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First T4, First Camper Conversion

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  • First T4, First Camper Conversion

    Hi everyone,

    The misses and I had our first kid in July, so we obviously thought this is the best time do convert a T4 Panel Van into a T4 Camper!

    Never had a van before, but thought T4 would be an obvious choice on our budget, so we went and found this:

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    1.9 TD 800 Special, registered 1999.

    We both wanted to get something clean and something that we could do ourselves from scratch, so this looked ideal.

    Here's a few more pics:

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    And one of the family when I got it back to my parents.

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    First things first:

    Strip it
    Clean it
    Remove Bulkhead
    Clean-up any rust

    Top half of the bulkhead came out first, and the mat was removed:

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    Very grimy and lots of orange. There was a lot of concrete, brick, screws, anything you can think of under here really. So as the surface gets damaged, moisture gets trapped by the mat, it's going to corrode a bit.

    Hoover and a scrub later:

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    (Just started to tackle the bottom half of the bulkhead)

  • #2
    Nice solid van as a starting point you have there mate. Keep us all updated. We love a build thread on here.

    Comment


    • #3
      These were the main problem areas I knew I'd have to deal with:

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      First off however, I wanted to get that bulkhead off!

      With 2 afternoons of angle grinding this was the result:

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      With that done, next on my list was to tackle all that surface rust. So a trip to homebase was in order, where I got a flap-disc, some Kurust, and some Hammerite. I've since been told Hammerite isn't the best stuff to get, oh well!

      Anywhere there was a hint of orange got blasted by the grinder, ended up using a whire wheel for some of the more narrow parts.

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      Next was the Kurust
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      You'll have to take my wrod for it, as I don't have a picture apparently, but after a couple coats of Hammerite, it looked 100 times better.

      The next thing I did was cut some ply for the floor, as kneeling on the ridges of the floor was starting to hurt.

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      Thats everything I've got documented so far! There has been more progress so I'll try and get some pictures tomorrow and upload them. Unfortunately this is going to be a slow one, but hoping to have our first camping trip in March/April!

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by S49 View Post
        Nice solid van as a starting point you have there mate. Keep us all updated. We love a build thread on here.
        Cheers dude! Yeah hoping to do regular updates. Doubt it's something I'll properly ever finish, but I'd like to make it campable by the spring.

        Comment


        • #5
          You've "attacked" the cargo bay much the way we did. And your right ours wont ever be finished I suspect.

          Comment


          • #6
            Welcome mate 🤙looks to be a decent job you're doing there !!!
            Keep the updates coming [emoji106]

            Sell my T4 !!! I'd rather stick wasps up my butt.

            Comment


            • #7
              Welcome mate , cranking job so far and the van looks to be a very clean example

              Comment


              • #8
                Welcome mate. I have 2 young babies with 13 months between them so sometimes time can be an issue. Iā€™m about 40% way through converting my van but Iā€™ve just got to grab every minute I can to work on it. [emoji85]
                Cracking progress though, your family will love it just like mine do[emoji7]


                Building not buying[emoji56]

                Comment


                • #9
                  Good work there mate!! Had to do exactly the same with the cargo bay!


                  Sent from my iPhone using Just T4s
                  Slowly slowly catchy monkey!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Looks a proper job, I went the easy option and bought a converted one but you are sooo right it will never be finished, thinking of doing a rip and strip, rear unit full bed style now. Welcome [emoji1317]


                    T4ism is not a Dis-ease Just T4s

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Really not that bad, as far as rust goes. Still, you've done the right thing and piece of mind is worth Its weight in gold.
                      Keep the pics coming...build threads are always welcomed.
                      Me cago en la madre que te pariĆ³!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Welcome along. You've got a tidy van to start with there mate


                        Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Good work. Thanks for sharing.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Sorry for the delay, haven't had much time to get on here.

                            So here is the picture of the floor pan that I couldn't find; painted by the misses.



                            Once the floor was painted, we cleaned the sides, and starting insulation.
                            We used foil backed bubble wrap and recycled plastic insulation, and made a sandwich. So foil glued to panel, insulation on top, then sealed with another layer of foil and aluminium tape; should keep us nice and toasty.



                            This shows the idea.

                            Not much was done after that, between work and a new baby I only managed to sort the sliding door out. At the time it was more of a dragging door and this is probably why.



                            Had to do this to each bolt.



                            Maybe I didn't have to, but I really wanted them off.


                            At the beginning of this year I started doing some bits that would make it look nicer, such as carpeting.

                            This is what the van is like now





                            I really need to tidy up that step into the cab, will probably do that this weekend.

                            Yesterday I pulled down the roof lining and started lining the roof with foil backed bubble wrap. That's all I'm going to do for now as there's not enough room for any insulation between the roof and the lining (pictures to come). We'll see how it is during spring as that's when I want to be able to camp by.

                            Regarding the floor, I've decided against any under ply insulation after talking to a local, and looking at hundreds of posts on forums.

                            The main thing we want to avoid is rot, so we're making sure there is enough airflow under the ply to dry out any condensation, and the insulation will come from vinyl and a carpet we're going to get made that we can leave down or roll up if we have to.

                            Cheers!

                            Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Just T4s

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Nice progress mate [emoji106]

                              Sent from my vernee_M5 using Tapatalk

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