Window covers and next sleepover

I've looked at quite a few YouTube tutorials about making insulated window covers to keep heat in/out and black out the windows at night. I had an imminent sleepover coming up, so quickly made some that do the insulating bit but haven't yet covered the backs with anything to make things a bit more "stealthy". Ultimately, I'll glue some nylon backed black material on to the backs.

I got a roll of lining wallpaper to make some stencils - that was all fairly straight forward - then traced the shapes onto a roll of "Reflectix" type material that I got from B&Q. I bought a pack of 15 suckers off Amazon and added 2 per cover, with an extra one on the bigger rear window. 

This all worked really well. Easy to put on and take off. It's difficult to say how much difference it made to the heat retention, because it was probably 6 deg warmer than my first overnight, but there was no condensation on the windows, whereas last time they were running. They also blocked the light really well.

I also got a fold up windscreen cover from Halfords, which works pretty well. I may trim it down to fit better some time but it's good enough for now.

On this sleepover, I spun the passenger seat around, which gave loads more room but. importantly, also made the space feel a lot bigger. I had a really comfy night, camping out at friend's after a music evening.

On the way back, I crammed all of my music and camping gear into the front passenger side and dismantled / collected a shed I'd bought off Marketplace for the garden. Such a versatile vehicle this - she swallowed it up with ease!

 

Alloy Wheels

A set of alloys was not top of the list of priorities. After all, I'd spent time refurbishing the wheel covers. I'd been looking on Marketplace and EBay just to see how much they went for and most were about £150 - £200 for a set of 4.

This set popped up not a million miles away from my regular drive across to Whitchurch for £110. I made a silly offer of £75 and got them for £78 :-) Although they are quite dirty and stained from brake dust, three of the tyres are reasonable as well. 

I figured I could put a budget tyre on and use them for a while until I have a bit more spare cash, at which point I'll get them refurbished and a new set of tyres.

Following some YouTube "wisdom", I gave them a clean using spray on oven cleaner (i.e. caustic soda) and they have come up surprisingly well. I didn't really have much of a go at the backs. 

I just need to get a new tyre now and I'll swap them over. Looking forward to seeing how she looks with a smarter set of shoes.

And the answer is that she looks mighty fine. Completely transformed in fact, I would say. I’m starting to feel pretty proud of the old girl 🙂.

 

Spark Plugs

As the engine was running so nicely, I had originally been intending to leave the spark plugs, but after finding that the air filter apparently hadn't been replaced for a long time, I thought I should do the plugs. It's not exactly like they are expensive.

True to form, it all took a bit of getting apart, but not as bad as the air filter. Why are modern engines so difficult to get into?

So, the good news was that the plugs were a fairly nice colour. The bad news (or good, depending on your viewpoint) was that the gaps were enormous! Definitely glad I'm changing them. And I gave the threads a good coating of anti-seize :-)

On my first tankful of fuel after replacing the air filter and spark plugs, I was pleased to see that the MPG had gone from 30 to 32. I'm pretty happy with that, considering I'm essentially pushing a big square box, with the aerodynamics of a brick, along!

Door panel repainted

I left the door trim panel and interior trims off, after I had fixed the sliding door, as I wanted to respray the damaged trim and could do that in my temporary spray booth (back bedroom!)

I'd already ordered a batch of paint and was surprised that it came as a base and top coat plus lacquer. It is a pearl paint finish, and apparently body shops hate trying to match it, so I wasn't holding out high hopes for how it will look, although it will definitely be better than the scratched affair shown below. Basically, because the rollers were missing off the slider, it was folding in on itself and scraping on the paint (for a long time by the look of it.)

I rubbed all of the scratched area down and feathered it in then applied grey primer, base coat, top coat and lacquer. It looked good - nice and smooth.

Refitting the panel the following day showed that it's not really a great match to the 23 year old faded paint, but it's actually not as bad in real life as it looks here. I may put a "van life" type grapic on it at some point to disguise it a bit. Or I might not be arsed!!

 

Foggy headlights have seen the light

The last "cat-sitting" job I tackled was to refurbish the headlights, which were very cloudy and yellowed from UV. This was clearly visible on the photo from the For Sale advert. 

I had most of the bits necessary to sort this out from doing a previous car and just needed to order more abrasive discs. This isn't a difficult job to do - it's just tedious working through progressively finer grades of wet and dry using a drill mounted disc pad.

But the results were great! She looks so much happier now :-)

 

Sliding Door doin’ what it oughter!

Next up was to get the sliding door sorted. 

I had to take off the interior panelling so that I could remove the body panel covering the sliding mechanism. I was fairly sure that the rollers on the centre hinge had collapsed and, indeed, what I found when I removed the hinge was actually no rollers! 

What I didn't foresee was that someone has cut and removed the operating cables, which explains why the electric control isn't working! I have looked into replacing them but they aren't available as a separate part. I could probably make something up but to be honest it's no big deal to not have electric operation - one less thing to go wrong.

I'd ordered new rollers, whic were only £10. The posts they fitted to were quite corroded and I had to file one back into shape before it would slide on. Slightly worringly, the slot for the retaining circlip was too damaged to retain the circlip, so I had to peen it over with a hammer. It should hold it in place but means I'll need to source a second hand hinge plate if I ever have to do them again.

And so the door is back to doing what it should!

 

Cat-Sitting Service

I'd arranged ages ago to stopover at friends in Whitchurch and "cat sit" for a couple of nights while they were on holiday. This gave me a great chance to do a bit of work on the van, as they have a nice big concrete hardstanding and I have a one way street!!

I don't really have any idea of what sort of servicing regime has been followed, so I'm just going to work my way through everything over the next couple of months, but I prioritised the things that were easier to do while I had some off road time.

The most urgent was to do an oil and filter change. No great problem with that, although I found access to the filter was easier with the off side front wheel removed. As usual, it would probably take me half the time next time, now that I've done the learning curve bit.

Polly came out to help me!

Next was the air filter but, of the 5 bolts holding the cover down, only 3 would undo. The heads on the other 2 were just too corroded. I ended up finishing this job at home and had to grind the head of one of the bolts with a Dremel. The other one eventually snapped off. Even then it still took 15 minutes of persuading to get the cover apart from the body. God knows how long it is since that lot has been apart. Suffice to say that the air filter definitely needed replacing!!