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Yoeddynz's 1985 Hino housetruck. Delivered to its new home - here's the last post on this thread. I'd better find another truck to build on.


yoeddynz

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Well we've hit a milestone - the interior is almost all panelled out and its really feeling like a nice big blank canvas/wooden box to start building cubboards, benches, shower etc into. :D We are off on holiday to q/town with my brother who is over from the Uk so its nice to have got this far an know that when we get back its a lined out house to build into. We still have the ceiling to put up but that should be quick and easy. All the wiring is in place now too.

Anyway- we cleared it out gave it a clean tonight and took some photos- I have tried to get shots that show how roomy it feels but its tricky. Its got a lovely warm feel to it from mix of darker woods. And one of the floor boards creaks when stood on- which is cool.

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Today I celebrated and got ready fro out road trip south by building this...

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Its similar to the one I made about 3 years ago for the last house truck we built.

As we are going to be camping out in some bloody cold areas this will be handy I think. It cost all of $6 to make- it would have been less but I had to buy a bloody hinge :rolleyes: Once in chch tomorrow night we will crank it up and burn off the paint. Maybe cook some bacon on it :D

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  • 3 weeks later...
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back from our break which involved driving our slow as 2.4 diesel 4wd hiace around the south island looking at places to park a housetruck (mainly queenstown)

Now back into it and then we both got a nasty cold :(

Kitchen work...

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almost finished- just some little finishing touches....... :-/

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  • 2 weeks later...

we are back into the swing of things after 3 weeks of not getting much done. feels good to see progress.

Firstly- I have finished making the last of the window frames. All together we have built 17 windows and 3 skylights. Much more than we had planned but its worth it as it will be a nice light and airy feeling house.

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While I built the last windows Hannah painted all the ceiling sections we had carefully cut out of 4mm plywood.

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We have chosen a colour called Koromiko- its a very pale lemon colour that we had used to good effect in the Bedford TK back in Oxford. We want the ceiling to break up all the darker woods and make the rafters stand out. Plus it will help with keeping the rooms bright.

Today I started putting up the ceiling and its looking great- way better than we thought. :) I have just finished the bedroom. Meanwhile Hannah is putting 3 coats of yacht varnish on the window frames. She also varnished the main rafters - just one coat to stop them getting dirty and bring out the patterns. She is now complaining of sore shoulder and hand from all this painting. Its a tough life...

Heres a couple of shots of the ceiling...

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And this is Hannah's latest little treat. she rescued it from the dump and its in great condition- so will become our bread bin

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Tonight Matthew I will be..... drinking whiskey.

Because we have finished the ceiling!!!! ;) Very very happy with it too. We have just been sitting in the sofa listening to some Cuban music with whiskey and just enjoying looking at the ceiling. ahhhh. Tomorrow Hannah will continue painting the pop out ceilings an we will make a trip out in the Datsun 1.3 racing sunny to some random place - where ever we can find some suitable slate like rock to make the fire place hearth.

Here's some shots of the ceiling I took tonight...

Hannah chilling out...

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Looking up from sofa...

The square hole is there waiting for stove flue to be installed.

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Looking back up into 'spare room'..

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we are so happy- just put the three windows up in the bedroom and the look great! The stained glass one in the middle is amazing during the day- the light and colours that comes through it is wicked! I will take some photos of the inside view once Ive finished the cladding around them.

There is still some batons and flashings to go around the windows. The batons will break up the big slab under the main window.

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looks so cosy inside- it is ;D

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In nelson tonight- just scored some more Rimu panelling given to us by my brother from his destroyed wendy house :D Hopefully it will be enough to finish the last bit of cladding in the spare room at back plus some for the inside of the bathroom.

the front is all finished now. just need to add carpet, drawers and a bed! This afternoon in Nelson while on the hunt for a piece of rusty corrogated iron to go behind woodburner we went to a recycling place in richmond and scored a rimu slatted bed base for $5 :D choice!

Anyway- here's some photos of windows with the light coming through and walls all done.

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and pop out window which will be over the dining table- our favourite...

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Over the weekend we cut up some slate like stone that we had hunted out up one of the local valleys. I built a frame out of miro and rimu then we set the stone in with cement.

Yesterday we finished building the hearth and bolted the stove down, cut hole in roof, cleaned up and adapted the S/S flue.

We fitted the last windows today. Very happy about that. Both the bedroom and the spare room are now very well lit.

Its almost upsetting that spring is here as I'm actually hoping we still have some more really cold nights to use fire- on monday we had 21 degrees!

Tonight was a little chilly so I cranked it up :)...

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As I now have a massive bandage around my right knee due to having a section of my patella tendon removed :'( I'm kicking my feet up for a few days. But I took some photos as we just managed to finish the last windows and cladding. So cool- we can now start building the bathroom.

So here are some photos of the latest windows, spare room, the bedroom where I spent yesterday snoozing in the sun ;D etc.

The spare room. Just needs a shelf across below the windows to section off room from below.

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And this is the opening window the front of spare room- the brass rope pulley thingee we got at a reclamation yard..

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Here's the bedroom with a double mattress down. So much room left. Its well cosy with the sun coming through the windows and looking up through skylights..

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Looking back- Hannah accident broke the frosted window that was gonna go here so we ordered a piece of toughened cut cut to size. Its much better being able to see fully through it.

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and a view from the roof...

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here's a pop out roof...note the 16mm alloy tube drains in each

corner

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  • 2 weeks later...

Righto- after several bloody edit as I get to grips with working out imageshack here are some new updates...
Shower has been built. just painting and plumbing to do. the plumbing will begin tomorrow as I have finally gathered all the gas fittings etc. In fact I have liberated the copper fuel pipe from under the olds house from the central heating system they used to use. Sweet as because I priced up copper pipe and boy its expensive! Saved heaps. Recycling rocks :D

So here are some images of the shower coming together..

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More later of this.

And we got a wicked LPG gas oven on monday. So happy with it. I've been looking for one like this for ages and the last one we saw we missed out on. Its got an eye level grill like we had in the Bedford in Blighty. I love this feature as pretty much all my fancy cooking that doesn't involve weetbix is done on a grill. Plus its got a cool 70's look about it. It has taken us two days to clean up properly and fix a few bits. I need to make a pan for the grill too.

Its not often I have seen ovens being welded on a car forum so here ya all go...

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Here it is all shiny like...

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I would have taken it down to an underground carpark and snapped some uber cool shots with cunning lighting if,

A: Blenheim had an underground carpark.

B: it wouldn't  involve wheeling a heavy oven downtown in a wheelbarrow with my crook knee whilst looking ever so slightly dodgy.

So I took this trendy shot here which only necessitated me getting down on the floor- that I can handle.

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Kitchen time. Started by chopping down that stainless bench to the right length....

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  Then place the 200 litre tank in position. Why have the tank inside?...because after a trip about scotland at christmas in my old Iveco with the tank freezing up and having no shower after bloody cold mtb rides I said never again. And that iveco was well insulated. Anyway the tank is right where we need some steps so works well.

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Then insulate the fridge box walls as I go. I didn't see any point not doing it as they are thick walls anyway some might as well. If it helps keep the fridge from working hard then that's always good. We had done this in the Bedford and hardly needed the fridge running except when it bloody hot in France/Italy. If running on gas it was very thrifty too.

I had to put a hole through the wall for fridge flue. I sealed it up and it turned out ok.

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 The fridge we bought off Trademe is three way- 240v/12v/gas. It didn't come with a flue. I was looking through my scraps of metal and found the old wetback pipes I had lopped off the stove- perfect size. A bit of chopping, squeezing and soldering and all good. All I need now is a proper Electrolux flue cover to stop the wind blowing the flame out.

Through out the building of the shower and kitchen I have kept all gas lines and hoses routed in such a way that if need be I will be able to easily replace them with minimal effort. A bit paranoid but if it helps one day.

Last night I finished all the gas pipes- I managed to use the length of pipe that was for the diesel heater in the house and use the 3 way junction we had ripped out of an old Merc van that we scrapped before leaving Blighty. All the other fittings I got cheap from my old work so all in all this part hasn't cost too much. Which is nice.

We cranked up the oven and the fridge once all was done. It is a really nice feeling being at the stage that we can now cook on our own oven! :D

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  • 1 month later...

Here's some long overdue photos and a brief update. The kitchen is all down- maybe a couple of little bits of wood cappings here and there.

The bathroom is all done- just the toilet to bolt down, the vent for the toilet to go up and a curtain rail for the shower. We will see how the shower is with the ancient old Paloma califont. We got a refund on Renai we had bought- it had a duff bit inside the water valve and Renai don't make the parts anymore. Might try a cheap califont from that big country near korea.

We have built a very cool pantry- sorted a lot of storage Issues. And at the last hour we had a light bulb moment and made roll out storage for all our bloody running, tramping, cycling shoes etc.

The next mission we are underway on is the dining room. Which is coming along swimmingly!

Anyway- I took some photos tonight....

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The shower is painted in a sort of fern green. Really fresh feeling. Goes nicely with the Rimu wood. Found out later that its a complimentary colour to the 'merlot' red that the outside wall is in.  Our $7 s/s shower tray went in perfect. WE are so happy with it!

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Shower head and mixer was another trade me bargain.

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Hannah made a little bathroom cabinet...

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I put an extra window in above bathroom door. Any extra light helps...

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Our roll out pantry. Big shelf near middle is for my most consumed food after toast.. Weetbix. :)

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The wardrobe and old rimu cubboards.

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Shoe storage...

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The fridge hidden away- I hate the look of ugly plastic fridges so I hid it behind a door.

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Battery storage...

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Cat storage....

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Bargain $10 really bloody old solid brass taps..

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We now have our own dining room table. Its heaven. Testing it out at breakfast time.. :D

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We made it from bits of a old rimu bookshelf my cousin gave me a few weeks ago and the last of our Macrocarpa.  The legs at the front of the seats are apricot. We have several apricot trees and last autumn one had enough and half of it fell down. We stashed it away and I was going to burn it all but as I was chopping it up with the chainsaw in the weekend I wondered what it would be like as milled wood. It took ages on our table saw as it can only cut 80mm and apricot is hard as. But we got some lovely wood that I'll add about here and there. Its got the most amazing colours I've seen yet in any wood.

And with 5 screws the table top comes out leaving a little ledge for cups of strong coffee. I did this because i know in the future there will be such job as dealing with loads of veges, using a sewing machine, building bike wheels, polishing 12a rotor housings etc where I will want to sit down but not on a squishy sofa.

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Cheers Em.

The steps up into the spare room are now finished. I am very proud of them- Much nicer than I was expecting and they have turned out to become very handy book shelves too :D  The space underneath them will be for a separate drinking water tank. We do this as the shower water tank may at sometimes get filled with river water etc so we keep them separate. We once parked our old Bedford near a river in the French alps for two weeks and with cycling every day we soon ran out of shower water- so we started filling the tank from the river.  

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Handy for Haynes manuals..

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We've almost finished the laminating of the bedroom entrance edge with rimu and lots of glue. I had to cut the Rimu down to 3mm thick- which was about as thin as we neatly could on our table saw. But we split several pieces putting it up. Tricky but satisfying now its done.

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Today we started on the carpet for the upstairs rooms- wow- its soooo nice and plush!

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  • 2 weeks later...

We found some funky lights at the recycling centre this morning.  ;D

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I will take them apart and use various bits and pieces to build them into the style we want.  I'm going to fit some toyota van rear light bulb holders we got off our spares van in place of the 240v bulb holders so converting them to 12V.

Soon we shall have light (with a 70's orange glow)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I finally started building the workshop bench. To begin with we need some storage for fruit and vege. Sorted that out with some baskets on rails, green cause I'm a hippy. Then I just built it up from there- using an old oak dresser we got cheap ages ago from a recycling centre - in fact before I we had even got the truck. I have always wanted a pull out drawing board thing- I don't really know what for. As the oak top was going to be covered over I decided to use that.

And I built some drawers using oak fronts- more oak to be used for more drawers yet. I want to build a portable work table/seat/tool storage on wheels sort of thing. Like a Darlek you can sit on. But with out a gun. And filled with tools. You'll see eventually...

Another cheap set  of Rimu drawers we bought from the recycling centre were carefully taken apart for the wood. They had the most amazing 4mm Rimu ply in the drawer bottoms which is great for building cupboard fronts.

Photos soon of the done deal.
 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well not a lot to report recently- I have been busy last two weeks finally getting on with my HB viva!

But what am about to post up is a warning- don't rely on Treadgrip to water proof your roof. Its water proof and sticks well but with the harsh sun and heat recently the ply underneath started to crack just a little- like tiny little splits- but enough to split the treadgrip. Bug ger.

So we bought yet more Butynol I spent a very hot morning on the roof in the sun painting on contact adhesive while Hannah had the lovely job of picking off the bead of silicone I had put on the metal centre cap.

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So the rear roof section is done. we had already done the main roof ages ago. The front has yet to be done but the tread grip has not suffered at all there as there is a lovely big tree giving shade.

So I wish we had just used Butynol in the first place- but this is one of lifes lessons.
 

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  • 1 month later...

Not a big update really but an update non the less. We have been living in the truck full time now. Its great! We love it. Still lots to do but work has been put on hold until the Viva is sorted so we can have a classic to cruise about in this summer.

We decided to Butynol the lastsection of roof as the heat has been slowly making the ply crack- tiny tiny little cracks just on the surface but enough to split the magic treadgrip rubber paint. So that is crap!

Dealing with a load of sticky contact adhesive on a hot summers day in the blazing heat 4 metres up is not the most fun job but we are now very happy to have done it- the roof will be very waterproof for a long time!

Hannah had the fun job of removing more silicone from the roof capping. We tried to get the cat to help but he was a bit useless- he blamed the lack of opposable thumbs...

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Tonight while I slaved away on the Viva Hannah cleared out the truck and gave the floor a once over with the belt sander. Now she is out there getting high on fumes while I type this. Its going to look amazing. We have put this job off and its always been a risk- one spill of our posh $7 bottles of red wine and the floor would be wrecked.
 

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  • 1 month later...

Ok- well overdue update but well we haven't done much really recently on truck. Blame Viva.
This week in between more Viva sagas I have put in long over due wall sockets, run big fat wires through to leisure battery where I plan to put invertor and more recently started on the little corner box to house the headunit, fuses and switches for invertor, shower pump, fan for toilet etc
Its kind of taking a while to get back into it and also dealing with wood. Metals easy cause ya just weld it and its its simple to build a lightweight but strong item. With wood I'm trying make it strong and look nice too. And I don't really have the cabinet makers way about it, or tools. So I'm going to stick to my simple hobit house like wood work.

Its really nice to start using the work bench..itself not finished..

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And the birds nest home for headunit plus fuses and switches. A fine mixture of Walnut, Apricot Rimu and....ply

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Finished off stereo and switch/ fuse centre..

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Stereo is all sorted now. :D And fuses, switches etc all done. I have made allowances for the solar setup we are planning in the future. The little volt meter is a score from ebay - China for $5 USD. They are about $40 here. So I bought 3. Does that mean I saved more?....

The stereo is cool- we got an Ipod one and with the supplied remote I can sit on the couch and change music on ipod. So handy. I will install a decent amp in the future once funds allow (that'll be ages then) so I have made all the wiring very beefy indeed. Even with out an extra amp its great sound with the Mordaunt Short speakers we scored off trade me a while back. They are a touch small but at least they wont chew through the power like my big old Wharfdales do.

A decent sound system is very important to me. Once settled in somewhere on our own land I would re install my old Rotel amp and floor standing speakers.

So now I'm onto stripping/modifying old house lights we have scored over the past few months here and there.
 

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