merc camper

[hmmmnz]

edit: page 1 get!!! welcome to page 2

well, kind of productive, and a few fuck ups as well,

had to pick up some more timber, screws, paint, filler, ply, blah blah blah, so a good few hours were wasted before id even started, but got the rest of the sofa/bed framed out, and the back panel done

(which is where the fuck ups occured) measure thrice cut once... hmmmnzs new motto

any way,

decided to bring in the bohemith 200ah gel battery and make sure it fitted

along with my pride and joy, pure sine wave inverter,

with built in charger and bypass, also works as a ups system as well, fancy stuff,

none of this crappy modified sinewave crap for me.

friggin thin weighs a pant load, nothing compared to the 60kg battery though

decided id cut out the holes for the displays etc

top one is for the inverter, middle is voltage

bottom is water level, i think ill make up a wee panel for a battery disconnect, but rest of the stuff will be in the wardrobe,

and beer of the day

autumn nuts, although its spring here, and still feels like winter

[hmmmnz]

right sorry for the delays, hard drive died, bathroom pick up was required (shower tray was a no show, so had to buy another bath room)

and all sorts of other excuses

any way pic dump time

 

any way, drivers seating area/bed are done

 

 

cupboards done, cut the doors for both sides and painted

painted the roof to seal it in before doing the wall paper stuff

also started on the back cupboards

and test fitted the boiler and cut all the vent holes for it

 

made a bit for the back for the toilet to attach to,  back wall is all friggin angles, so had to do a bit of planing etc, fun times

attached the bracket and cut the hole in the side for the cassette to come out of

 

then fitted and tested the toilet

 

the mrs has finished covering all the cushions etc so had a test fit to see what it looked like

 

 

thats it,  hopefully ill get the shower tray intoday as well,  but the mrs has swanned off and its still in the back of the car,  so nothing else for it

beer o'clock

 

picked that up yesterday when i was down in the engerland,  tasty drop,

also decided i didnt like england, if only because there was too much traffic, also never seen so many trucks in my life, left edinburgh at 5am and headed down the m6 motorway, there was 10 trucks to every car,

i did like lancaster,  although loads of gypsys, may be because the appleby festival is next week, or may be the gypos just like lancaster, who knows

 

 

[hmmmnz]

right where was i,

bath room, install

right decided to make a bit of extra ply on the bottom of the tray,  so if in future every thing shifts, atleast the tray wall have a solid base and wont crack,

 

also decided to poly the whole bath room area for extra protection.....

also made a little bit for the toilet to attach to, and to give the toilet a square areaas the walls are on 2 different angles,  ((cheers to the builders for that)

 

tray in

 

test fit of the main part of the unit

 

and a little frame to support the tray etc

 

do i give two hoots??

 no but ill drink it,  nice beer,  and i love the little slogan

"with great beer comes great wisdom, but we only care about the great beer"

 

back cupboards in...ish  and start of a wall

 

 

start of frame to support the unit,  little bit pissed off with the build of the unit,  they havn't moulded it square, and no matter what i did i just couldnt get it perfect, which bugs me, more so because i not a perfectionist

 

if i was black it would drive me nutty

 

was that a pun...  a bad one, and a kind of disapointing beer, wasnt nutty, but was black, but had none of the malty smokeyness that i was hoping for... aghwell

 

started on the supports for the draw units that we bought

 

they are bloody heavy, so didnt want to go too light on the framing,,  also moved the air heater, and rerouted the exhaust,  notice the bitching muffler.  yeah thats right, i have a pimpin muffler inside,

 

mrs painted the cupboards,

 

 

and i chucked up the first internal wall of the wardrobe didnt take any photos of the frame in there

 

and that was it up to date

and finished on

 

when i opened the bottle, it smelt like freshly picked canabis and tasted mildly hoppy,  best lightish ale ive had for a while,

[hmmmnz]

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

[hmmmnz]

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

[hmmmnz]

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!!!!

[hmmmnz]

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

[hmmmnz]

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,

[hmmmnz]

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

 

[hmmmnz]

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

[hmmmnz]

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

[hmmmnz]

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

 

[hmmmnz]

sorry my bad

[hmmmnz]

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

[hmmmnz]

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

 

 

 

 

[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,

 

[hmmmnz]

right its been well over a year, since any real love has been shown to mr merc,

he did famously around europe,  the only trouble we had was the gear linkages came loose and i couldnt shift gear,

that was in montenegro,

 

turned out it was the rubber bushes, which was a 5 euro fix, and luckily i found the offical merc parts supplier

less than an hour away from where it happened, so that was awesome,

we got stuck once in romania when the road turned from nice tarmac thing into gravel, then mud, then a bog,

 

any way a few weekends back we decided to take the camper up into the highlands of scotlands and meet up with some mates from the ski season in france for a bit of a bender,

the temp was getting a bit high 90'C which seems fine, but when you have driven 10000miles with it never getting above 84'c even in the hottest 42'C Italian sun

or up super steep mountain roads in Austria  and Switzerland,

  that extra 6'C was a tell tale sign

 

discovered we had a small leak in the core and topped up a couple of times through out the trip and got to and back home again with out any major problems

when i got back i pulled the radiator,

and sent it off to the only radiator place left in edinburgh!!!

for them to replace the core,

 

replaced the thermostat and cap, checked out the pump,

 

 

 

thank fully the whole cooling system is super clean, no brown sludge to be seen anywhere, and looks like its always had coolant in it,

 

rad and gubbins back in, nice new fluid for everything, long life coolant,

shes like new again

 

although i have to fix this oil leak from the injection pump (its been leaking from their the whole time we've owned it)

its not a major issue, but its annoying that the van thinks its english and that its allowed to leave its mark where ever it goes

[hmmmnz]

well, not much done to the old girl,

it went through another mot (wof) with out even a single advisory,

i cleaned up the bottom of the doors, patched a little hole on the wheel arch and changed out the rear shocks

1 of which looked to be the factory sachs shock and the other had been changed to a monroe,

the monroe was still servicable, but the sachs shock was as good as useless,

 

a mate went over to ireland for a week in it and it behaved like it should, and we are off up to the isle of skye in scotland for a wedding for a few days,

so should be good.