Bed and cupboards out

Things have moved on as there was a break in the weather this weekend and I managed a good few hours in the van.   Having removed the cooker last time I was keen to get the rest of the stuff out from that side so that I would have clear access to the seam up the side of the van in case I needed to grind any rust out.  I've pretty much decided now that the whole lot can come and I'll just renew all the panels as well as the carpet.

Some rust around the mains hook up inlet that will need fixing

The main problem was getting the cooker out.  Chatting with Paul at Vale motors, he seemed to think that the cooker went in first (which makes sense) and it seemed clear that removing the bed was crucial.  This was quite simple although it took quite a lot of searching around to find all the screws that held it together.

Underneath the bed box are L brackets holding the box to the floor.  I thought that that would be it, but the thing still wouldn't shift so I had to look some more.  I eventually found some screws inside the cupboard (next to the bed) which screwed in a shelf holder and screwed into the bed.

Once these were out it was a case of giving the whole thing a good heave.  A word of warning here though.  The water pump is attached to the bed for some reason and the water pipe is attached to the ground.  When I heaved the bed out it broke the water pump.  Luckily it was just the filter which was still attached to the pipe and as the pipe was attached to the van it just ripped the end of the filter.

The broken water filter ..oops

This (right) is the water pump that was attached to the bed.  The plastic circle is the water filter and this was attached via a hose which goes underneath the van.   The circle in the middle of the circle is the bit that broke off...it's the inlet that goes into the water pipe.  I found online that they have discontinued this particular filter but another filter that costs £8.00 should do the job.

The L brackets that hold the
cupboard in place

The next job was to remove the cooker cupboard.  Again, it was held down by some L brackets but loosening these didn't work so I had to hunt around for where else it was held together.

I found the culprits in the right hand corner as you look at the cooker.  (see left) The L brackets were accessible once you remove the surround which is pretty straight forward.

Once these screws were removed I had to resist the urge to just hoik it out as I did with the bed. Lucky I did as I found that the copper gas pipe was attached to the base of the cupboard by a piece of plastic.  Once I had cut this off I could pull the cupboard out and free.

The cooker cupboard and the bed have gone

Once everything was out, it was good to see how it was all put together.  One thing that was useful was being able to see down the post to the damage on the rear wing and also to be able to see the seam through a gap in the post.

The floor  around the Carver water heater is slightly rotten which I'm assuming means that there has been some water leakage over the years.  This might account for some mould on a pillow that came out of the bed box.  This should be easy enough to sort.

The view down the post to the rotten wing bottom.

What I'm quite happy about at this stage is that I shouldn't need to remove too much of the electrical equipment from the floor to re-carpet. The Propex heater and water pump are out of the way and as the carver is out of the way under the bed box I might just cut around it rather than risk removing it.

The cuboards above the fridge and cooker are held in by
screws which have rusted (located beneath the letter 'O')

The next thing to do was to try to remove the headlining and side panels in the high top area.  These are both pretty grotty and in desperate need of replacement.  I'm trying to do this without removing the cupboards above the cooker and the fridge, as it will mean pulling out the electrics panel and the carver heater control.  I'm sure this is easy to do but I'd the fewer electrical things I pull out the better.

The material covering the panel on which the cupboard sits is fine and I can live with it.  Besides which the cupboards are held in place by screws which have rusted. If I can't remove the headlining without removing the cupboards then I should be able to dremel these free.

The headlining.  The black lines are dirt where the edge
of the cupboard used to be

The headlining itself is easy enough to remove (I think).  There are screw covers all along the side and once the screws are removed the headlining drops down.  However, I'm struggling to remove a screw behind the cupboard and this is holding me up. I can either dremel it out our remove the cupboard (and all the electrics). I think I might go with the dremel.

Tomorrow I have a mobile welder coming over to look at the work that needs doing from the bump.  I'm not sure whether to replace the entire section including the wheel arch or just fix the base of the wheel arch where I hit the wall and then grind out the rust from the wheel arch and fill.  There isn't much wrong with the wheel arch and I want to keep as much of the VW metal as possible.  Right that's it for the day.  Before I go though can anyone advise how to disconnect the leisure battery.  Do I need to disconnect both batteries give that the leisure battery is fed by the van battery?

The cooker

After a hard day's teaching, I made an early dash for the exit to try to capitalise on the fading light.   Climbing under cupboards and into bed boxes is no fun in the dark, even with a head torch.  After last night's work and my chat with the Auto-Sleepers chap, I was certain I could access the rest of the wheel arch and the rear quarter from behind the cooker.

The scene this evening after last night's work

The first job was to try to get access from the cupboard -  below and to the left of the cooker. The bay directly beneath the cooker with the gas stop cocks in it proved pretty simple.  The screws are all visible and after removing them the panels slip out easily.  However, the propex heater sits directly behind this panel and as I didn't want to remove it at this stage I thought I would try elsewhere.

The cupboard to the left of this, which houses the mains fuses and trip switch proved to be completely baffling.  There is a partition at the back which appears to be held in place by black magic,  so I decided to give it a miss for now and try above.  This proved easier but once again the holy grail of the wheel arch proved elusive.  There was nothing for it but to wrestle with the cooker...grease and all.                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                         

So near yet so far...the scene beneath the cooker with the
propex heater in red and the wheel arch just visible

After a few false starts, I decided that the screws that attached the cooker to the frame would be a good starting point.  I initially mistakenly removed the bolts on top of the hob thinking that the hob would come out first followed by the cooker.  No such luck though.

 After a bit more investigation, I spotted some L brackets cunningly hidden beneath a piece of wood at the front, base of the cooker.   This would need to come out (two screws hold it in place underneath).  Hey presto, once this was out and the copper gas pipe was undone,, the cooker slipped neatly out into my waiting arms - its path helpfully greased by the accumulation of years of bacon butty lard.

The key to success.  Remove this bar and the cooker is yours 

Here the bar is removed revealing the L brackets

Apart from e-coli, the cooker area is lined by what looks alarmingly like asbestos - although the nice chap at Auto-Sleepers assured me that it was something less pernicious.

These panels are easily removed to reveal the Holy Grail - the wheel arches and everything in its immediate environs.  

The cheap insulation stuffed into the panel cavities, was removed to be skipped and hopefully all of the wiring will be able to be moved back during the welding process to keep Big Bess from going up in flames.

Some people have reported that they have had wheel arches replaced without removing the insulation but I'm not sure that I would like to take the risk given that the inner arches might need a spot of welding too.

Removing the cooker lining panels

That's it for the evening.  The final pictures below show the area behind the cooker and the area behind the mains hook up, which as you can see is starting to rust.  I've also been able to check down along the sills for rust and thankfully this all looks to be in pretty good order.

I will now take the van to a body shop to have the damage repaired and then continue to remove the insides and replace the carpets and the panel fabric.  If anyone has any good recommendations for quality fabric, please get in touch

Behind the cooker...I'll add another photo with the insulation
removed when I get the chance

The rust starting to form around the mains hook up opening;

The bump

As you can see, I did a great job of rearranging the side panels.  As it happens, I hit the only panel that already needed some work doing on it,  so initially it seemed like I was onto a winner (in a strange kind of way).   I could now have the soggy seam replaced and resealed, fix the bump and the sill (which had been filled) and whilst I was there, do the wheel arch which looked like it was about to burst forth in a sprinkling of youthful rust.

The bump (bottom) and the rusty seam.

The initial  joy was short lived however, when I did some research and found that the general consensus seemed to be that I should remove the innards (to get at the insulation stuck to the inside panels) before doing any welding.

No problem, I thought.  I've converted my own panel van before.  These things are simple to remove.  Not so the Auto-Sleeper.  In an effort to please the German makers of the van no doubt,   the folk at Auto-Sleepers have over engineered the contents of the van to the extent that simply removing a few screws and driving the van over a few bumps, will not shake the interior free.

A first look had me completely baffled.  I couldn't find any screws or obvious rivets that held things in place and no amount of shaking would reveal where the joins were.  I phoned Auto-Sleepers and spoke to a bloke (who sounded like he made camper vans for a living) and he told me that I should be fine simply removing the cooker ,which would give me access to everything behind (simply removing the cooker...er..right).   I also spoke to Paul at Vale Motors in Tewkesbury, who I bought the van from, and he suggested that I might need to remove the bed.  As it turned out they were both partially wrong or partially right (depending on your personality type).


After another quick dig around inside,  I realised that the soggy seam was behind a pillar inside the van, behind the bed.  My assumption was that this pillar was shielding the seam so that any grinding or welding would not torch the insulation.  There was only one way to find out.  Remove the panelling behind the bed.

To do this, I had to first remove the strip of wood above the panel which seems to hold things together.   This was quickly done by removing the screws which were rather cunningly hidden in the seam of the fabric.

Strip of wood (technical name alert) removed

Once this was removed it was simply a case of finding other screws that held the panel to the side of the van.  These are easy to locate. Simply work along the top of the fabric with a screwdriver and tap away until you find the screw heads.  In most instances they are visible if you care to get a bit closer.

The gap under the window where the strip of wood used to live

There were four or five screws that held the panel in place along the top (under the window) and then it was a case of locating where the panel was held below.  This turned out to be in the bed box (left hand side as you look at it) This is accessible from inside the bed box.

Once these screws were removed, it was a simple enough job of hoiking the panel out to reveal the insulation and the pillar (behind which the offending seam is located).

As it turned out, the insulation in mine looked more like the lining of cheap Matalan jacket so I've added it to the list of things to replace.

Now you see it

Now you don't

Once the insulation is on show, it is easy to move it to the side for any work that is needed on the seam and to help matters, I can access the wheel arch from the bottom right corner.  This doesn't give me unfettered access to the entire wheel arch so the next thing is to see if it can be accessed from behind the cooker furniture.




As you can see from the picture, Auto-Sleepers appear to have sourced the insulation from Woolworths  and consequently it hasn't really stood the test of time.  The glue that holds it to the side of the van has all but disappeared and the insulation itself could do with an upgrade (I'm thinking foil wrapped recycled bottle tops which I used on my previous van and which worked very well).   

This image (right) shows the pillar that hides the seam.   The blue and red pipes are (I believe) for the  hot water heater which is located beneath the bed box.  In the right hand bottom corner is the tube for the propex blown air system vent in the bed box.  Behind this tube (if you shift the insulation) is the wheel arch, which is good news as I need to clear the insulation from around it if I want to weld a new one in.

 It only remains to be seen if I can remove the rest of the insulation without removing the cooker.  After a little digging, I think this is possible but have called it off for the evening as the light is fading,  my torch is running out of battery and I need an ale to take the edge of things.

The beginning

Big Bess in Assynt (Sutherland)

In February of this year  (2015) , I purchased a 1994 Autosleeper Trophy. She (vehicles are always female aren't they?)  seemed to be in great condition, but a bit of poking around soon revealed that she needed a bit of sorting out.  The front wheel arches had been filled and the rear wheel arches  had been 'attended to'.  In addition, there was a visible rust line and some bubbling on the seam between the middle and rear panels (photo to follow)

Apart from that she was in great condition: Better than I was at 21.  Everything worked inside and she drove well - albeit a bit clunky through the gears unless coaxed (a common VW T4 issue it seems).

I managed to put almost 10k miles on her in the first 7 months with two trips to Scotland (one to Assynt in the far north) and two trips to the lake district and a whole lot of shorter trips around Cornwall and Devon.  So far so good.  The only thing that went wrong was one of the poppers that held the Chintzy curtains to the inside panel, came away after a post pub wrestling match.  I solved the problem by removing the chintz completely.

Just recently, though I managed to prang the side of her (she is now called Big Bess) on a gate post and this left me with rather more than I had bargained with.   I naively thought that a trip to a body shop would sort her out.  A bit of welding here and a spot of filler there and she would soon be back on the road.

First things first.   Camper vans like these are filled with insulation which is generally glued to the inside panels.   Any grinding or welding is liable to set this stuff on fire and see your pride and joy disappear in a ball of flame.   Secondly - companies such as Auto-Sleepers, put these vans together on the assumption that you want to go camping.  Not on the assumption that you want to repair them. As such, the inside is bonded, screwed and lined in a manner that makes removal a job for the slightly deranged.  So, here's my blog which will outline how I will remove and renovate the inside of Big Bess.  How I will tackle the rust and how I will probably lose my marbles.