More T4 improvements.

When it has not been raining it has been exceedingly cold in the Great Outdoors lately, so I have not felt much inclined to stand/sit/lie around out there fixing the defects in the campervan. Instead I have found a local garage of the type that I used near our previous home for many years. Mardy Motors, Cardiff (02920 795959) are about a mile away on a bus route between my house and the city centre. They were highly recommended by a neighbour who has used them for several years and they have done some work for me already.

To summarise the VW story briefly: I bought the campervan a few months ago and had it inspected and initial remedial work carried out by the local VW main dealer. In total this work came to £1,164. It included the replacement of all brake discs and pads, one new tyre, the renewal of brake fluid, wheel alignment, the renewal of the driver’s door lock, alternator belt and power steering belt and one trackrod arm.

Four months (568 miles) later I returned to the main dealer for a major service (£277) during which they also compiled a list of “advisories”, ie. work that was recommended though not necessarily urgent. To be honest most of this was unexpected, as I had thought that such matters would have been included in the initial inspection. The “advisories” amounted to about £2,000. By this time I was coming to the conclusion that (a) they were being extremely fussy and (b) impressively expensive (at around £90 per hour for their work). I was pleased that they were picking on every defect whether urgently in need of attention or not – this highlighted precisely the information that I wanted about the van if I was to achieve my aim of returning it to as near new condition as possible. However, their prices made quite the wrong impression so this was when I started to make enquries about small independent garages in the area.

Next the clutch started playing up. In a matter of days it went from a rather noisy bearing to causing lively vibrations at the pedal to almost refusing to work at all. So Mardy Motors supplied and fitted a genuine VW three-in-one clutch kit at a total cost of £580 including VAT.

Apparently the VW T4 has a common problem affecting the clutch pedal in that the bracket supporting the pedal is not strong enough for the job and, eventually, it will break, causing the pedal to collapse and become useless and probably damaging the master cylinder, leading to another expensive repair. I discovered this from the T4/T5 Forum online which also enabled me to order a reinforcing bracket from its enterprising independent maker. Just for a change, I fitted this myself. It took all of five minutes!

The first, and smaller, instalment of the work on the “advisories” was completed by Mardy Motors a few days ago. fitting a new brake caliper, freeing the brake compensator (which had been sticking previously), renewing the handbrake cables and the reversing light switch and supplying all the parts plus a set of spare bulbs for the exterior lights. The total cost was £387.

The second (and last for now) batch of work is underway as I write. This will include replacing lower wishbone bushes, antiroll bar bushes and the nearside front upper balljoint. A broken heater control cable will be replaced and the spare wheel carrier, which I have de-rusted and treated to copious amounts of Hammerite, will be refitted. The cost of all of this is expected to be around £500.

Meanwhile, for my birthday recently, Granny Anne has very generously given me a shiny new digital/FM radio/CD player to fill the gaping hole in my dashboard. It was fitted at our local branch of Halfords. I bought the van complete with said gaping hole and also a tape player which had filled that hole originally. All my efforts to reinstate the tape player came to nothing – I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t work anyway and I decided that I didn’t want a tape player after all having recently converted several taped tracks to MP3.

That summarises the work on the campervan to date (not forgetting the new windscreen fitted late last year). It has been my aim, so far as it is possible, to ensure that the van, about which so little was known  at the time of purchase,  would become a known quantity which, with regular inspections and proper servicing and maintenance, could be expected to be reliable, rather than a constant source of worry about what might go wrong next.

The sluggish season

The past ten weeks could be described as almost uniformly exceedingly dull, if the weather was the only factor involved. Contrary to expectations our November cruise to the Canary Islands, though very enjoyable and worthwhile, especially for the warm, dry weather, quite failed to have the desired effect of shortening the Winter for me. The almost non-stop wet weather here at home, which had already spoilt a great deal of 2012,  seemed to go on and on for much longer than a normal winter and ruled out any hope of catching up with garden tidying in December and January. The short spell of bitterly cold weather that followed was little better but some progress was possible. It is a measure of how difficult a season it has been that I have done an enormous amount of reading during recent months and even undertook, without being prompted, some interior decoration – desperate times indeed!

But there have been some bright spots to break up the damp and gloom. Christmas was fun as always, not the least because of our great family gathering at daughter Jennie’s house. Then Jennie decided that the period from Christmas to Easter was just too long so she announced that there would be a second Christmas at her house on February 24th. So four generations of the family duly assembled, ranging in age from nine months to 93 years, for another wonderful lunch complete with Christmas crackers, paper hats, silly jokes and all the other trimmings.

At last we are seeing better conditions outdoors, if only for the odd day or two at a time. Henry, our tortoise, awoke early in February and now waits with commendable patience for the outdoor temperature to rise sufficiently for him to enjoy the garden again for an hour or two each day – his accommodation in the meantime being his specially customised rabbit hutch which has invaded the space normally occupied by my painting equipment in my study. This is a very pampered tortoise!

The Morris Minor has emerged from hibernation as well. On an unusually dry day recently, when the local roads were  temporarily free of salt, a leisurely tour of the neighbourhood was in order and once again I found the Morris very lively. Much as I would like to keep it, I cannot justify the expense of two vehicles so it will have to be sold later this year. Meanwhile it will provide essential transport while the Volkswagen campervan gets some attention.

The VW had a major service at the local Main Dealers recently, a couple of months later than I anticipated last autumn – that is the sort of winter it has been. The outcome included a list of recommended additional work which was useful but hardly a cause for celebration. Over time, I want to return the VW to as near new condition as I can while keeping it on the road. However, although the local main dealer for VW has been excellent, they have also been  very expensive. I quite understand that they have large, expensive premises and probably outlandish business rates to pay but I cannot afford to contribute to the tune of £90 per hour for their workshop services so have had to find an alternative solution. This has come in the form of a strong recommendation to try a small garage not far from my home where, I am pleased to say, the initial impression has been promising and work on the VW will start this week.

The year that was.

I cannot remember now when I started this blog. Come to think of it, I can’t remember very much at all these days but I think it was about five years ago. I don’t pay much attention to the blog’s “stats”  but I looked at them today and was amazed to see that there have been over 75,000 views, almost 250 posts and well over 600 comments (excluding mine). The most popular topics have been my Raleigh Oakland and Raleigh (Ikea) folding bicycles – which is odd, since I have neither cycled nor blogged about cycling for at least a couple of years. Indeed, in the hope of preserving the hips as long as I can (they are quite able to complain these days before I have walked a couple of miles) I am unlikely to cycle again. I will try to remember to sell those bikes (both of them almost “as new”) in the spring.
On a personal level 2012 has been a good year. I started the year in the middle of treatment for prostate cancer, with inconvenient side effects already well established and with lots of injections and radiotherapy yet to come. The year ended with the cancer well and truly subdued if not totally defeated. The injections are down to one every three months and my case is reviewed every six months. This will continue for 2-3 years, perhaps longer, and so will the side effects. I am not complaining. If tempted to do so I have only to think of the many lovely family members and friends who didn’t make it to my age, or even to within 10 or 20 years of it.
Several other good things happened to us this year of which by far the best was when our brilliant daughter and son-in-law gave us a beautiful granddaughter, to join our two grandsons. We are so lucky!
I am grateful for all the interest that has been shown in this blog and especially to those who have left comments and whose blogs appear in my blogroll. I wish you a Happy Christmas and may all your own wishes for 2013 come true.

and the next problem is…

It has been an odd year. You won’t need to be reminded that the weather seems to have been foul most of the time, thus seriously obstructing outside work. To add to this problem I find that I have far less strength and stamina than two or three years ago and am not always able to take advantage of suitable conditions to get on with various jobs that need doing. Mind you I think I am doing fairly well, all things considered. The Prostap injections continue, now at three monthly intervals, and I am sure that at my next check-up in a couple of weeks time they will prove to have been doing a good job – they are certainly producing convincing side effects, such as hot flushes which are as strong as ever and the multiple visits to the loo overnight in particular. I imagine that if the side effects are any guide, then the desired effects must be happening equally well.I suspect that another of the side effects has been to promote weight gain, or at least inhibit weight loss, but despite this I felt the need (once the radiotherapy had finished) to lose some weight as a matter of priority. I have managed to lose at least a whole stone since the middle of the year and while this may not sound like much, it has made a big difference to how well I feel. Perhaps I am now at my optimum weight, since it is proving difficult to reduce it further at present. Even so I am pleased with this progress, which has been achieved entirely with the aid of The Harcombe Diet (which I strongly recommend – Google it for more information) – or, perhaps I should say, my best efforts to stick as closely as possible to that diet.
I have also allowed my (probably inherited) inner rebel to come to the fore by simply ceasing to take some tablets prescribed for high blood pressure and for allegedly high cholesterol. These were prescribed by a young locum doctor, no doubt with the best intentions, but very much mistakenly in my opinion. Yes, my blood pressure is high but this happens as one gets older and it is also yet another side effect of interference with hormones. And if Prostap treatment doesn’t amount to interference with hormones then I don’t know what does.
As for cholesterol, I have studied this very carefully over several months, reading several recent books on the subject as well as numerous online documents by respected doctors and others. I have concluded that high cholesterol is less dangerous than low cholesterol and that mine is actually below average so can afford to go higher in any case. Yes, I took the statins for some weeks until the side effects became severe enough to prompt me to question the medication. I actually reached the point where it was becoming very difficult indeed to drag myself upstairs, such was the pain and the apparent weakness in my legs. I also found that my memory started to become noticeably worse than usual and my ability to concentrate and to retain an idea in my head even for a few seconds, deserted me completely. This was even more alarming than the state of my legs. So, contrary to conventional advice, I gave up all the medication and though it took a while to return to normal I am fine now.
I have taken advantage of a couple of days of good weather recently to catch up with tidying the garden of our disabled neighbour. A heavy fall of leaves from very overgrown trees belonging to yet another neighbour had to be cleared, especially from a new lawn that I had managed to establish this year to replace an earlier lawn which had been all but killed by being smothered with such leaf accumulations in earlier years. Often garden work won’t wait and this was a prime example.
It would have been more fun to have been working on the VW campervan. Since having the new windscreen fitted we have been away, hence my new heading picture (more about that on the Granny’s Ramblings blog soon) and I have compiled a new list of jobs to do, which seems to get longer weekly.  This includes refitting a protective rubber strip at the front edge of the elevating roof. This strip had to be removed during the windscreen replacement. Refitting it will require dry, mild conditions, careful measurement and assistance from a second pair of hands. The offside armrest on the driver’s seat has become loose, the sliding door needs lubrication and the step below that door needs to be removed so that the area beneath can be derusted and painted for future protection. The heater control does not operate fully, there is a need for extra sound insulation, if possible, behind the engine, a radio or CD player needs to be installed and I have to work out how to fit a reversing camera kit. These and other jobs should keep me occupied for a while and I hope to get a full service done before Christmas. Waiting in the garage is a useful collection of cooking and catering equipment that can be loaded into the van at short notice, together with various equipment for use on campsites and even a portable loo (for emergency use), so we are actually ready to travel and that list of jobs is just a matter of ongoing repair and improvement as might be expected with a fifteen-year-old vehicle.

Improving the VW

Before we bought the campervan I proposed a budget, in consultation with Granny Anne, and tried to learn as much as I could about T4 vans without becoming totally confused. Part of this research involved following Ebay almost daily for about three months. The latter proved very useful. I was able to see numerous vans on sale week by week and learnt about the many variations in the original T4 van as well as numerous van layouts and the many other variations including empty vans just begging to be converted to campers.  Elsewhere on the Internet I found the technical details of the VW T4 range of vans, advice on the various engine and fuel systems and a great deal of useful information from owners on the T4/T5 Forum and from a fairly new magazine in Cardiff’s main newagents shop called VW BUS (“The leading magazine for all T4 and T5 enthusiasts”).

Unfortunately, there were very few campervans within my budget in or reasonably near Cardiff. Day vans, weekend vans or surfers vans were not as scarce but we wanted the complete camper – including all the facilities that I described in an earlier post. Most of these were 80-120 miles away and I was not prepared to drive that distance just to inspect a propective purchase.

Eventually I came across a VW T4 Autosleeper Trooper in Bristol, which looked promising. We kept an eye on this one for a while until, some time before the auction was due to finish, the owner closed the auction and went on holiday for a month. I was still prepared to go and look at it when the owner returned though I had some misgivings about its precise condition. A few days before a visit could be arranged I came across our present camper. Mind you, the Trooper was in what I regard as traditional caravan colours – creams and browns -  with a sober interior to match, which, possibly, might have been considered by some to be more suitable for a couple of senior citizens on tour! But, for the money, which (to Granny Anne’s considerable dismay) greatly exceeded our budget, the newly advertised van seemed to me to be a much better bet – even if it is bright red with a checkerboard bonnet bra and absolutely shouts “Fire Engine”. Well, why not, I thought. I have never been good at conforming to the expectations of the majority and it’s too late to start now.

On buying the van I was satisfied with its condition. There is a limit to how much can be seen underneath the vehicle but what I did see seemed to me to bode well for the bits that I couldn’t see though I was prepared to discover a few developing problems later. The interior was as new. There is a tiny amount of rust on the exterior bodywork but in general it is just as good as it looks in the pictures. As for the mechanics, again there is a limit to what could be discovered by visual inspection but it sounded good, drove well, and produced no smoke or odd noises etc. that might have given me cause for concern.

Shortly after I drove the van home I took it to the local VW Main Dealer, Sinclair Motors, who were offering a free “general health check”. I knew that any work required would be more expensive than at a small independent garage but I had to be confident that it would be done correctly by people who specialise in these vehicles. Although the inspection didn’t include bodywork, the technician’s informal comments were to the effect that the underside was pretty good. Sadly, the mechanicals needed attention. Yes, I had noticed that the brake discs (all round) were a bit corroded but I didn’t think they (and the pads) needed imminent replacement. I didn’t notice that one steering link was a bit worn or that the driver’s door lock was “breaking up”, or that one tyre was much closer to the legal limit than the other three. Add to these a precautionary change of brake fluid, wheel alignment and new alternator and power steering belts and the bill added another £1,000+ to the cost of the van. However, nearly all of these are safety-related items so I have no regrets and it will be years before the work needs to be done again, given our modest annual mileage.

This was just stage one of my programme of improvement for the van. In a few weeks time I plan to return to Sinclair Motors for a full service. This will complete my initial “survey” of the van’s mechanics. In the meantime I plan to do some DiY work on the van (weather permitting) and already I have had the windscreen replaced. The old one had at least seven chips, four of them with small but significant cracks radiating from them. The work was arranged and carried out promptly and efficiently by Autoglass, at my home on a Sunday morning! This was interesting. The last time I witnessed a windscreen being replaced (not on one of my cars I might add) was years ago. It involved fitting the rubber seal around the new windscreen and then a loop of strong string around the rubber seal. The string would help to insert the windscreen/seal assembly into the aperture in the bodywork. Then a narrow rubber fillet would be inserted into a slot around the front of the rubber seal to lock it in position. On my modern windscreen it is a very different story. The rubber around the windscreen is entirely cosmetic. The glass is actually glued into place and it is recomended that the vehicle is not moved for at least an hour after installation of the screen. Removal of the old windscreen involves cutting the glue with a special tool. As it happened, my old windscreen was lacking glue around about one third of its perimeter. Fortunately there was no evidence that this had caused any rust.

By the end of the year this will be a much better campervan than it was when we bought it a couple of months ago.

VW T4 CMC

Judging by the reactions of some of the younger members of my extended family when we gathered at the weekend, for the baptism of my new granddaughter, they were clearly unaware of the wonders of the modern campervan. If the many exclamations of “Wow!” and “How cool is that!”  were any guide, my brief guided tour of the van changed all that. So for those who are curious about campervans, and my recently acquired Volkswagen T4 in particular, here are a few of my early thoughts together with a selection of photos.

First of all, regardless of the comments that follow, I must say that driving this van is sheer fun. This is helped by great visibility from the high seating position (enhanced by big, clear side mirrors), by the lightness of the controls and by the very comfortable seat. Having driven a small and very light car for the past year, it was inevitable that my first impression of the VW concerned the size of the beastie but though it feels very much firmly in touch with the road it  doesn’t feel heavy. I have no idea what its actual weight is (if anyone knows, please tell) but although the engine is the 1.9 litre turbo diesel (rather than the 2.5 litre) it is not sluggish.

The actual dimensions of the van are as follows (approximately):

Overall length = 15’5.5″  (4707mm)
Overall height = 6’6″    (1975mm)
Total width = 6’0.5″ + mirrors = 7’2″   (2175mm)

The one thing that makes me smile every time I climb into the van is the great view from the front seats. In the picture above I am stationary at traffic lights and fairly close to the car in front but the height of my seating position enables me to see over the top of cars at least – I haven’t been able to experience this for many a year. Reversing in tight spaces is greatly helped by the side mirrors but because the rear window is quite high I cannot see what is directly behind the van  Obviously this could be dangerous, so I have added a bleeper already as a warning to pedestrians and await delivery of a reversing camera and  monitor. Fitting these could be a challenge.

Here is a brief tour of the van, with more to follow in a later post. The “kitchen” shown above includes a fridge  with a small cupboard above for cutlery etc., a sink with pumped water, a two-ring gas cooker and a sliding window for ventilation while cooking. The large cupboard (centre) contains pans and crockery and the water supply. On the front of this cupboard is the support rail for the folding table which stows away behind the driver’s seat when not wanted. Behind the storage net another cupboard (with its lid on top) provides plenty of storage above a false floor under which lives the domestic battery.

The fridge is very neat with a small freezer compartment.

The van has two batteries, both charged by the alternator when the engine is running. One performs the usual functions for the engine, and the motoring equipment (instruments, lights, indicators etc., and the other supplies domestic requirements. The batteries are monitored by the Zig unit shown above.

The van can be “hooked up” to the mains electricity supply where campsites offer this facility. This involves a totally separate circuit of course and a long external cable with special weatherproof connectors.

The tap (fed by an electric pump) folds down when not wanted, as do the two smoked glass covers.

Behind the Zig unit is a wardrobe and under it another (ventilated) cupboard containing the gas bottle. There is a further full-width seat facing backwards behind the one you see here. This is useful storage space when travelling or it makes a good vantage point from which to admire the scenery when the back of the van is open. There is plenty more storage space under the seats. The spare wheel is carried under the van. The seats can be released from the seating position and pulled forward so that they fold flat to make a double bed.

The van has an elevating roof which provides sleeping space for two children, or the “upstairs bed” can be raised with the roof to provide more headroom when cooking etc. The black object at the top of the above picture is a drop-down TV/DVD player.

Lots of bits and pieces have been bought, or dragged out of storage at home, to equip the van for touring and the prospect is exciting, especially as we owned campervans years ago and know how much fun it can be. There’s more to tell but I will await a nice sunny day for an opportunity to take exterior photos.

Meg the Mog

The time has come to put as complete an account of our Morris Traveller as I can on the blog, for the record, before I advertise her for sale.

First, some identification: This is a Morris 1000 Traveller, built in 1970 and first registered on June 1st, 1971. The hugely popular Morris Minor was announced in October 1948 having been on the drawing board in various guises since 1941.  It was the first British car of which more than a million were made. The first cars were the two-door saloons, closely followed by the open tourers. Four-door saloons appeared in 1952 and the first Traveller in September 1953. There were also van and pick-up versions from 1953 and by the end of production 1,619,958 vehicles had been made, of which 215,328 were Travellers. According to the website http://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/ (quoting figures from the Department for Transport) there are 804 Travellers licensed in the UK for the road at the time of writing, with a further 254 off the road.

Our Traveller came from the renowned Charles Ware’s Morris Minor Centre at Bristol. We have owned it since September 27th, 2011. At that time I had not owned a car for more than a year and didn’t really want one. However, the prospect of numerous essential local journeys, which would have been difficult or impossible by public transport and expensive by taxi, persuaded me to become a motorist again. The idea then was to have an economical classic with a useful load-carrying capacity, mainly for local use with occasional outings to holiday destinations etc. I reasoned that as my previous 50 years of motoring with neither claims nor convictions had earned me no appreciation whatsoever from the idiotic insurance industry, I might as well compensate myself by having an affordable and interesting car for which “road tax” costs nothing and which might show some prospect of it holding its value over the medium to longer term.

My reason for deciding to change the “family car” now, after only a year, is largely a matter of mindset. A year ago I was living in the shadow of a cancer diagnosis. The future was even more uncertain than usual and the name of the game was survival and everything was overshadowed by the task at hand. Thankfully all that is in the past. The whole experience convinced me that my generation became too influenced by the notion that three score years and ten is the norm (if you are lucky) and after that it is “injury time”. This is nonsense of course. The world has moved on. 70 is the new 50 is it not. and if you are healthy enough (despite being well into “injury time”) to be reasonably active then there is no excuse yet to settle for the slippers and TV existence. Therefore, as explained in my previous post, we have bought a VW Camper Van and intend to enjoy it as much as we can while insurers will continue to insure ancient citizens like us.

I am lucky to have the use of our neighbour’s dry, secure garage in which to keep the Traveller and there is no rush to terminate this arrangement. The car also has its own weatherproof cover should it be needed. The Traveller’s condition is very good indeed and it would require little work to make it a concours winner. This, in itself, is interesting as I know very little about the history of the car.

To the best of my knowledge the Traveller has its original engine and is Bermuda Blue in colour. This was one of the original colour options though this car may have been repainted in green at some time in its life. The current mileage reading, 18,040, is hardly likely to be genuine but if the mileometer is on its second time around, 118.040 might be about right. Apparently there have been seven previous owners. Did any of them live in Oxfordshire or Hampshire I wonder.

When I bought the Traveller I gained the impression that The Morris Minor Centre had worked on it, and sold it, previously. Perhaps it has been one of those lucky Morris Minors that has been returned to Bristol a few times over the years when major maintenance or restoration work has been needed. The condition of the timber suggests that it is only a very few years old and it seems likely that the car was repainted (perhaps returned to its original colour) at the same time. Did it acquire its new (modern Mini) front seats at the same time and was that when it gained a five-speed gearbox (Ford Sierra) and a brake servo, taking it well on its way to a “Series III” specification?

When I bought this Traveller a year ago it was my intention to keep it for at least a few years and to upgrade it to “Series III” eventually. To explain: The first Morris Minors, from 1948 on, were known as Series MM. Later models, from 1952 on, were known as Series II. The latter progressed through 803cc, 948cc and 1098cc A-Series engines by the end of production in 1971.

In 1976 Charles Ware established his Morris Minor Centre at Bath (since moved to Bristol) to specialise in restoration work of a high quality and soon found that there was a demand from customers for various modifications to make the cars that much more usable in modern conditions. Thus Morris Minors could be fitted with brake servos, front disc brakes, upgraded suspension systems, larger engines, a five-speed gearbox and lots of electrical and interior options. Restoration work remains the core business to this day and unless a car is structurally sound to start with, most of the major upgrades would be a pointless waste. However, I digress. The point is that The Morris Minor Centre produces an upgraded Morris Minor to its own specification which is known as the Series III.

It seems likely that a previous owner of my car (like many others I am sure) aimed to upgrade to Series III as it can be done in stages. I had intended to continue the process and made sure that the car came with an alternator (rather than a dynamo) and electronic ignition (I have spent quite enough time over the years fiddling with distributor points) and also a cigarette lighter socket to power any accessories that I might use in the car. This car came with the modern seats, the five-speed gearbox and the brake servo. It also came with a two-year chassis guarantee from The Morris Minor Centre. This has another year to go but, unfortunately, it is not transferable to a new owner. However, it does give some indication of the condition of those parts of the car that are not easily inspected.

Much as I would like to keep the Morris, as a local runabout and occasional visitor to classic car events, I cannot justify the expense of running two vehicles. So, despite the fun I have had driving Meg, who has been extremely reliable, and the many conversations that she has started on our supermarket car park in Cardiff and elsewhere, she now needs a new home.