Lee's lwb med roof Mk7 transit camper

[hilton484]

So you may have seen in my other thread that I got another van for a friend to use for the festival.

My original plan was to finish tidying it up and sell it hopefully for a profit to get a better one. After driving it back I considered keeping it and selling mine as it has more power and seems smoother, but it does have some other issues.

After using it Lee has decided he likes the transit and now doesn't want a jumbo or sprinter, the test has shown a jumbo would be too much to park at mine on the drive and it's tough enough to get a spot at his. So he's bought it off me so the work done is as he has thought off for him and his lad to use for the festival and other trips.

I've helped him to get it all done and shared what I've learned about the transits and took some ideas like the seats and laminate. To help the budget we used some of the materials we had left from mine.

The van is a fwd medium roof lwb 2.2 t350 115hp model and feels to have much better pull than my 85hp. The previous owner used it about a farm and said he bought it from a friend who also farmed and had done welding etc (badly). He said he'd only buy it if he got it an MOT which it passed.

The previous owner made quite a mess of it, he drove a mini digger of some sort into the back with ramps and crumpled above the bumper and generally full of green poo types dusty dirt everywhere, cracked windscreen and brake wear light on. But £1500 and only 1/2hr away and drove pretty good and still had mot left.

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[hilton484]

Started by peeling up the plywood floor and sides, removed the bulkhead which was fancy and has a window with wire guard over it. scrubbed all the floor wiped down the sides and roof, scrapped all the silicone off. Saw the wheel tub repairs were terrible, some edges not even welded. Lee found some seats and I ordered the latches and drink tray which was missing. We got some cheap laminate and some foam underlay to semi fill the ridges. Glued the laminate down. Lee used an eyebolt and the crane at work to pull the rear ledge back up so the bottom latch would be in the right spot, and fitted the new latches. The bottom cable for the door latch was knackered so ordered and replace that and the back door now shut properly and open too

Replaced the battery terminals while we had the seats off, picked up a second driver side seat/battery box and between the 2 of us confirmed there is no way they would ever be a straight fit with or with the feet on. Instead of doing the same as mine with 40*20 box section with a machined slot and holes welded to the seat runner, we weld steel blocks to the seat box and bolted the seat to them. Makes more sense as don't have to weld near fabric and won't melt the runners. Also the box is cheaper to replace than the seat.

During this work we had been deciding whether the cab shelf would stay or go, storage Vs headroom. We both hit out head a few times that we thought was making it a clear decision...

... until Lee had a crazy idea and an angle grinder.
But it works really well, you walk to the middle to go to the back so you avoid the edges naturally, still provides storage but with more access and keep the second light but directed to the back of the van. Future versions might have a pillar welded at each corner to the roof to keep the flex out of the shelf, in the case the boarding and liner and carpet and glue stiffened it up more than expected.

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[hilton484]

Not picture but there was a crack in the roof on the edge of the square shape at the back theatre was leaking. Ideally would have cut out a patch and welded in but for a quick fix I just stitched it back together with weld.

Lee found wd40 and scraping and wiping does a great jobs for stickers, made it a lot fresher looking. He finished off the flooring and did a nice job of the transition to the cab. The metal trim finishes it nicely.

I had a second rear cam on the brake light with a screen but I never used it as it got interference in the picture and had a pioneer one on the stereo in the number that only came on when reversing. Since I never used it I took it out for this van.

I had the screen on the dash behind the drink tray but it wasn't the best spot really. We didn't want to bond a mirror to the cracked screen and have to replace later just to clip the screen to it. So Lee drew up the sun visor clip and made a bracket that was held by them to clip the screen to. The position is good and holds securely with no extra holes or glueing.

We also fitted a parking sensor kit but higher than on mine, the middle two are in the doors.
Lee found 2 used sofa beds and fitted in a similar way to my bed with alu rails bolted to the van with rivnuts (can't find pics ATM) and the other we built a frame to slide the bed out so it can be pushed back when a sofa. Added a curtain where the bulkhead would be and another across between the beds.

I'll have to get some more pics now it's more finished, we got it all done for the festival in about 3 weeks so quite chuffed with how good it came together. Still quite a lot to do to finish it off but no rush for the moment now.

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