Been 11 days since the last update, and i've been working about 5 or 6 of those days on the van, the day's I wasn't working on the van I was either resting.. having the type of arthritis I have means I can do things, but I 'pay' for it the next day, other day's 'off' were spent going to Magnum motorhomes and O'Leary's to buy more supplies, the trip to O'Leary's is not one I'm fond of, got some good stuff, found out the next day I could have saved £20 just by showing my SBMCC membership card as I'd spent over £200 there, and yesterday I got an NIP from the dibble saying I'd been caught by a speed camera doing 47 mph in a 40 zone, it was the bloody A63 ferchrissake, hardly a residential area, I guess my only consolidation was I was keeping up with the other traffic, so I wouldn't be the only one to get one.. but it's 3 points on my clean licence, and a 60 quid fine.. for 7mph over the limit, somehow I would have felt happier paying up if I had been stopped by a live policeman, not flashed by a roadside money-maker.. sorry gatso.

Anyway, first time for everything as they say, luckily my insurance company aren't bothered by the addition to my licence at the moment, declare it at renewal next year and see what happens, the policy I'm a named driver on a car with wasn't so obliging, they want more money right now because of it!!

Anyway, I'm also finally about to get an intercooler on my van, i've had the actual intercooler for months, bought a brand new one from E-bay for £60, I just needed the pipes to plumb it in, my insurers aren't bothered about me fitting the intercooler at all, I'm only doing it for better fuel economy and not power, so I wont be changing the turbo and injection pump to allow more power, but the other day the iveco scrap yard got a intercooled van in, which I got first refusal on the pipe work, just waiting for them to be taken off now.

I guess we've been working a lot on the van and not taking pictures, so there now follows a load of photo's of what's been going on in the past week or so...

Took me a day to make the partition wall for the bathroom, I didn't get any pictures of it being built, but basically it's a frame of 1x1 inch timber batons, then the wall board glued and stapled onto the batons to make the wall and doorway, i've insulated between the cavity of the wall too, just for good measure, prolly more for sound insulation than anything else.

Forward a few days, and the shower tray is in, just glued it to the floor using carbond from O'Leary's, this is a mastic type glue, kinda like no more nails DIY shops sell, but this stuff actually works :)

the frame around the cubicle was built the same was as the wall, and you can see here roughly how it's done, the walls for the shower are waterproof wall board sold by Magnums for showers, I fitted a proper bottle type trap to the drain of the shower, this means it popped down under the van, but I'll insulate it, and if it ever does freeze the small amount of water that's in there, it'll do no harm as it's free to expand, and I'll just run some hot water to melt the ice, or pour a little drinking water antifreeze down the trap if freezing weather is expected,

And no that's not dandruff in the shower tray, it's polystyrene balls from the van's insulation, the next pic shows why it's there...

I've just cut a hole in the roof for the roof vent above the shower stall, this way all the steam goes straight up and out of the van, the wires visible are for the lights that will be added later and the fan that's a later addition, they'll be hidden by the Perspex ceiling.

Here's the Perspex roof I mentioned, it's just a sheet of white Perspex sheet/plexi glass, i've used plastic glazing strips to hold the corners in place, and the roof vent trim holds the middle in, there's a 1/2 inch gap between this and the real roof, and that's where a couple of cold cathode fluorescent tubes will go, shining down through the Perspex to illuminate the shower cubicle, lights are totally protected from the water vapour, and aren't visible when they're not on.

The shower it's self, bought from CAK again, for the not so bargain price of £80 in total, the riser bar is sold separate, but they tell you no other one will work with the shower head, the shower head is up at this angle as it falls out of the holder if it's in the normal position when you drive down the road, so I'm not that pleased at that, I'll sort it tho, I wanted a white single lever shower, no need for a on/off shower head then, and apart from the riser bar not gripping the head well, it's nice, worth the asking price I'm not so sure tho.

And the shower doors, I got a bi-fold door from Magnums for £20, it's got frosted Perspex instead of glass, so it is a proper motorhome item, bargain at that price I thought.

Running the water pipes here, they're all insulated, I'm using the 12mm semi rigid pipe work for the plumbing to the taps, there will be a short length of flexible pipe between the pump and the semi rigid pipe work, to cut down on the vibrations that travel down the pipes in some vans, there will also be flexible pipe from the tank to the pump, as i've had water freeze in the flexi pipe before, and no damage was done, as the pipe expanded to accommodate it, the semi rigid pipe splits when water freezes in it.

Between the 2 pipes here is a length of 32mm waste water pipe, it's not for water here, it's a duct for any wires I want to pull through from the living area to the bathroom at a later date, it'll be hidden down the back of the wardrobe when that's built.

The toilet was fitted a few days ago, pretty simple stuff really, got a whopping great hole behind it in the wall of the van for the access door to the holding tank, fit the door, screw the bog down from the back, attach the water pipe to it, close the door, job done :)

We picked up the sink and sink top from magnums, worktop was a tenner and the vanity sink was £20, I got the single lever mixer taps from O'Leary's for £35, and the rest I built my self.

The curved part was not that hard to make once I'd thought about it, I bought 6 pieces of 6 by 1 inch wood, 3 foot long, marked them to length diagonally across the front of the vanity unit top, then marked the curve on it, and cut them out on the band saw.

I then made a frame out of the wood, and got a sheet of 3mm cherry faced ply, using the circular saw I cut a load of grooves in the back about 1mm deep, this allowed me to bend the ply around the frames, then I used some carbond glue, and a few screws that will be hidden later to form it round the curved frame, simple really :)

The door on the curved part was planned and the frame work built to accommodate it, once the glue had set I cut the panel with a saw, attached hinges and was done, it needs finishing off with trim strips, but that's a little later on.

The flat part was a sheet of 12mm furniture board, cherry faced again, the door was made by cutting the hole out, and then I attached some moulding Magnums sell for making doors around the outside edges of the cut out piece of wood, kinda like a picture frame, this added 1/2 and inch all round the door, and allowed me to use the cut out bit of wood for the door, so the grain matches perfectly, and you don't waste any wood, much better than buying the doors and cutting the holes to suit, this way I can have any door from a 2 inch by 2 inch one, to a 8 by 4 foot one if I wanted :)

A couple of hidden hinges finish the door off, these are fitted to overhead lockers on most new coachbuilt vans, they are self supporting, i.e. the door stays up when used for a top opening cupboard door, no need for a separate spring bar, cost is £3.50 each, but compare that to about a quid for 2 hinges, plus upto 5 quid per spring bar, these are very neat and cost effective.

A shot of the vanity sink from the top, the plug is a standard home item, the taps are plastic, standard motorhome weight saving things, but are kinda cute, I don't usually like chrome or stainless type taps, but here they seem to work.. besides I have not found a white short spout single lever tap yet.

The household plug ment household bottle traps can be used, along with 32mm pipe work, no slow draining sink for me, or smells from the waste tank.

A few shots of the wardrobe, I basically took a sheet of 12mm furniture board, cut it to fit the profile of the place it was going to live.. so the side of the shower cubicle, then marked out where I wanted doors and drawers, I then cut them out on the table saw, I lined the cutting lines with the blade, and after removing the splitter bar from the saw, I turned it on and wound the blade up through the wood, then cut along the lines as needed, took a while, but I got straight lines, I had to make the corner cuts by hand with a tennon saw, and again I'll be using the cut outs for the door fronts, the wardrobe door is built, then I ran out of door edge moulding, in the first pic below the wardrobe door, will be firstly a drop down flap, below that are 3 drawers, the space to the right of the drawers will be accessed from the drop down flap, and will be for dirty laundry.

Above the wardrobe door will be a lift up flap with a storage shelf, i've prolly got as much if not more storage in my bathroom that some vans have in their entire conversion :) I am basing my van roughly on a design sold as a 6 berth model, but I guess it's better to have too much storage space than not enough, easier to leave a cupboard empty than have them all full :)

A shot down the laundry storage bin, there will be a false floor down there to cover up the water pipes and heating ducting, and there will be a laundry bag to line the bin, also a flap in the base of the wardrobe will allow me to lift it out if it's over full. now where to put the washer and dryer so we don't have to go to the laundry :)

The picture to the right here is of the light in the bathroom, this was a purchase from B&Q, cost me £30, and it was obviously mains, had 2 60 watt bulb holders in it, which I promptly ripped out ,and fitted in their place a 2D 12 volt fluorescent light fixture, this gives me a stylish light, that runs on 12 volts, and boy does it chuck out some light, this pic was taken with flash, so the bulb looks green, but you can see the bulb glowing through the bright flash, I like it, does it's job and makes it look stylish at the same time :)

Finals shot in the bathroom for now, this is the back window, the blind is up as it's night time, and that's the reversing camera's temporary position, I just screwed a 2x2 wooden block to a seam in the wall board, so when I take it down the cover strip will hide the screw holes, to that I screwed some wood for a drop arm, and screwed the camera to the bottom of that, the big silver box is the regulator for this camera, as it runs on 9 volts not the 12 to 15 volts you get in a vehicles charging system.

Tomorrow I'm buying a clear lidded plastic box, the type used to house electrical connections outside, this will be put above the window, with a cut out to allow the clear lid to act like a window of the camera, this means the camera lives inside, and looks out of it's own window, and can't be got at by thieving scrotes.

Just a shot showing the main living area's fan light surround in full operation, I'm not sure whether to change those halogen bulbs out for led's now, they do give a nice glow, kinda mood lighting, of course with them pulling almost 4 amps in use, they'll only be used when I'm on electric hook up, but at least I don't have to use them.

To the Right is the living area light, same deal as the bathroom on, ex mains light, with a 12 volt 2D fluorescent in it, those wires will be hidden soon...

Still on the lights, this is the awning/outside light, CAK tanks sell them for about 30 quid, fists over the caravan type entry door, and looks the part, it is a fluorescent light, just the power of the flash I had to use makes it look dim.

You can also see another recent addition, the entry handle, this is to help me get in and out of the van, but it's also a security bar for the entry door, as it folds flat against the door and locks in place to prevent the door being forced open..  this is what it looks like in the locked position.

Remember those wires running across the roof, well firstly all this wiring is temporary, well it's hooked up temporary just to allow me to run the lights etc, when I'm done all the wiring will be hidden the ones going across the roof will be in this D moulding, O'Leary's sell it for about 3 quid an 8 foot length, I saw it in their vans as a finishing strip where the wall boards join, then I found out it's in 2 parts, a backing piece, and a hollow clip on front, this gives space to put wired in the hollow, bloody good idea, here the wires to the outside light go down the wall and out of it, hidden behind a trim finishing strip.

This is the wiring on the other side of the van, I basically hooked the battery up temporarily, ran a wire from it to the middle of the van, and I added some spade terminals for the lights etc, I just plug in what I want on, it works, looks like a rats nest sure, but it does it's job, and it is temporary, better than working in the dark I guess.

Here's the business end of the wiring, the battery box you saw me fitting last week, this is to house the battery charger and inverter, but for now it has the battery in it, hence the charger is on the floor where the batteries will live (I'll have 3 eventually) the mains consumer unit is where it will live, on the side of the electrics locker, the locker is also the mains inlet point, the black thing is a fan heater, my only source of heat at the moment, and the 2 black pipes going through the floor are the fuel  tank fillers, you may remember I fitted a second tank to my van, it's not connected up yet, but will be soon, tho I will only run on one tank in England, but when abroad and fuel can be had for as little as 38 pence per litre, I'll fill em both up and double my range.

Here's the entry door to the bathroom, just a piece of 12mm furniture board, with the door edge moulding added, very simple, cheap, and looks nice, and fit's exactly :)

i've fitted one of those push to unlock knobs, I'll need to add the top and bottom bars to stop the door rattling as I drive along, but with the door between the cab, I don't really notice the rattles from the doors, still gonna fit them tho.

Onto the outside now, this is the toilet holding tank access door, yes I have taken the paint off around the door, the tape came off the jigsaw sole plate without me noticing, so it scratched the very thin paint alli panels have on them off, I'll get it touched in when the cab's re-sprayed later on.

This is the other side of the van, and the electrics locker, the mains inlet is inside the locker door, so gets locked in, the cable passes through a cut out in the door, so it's not trapped there, this is a ZIG battery box, but thetford sell one that holds the battery the other way round nowadays, prolly a better choice if a battery is in there, but I wanted the zig one as it gives me 2 long sides, one for the charger and one for the inverter.

I ordered some LED side marker lights from America a few weeks ago, they cost me 6 dollars each, which was about £3.50 each, they are 12 led versions, so very bright, it's hard to get 12 led side lights over here, and not for £3.50 each,

I also got a couple of indicator bulb led replacements, but they aren't bright enough for my liking, so I modified them to side facing (I'll detail that later) and stuck them in the front original iveco side marker lights behind the cab, be warned anyone copying this, on my iveco the red wire to the side marker lights is negative, luckily the led's clusters have reverse polarity diodes in them, but it blew the fuses for the side light circuit first, I swapped the wires over and they all worked fine, there's a red light shining to the side from the rear lights not shown in this show, the van really lights up at night, and I plan more lights along the roof line, you can just see the headlamp sidelights...

I ordered some very very very very bright white led's from America a few months ago, 1200 mcd's for those who know what that means, here i've just made up the first of my own bulb replacement led's clusters, I took the normal bulb out, smashed the glass off the base, drilled out the glass cement, de-soldered the wire from the centre electrode, then soldered 3 led's together in series, added a resistor to run them at 25 milliamps, heat shrink around the bare leads, then soldered the resistor through the centre contact on the bulb base, and the negative side of the led array to the side of the base, plugged it in, and this is the result, a very white/blue light, a hell of a lot nicer than the orange glow of the light I haven't converted in the photo yet.

I'm afraid that that's all for this part of the site, we have lost the photo's of the rest of the work we did on the van, so i'm afraid this part will never be finished, the van is complete and in use now,