Walls are lined, now for something to stand on...

After insulating the walls I screwed hardbooard to the battening to line them.  That was pretty simple and boring so I`ll skip that and move on to the floor.

I decided to raise the floor slightly as the van is very tall,  it allows me to fit insulation underneath to keep the heat in, and I can sink certain items into it (gas bottles, water tank etc) to save space in the cupboards.  I turned planks of 75mm x 15mm on their sides and screwed them to the floor with screw blocks, then laid my insulation between them and screwed 18mm ply ontop of the planks.   I reused the ply I removed earlier so only had to buy one sheet.  Once it was fully plyed I laid Hardboard on top of the ply to make a smooth layer for my final finish.. vinyl, to be glued onto.  The vinyl was bought from Ebay, and as I go through a website called Topcashback.com to shop on ebay, I receive 60% of ebays fees for the sale, as cashback to my bank account.  Its a very good site if you shop on the internet as you can get cashback on most purchases just for going through their site.. check it out! 

From start to finish -  (I also made a small triangular cutaway in the floor by the side door which will be a step)

I got some ribbed rubber for the step from ebay and some angle aluminium to screw onto the corners of the floor.

Gotta keep the heat in....

Behind the ply walls I found the original insulation had deteriorated and fallen down over time.  It made sense to replace this with new insulation while the walls were apart. It`ll keep the van warmer and save on heating bills.  I shopped around for the insulation and decided to go with 200mm thick Top Up Loft Insulation from B&Q.  The price played a big part in my decision as B&Q had an offer of buy one get one free.   £6 for six rolls that turns out to be.  I`ve split it in half so its actually 100mm thick and therefore I have twice as much again!  I have plenty left over for the floor when I get round to it.
I`ll give away whats left to freecycle.co.uk.   Wouldnt want anything to go to waste.

These are `before and after` pics.  Looks a lot warmer now, I`m sure it`ll keep the noise out too, (or in, if required).

Now the insulations fitted, its time to ply the walls. Before I ply them I will add more Battening between the sections. This will have a few jobs, its an extra point to secure the ply, a fixed and secure point for any cupboards to be secured to, and lastly it will prevent the insulation from falling if the glue fails in time.

Lots of cuts and burns later....

Welding Continued..                   

 Before and After! 

As you can see, the area around the arches and where they meet the floor were the worst bits.  I patched it all up, then stonechipped it.

Now the weldings finished I can start rebuilding the inside.  Safe in the knowledge I wont be falling through the floor anytime soon.

The Work Starts!! Ooooh Scary....

The first thing I decided to do was remove everything from the vehicle, including the entire floor, insulation, ply etc. Any wood worth keeping (I found the home made cupboards used 22mm ply, ideal for the floor) I stored in the overhead bed/storage area. The rest of the wood? Well it was Bonfire Night, so it went up in flames... Made a good fire too.




I also decided to keep the original fresh water pump, Zig electric box, and fresh water level sensor, the water tank itself was quite large as the van originally had a shower, though as its only me that will be using the van and I`m not fitting a shower such a large tank isnt required. I will put it on ebay and find a smaller one to conserve space.


The Weld........

Here is a pic of the N/ S wheel arch, welding in progress ->





Once I had removed everything from the inside, I could then see the state of corrosion that had
occured over 22 years of motorhoming. Around the top and bottom of both the wheel arches were the worst areas, fortunately the floor pan itself was relativly intact.

In the begining....

Hi,

This is my Talbot Camelot I bought from a chap just up the road from me. I`d been thinking about converting a van for a while, so when this turned up on the side of the road with a `For Sale - £700` sign in the window I decided to take a look. On the phone the seller said it overheated occasionally so I was rightly cautious of water leaks/headgasket problems etc. The man was nice enough to let me carry out a headgasket test on it at my workplace, where I found it did indeed have a blown headgasket/cracked head. After explaining to the seller this was quite a big issue he lowered the price by £250 to £450. The interior was old and damaged, and the sink, cooker, shower were all missing, therefore I knew a full refurbishment was in need. As my original intention was to convert a bare Van, I didnt see this as a problem, nothing more than I had planned after all. Therefore I departed with £450 and drove away in my `new` camper. ...