This page is picture intensive, but they start 2 screens down, so hopefully by the time you've read that far, they will have loaded.

At last, we have our van.. sorry, motorhome back, it's only taken 3 months and 1 day, no work was done on the conversion for the first 2 months as they had been set back by someone who kept changing his mind about the layout he wanted, that kinda had a knock on effect that put everyone's conversion behind schedule, mine went 2 and a half months behind.

So on the 22nd of February me, Sam and her mum and dad went upto Wigan to collect our new van from Nu-venture, apart from getting lost a few times.. thanks to auto route, we got there about 1/2 and hour before they closed for the day.. it was Sunday after all, we drove to the holding area and there she was, we'd been having nightmares about what's we'd see, like a big bulbous Luton section, windows in the wrong place, wrong windows etc, the Luton is a little larger than I wanted, but I had to have it stick out over the windscreen line as they couldn't get screws into the wooden frame otherwise, but I think it looks just right,

We went round to the garage, and they showed us our new van, they'd done the side skirts how I asked, I wanted them 400mm below the floor line, they didn't want to do this for ground clearance reasons, but I have 2 fuel tanks on the van, and guess how much they hang below the floor line.. 400mm, so if the van's going to ground the body, it'll also take the bottom of the fuel tanks off at the same time, I wanted room under the floor to hide all the stuff that's going under there.. gas tank, generator, batteries were originally going under there, storage lockers and so on, one thing I did notice was the entry door was a barn door, I'd asked for a one piece door, thinking it's be more secure, now i've got used to it I can see the advantages of the barn door, I'll be fitting dead locks top and bottom anyway, as well as one of those fiamma lock's that swing out to give you a grab handle when parked.

We paid for the van, bought a few locker doors and a roof vent for the bathroom area, then proceeded to drive upto Todd's motorhomes in Preston, they weren't as big as everyone makes out, but we bought a few more bits and pieces there, then made our way to Oldham to drop off the table saw I'd sold to a bloke of the SBMCC forum, then we headed home.

I was surprised when I first drove off in the van to find she was producing a lot of smoke from the exhaust, this eventually cleared, the throttle was also sticking, something that happens if it's left standing for too long.. 3 months is too long it seems, so I freed the throttle off, and the smoke cleared after about 50 to 100 miles.

We got home and went straight to bed, happy again, she'd driven nicely home, hardly any different from how she drove before the had the new body built, the wind drag is a little higher, but not much, she can still cruise at 70 mph all day, and do 80 or so with ease, the next day we got up and started work on her, the safe T bar was the first thing to go on, then the next day I fitted the step, day after that we went upto magnums, and then fitted the electric step, during this time it kept on snowing on and off, so it wasn't much fun for me, and I was worn out after every day even tho I wasn't doing that much.

When my parents came home dad seemed to like it, but mum was being funny, eventually she said she didn't like it, looked like a horse box she said!! it looks like a motorhome to me, and when I got to brownhills it'll look just like all the others, ok the side skirts are low, but I want to find someone who can make things in fibreglass and get something made up to blend in the transition from the front wheel arch to the coachbuilt body/s skirt, something like boy racers fit to their cars, but not quite so tacky :)

We've already had a few scares in the van, 2nd day we had her, went to the builders yard to get some wood to build the partition wall for the bathroom, and an impatient builder wanted to see if he could squeeze past us, he stopped about 2mm from the body, Sam had a right go at him, then Wednesday, the 3rd day of having out KampenWagen back, we were going to Grimsby to get some parts, and we called at the cob man before we set off for some breakfast, I parked in a nice big space on the side of the road, and as I looked up from turning the engine off, the car that was parked 3 car lengths in front of us was rolling back towards us, it hit the front bumper, luckily at slow speed, when we got out, no one was in it, the owner had left the bloody handbrake off.

No one came out and claimed the car, so we pushed it forwards and onto the pavement, I wanted to push it into the middle of the T junction ahead and leave it there, as we went past a shop a bloke came out screaming at us 'what the hell are you doing with my car' well, I went mad, and told him his car had just rolled into my van, and doesn't he know how to use a handbrake, he put the handbrake on and claimed it had come off on it's own, yet he was willing to trust a faulty handbrake again.. never put it in gear or anything, luckily no damage was done to the van, the bumpers on iveco's are big and heavy things, mines tatty anyway, so if it did crack it, I can't prove it.

We then used a lot more fuel than usual getting to Grimsby, I really don't like that M180, as soon as we get on it, the winds pick up, and we seem to have a head wind all the way, when we come back home, there's still a head wind, as soon as we turned off onto the M1 I was able to back right off the throttle again, and cruise at 70 with 1/2 to 3/4 throttle, like I usually do.

Now for some pictures and more text:

This is one of the first sights we saw, the van sits up high at the rear because of the heavy duty springs iveco's have, I'm going to fit air helper springs sometime, and possibly get a few leaves removed from the spring packs, i've also wound the front suspension up.. handy this being something you can do on an iveco with just a spanner, so she now sits more level, the cut out under the entry door is for a pull out step, and the mass of white behind the door is where the fridge will live, and to the rear of that is the bathroom, if I can find someone able to do air brushing. cheap, I may get something nice painted in that area,

This is the rear end, I'm so glad I went for the profiled back panel, it really finishes it off, the lights are nice, the safe T bar I fitted the day after I got her home, last thing I want is for some fool to run into the back of me and do a lot of damage to my van, the safe T bar is stronger than most car's front ends, so they'll come off worse now :)

You can just make out in this picture the electric step, I did have a pull out step that was going there, but when I fitted it I found it was painful for me to keep bending down to pull it out, on my last van I could open it with my foot, couldn't on this one due to the body type, so when we were at Magnum motorhomes buying furniture and wall boards, we got an electric step very cheap because of how much we were buying.

I also want to get something for those rear wheel arches, they just look too plain at the moment, I'm also going to get some decent stainless steel wheel trims, I was going to buy some last year, but the place that I saw about them at a show, didn't reply to my e-mails asking to buy 2 front sets, (everywhere sells sets for twin rear wheel iveco's, mines single rear wheels, so I basically need 4 front wheel trims)

Were happy with most things on the van, they screwed the electric cables up tho, I asked for some 6 core wire to go to the roof vent, and some 2 core to go to the middle of the ceiling, 2 foot back from the bulkhead, and asked if they could fit the ceiling light I provided, well, I got 2 core wire to the roof vent, and some 6 core wire poked out of the middle of the ceiling, 5 foot back, so I spent a day taking the  ceiling panels down to re-route the wires, not an easy job at all, I then fitted my light in the proper place, and wired in the roof vent's fan and the light surround around it.

This is the interior 4 days after we got her back, i've just ran the wire to the living area overhead light, the white box in the picture is a zig battery locker, I'm using it for my mains inlet and the battery charger and inverter will live where the battery should go, my batteries will be going where the locker is standing now, between the fuel tanks fillers.

You can see the sliding door to the cab, I'd asked for it to be boxed in to make it a pocket door, and this is what I got back, so I had to rip that panelling out and do it properly.

Here's the overhead lights fitted, first pic is the light I made up 6 months ago, I bought a normal mains dome light from B&Q, took the mains fittings out, and fitted a 12 volt 2D fluorescent light inside it, this is one of the square tube lamps) I then turned a decorative ring to stand the light off the ceiling nicely, and this is the result, and it really throws out some light too.
Middle pic is the roof vent and surround light fixtures, the roof vent is a fiamma turbo vent, the top of the range model, polar control and all that, and the light surround is one CAK tanks sell, costs about 50 quid, but I like it, you have two 8 watt fluorescents and 4 10 watt halogen spot lights, they will be changed to LED's pretty soon mind.

The van's not even a week old, and I'm cutting holes in it, this is for the electrics locker to house the mains inlet, battery charger and inverter, it's nice and easy to cut through a coachbuilt body, but that awful gloop the trim is stuck on with is a nightmare to clean off, it's that non setting bedding sealant, it's sticky as hell, and get it on your hands or clothes, and it's very hard to get off, and once it's on you, everything you touch from then on gets it on it too,

There's a hole in me Camper.... this is the hole cut for the electrics locker, that's a screw sticking up below my chin, snapped 3 blades trying to cut through it, before I gave in and pushed the panel in, 2 seconds after this photo was taken I whipped the screw off with the trusty old angle grinder :)

The locker door being offered up to check it fits, and it does, the locker box sits in the hole, then this door frame snaps onto the flange of the box, it's a neat solution, fitted to most caravan's I just thought it would be nicer looking than the usual flush mains inlet plug on the side of the van, with these the cable enterers though a notch in the bottom of the door, and plugs in to the plug inside the box, nice and neat and simple.

This is what the box looks like from the inside.

I'll get a few more pics soon of the locker fitted properly, the band saw I got for my birthday earlier this month came in handy for cutting the cut out panel to size to make the insert for the door, it cut through the wood, foam and alli sheet with ease, and I even managed to get the profiles in the sheet to match up :)

I'd seen another Iveco van Nu-Venture had converted at the Peterborough show, and one thing I didn't like was the fuel filler access, these vans have truck type tanks, to the filler is on the top of the tank it's self, with the van a small access flap like old cars had enables you to get at the filler, but with the new body being 6 inches wider, you wouldn't be able to get the filler nozzle in there, so they put in a thetford toilet locker door, waaay overkill on the size front, as i've got 2 fuel tanks on my van, I'd need 2 great big doors just for the fuel tank access, no way I was having that, so I bought a couple of flush diesel fillers from CAK, got some diesel proof large bore hose from a hydraulics company, fitted breathers in the tanks, and asked the coachbuilders to fit these fillers for me,

I'm glad I got this sorted as it's a really neat solution, much better than an access door to the filler caps.

This pic is to show a few things, the mirrors are different, not only have I sprayed them white, much better than grey ones :) but they are long arm mirrors, as fitted to Luton bodied iveco's, when I drove the van home, the standard van mirrors just didn't stick out enough to give a decent view of the road behind me, the very first thing I did when I got her home was re-fit the reversing cameras, it's just temporarily mounted to look out of the rear window, but it works, later on I'll put in the dedicated small window for the camera,

I got the long arm mirrors from the Iveco scrap yard, they are only about 2 inches longer, but they make all the difference in the world.

The van's up on blocks, my drive slopes downwards, so i've made these platforms so the front end is a little bit more level, you may also be able to see here how much i've raised the front suspension too, compare this with the first picture of the van, she looked a lot better on a level road now the front end isn't pointing downwards.

It's Saturday now, and i've decided to sort out the sliding door area, I'm glad I did, I was told they had insulated behind the panels either side of the door.. hmmm, there's insulation in the void between the original roof and the Luton, but none at all between the hollow wall's, but that's not all...

This is what greeted me on both sides, it's where the body was cut off, this was the strengthening rail that runs around the top of the steel body of the van, I'm not fussed that it's messily cut, it's hidden after all, but what did annoy me is the rust on it, what was wrong with putting a little coat of primer over the cut metal? luckily I did this my self as soon as I put the camera down, but if I hadn't taken these panels down, I'd have never known, until 5 or so years time when the top half of the B pillar rusted out.

Here i've made already finished the new framing and panelled the left hand side of the door way, now I'm finishing off the right hand side, much easier as the door doesn't slide into this wall, you can see the primer i've slapped all over the bare metal area's, there was quite a bit of bare metal beginning to rust already in there as you can see,
Once I'd done the frames, I put in the insulation that should have been there in the first place.

Almost finished now, I just have to fit a panel over the door to finish that area off, then get the router out with a flush trimming bit and cut the edges of the boards flush, they are wavy here deliberately, I'm going to cut them flush when I put the camera down,

It looks a lot better already, I just need to get some edging trim (our local DIY stores don't sell it in any other colour than white now) then the door way is finished.. well almost, a flush fitting sliding door lock would be nice, one day I'll get one I'm sure.

i've carpeted the other side of the door to match with the cab carpet on the back panel, so I'll get some more photo's soon to show what else i've been upto.

That's all for now, I'll continue on this page soon, you can see i've put the mains consumer unit on the side of the electrics locker, I'll be changing the MCB's to give me 4 circuits soon, i've got a battery in the box now, and it's running the lights when I work on the van at night, there's my temporary wiring for that, which I'll show soon too.