Front seat fitting

A fairly straightforward task for the period between Christmas and New Year; fitting the new captain's seats.

First off, a quick goodbye to the old twin seat, you won't be missed.


Then onto removing; a simple case of unbolting the eight bolts holding the twin seat in place and removing the four that won't be needed for fitting the single seat:


Take this opportunity to clear up all those pasty crumbs!

Then onto removing the driver's seat. We split this one from the base so as not to upset the handbrake and all the wiring/gubbins underneath the seat.


We then split the passenger seat from it's base to sandwich in a Sportscraft swivel base. German quality, TüV approved, these can be purchased from a wide range of motorhome suppliers, ours came from Bluebird Customs.


One thing to note is that the holder for the various bits of wiring underneath a twin seat appears to be different from that of a single seat. With the help of a handy little L-shaped bracket made by JC of JC Motors (seen in the picture above), we were able to remount the existing wiring bracket without too much head-scratching.



Then it's just a matter of bolting everything back together and, hey presto, two comfortable seats with arms, a swivel-base on the passenger side and that much-needed walk-through gap in the middle.

The twin seat and single driver's seat are currently for sale, get in touch if they are of interest.

UPDATE: Now sold.

Merry Christmas...

...and a Happy New Year to all readers of Stone174.

I'm glad to hear that this blog has been an inspiration to some of you to tackle your own van conversions, here's to more of the same in 2010, see you at the shows!

Richard.

Sitting comfortably?

Well, in a word, no! The passenger twin seat has to go. It has been in the van nearly a year and that's as much as we can stand. I miss not having the walk-thru of the old van and not having a swivel-base passenger seat. We always knew that buying the van with a twin seat was always a bit of a compromise, funds have been saved and now it can go.

Christmas in the Stone174 house has never been a place of big romantic gestures but this year we have bought each other seats. Sourced from eBay, the passenger seat has come from an '06 van converted for a wheelchair bound passenger, the driver's seat from a low mileage '09 van where the owner would prefer to fit bucket-seats.


The passenger seat was a little more than we wanted to pay but these seem to be rarer as every panel-van comes with a twin-seat as default and a single as an extra - so a captain's single with arms was an extra on top.

Eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed the trim change between '06 and '09 - the newer seat having the leatherette sides as oppose to the earlier having INKA fabric all over. As we ultimately intend on having the seats re-trimmed it's something we're happy to live with for now.


The driver's side was a bit of a bargain (for the as-new condition) and therefore the value of both seats has balanced out nicely. The next job was to pick them up.

Posting a seat complete with base was never going to be cheap, for the same price we could fill the van with diesel and pick them up - one in Newcastle and one in Plymouth - road trip!!!

Newcastle was a four hour round-trip from Skipton, first-thing on Saturday morning, home in time to do a bit more work on the bed covering in the afternoon.

Saturday evening was a work's Christmas-do followed by a quick blast to Donnington for an over-night Travelodge stop. First thing Sunday, after refuelling on McMuffins and other road-side junk, it was down the M42 and M5 to Plymouth.

A quick chat with the seller and we were on our way back. A brief stop in Exeter for lunch and a bit of Christmas shopping then back on the road.

The weekend has put just short of a 1000 miles on the van, now to bolt the seats in - will update with progress in due course.

Bed covering

Squeaks and rattles are my absolute nemesis, I'll do anything to avoid them and as such the boards had to come off again to be covered. I've used the same automotive carpet as for the interior panels, using the same method and materials as previous.

Here's the seat base covered and in position:


Followed by the seat back (shown here in 'bed' position):


It looks a bit like 'carpet-overload' at the moment, but once the bedding is in and the rest of the interior is fitted, none of this will be visible. It should also help to dampen noise a little too.
Here's the foam in position:


And finally, because Stone174 doesn't cut corners, a rear view of the seat back - also carpeted to give a better finish than leaving blank board:


Just the rear-most board left to do. After all this I'll need a lie-down!

Bed and board

As promised, here's a pic of the bed frame with boards attached.


They were on only briefly as on our first trip out we noticed quite a considerable amount of rattle. This is only the boards against the frame, they have now been removed for carpeting - watch this space!

Time for bed...

So it's finally time to stop sleeping on the floor of the van and reclaim some much-needed storage space. Before bolting the Bluebird bed frame in I decided to fit a harder-wearing floor.

The old floor was only 3mm ply with rubber tiles over the top, it always felt a bit spongy and loose, time to double the thickness and lay some 6mm marine ply:


Next up was to assemble the rear frame - this gives the bed the desired height and somewhere to store camping gear:


Then it's time to offer-up the front assembly of the main mechanism and square everything up to the rear frame (already measured, measured, mulled-over and measured again), check, check again, try the seat mechanism - double-checking everything clears and bolt together:


One final check and then a quick once around to tighten up and fine-tune. Here's the mechanism in the upright 'seat' position:


The one thing you don't see in these pictures is the time spent removing the spare wheel and plastic under-trays in order to fit the spreader-plates that hold the bolts through the van floor. One tip is to spend as much time as you can aligning the bed frame to avoid any chassis crossmembers, take your time and don't drill anything until you're absolutely certain.

There's no way I could have done this on my own; it's definitely a two-man job. Thanks must go to JC at JC Motors for his years of experience with this kind of thing.

I'll post some more pics at the end of the weekend showing the fitment of the boards and the foam going in too...

Front seat frustration

Why is it so hard to find a good quality single passenger seat to replace the twin currently in the van?

If you've got a single and really need a twin (ideally in the INCA fabric) let me know and we'll do a swap...

Are there any breaker's yards out there with rear-ended T5s in them???

Bed Time...

So here it is in all it's flat-pack, self-assembly glory. One three-quarter width rock'n'roll bed frame from Bluebird Customs.

After a show-season of mulling-over different bed setups we have chosen the old style, straight forward rock'n'roll mechanism; it works well and gives a good quality seat in the upright position. We weren't keen on the look of some of the other 'sliding' seats that have two support legs at the front, limiting front access for under-bed storage.

The rock'n'roll bed has come along way since our old T3 version; which was little more than two hinges and some plyboard, this is a fully powder-coated frame made from 3/4" square tubing, laser-cut brackets, it's all MOT compliant.

One other great feature over the old system is the EZBACK mechanism for easy bed-to-seat return in one operation; no springs to ping and flimsy pins to pop - we've had a demonstration and are more than convinced this works!

Within the next few weeks you should hopefully follow the fitting of the bed frame, it might be a while yet before a full test-sleep!

California Review - old or new?

Just a quick post to point you in the direction of a Newspaper review of the new T5 California - link here.


Not a bad review, not sure about the Clarkson-esque style of writing, just a shame they didn't seem to have a picture to hand!

Lowering: Pros and Cons

There's been quite a lot of discussion recently about whether to lower a T5 or not. Earlier in the year I went for a 40mm drop using H&R springs - in the no-too-distant future I intend to fit larger wheels and tyres and (in my own opinion) feel the T5 looks better lowered with larger rims than when left at stock height. Also note that I have never have, nor want to, read Max Power magazine or go to a car-meet at Tescos on a Friday night...

Previous vehicles in my garage have included a 1966 Beetle (lowered), a Mk1 Golf (lowered), a Lupo GTi (lowered from factory) and a T3 panel van (lowered). Like many other T5 owners I need to be able to get up farm-tracks into campsites, up forest roads with mountain bikes, over speedbumps at B&Q, etc, etc...



The Beetle could barely get over cats-eyes (cool at the time), the Golf was returned to stock (part of the resto), the Lupo was about as much fun as you can have in public with your clothes on, and the T3 was lowered twice; once with cut-springs - trawler-like handling (I know - we were skint), and then again with proper AVO springs and shocks. The T3 was the only vehicle to 'scrape' regularly due to the front-end overhang.

To-date we haven't caught the T5 on anything. Handling is much improved; the van doesn't wallow into roundabouts and isn't unsettled by mid-corner bumps. The overall ride isn't compromised and feels as good as stock-height. Granted, there's usually only ever going to be two of us in the van, your own situation might be different.

Other plus points include; being able to fit the drive-away awning slightly easier, not worrying about car-park height restrictions, the Mother-in-law can get in without complaining!

Brickwerks now stock a range of options for lowering your T5 from KW, H&R, Eibach and Bilstein - to suit differing sizes of wallet too.

One last option if you want to go really low is air-ride:


...if that's what floats your boat.

Show report: Busfreeze

They say the weather can often make or break a show. Visitors to these 'beginning' and 'end-of-year' trade shows are often prepared to venture out in some pretty inclement conditions.
Unfortunately for the organisers of Busfreeze they were met with a Saturday night of torrential rain and high winds. Combine this with end-of-term motorway traffic and a £10 per person entry fee, as you can imagine, the car park and the show on a whole were relatively quiet.

It did give us a good opportunity look around and chat with a few people about our T5's interior; plans, timescales, fit and finish. In particular we are being drawn to the interior options provided by Campershak. They build a good-looking set of interior furniture and offer a bespoke service, tailoring the end results to each individual's requirements.

When they rain held off we took the opportunity to have a wander round to the camping area to see what the facilities were like with a view to camping next year - on the whole they seemed adequate; water points, a toilet block, and a relatively flat field away from the noise of the main road seemed okay to us.

Maybe one to try again next year - never write off a new show in it's first year.

Meeting a stablemate...

Click for bigger pic

Okay I agree it's a bit nerdy, but when you chance upon a van in a service-station car park with almost the same registration as yours, you have to take a photo!

AF06JZN seems to be having a harder paper-round than AF06JZX and was looking a little tired at three and half years old.

Carpet questions...

I've noticed a couple of people on the Brickyard forum have been using this blog as a guide to insulating and carpeting their vans. Whilst feeling flattered this is also freaking me out a bit as any day now I'm expecting someone to track me down and show me their badly followed attempts!!!

Remember kids; Stone174 accepts no responsibility for your DIY ability, Stone174 also has very few DIY skills too!

Here's a few of the questions (and hopefully correct answers) I've had:

1. Did you stick multiple layers of flashing tape on the metal parts of the van? You said you used four rolls (no idea what sized rolls mind you!) which seems loads unless you used lots of layers to build up the weight?

Yep, flashing tape went on floor, side panels and roof. When you remove the grey VW interior panels you should see their stingy amount of sound-deadening that VW provided (probably over-sprayed in your van's colour). It's just a case of adding more. I went for double thickness in the 'dips' in the roof ridges. The rolls come in various widths and lengths (and prices), have a look here: Flashing strip from Wickes
If you're really serious about sound I would then suggest a layer of Dynamat sound proofing, but it was out of my price range at the time.

2. How easy is Celotex to cut? I've not seen any in the flesh yet and it looks like a great option, but I want to make sure I have the skills and tools to cut it. I'm not great at this DIY stuff!

Celotex will cut with a breadknife! I too am no DIY expert!!!

3. I have a Kombi which means I don't have the nice large wooden panels covering all the bits that you have. I have the grey panels and lots of bits of metal work. How easy do you think it will be to carpet it given this fact? Do you think I should buy some plywood to add in to the van, or should I just carpet straight over the top of everything when I'm done insulating?

If possible I would go the ply-panel route. There's loads of people up and down the country that should be able to supply pre-cut ply for you such as: PlylineUK
I think the grey VW panels are too flimsy to hold the weight of carpet - don't bin them though, they do a nice job of holding all the insulation in.
Choosing the right carpet is a big factor. Vansport in Penzance do a great range of automotive lining carpet; this stuff has elastic woven in it to make it workable around corners and uneven surfaces - I would highly recommend it.
Carpeting straight over the top of everything sounds a little drastic. The ply-panel route means I can easily remove a panel, check the insulation (and replace if necessary) run any addition wiring for switches, lights, sockets etc at a later date.

I'm quite happy for anyone to 'steal' my ideas; It's only a collection of techniques I've seen on other vans over time anyway!!!!

October update

Just a quick post to say there's not much happening on the van at the moment, although it is being used for it's intended purposes; weekends away, mountainbike trips, vw shows etc.

I'm in the process of initial sketches for the interior layout, also hoping to swap the front twin seat for a single (with swivel base), alloys wheels are being mulled-over for fitment next Spring and money is being saved for all the above! As mentioned before; this is no 'open-chequebook' conversion.

Having said that, there is a potential wallet-emptying weekend just around the corner: November 1st sees a first for the Volkswagen show scene, Busfreeze. Busfreeze is the sister-show to Dubfreeze which takes place in February and is often seen as the opening show of the season, a time to meet up with old friends and buy much-needed parts. Busfreeze will be just the opposite; a closer for the season, time to hibernate for the Winter.

Praise the lowered

Here's a clip of the van lowered 40mm using H&R springs:

Khyam impressions in the rain...

Just back from the second holiday of the year with the Khyam Motordome awning. Cornwall this time around treated us to more 'normal' conditions after June's rain-less week, this time we had a few downpours and gusty moments, thankfully only during the night.

The awning stayed pretty water-tight, rain tends to pool a bit on top of the section that connects to the van - you need to be careful when disconnecting not to give yourself an unsuspected cold shower! Other than that, everything inside the tent remained bone-dry.

It felt pretty stable during the winds too, at no point did I feel like waking up and hanging on for dear-life!

The addition of a proper shaped Khyam Groundsheet combined with the Khyam Carpet made for a comfortable end-of-summer break.

As much as I love sleeping under canvas, I miss having a bed in the van - there's not much scope for a lie-in when the sun's up a nature is in full song, so our plans to fit a bed in the van are being brought forward.

Gimme shelter

For the forthcoming weekend away at the Run to the Hills show I thought it would be a good opportunity to get the old canopy out.

Bought from Bluebird Customs, the canopy was originally used on our old T3 camper, it was just the right length. The overall length of the T5 roof line is a bit shorter than that of the T3 so there's a little overhang front and back.

It looks okay though. And for a short weekend where it's too much hassle to take the big Khyam, this should do the trick!

Oh, the van's finally lowered too - did you notice?

T5 and a half

Here's the 2010 facelift of our favourite VW van.

I'm hoping it's a grower because right now the jury's out on the new nose. It's understandably very 'scirroco-esque' in-line with Volkswagen's range, especially the next Polo:


The whole 'Facelift' thing is a tricky one to get right. In the case of the next-gen T5 it feels a little 'bolted-on', it's a shame some of the lines didn't flow further down the sides of the van. Expense in re-tooling is clearly the issue.

As our current T5 will be a 'keeper' for quite some time I'm hoping that the original T5 will be remembered as one of the last 'good-looking' Transporters. Only time will tell...

Show report: Tatton Park

A great show for the discerning rim-perv!

For quite a few years now the VW-Northwest show at Tatton Park has become increasingly bias towards the water-cooled end of the VW spectrum.

As a one-time air-cooled vee-dubber I used to sneer at the Golf-boys with their shonky 'modified' cars and rattly bass bins...

But all this has changed.

The water-cooled scene has been maturing nicely and there seems to a higher benchmark of vehicle quality. Restorations and body-finishes that would rival even the finest classic v-dub, subtle styling cues, none of the brash, in-your-face nineties stuff. This is carefully considered, passionate and high quality work.

T5s were in limited numbers - there were a few around. T4s seem to be everywhere in the car park - where do they all come from?

All-in-all a great show, the weather helped too. As one-day shows go it's up there with the best.

Look out for future blog posts where I try and decide which wheels are going to look best on the van - Tatton certainly provided lots of fuel for thought!

Time to Escape...

Here's a cool little 'making-of' video from Volkswagen's summer campaign; VW Escape

You were right to go lower...

...as Bruce Forsyth used to say!


Whilst chatting to Graham at Exploria about some new cab seats, we deviated onto the subject of lowering springs.

Exploria stock the finest in german-spec (TüV approved) springs from H&R perfect for bringing you VW T5 that bit nearer the ground.


There's more to lowering your van than just the cosmetic appearance.

Here's the before:


And (with a little help from Photoshop) here's the projected outcome:


The springs provide a lower center of gravity and reduce body roll for better handling, no more of that van-wallow when diving into corners. A full report will follow when the springs are fitted.

Mr. Smith - an update

So the time has come for the van to go in for repairs. Aire Valley Workshop have said around three days for the work, including bodywork to the rear arch, so there having the van from tomorrow; Monday, until next Saturday.

After several phone calls from Mr. Smith's insurance company about a replacement vehicle we have ended up with a bottom-of-the-foodchain spec Ford Ka. Unimpressed.

They first asked if we needed a replacement van. No, not necessary, a car will be fine. About Golf-size? Yes, great a Golf for a week would be fine.

So we turn up at Europcar to be shown to a Vauxhall Vivaro van. Nah, not we asked for...

You can have a Vauxhall Corsa Automatic or a Ford Ka.

Great...

This coming week can't go fast enough.

Introducing Mr. Smith...

What a guy!

Mr. Smith was kind enough to introduce his trailer to the back of the van on Friday evening, he introduced it so well he lifted the rear of the van clear of the ground. Not to mention pushing our stationery vehicle forwards by around four feet - the van was parallel to the kerb!!!

At first glance Mr. Smith assumed the damage was minimal until he walked around to the rear of the van to notice it's three-wheel stance and let out a repeating sentence of 'oh shit, oh shit, oh shit'. Which I think, in Mr. Smith's language, is his way of saying 'I'm sorry'.

I asked him if the trailer was hired (that's his deposit gone!) and he said 'yes', which probably puts Mr. Smith in the realm of 'casual tow-er' and gives reason for him forgetting he had a trailer behind his vehicle.

Here's the damage:



He's managed to crumple the metalwork behind the bumper, push the bumper upwards into the tailgate (which now won't open!), bend several bits of metal underneath and break several bits of under-body plastic. Oh, and the reflector is toast.

With a bit of luck, the guys at Aire Valley Workshop (an independent VW shop run by ex-Volkswagen staff) in Skipton will be looking at the repair job.

Thanks again Mr. Smith.

Rear window

Just a quick post to mention the rear window was fitted whilst on another trip to Cornwall.

Professionally done by the guys at Vansport again.

One in a million

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles produced the one millionth vehicle of the T5 series on the 1st of July 2009 at the Hanover plant. The vehicle is a Transporter Van 1.9 l TDI 62 kW in tornado red.

They've still got some way to go to beat the previous 1.7 million T4's built at Hanover.

Amazingly with so many vans around, I'm still struggling to get VW to source me a single passenger seat to replace the current twin seat at a reasonable cost!

Camping items

As a little digression from the van conversion, here's a few items to help your camping trip feel that little bit less stressful:


Click the image for a bigger version.

1. Roberts Solar-Powered DAB Digital Radio
This stylish and compact portable radio has a solar panel integrated into the top of the unit which absorbs direct sunlight in order to power the radio. There is a level indicator on the display screen that shows the power level generated by the solar panel. Under good conditions, there is sufficient power generated to charge the batteries and power the radio. For more info click here.

2. Gas hob
These can be picked up for as little as a fiver. They take easy-to-change gas cans (also really cheap) and save faffing around with Camping Gaz refills etc.

3. Cooler Box
Although this has the ability to run from 12v DC, we tend to use ice packs. It keeps milk (and, more importantly, beer) ice cold for up to 24 hours before changing ice packs/plugging in. Covering yours in stickers is optional!

4. Eurohike wind-up lanterns
Again, as with the radio, the days of being a slave to batteries are over! These lanterns are bright enough after just a few minutes winding, or top them up via 12v DC whilst on the move. Available here.

5. Gas heater
Okay, so I don't like being cold! Warm summer days often mean cold nights. What better item to take off the chill than a gas heater. Running off the same cheap gas cans as the hob mentioned earlier, this heater only needs to be on for a few minutes to warm up a decent sized tent.

6. Easycamp folding kitchen table
When living away from home it's often the little items that easily start to bug, like not having enough places to put things! A welcome addition is this fold-up kitchen unit, available here.

7. Roll-up table
Same as above really, except this version rolls-up into a tiny bag. They can be picked up for next to nothing at most outdoor suppliers.

8. Mini camping table
These little beauties are indispensable! We've got a few. Use the to put a light on, a beer, a book, sit on it, stand on it (carefully), and they fold away to nothing.

I'll try and do a few more of these posts as time goes on.

Khyam first impressions

I am pretty impressed with the Khyam Motordome awning. The Rapidex pole system means the awning is up in less than 10 minutes - in fact it took longer to put all the pegs in than it did to get the thing up!

With three square metres of living space and the double bedroom setup left as one big bedroom, the two of us had more than enough space.

The only down-side is that there are no internal poles and hence nothing to 'hang' anything on inside, just one small hooking point for a lantern.

As an extra luxury, we also treated ourselves to a Khyam tent carpet; a thermal-lined and fleecy groundsheet, much better than those old plastic groundsheets!

Multirail (part three)

So here's the Multirail in use...


To attach to the awning; position the van, slide on the double-edged beading strip, then holding the awning bead and beaded strip, feed the figure of eight strip between the two.

To detach the awning simply pull the double-edged beading strip out of the Multirail end and you're done.

No unsightly ropes slung over the van, quick and easy. If you've got a T5 and want a drive-away awning this option, although more expensive, is well worth it!

Multirail (part two)

Front and rear sections are now fitted. Next camping trip will see the Multirail in action!

Multirail (part one)

Vehicle design is a wonderful thing. Every generation of a certain model becomes increasingly more refined, lines get smoothed, tidied and updated. Unfortunately trends change - in the case of the Volkswagen Transporter, the gutters have disappeared. They left us after the third generation van.


Our old T3 camper was often extended with a canopy or drive-away awning hanging from the gutter, something we're keen to retain on the new van, but how?

We had a long chat with Mark from Fishbrain; the company we have just bought the Khyam awning from, his recommendation was a Reimo Multirail:


A myriad of awning and canopy attachments are possible using the standard 'figure of eight' strip as used by most awning manufacturers. This seemed the most sensible (but not cheapest) option to go for. Other options include ropes going over the top of the van's paintwork. Simply not an option for us.

So off we go. First step is to mask the length of the van and offer the Multirail up and mark the drill holes. Check, check and check again.


Notice any small gaps above and below windows have been covered with masking tape, this stops the small shards of metal from drilling getting anywhere near the rubbers.


Don't be put-off by the Multirail being 'dead-straight', it will curve to the contour of the van when screwed and bonded into place.


Deep breath... and drill! There's no going back at this stage. Roughen the paintwork between the holes to help the bonding process.


Add the bonding (sikaflex style bonding material) to the Multirail. Clean the van surface with an acetone-based 'panel-wipe' and offer-up the Multirail.

Starting at the front, first two screws in, then work your way down the length of the van.

Just as we got to this point the heavens opened. Rain-stopped play - hence the part one in the title of this post!

Check back soon (if the rain ever stops!) to see the final result.

UPDATE: Here's all the other blog posts about the Multirail.