# Betty - my van conversion



## miss jones (Feb 10, 2013)

*Betty - my van conversion - new pics pg 3*

"it's the stupidest thing you have gone and bought, i don't know why you have gone out and bought it" is what it's been referred to as.
anyway! i was going to get a vw until i started viewing them and realised what a battered builders van you could buy for 3-4k! then i started looking at other vans with a better interior/cab and driving comfort. as soon as i thought of a vivaro i seen loads driving around, so it's a safe bet they are realible (imo)
so i viewed this and bought it, part exchanged the car so there was no going back! (although this compared to a clio, there is a bit of a size difference )
as i picked it up (27.1.13)


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## miss jones (Feb 10, 2013)

27.1.13
took out the ply, cleaned the van, and started the insulation
 

6.2.13
Windows fitted 
it transforms it from a gypo wagon to a camper


had a busy week finishing the insulation off with the foil backed stuff, then filling in the spaces with insulation,

9.2.13-10.2.13
this weekend has been busy! i cut the ply boards on Sat for the ceiling - next door thought a girl using power tools, moving large pieces of ply wasn't acceptable and offered his help as my dad was out!
got the 3 boards finished and cut the hole in the board for the window, dad wondered how i'd done it! why do men never trust women with such work?


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## n brown (Feb 10, 2013)

i like the neighbour's old fashioned attitude,sort of sweet really ! if you need any help or advice as the build progresses give us a shout


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## mark61 (Feb 10, 2013)

Great start, what sort of layout do you have planned.


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## gaz2676 (Feb 10, 2013)

nice to see all these vans startin to spring  up good luck there not that you ll need it mate keep us all posted


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## miss jones (Feb 10, 2013)

Thanks all 

the plan is - cover the ceiling, carpet line it, make the bed (still undecided about this) most likely to be a wooden frame which pulls out in half with alternate slats fitting into each other, a couple of kitchen wall units/similar, i wanted an old base unit off a dresser but they are solid wood so re think that, then that's about it, i'm not fitting electrics now due to money and time and CBA, i'm very simple and i'll be a camping van owner, cooking and stuff outside, the cooker will probs be a george forman/single gas hob, make a couple of curtains, that's about it, the bed will run across the back of the van and fold out,
(if you have any ideas on the best way to do this please holla! i think it will sit on top of the wheel arch covers.


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## ellisboy (Feb 10, 2013)

Nice Van ad good progress :cool1:


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## lotty (Feb 10, 2013)

looking good


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## phillybarbour (Feb 10, 2013)

Great start looking forward to watching your progress keep us posted, best of luck.


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## snowbirds (Feb 10, 2013)

*Clean motor*

Hi miss jones,

It looks a nice clean van, was it cheap and low milage?

Snowbirds.






miss jones said:


> "it's the stupidest thing you have gone and bought, i don't know why you have gone out and bought it" is what it's been referred to as.
> anyway! i was going to get a vw until i started viewing them and realised what a battered builders van you could buy for 3-4k! then i started looking at other vans with a better interior/cab and driving comfort. as soon as i thought of a vivaro i seen loads driving around, so it's a safe bet they are realible (imo)
> so i viewed this and bought it, part exchanged the car so there was no going back! (although this compared to a clio, there is a bit of a size difference )
> as i picked it up (27.1.13)
> ...


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## whitevanwoman (Feb 10, 2013)

Miss J, wiring in a leisure battery really isn't difficult, I've done it under supervision of Firefox and I had absolutely no idea with regard to elecs. Like you my original idea was for my van to be a mobile tent and I only have a camping gas cooker, bottled water etc but having a leisure battery does really help for lights, charging mobile, powering a few 12v gadgets. If it's a decent battery you can also run a laptop off it. 

I spent a month in mine in Sept and that's when I discovered just how useful the leisure battery was, I reckon you could fit it yourself with help from people on here for around £50 in materials and then a decent leisure battery (go for the biggest one you can afford eg 110mAh), would probably cost around £70. 

I use torches and battery powered LEDS and solar lights in the van but even so having elec light, esp during winter when batteries go flat in the cold really quick and no solar lights,  makes a big difference. Also then I can recharge AA batteries with a 12v battery charger. With a cigarette socket USB adaptor you can run USB lights, fan, and other USB gadgets etc. I've also wired a stereo direct off my leisure battery so no risk of draining the main battery if used alot. 

Definitely worth doing any wiring before building furniture etc as I'm discovering now.

I prefer to sit and to cook outside too, but it's not always practical or possible, so definitely worth considering what you'll do in bad weather or if you don't want to draw attention to yourself, and you could get away with stealth camping sin your van quite easily which is useful. 

Also before carpeting etc, I'd think about putting a hole through the floor for waste water drainage, I've just got some washing machine pipe with a large funnel but it saves opening the door in bad weather or at night or first thing just to empty dregs of cold coffee or for cleaning teeth etc.  You can always fit a rubber bung in the hole for the moment,  but at least it'll be there if you want it in the future without messing around pulling back carpet, insulation etc to get at the floor to drill a hole in the future if you decide you do want it. I use a cork in the funnel to stop draughts but it's extra ventilation etc when cooking. 

Talking of ventilation, don't forget to make sure you've got ventilation, ideally one in roof or high up on sides and one at floor level, essential for ventilation if cooking on camping gas cooker - see the charcoal / wood burner thread for all the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning etc. 

Also don't forget to shove insulation inside all the ribs too, in the floor and in the roof.

These are all things I've learned over the past year from doing same as you, hope I'm not teaching you to suck eggs.


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## miss jones (Feb 10, 2013)

snowbirds said:


> Hi miss jones,
> 
> It looks a nice clean van, was it cheap and low milage?
> 
> Snowbirds.


i'm not sure it was cheap tbh, it's fairly decent couple of tiny dents but had 12 months mot, 12 months tax and 3 months warranty, i part ex'd my clio which failed MOT on reg bulb, anti roll something and advisories were tyres, oil leak and 2 others, it was £2500 plus my car
it's 2003, 111k
don't tell me if i've paid too much! it won't make me happy! and it's too late now.ha.


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## miss jones (Feb 10, 2013)

whitevanwoman said:


> Miss J, wiring in a leisure battery really isn't difficult, I've done it under supervision of Firefox and I had absolutely no idea with regard to elecs. Like you my original idea was for my van to be a mobile tent and I only have a camping gas cooker, bottled water etc but having a leisure battery does really help for lights, charging mobile, powering a few 12v gadgets. If it's a decent battery you can also run a laptop off it.



i'll deffo get on that then! deffo looking at leisure batteries but i thought it was a big wide world of complicatedness!! i was trying to be kewl but maybe i should have gone with a standard camper as i don't want holes in the side for electric hook ups and stuff, 

you mean to say it's going to rain abroad? i thought it was only England that rained!
i'm thinking of a george forman and an electric steamer, but if i don't have hook up, err!...i don't really fancy having gas in the van, and i won't have a sink with water, just use a water container.

i am really simple! haa i don't do technology and i chose pen and paper over printing. i need to get with the times! haa


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## whitevanwoman (Feb 10, 2013)

I haven't got any holes in the sides for elec hook up, I use one of these through the bottom of the back doors, just cut a tiny notch in the rubber seal for the cable

Deluxe Mobile Mains Supply Unit - Hook Up Kit - 3 Gangs - 15m Cable Length | eBay


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## miss jones (Feb 10, 2013)

Yea I'm getting one of those  simple, not sure where to house it yet though, doyou have a pic of how you've done it?


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## sparrks (Feb 10, 2013)

miss jones said:


> i'm very simple and i'll be a camping van owner, cooking and stuff outside, the cooker will probs be a george forman/single gas hob, make a couple of curtains, that's about it,



I also use a single gas burner outside. Up until Oct 2010 I used a large assortment of burners and stoves but was never satisfied with any of them. Started out with a twin burner and grill with a 7kg bottle. However that trip in October stood out for many reason, one of which was the amount of rain that fell - making cooking extremely difficult outside. After starting cooking in dry weather and finish in the pouring rain complete with umbrella in Glen Brittle I decided things would have to change when I got home.

One of the problems was how long things took to cook, and also how susceptible to the wind they were. Prior to this trip I had bought a JetBoil and was stunned by the speed it could heat water. 
I looked online and found the Primus Eta Power cooking system which was simliar in design to the JetBoil. I bought a kit which included a 2.1ltr pan, a 1.7ltr pan a bowl, a lid which doubled up as a frying pan, and an insulated carry bag which allows you to swap the pots over whilst cooking. Fabulous bit of kit even though it was pricey (£103) at the time now around £140. It's wind proof and extremely efficient on gas and heats very quickly. You can do microwave rice in it as fast as you can in the microwave.

As I now had a JetBoil for drinks and the Primus for cooking so now I was sorted! Not quite, the JetBoil was not much good in strongish wind - so I looked for an alternative, I nearly bought the Primus equivalent but instead opted for a MSR Reactor stove, 1 cup of tea in the morning <90 seconds. Very efficient design, uses very little gas. A half kg cannister lasts longer than a 2 week trip away, (cooking for 1) cooking at least 16 times and 20+ times for drinks.


MSR Reactor stove  From where I purchesd mine from - excellent service.

Primus Eta Power cooking system  Just a link, can't find who I purchased mine from. The one in this link is minus the 1.7ltr pan.

Primus EtaExpress   Simliar the Reactor stove

As said previously they are expensive but work very well and get good reviews. I wish I could have purchased these from the outset.

Not sure if this will help you in any way, but food for thought as they say.


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## sparrks (Feb 10, 2013)

miss jones said:


> i'll deffo get on that then! deffo looking at leisure batteries but i thought it was a big wide world of complicatedness!! i was trying to be kewl but maybe i should have gone with a standard camper as i don't want holes in the side for electric hook ups and stuff,



My hookup is under the van behind the rear wheel mudflap - been there 6 yrs but never needed it.


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## whitevanwoman (Feb 10, 2013)

miss jones said:


> Yea I'm getting one of those  simple, not sure where to house it yet though, doyou have a pic of how you've done it?



Mine's not actually quite the same as that, it's on a round wind up cable storage reel and it only has 2 sockets but it's enough for me. I just store it away most of the time as I hardly ever go on sites, so it's only really used a couple of times a year or when at home and working in the van, or for battery charging etc, so when I use it it's just loose in the van, and then packed away and tidied up when moving. You just need to make sure that you remember to unplug it before  driving off! On sites I only really use it for powering an electric light, the laptop and a low wattage elec heater (have a look in Poundstretcher etc as they often sell them off cheap this time of year, mine is a lightweight halogen heater with 2 bars, each bar is 400 watt, so the box said 400 - 800 watts, it cost me a fiver from poundstretcher in their spring sale last year). You want to avoid anything that uses much more elec (higher wattage) than that if possible in case it trips the electric. Other people can probably advise you better than me on electric consumption and what you can and can't use on elec hook up. 

The cable goes through the seal at the bottom of where the back doors meet at the bottom, I didn't actually  have to cut a notch in rubber door seal cos there's plenty of space (and a howling draught) at the bottom of my doors but if your doors are a tight fit you might need to. Only a tiny notch should do. 

It's definitely worth not ruling out things at this stage as you'll probably find that you get hooked on using the van and will want to use it even in the crappy english weather, if only just to get away from the family for a night or 2, or to use as somewhere to stay after a night out to save having to get a taxi home etc. And like I'm finding now, it's a pain in the backside having to unload the van in order to do more work on it, to add more luxuries etc. I didn't want a sink either at first but even though I'm not (at the moment) planning to plumb in a tap, I have now decided to put in a sink (I picked up a secondhand one for a tenner through this forum) as being able to wash pots etc inside in bad weather or at night time will be much easier and also it means I'll have somewhere to put dirty pots etc if I don't get a chance to wash up before moving on. I'll fix my drainage pipe to the sink so that I can at least just rinse a mug inside the van in the sink. I just need to design and build a unit for the sink now.

For my bed, I've been using a sunlounger, £15 from Poundstretcher, but it got too saggy and so I got some 11mm ply and made 3 boards, hinged so that they fold away to use on top of it. Then I found that the mattress (memory foam mattress, again in the spring sale from Poundstretcher £20) was damp in the morning so I've drilled ventilation holes in the boards which has made a big difference. The bed was lengthways in the van but when it was down there was hardly any room to move so I'm about to try to figure out a way of having it width ways over the top of the wheel arches, but the sunlounger is about an inch too long so I'm trying to figure that problem out at the moment, it's a bit like doing a jigsaw puzzle. 

I use a Ghillie Kettle (also known as a Storm Kettle or Kelly Kettle) which is one of the best bits of kit I've ever bought. It's a bit bulky but it works best in windy weather and costs nothing to run as you just use twigs, leaves etc. I always carry a bag of dry kindling with me though so that it's easy to light, but you can usually pick up bags of kindling from garages etc. You can also burn any paper rubbish on it. Once it's lit and burning well, it will boil a litre of water in a couple of minutes, and leaves no evidence on the ground. You can even use it as a mini bbq if you get a metal trivet to sit on the top of the bottom bit which contains the fire. 

Hopefully if we do manage to meet up, you can try the Ghillie Kettle out for yourself and see what else I've done in my van. I've had loads of good ideas just from looking at what other people have done and adapting their ideas to suit my van.


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## gaz2676 (Feb 11, 2013)

...... no mess portable and free how many old washing machines out there i made one they are total brill as bbq an fire pit not handy in some wild camping places but can be handy in others......Washing Machine Drum Fire Pit Patio Burner Incinerator BBQ - FREE UK Delivery!! | eBay......sorry this was meant to be a new post im like a newbie


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## mariesnowgoose (Feb 11, 2013)

You bad girls! 

You're giving me a hankering for doing a self-build........................   :lol-053:


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## Firefox (Feb 11, 2013)

miss jones said:


> "it's the stupidest thing you have gone and bought, i don't know why you have gone out and bought it" is what it's been referred to as.
> anyway! i was going to get a vw until i started viewing them and realised what a battered builders van you could buy for 3-4k! then i started looking at other vans with a better interior/cab and driving comfort. as soon as i thought of a vivaro i seen loads driving around, so it's a safe bet they are realible (imo)
> so i viewed this and bought it, part exchanged the car so there was no going back! (although this compared to a clio, there is a bit of a size difference )
> as i picked it up (27.1.13)



The Vivaros are pretty good. Only problem being no headroom to stand, but if you were going to get a VW that has no headroom either, and if it doesn't bother you then you did the right thing as you get so much better value second hand on the Vivaros.

You'll soon get used to the size - they will park easily in a standard space. I have the Movano which is the next size up and I squeeze that into car size spaces all the time. 

Definitely fit a leisure battery as WVW says. In the simplest set up you just connect the positive of the leisure to the engine battery positive with a thick bit of cable (50A), a 30A inline fuse, and an isolator switch in the cable. Fit an earth strap to the negative and bolt that to the body. Turn your switch on when you drive and want to charge, and off when you park up and want to use the leisure battery.


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## miss jones (Feb 11, 2013)

thanks all!!
there is no head room but when i'm on holiday i'm out after breakfast and in when it's bed time!
plus i'm limited to 3.5tonne, i've gone from a clio to this, give me some credit already  haa
i wanted a good looking van and easy enough to get around back lanes in, although give it time i'm sure i'll opt for a motorhome, or i could love this and not part with it!

still trying to figure out the small details - bed, cooking, storage, leisure battery, i feel as if i've missed something out which i will realise after it's all finished and stuck down :/ hopefully not though!


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## n brown (Feb 11, 2013)

not many things can't be retro-fitted,no worries


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## miss jones (Feb 13, 2013)

it's all finally looking more like a camper than a panel van! 


so the windows were fitted last Weds, cut the ceiling boards, and a hole on the other side panel for the window, finished putting the ply back in - after making it fit rather than what the prev owner had done - mostly stuck it in with silicone,
finished foil lining the panels, fitted insulation boards/insulation, kept that in place with sheeting, screwed battens to the ceiling to screw the ply onto, filled with insulation, secured with sheeting, made a diamond shaped hole for the vent, as i'm anal and didn't want a square (i am aware a diamond is a square  ) covered half the ceiling ply with pink leather,
and started on the bed which so far hasn't cost any money as dad has a minor/major obsession with keeping pieces of wood!
carpeted one panel this morning and a full day tomorrow on carpet lining, leather covering and bed making! then it's painting and curtain making


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