mals
Kinda New
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1991 Mercedes-Benz 208 CamperDarrenW
@darrenw
Club Retro Rides Member 74
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Hello, I'm Marlis from Germany. Welcome to RR! You should definitely start a thread of your own to show us how you're getting on, always room for another Camper! |
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generallee
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Hi. Welcome along!
I started ours up last week for the first time in ages, it has new water leaks which need attending to...
I had no idea Autotrail exported vans to Europe, they must look a bit old fashioned next to Hymer vans of the same era.
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I'll be interested to see how you get on, I have repaired a few caravans of similar construction, once you get stuck in it's pretty easy to splice new timber in I used pressure treated timber hoping it would last even if it did get wet in the future.
Mind you it will need to warm up a bit most wood glues don't like the cold.
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generallee
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We left the outer skin in place and spliced new bits in from the inside.  |
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I also have enjoyed reading this thread. We have a 2000 rotec camper on a Ducato base. Back in the late ‘90s I used to drive a 307 recovery truck which was a touch slow with a car on the back. Was replaced with a 310 which I loved. Please keep us up to date.
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Hi you should read zelandeths posts he has one too👍
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Hi,
Just reading through this thread and realised I was confusing it with the thread Zealandith has for his camper,
Beautiful van and great recommissioning work on it,
This is why I enjoy RR so much because of the diverse selection of vehicles,
Looking forward to seeing future updates,
Nigel
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BMW E39 525i Sport
BMW E46 320d Sport Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 325 Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 320 Cabriolet (Project car - currently for sale.)
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Sept 30, 2021 16:16:14 GMT
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Hello just purchased one of these and in need of a few parts, I'm struggling to find cab doors....any idea's
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generallee
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Well, it's been a while. We have been plodding along with this, trying to sort out loads of little jobs that add up to a much nicer place to be. Last year we did quite a bit.... Mrs Generallee took the old flourescent tube lights apart, and hacked up some ebay dimmable LED units to fit. They draw about the same power but are loads brighter. She faffed about with lighting gel in some of them to make the light a bit warmer/less harsh. We are really pleased with them.    And then she re-did the interior. She is good on the sewing machine, we spent ages choosing the colours, wondering if they would be too bright or clash, but are dead chuffed with how it turned out.  Around this time my phone camera went on the wonk, so some of the pictures are a bit milky. |
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generallee
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I fitted some plastic mudwings on the back, to try and protect the underside a bit.  Way back in 2009 when we bought the van, the exterior light at the back door was smashed, so i chucked a rubbolite marker lamp on for the time being, which was never much good. I found a suitable replacement at Dorset steam fair after a good 10 years. Well, it must have been the same as fitted from the factory as the screw holes lined up and the witness marks from around the old seal were identical. Not bad for a tenner, a bright LED bulb in finished it off.  The oven was letting the interior down, so I took it to bits and Mrs Generallee painted it with stove enamel.  Obviously it started to rain as she was spraying the last coat   It turned out well  |
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generallee
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I spent ages up a ladder liberally smearing sealant anywhere I thought water might get in. And drinking beer, because I hate those sealant guns and I'm not vey confident up ladders.  The last job on the list was to pop the side window out, it was dropping to bits as the rivets that hold it together had mostly broken. We added new felt seals to the channels it slides open in. I didn't take loads of puctures of most of this work as we were just cracking on the best we could.   With that, we trundled off to Wales to stay with a friend of Mrs Generallee. She has a farm near Barmouth and kindly let us camp for a week. It's not an area I had really been to before and it was amazing. We were a bit embarrassed to be driving a camper as the whole world and his dog was doing the same, I can understand why the locals get upset. Although the other residents of our camping field were very friendly, and would trot up to us for digestive biscuits.     And a proper, pub garden outside post lockdown beer. Flippin awesome, even in a plastic glass. I had rather a lot, which made for an interesting tandem ride home.  That night it rained and rained, and I woke up in a wet bed. And not because of the beer. More on that in a bit. |
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generallee
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We have has trouble with the front roof vent since we had the van, and have tried gaffer tape, silicone and eventually just fibre glassed it in. And it still leaked, we must have parked at a slight angle and it just dribbled in onto the bad above the cab. So we took it out, and propped up the roof from the bed so we could crawl around without the whole thing collapsing.   There was a stress crack from one corner, I think that is wehere it was getting in. I drilled a hole at the end of the crack and we made some reinforcing bits to stick underneath with Tigerseal.   And stuck a patch over the top!  With that being the highest part of the van, it's good to have ventilation up there, particularly sleeping, so I went mad and splashed out on an opening window, with built in flyscreen and blind.   And made up a new ceiling panel. I think it was a sheet of hardboard we had knocking about.  |
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generallee
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Hello just purchased one of these and in need of a few parts, I'm struggling to find cab doors....any idea's Ebay, and be prepared to travel. but most of what's out there is rotten already. I got a passenger door a while back, it was advertised as mint but it's not. It's better than the one on it, but still needs work. |
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Well, it's been a while. We have been plodding along with this, trying to sort out loads of little jobs that add up to a much nicer place to be. Last year we did quite a bit.... Mrs Generallee took the old flourescent tube lights apart, and hacked up some ebay dimmable LED units to fit. They draw about the same power but are loads brighter. She faffed about with lighting gel in some of them to make the light a bit warmer/less harsh. We are really pleased with them. Hi there. Van looks great. We've recently bought a '93 VW T4 camper and it has the same light fittings with tube bulbs, which throw out a disappointing amount of light of an evening… Please could you go into a bit further detail as to how you upgraded to the LED lights and perhaps share a link to where they came from? Many thanks  Matt |
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1972 Triumph 2000 – first car, long-term daily driver and all-rounder, done 65,000 miles in my ownership. Has a tuned 2500 motor and is used for a lot of long-distance touring events 1972 Triumph TR6 – US import, returned to the road in 2019 for the first time since '85! 2004 BMW 330d Touring – general hack, much mapped up goodness  |
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generallee
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Yeah they are ok when the tubes are brand new but soon just cast a miserable gloom. I'll ask her when she is home from work.
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generallee
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Please could you go into a bit further detail as to how you upgraded to the LED lights and perhaps share a link to where they came from? Matt I think it was these, or something very much like them, we used in the kitchen which aren't dimmable. www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265138113507?hash=item3dbb768be3:g:PM0AAOSwks5ghoWW&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA0OhtNRPyqIaf79tfmA3vNAjp2JOmnMlAIiYJen3bpB8t2x43ve0wU1frm9EkcMLDJ37QQW9lnmRWcgtcchjsayGo1dwTcgM9WJjDJyY0Tcd4SY7t4SttNCv%2FIIYdj6vAKZv7Q2WxuNI34PZOCC%2F194uaVpahN61VDxIHtn9LQD9SStpLhIHX%2FHYA1ERxdzQC4rSPQm1cMUgJcVKWbyH%2BJ2WHz%2ByauX1g0V6KbExQsO4MJMTop47Rm5tMMdtZPZ3cMMzhdAzsJtCBAnRzRI2mK3s%3D%7Ctkp%3ABlBMUOTe7_LLYAIf that link doesn't work, copy n paste this into ebay search, hopefully that will, it's the top result 2X 12V 72LED 4W Interior Light RV Ceiling Roof Lights for Camper Van Caravan Mrs Generallee did most of the work, but she just gutted the old lights to make room inside for the new innards, which are aluminium so dead easy to hack the body down and just leave the led strips (you can see in the picture the rough edges before it was finished). Then solder the wires onto the old push-button switch. The dimmable ones we used don't seem to be available anymore, but came from amazon or ebay. They were a bit more involved in that they needed to use the on/off/dim button they came with. Same as above, we just gutted both sets and put the leds in the old casing, but needed to make a plastic spacer up so the little button could live where the old on/off push button used to. We went to all this trouble so we could use the existing holes in the ceiling, and the textured diffuser(?) lenses on the old lights are really good at spreading the light around. A peice of pale yellow lighting gel between the led and the lens makes the light much softer, but still bright, just less harsh if that makes sense. |
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Last Edit: Aug 3, 2022 9:29:44 GMT by generallee: not sure if the ebay link works?
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generallee… much appreciated, thanks!
Matt
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1972 Triumph 2000 – first car, long-term daily driver and all-rounder, done 65,000 miles in my ownership. Has a tuned 2500 motor and is used for a lot of long-distance touring events 1972 Triumph TR6 – US import, returned to the road in 2019 for the first time since '85! 2004 BMW 330d Touring – general hack, much mapped up goodness |
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What a totally awesome camper! Just read from start to finish and doff my cap at both your DIY skills. Very inspiring as there is much want for a camper in the 555 household. Keep up the good work (and updates). Bookmarked.
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Last Edit: Aug 4, 2022 7:25:17 GMT by daver555
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generallee
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Thats very kind of you, but we just bumble along learning as we go. I'm not bad at oily bits but the camper stuff was all new to us. Anyway, flush with our scrounged holiday in Wales, we started tapping other people we knew to have us to stay. We stayed in an orchard.  In a wood.   On a friends drive...  Then the exhaust fell to bits, I ran it lakes pipe style for a day but it sounded awful. I bodged it with a bean can just to shut it up a bit.   |
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