This was the weekend I'd been waiting for over the whole period of having the van; the day we finally talk about putting the pop-top roof in. A day that I had in my mind would be exciting and momentous in the van's project history - in reality, I'm left rather deflated about the whole thing...
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| Photo credit: Paul Nutton |
Those of you that have followed the Stone174 blog
from the first post will have a good idea of the order that things have been done in. The project has always been a
'save a bit, spend a bit' affair, with jobs changing priority as the van has transformed.
The order has gone; windows, lining, bed, electrics, furniture, roof.
Ideally (if it had been an open cheque-book job) it would have been roof, windows, electrics, lining, furniture, bed. Almost completely the opposite way to how we have done it.
So to fit the roof it isn't just a case of whipping out the hacksaw and cutting a hole. To fit the strengthening beams the rear cupboard has to be trimmed. To do this right the interior furniture has to come out. To do this the bed has to come out, To remove the bed, most of the electrics/stereo/lighting have to come out.
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| Photo credit: Paul Nutton |
We always knew it was going to be a bigger project than fitting a roof to an empty van - but can I entrust someone else to pull it all apart and put it back together again?
So far we've only chatted to
GT Campers about this. Their advantages are location, experience, and the right product - a roof from Reimo. They seem to have fitted quite a few and have ironed-out all the little quirks and issues that some less-experienced fitters have had - the marketplace is currently swamped with companies claiming to have the ultimate roof solution, but after a lot of research it seems many people have said
'I wish I had paid the extra and gone for Reimo'.
So. Do I start pulling bits of the van apart myself? Or do I hand it over and say 'everything works, give it me back like this, but with a roof!'
GT have said they only need the van for a week - which scares me a little after recent experiences with the facelift where I was given a similar deadline that over-ran. I'd rather it took two than was rushed in one.
One way or another it will be done this side of Christmas (hopefully) and to cheer us up from the dreaded thought of pulling our beloved camper apart, we ordered camping passes and tickets to next year's Volksworld show. Something to aim for and keep in sight throughout what I hope is going to be a painless process.
