De-Amber-ing

A quick Saturday morning job that even my incompetent hands can deal with.

The purity of vehicle design is often compromised when the safety-bods get involved. One thing I find always lets down the clean lines of a vehicle is the need for amber indicators.

Whilst at Dubfreeze last weekend I noticed the nice people at CMC were doing some rather nice looking replacements; LED-style, smoked-red, and a nice version which was 'factory' looking but without an amber lens section.

So here's the gratuitous 'before' shot:


And here's the after:


To avoid the dreaded 'fried-egg' look of an amber bulb in a clear lens, I also fitted Ring Automotive's Silver Enigma bulbs which look silver but illuminate amber.
I'll be fitting the same to the front and side repeaters soon...

Windows in...

To continue with the 'campsite credibility' theme, another of our must do as soon as possible jobs was to have a second row of windows fitted.


After phoning around for answers to questions and prices we chose Vansport to take on the job.

For those that aren't aware, Vansport are based on the outskirts of Penzance. We are based in Skipton, North Yorkshire...

ROAD-TRIP!!!!!

If nothing else it was a chance to stretch the van's legs and get some miles under our belt. An 800 mile round-trip has made me realise we need to get the twin passenger seat swapped for a single, it's a bit of a back-breaker!

So why did we choose Vansport?

Their website seemed knowledgeable, their windows don't leak (unlike some factory windows) and they were the friendliest people to deal with.

They also offered a bit of discount due to us being members of the Brick-yard forum; a helpful place for all your VW Transporter queries, questions and advice.

Bulkhead out...

Like any new toy, you can't help but start playing with it. One of our first jobs was to give the van a bit of campsite-credibility - it doesn't go down too well when you turn up to a fancy campsite in nothing more than a builder's van.

So off we go, job one: bulkhead out.
Whilst searching for the right van one of the stipulations was that if it was a panel van it must have a removable bulkhead. Compared to the old T3 which was a day of attacking factory welds with an angle-grinder rendering my poor mechanic friend deaf for a week, this was going to be easy, even for me. One spanner required, work your way around the bulkhead, slide it out, simple.


Well, almost. The top of the bulkhead panel is hooked over at the top and requires a bit of force. You know the kind of force: keep pulling until it feels like it should come out, then keep pulling until it feels like you're going to break something. That's the point we got to and then decided to take a quick trip 'round to the local Volkswagen dealership.

Ten minutes later (and no charge) saw the bulkhead sat in the back of the van and all the nuts in a tidy little box. Thanks Volkswagen. I'd rather they break something than me do it and end up in the doghouse!

The bulkhead is now for sale and may end up on eBay, get in touch if it's something you're looking for.

Let's kick things off with a goodbye

At the beginning of February 2009, my partner Nikki and I decided enough was enough when it came to the old T3 camper van we had. The miles were starting to take their toll and the amount of use per year against the cost of road tax made us rethink our camping and weekend strategies.

In the early days the romance of cruising down the motorway with your buddies at 60mph was fantastic. But it's amazing how quickly the rose-tinted view fades into the reality of overheating in traffic jams, heavy, un-powered steering, an untrustworthy handbrake (no good in Cornwall!), and a general feeling of 'are we going to get there' when first turning the key.

Don't get me wrong, it's been a great little van. It's never left us in the lurch on a motorway hard shoulder and never really let us down at all - you could call it a touch of the old 'classic motoring paranoia' creeping in!


We put a lot into the T3. It started out as a £500 panel van, completely bare inside. We changed just about everything, adding quite a few caravelle upgrades, Porsche wheels, a handbuilt interior, Recaro seats, a nice big stereo, the list goes on and on...

We're lucky enough to sell it on to friends who will enjoy it as we first did and, hopefully, we should see the van quite a bit at Volkswagen shows up and down the country.

So the van has sold. We also traded in a perfectly good VW Polo too, we raided our savings and finally found this...



A Stone Blue VW T5 174 2.5TDI. A van we can use every day to get to work, then sling some camping gear and mountainbikes in the back at the weekend. Instant, worry-free camper-vanning that we've been craving for a number of years.

So this blog will be the continual updating and upgrading from panel van to camper van over then next few years. I'll try and give away some hints and tips throughout the conversion. I'll be suggesting links of parts and accessory suppliers along the way.

Here's to a great journey!