The Morbidmobile Blog

[TomSaintJames]

Hi everyone, i've planned on starting a blog for the progress of general fettling and eventual campervan conversion of our hearse for a while now, but not actually gotten around to it! So here we go, a beer in hand and the startings of quite an adventure!

It all started with a potential house purchase falling through, in an idyllic spot next door to our in laws (in this case this is no bad thing for those that cringed when they thought of living next door to in-laws!). Said purchase has been planed for many years, just waiting for the right time and cirumstances - however when all was aligned - some other b*****d went and bought it! We own our house, it's a 'coach house' for the pretentious (that's me) or an apartment above four garages to all esle, it was a new build when we bought it and is very nice - just no outdoor space. My husband and I (disclaimer - gays) are both keen gardners and are quite green thumbed so after 7 years we really need some outdoor space/a garden!

Many dissapointments. disgruntled mutterings and bemoanings later, we decided that if we weren't moving house just now, we needed a vehicle to travel in. This was somewhat spurred on by friends of ours buying a decomissioned ambulance to get professionally converted into a motorhome, they have much more money than us so we hadf a look at what was available. Now I like Citroens, good old french quirky design so immediatley started looking at C15 Romahomes, which rust badly, are slow if rather econimcal and cheap to buy (a decent enough one can be had for sub 5k). BUT whilst navugating ebay (dangerous - i now know) THIS Volvo popped up.



So I says to the other half:

"Look dear at this cool old Volvo, wouldn't it make a fun camper project?"

Who promptly replies:

"Buy it!"

This creates a period of stunned silence as I process the permission given to purchase a cool old car (usually firmly denied) so I bloody well slap a bid on it ASAP. A couple of hours later, and at a reassuringly decent price, we become the *cough* proud owners of a hearse! Unfortunately we live in Somerset, and the hearse is located in Penrith, north of the Lake District, so quite some planning was necessitated to collect it. We made a weekend out of the collection and drove it home.

Whilst driving it home, and in the subsequent days I made a list of all the bits that could do with being addressed, and this is before the camper conversion even starts! Looking on the DVLA MOT history website (what a great site btw!) it appears it has been off the from pre-DVLA website MOT history time which is 2005 until 2014. Since 2014 it seems to have had very little use, and so has many niggles and is a bit tatty - although alot of the important work has been done (cambelt, fluids, tyres, spark plugs, suspension etc).

It is a pre-facelift 1988 740 Saloon, extended chassis special vehicle with hearse body (likely by Nilsson) with the B200E 2.0 injected engine and AW70 auto box. So it's no racing vehicle, but a smooth plodder that seems to have improving running with some use and it's huge! Plenty of room for campervan stuff but we won't be able to stand up inside unfortunately. We're hoping to convert to suit us, mainly for travelling on the continent (mostly France I suspect) and bringing wine home



Skull now removed




















Interesting exhaust bodges


Blowing out of the silencer


Loads of space under the front half of the existing floor


Odd looking vinyl covering the roof.




The work needed pre-conversion:

-Bin awful coilovers and put back on proper OEM suspension
-New full exhaust system (it's all old, rusty and blowing in at least two places)
-Ignition system overhaul (except SP)
-Make water tight (suspected leak where roof rails bolt onto roof)
-Install radio/CD player and speakers
-Fix passenger door card (which is hanging off atm)
-Replace all dash bulbs (driving at night a challenge!)
-Investigate intermittent fuel guage
-Replace rocker gasket
-Ceck all vacuum pipes for splits/leaks
-Investigate dash warning light '!' which is always on (air in brake fluid?)
-Investigate headlamp wash system (arms present but no wipers)
-Secure battery properly
-Replace viscous fan with electric switched type
-Replace drivers side rear light (lets water in, and brake light not working)
-Investigate hesitancy/lumpy idle/occasional cold missfire (hopefully resovled by above work).

The MOT is due in early September when we're on holiday, so will have to have it done in the next week or two, meaning some work needs to be done like, now! Mostly the exhaust and ignition components to avoid a potential emissions fail.

Other than that, as I walk to work it's our second car, so gets little use and will be very helpful in moving house, we can stack it right up with boxes of stuff, and most furniture items will fit in it too!

here are some rough plans as to how we'll convert it. The benches on either side of the hearse (with storage inside) will fold into a full double bed when required. There is considerable space above the driver and passenger seats, so great for storage there, and maybe a compact air con unit too (that will be WAY in the future!). You can stand under the bootlid comfortably, so we plan on have canvas sides to extend the living area a bit, think of it as an unusual awning!

Orange bit is a pull out hob/oven thingy, as you can stand under the bootlid when it's open, better to do cooking 'outside' to avoid smells/spits/splate in the interior.


Blue bit is a concealed sink for washing up and water etc, accessible from the outside when stood under the bootlid, or inside at anytime.


I'll record my musings and progress on here, until next time!

Tom.

[Laird Scooby]

Great plans there Tom! No point wasting time investigating the fuel gauge, they all do that sooner or later on the VDO instruments and even the Yazaki instruments as well (note the two aren't interchangeable!) and this is how i got round it :



Alternatively find another instrument cluster with a working fuel gauge which is what i had to do as the odometer had packed up at 182785 miles!

If it's going to be a "keeper" and it sounds like it is, i'd suggest getting a stainless exhaust made, it looks like you've got the standard B200E exhaust on there with an extension in there so you could potentially get the various bits fairly cheaply but it's the extension that will be the problem. Don't forget, when you have the stainless system made, you can have it made to sound how you want.

The dash warning light also serves as the handbrake warning light so it could simply be the handbrake lever isn't going low enough to put the light out. Easy enough to remove the trim round the handbrake and check that.

As for replacing the instrument bulbs, are you going for standard bulbs or LEDs?

You definitely need to clean out your PCV/breather system, the evidence is all over the top of the rocker cover, coming from the filler cap neck!

Just noticed you've got the K-Jetronic injection on there, makes life easier in a lot of ways!

[JRL]

Love it! Subscribed as I want to see how this turns out!

[stegreg]

how about sourcing a folding roof for it? bound to be something around in a yard somewhere that could prove suitable, that way you could get the standing room you prefer, plus it then folds down for travel.

[aardvarkash10]

all I can think of now is Herman Munster with a Scandinavian accent

[ksmi]

Hi Tom, Just a suggestion comes to mind,when you are ready to kit it out with linen, could mark it 'His and Hearse' ?

Regards,Keith.