The Adventures of Eddie the Bay Window Camper

The Adventures of Eddie the Bay Window Camper This is the home page of Eddie, a 1972 Camper. Like our page to share along our journey.

Here we will share his adventures from his restoration through to mishaps on the road along with the memories that we make with him.

Some work taking place, some intricate cuts and welds ensuring everything lined up perfectly.
04/07/2024

Some work taking place, some intricate cuts and welds ensuring everything lined up perfectly.

Upon the engine removal it was noticed that there was a small leak coming from one of the rocker covers. Nothing major b...
04/07/2024

Upon the engine removal it was noticed that there was a small leak coming from one of the rocker covers. Nothing major but certainly worth checking out rather than pleading ignorant. With John and Stu's supervision not only didn't I carry out my first engine removal the guys invited me back to strip the engine down ready for a new gasket rebuild. So gaskets ordered from Veewee. A complete set cost £9 so not going to break the bank.

While the engine is stripped down we will be giving the block a steam clean, getting rid of all the old crap that decided to live in all the grooves. Everything has had a good exfoliation with a wire brush. Like a good student I took my tin work home with me like homework.

So today I have taken the tin work and fan housing to my local car wash and got a 10 minute pressure wash gimmick. After backing the civic up to the pressure washer I got my tin work out and laid it out like a manly pic nic. I even had time to give the civic a once over. Two birds with one stone.

The plan was to clean the tin work to a state where it can be prepped for a quick splash of paint.

Although the paint was not necessary. It certainly looked nicer especially with the new tinware that was originally missing.

April 1st 2015 - What an ironic day. April fools was well and truly in swing. This was the day that Eddie was gutted an...
04/07/2024

April 1st 2015 - What an ironic day. April fools was well and truly in swing. This was the day that Eddie was gutted and taken to have some work done. We has suspicions that he had rear off side damage. His panel grooves were all over the place and even missing. After literally doing a little digging we found the amount of filler used in the rear corner.

Honestly my heart sank. The sole purpose of getting the van was to have something to travel in and make memories. His off-side corner was smashed and rotten.

Some of the pics showed the extent of work that we carried out.

Inner and outer strengthener, a whole rear corner, new battery trays, wheel arch lower skins, new gutter and roof cut. All this just to make him safe

So i had done the essentials to get an MOT Eddie was roadworthy. So naturally lets get away in him and book a campsite. ...
01/07/2024

So i had done the essentials to get an MOT Eddie was roadworthy. So naturally lets get away in him and book a campsite. Do we decided to stay local....Nope, Norfolk to have a weekend away with some family who were already there camping. Unfortunately i was unaware that these old vans needed tinware around their engines to keep the heat out. So naturally about 20 minutes into my first road trip before he cut out
Middle lane at Hinksy hill roundabout, traffic either side and causing chaos. I managed to get the old boy started and got him out the way. After cooling down, i got him back home. Our first adventure ended very prematurely and i wasnt happy.

So with the camping trip aborted and ebay searched for the missing tinware ......what do I do next. My intention was to always get this van straight and then maybe one day get him resprayed. One of the reasons I was disgruntled with the first MOT test station i used I explained how the van had dropped slightly due to a worn sliding door rubber. So when opening and closing the door, support the right hand side. He didn't. Tried to slam the door through the nose panel and it come of the runner and the bottom right corner hit the ground and get the corner to pieces. I initially looked to replace the outer skin and then reuse my door. However, the inner structural side of this did not look brilliant so I'm now in the hunt for a new door. Trying to work my way through the forums and in source a correct fitting door. I ended up chatting with a guy called Simon based down in Wimbourne. NOSVW. We eventually made a date and went for a nice day to retrieve my sliding door and spent the remainder of the day on the beach in Dorset. A really nice part of the country and I would fully recommend to anyone that hasn't been before.

So with a new sliding door in my possession the tedious task of rubbing down the van begins. This is one of the more unsociable tasks of restoration. Even if you had a friend who wasn't fussed about being absolutely covered in paint dust. You couldn't hear yourselves speak with the noise of orbital sanders let alone anything else.

During this whole sanding process I noticed something that would really bug me. Once painted it would probably go unnoticed. But, I would be aware of these imperfections and it would wind me up knowing they are there. Someone had replaced some of the lower panels. Rather than do this with repair skins from places like Alan Schofields or custom and commercial they used sheet steel and literally went across the original seams. They didn't stick to a set height either so on one part was around 6" plated. On the other it grew to around 15". They even filler'd one of the panel seams entirely and the paint started to crack as the chassis moves.

So that was that. Windows out, new panels ordered. The plan was to replace all the lower outer skins B post to B post.

So the plan is; Let's get this bus straight and back to how he should be.

After doing some research dormobile and British weather is truly a match made in hell. At some point in Ed's life someon...
01/07/2024

After doing some research dormobile and British weather is truly a match made in hell. At some point in Ed's life someone rather than replace the roof vents which costs around £30 give or take decided to replace them with some Perspex and plastic. Id assume they were sponsored by a selant company judging by the amount used to bodge this together.

My repair consisted of calling Dormobile and ordering two new vent brackets. Two new roof vents and trying to finds the correct nuts and bolts because I had forgot to order these

The vents come undrilled, so this was a challenge in itself to ensure that everything lined up. As a totally novice DIY'er this was a little daunting to say the least. I was informed that the plastic is prone to crack extremely easy. So this was playing on the back of my mind until the holes were done.

As you can tell by the clouds starting to gather over the van the bright and breezy day soon passed and the rain was fast approaching. There were two large umbrellas on standby ready to fill the holes.

The dormobile roof is fantastic. A large open space when inside with two fold out bunks for the kids. However, I would have thought a UK based company would have made some of the seals a little more water proof.

So as you may have seen from earlier pictures Ed has a mis match of colours. Black rear bumper, white front, wheels were...
01/07/2024

So as you may have seen from earlier pictures Ed has a mis match of colours. Black rear bumper, white front, wheels were scuffed and after getting my list of MOT jobs completed I wanted to simply clean him up a little. I know his paint was still rough, the roof is a different colour but I had to keep to a budget. So some masking tape, some sand paper and some rattle cans of pastel white spray paint, just cleaned him up a little.

This may sound daft but it was really nice to see a visual change take place. I've done things structurally but to see a little 'pop'was nice.

At this stage as you can imagine. I had a millionaires plan to get things done on a shoe string budget. At this point I was starting to realise that Ed was a massive jigsaw puzzle with pieces missing, but no picture to the puzzle to go by. Had I bitten off more than I can chew?

So here were two of my first jobs. Unfortunately at the time I was more wrapped up in Ed rather than thinking about imag...
01/07/2024

So here were two of my first jobs. Unfortunately at the time I was more wrapped up in Ed rather than thinking about images for blogs etc. They were more images so I could remember what I've done.

The seat belt mounting plate was rotten. You could physically feel the bounce. So this needed to be cut out. When I tell you, I learnt as I went. It was at this point I should have remembered to cover my front tyre. Whilst having the time of my life cutting a ruddy big hole in my new van, I could subtly hear a hiss. I thought nothing of it and then realised I was leaning a little more than when I started. So muppet melted his tyre with the sparks from the angle grinder.

The second job that day with a rather lop sided camper was to now work out why the indicator was not flashing and working intermittently. A new flasher relay and a clean up of some classic bullit fuses. If only all jobs were like this.

So, the day was young. The van was out and a good ol scrub to clean him up the best we could. We purchased Ed as an MOT ...
01/07/2024

So, the day was young. The van was out and a good ol scrub to clean him up the best we could. We purchased Ed as an MOT failure, he needed a MOT back then. We were not hoping for miracles with a wash but I think it was more to settle my nerves. How long will the list be? My plan was to start with the serious faults and then work backwards from there.

We took him to a garage, I won't mention any names here but let's say the list was certainly going to keep me busy over the summer. The real problem I had was for the unwelcome comment of "its a rust bucket, you'll never get it on the road". Well my friend that's a challenge and I forgot 🖕.

So, having found out that this guy just doesn't like older cars I decided it was worth another check and a second opinion. This time although I still had some work to do, these guys showed me the important areas to start. Remember I'm no mechanic, nor bodyworker. I'm an idiot who's uncle lent him a few quid to snap this van up quick.

So there's the plan. If I ever find the MOT sheet il upload a picture. Il have it somewhere.

For those that know the vans, it was the usual suspect
😪 chassis rails
😪 seized drums
😪 wheel bearings etc.

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Oxford

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