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Old Jun 7th, 2020, 11:59   #6
Tomthetimthing
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Last Online: Mar 16th, 2021 12:02
Join Date: Mar 2019
Location: Tonypandy
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Hi all thanks for the replies. I've managed to find a set at a breakers in Somerset £60 for rims and £30 for courier, think it's a good deal!

Quote:
Originally Posted by canis View Post
Oh come on! You can't leave that there like that! You must tell us more.
So after sitting in my mates VW Caddy weekend van at a rainy festival, I fancied throwing my hand at a conversion... I just didn't want to spend VW prices. So I'm building on a less familiar platform... and scored a 2013 Nissan NV200 1.5 DCi with just over 100k on the clock for £2000.

It's a great little van, I've been commuting 500 miles a week in it for 4 months with no issues. It looked a bit sad in its past life as a builders van. Nothing that stripping the interior and attacking it with a rug doctor won't fix!

The plan is to build a weekend van, for camping, mountain biking or hiking. I'll have to-
-Insulate the rear
-Carpet the rear
-Install 2kw diesel heater between front seats
-Fit 2 leisure batteries (free salvage from a telephone exchange thanks to a family friend)
-Design a modular extending camper bed system (including cooker/washing station, battery compartment and lots of storage)
-12v lighting system and charging points
-BONUS: If money allows, rear speakers and aux amplifier


So far I have-
-Religiously cleaned the van
-Cleaned it again (do not under estimate the filth of a builders van)
-Painted any bare metal/removed small rust spots
-Stuck on sound insulation on the wheel arches and largest rear panels
-Glued batons to the rear floor (for attaching the ply floor
-Installed quick charge relay system
-Installed fresh air vent in the roof.

As I've said above I'm changing from the standard 14 inch wheels (175/70/14) to 16" Volvo BBS craters 195/55/16. In a weird twist of fate, one of the few cars that uses the old 4x114.3 old style Japanese is the Volvo V40. I owned one of these cars last year for a banger rally, fantastic car, but on the way back we'd realised how far gone it was, and is now rusting in peace in a yard in Llanelli.

The end goal is to have a weekend van that can support two people, or possibly act as a support vehicle for larger group mountain bike getaways. So there's a fine balance between having usable storage space and suitable amenities for living.

Very fortunate to be working from home (engineer) during this madness, so I'm havign an extra 2 hours a day from not commuting, so plenty of time for working away.

Cheers everyone
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