took me a good 10 hours retro clock so basically the inside is done, all the carpet is down with the same foil back underlay, just a few bits and bobs, door catches, bathroom door, etc etc, plus all the plumbing to be connected, and the inside of the cupboards to be done so decided to turn the van around and start on the outside stuff that had rotted on the lower section of the van, van hadnt been started in 3 months, 2 preheats and started with in half a second, dont make diesels like this anymore, with the van turned ripped off the lower half to see the damage pretty much all fucked there as well, you'd think on the outside they atleast could have used treated timber!!! but no, cock sucker replaced all the fucked stuff, and built the little frame inside the lower section, just need to put the back facing ply on, which ill hopefully start tomorrow and then on to the plumbing and gas, book the fucker in for a mot, tax and then insure then away .... hopefully

yep more rot, i was hoping it was just from the window, but it appears its come from the top as well as below, whats a little bit more rot, give me a chance to do it properly i suppose hopefully ill have all the bed area sorted by tomorrow night, lay carpet tomorrow, then its just a matter of fitting a couple of windows, lining the back cupboards, and hooking up the gas and pumbing,

not bloody fast enough,but getting there,

well another day done, 1230pm bah, any way got my grill surround and oven heat shield today oven needs a shield because it vents straight out the back, supposidly you need 35mm clearance, i dont have that, and even if i did, its a bit dodgy having wooden walls directly behind the oven, the shield has a pipe welded to it that vents up to the grill which can then vent up through the grill area fitted like so also fitted 1 wall in the bathroom, mission, im sure with nice flat walls with no obsticals it would be easy, ... also ftted lino to the roof for extra water proofing and just when i thought i was making good progress.... bed area bites me on the arse, arh well some thing else to make right, beer of the.. well morning

ok another fairly productive day, fitted the extractor hood unit, its a bit ratty looking, but does the job, so meh obviously had to drill a 80mm hole to fit the unit blurry photo, and also finally screwed the splash back... back and fitted all the rest of the high cupboard doors then fitted the wardrobe door and its little lock mech, actually looks quite smart the mrs is almost finished doing all the wall covering (its not carpet i tells ya) finished all the facings by the fridge as well and fitted the outside light and the vent cover im sure i did other stuff, oh multiple trips to tool station for plumbing bits, and drill bits etc, finally beer of the day, a black sheep.. the best kind

just a question, reguarding the floats, what are they made of?? i had problems with a bing carb on my rotax engined mz, it turned out the floats over time were absorbing fuel, and no lnger floating but my money is on the float valves and or seats, can you pull the bowls off and take some pics of the floats and float valves, lookig and sounding good,

well i try wasn't really a plan as such, didnt want the cooker at the back, so that went on the side, and didnt want the fridge next to the cooker, so on the back was left, and due to the depth of the fridge it was the only place at the back that wouldnt get in the way of other doors, or being able to freely move about, so that was the only place left, and worked perfectly i love when a non existing plan falls into place

well guys another productive day, chuck some more wall coverings on, (well the mrs did) while i was stuck in my little hole slowly dying of glue fumes doing the 12v switchboard 12v 100amp board on the left 10 way, and 230v on the right, rcd and 2x 16amp power circuits the 12v is fed directly off the secondary battery, via the bitchin sy flex cable, wiring for the intiments above the kitchen has been tiled.... mmm ok its just lino say hello to the dark lord

ok, more pics, got the fridge in, ended up buying another fridge as the heater part had rusted away, but go exact same fridge for quite cheap so all good then set about wall papering the roof, then pulled the doors off to do the wiring for the back lights and pipe work, there will be a gas manifold under the center cupboard to isolate all the appliances individually then drank a beer then today started on the carpet for the walls and fitting and connecting the guages and did a test fire up of the inverter after wiring the input and output 230, (6mm2) and the battery links (50mm2) yeah thats it, im currently doing the switch boards and associated wiring and drinking beer, apparently the best ale in the world i think not, left me feeling a bit fuzzy, beer isnt supposed to be 8.5% ok tasting but too high in alcohol you can really taste it, nice try though,

well been a few days, both me and the mrs have been sick, and a few random events have slowed down but not stopped build basically fitted door and drawers to back bench and ecause the fitting of the fridge i so close ive had to cut the wall panels out to fit all the pipes dodgy cutting i know, but i trimmed it from that photo and every thing is square and new panel is in place and where the pipes meet the boiler chucked the spring loaded stays in place and then the camera ran out of batteries, loads more done, but will up date tomorrow

well, not a hell of a lot done, most of the morning was spent chasing a bloody work top, got it n the end, but was quite frustrating trying to get the one i wanted, any way a nice solid wood top for the back is in, and victory beer for a small but good victory the end is neigh!!!!

today not much was done, mosty finicky little panels that had to be cit out and screwed in pace, and the draws needed further adjustment so everything ran smooth and sat in the right place with the right spaces, annoying stuff, just a couple of photos still to do the internal wardobe panel, but will do that when ive done all the wiring to the guages etc and a dizzy blonde to finish it off

well we've made 4 days with out rain, although it did spit for a little while yesterday, and its overcaste today, better than it has been, but compared to nz its always going to be shit, im not sure what roseal had written on the tin, but as far as varnishes go, its resonable, it seems to have quite a high oil content rather than a high solvent content, good for waterproofing but not really a super glossy finish that you'd usually get from a varnish,

well wrdrobe are draws today cheated a bit, and bought a couple of ex office furniture draw sets, i wa just going to mount them as they were but they were way too heavy, so all the tops bottoms and backs got removed, kept the sides as they had the locking mech built in yep let me tell you about the birds and bees good alloa ale

it was a nice beer, better than old speckled hen even, and i wasnt even expecting it to be good, which made it even better cheers for the comments guys, always appreciated

lol, yeah hope so better than the crappy..... porta loo, its weird, the bath room is about 70% of the original size, but seems bigger