Network rail van to camper van

[dirtydog]

The Mrs has decided that she no longer wants to camp in a tent when we're away at competitions with the dogs after the weather was pretty bad this year with storms and rain etc so I now have the task of building us a camper van.

This is what I'm starting with

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Originally a Clarks conversion for Network Rail, most of the electrics are still fitted including the split charge system, handi wash, water boiler and even the leisure batteries are still there, unfortunately the eberspacher heater isn't still fitted

[Airthies]

Looks good, lots of electrical bits to get you started bummer about the heater though.
From what I gather Clarks are pretty forthcoming with wiring info on their conversions if you need any.
Looking forward to seeing the bus take shape.


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[dirtydog]

Oh and the microwave is gone as well.

[Airthies]

Oh and the microwave is gone as well.

Do you want one? 12v with mounting brackets and cables

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[dirtydog]

Oh and the microwave is gone as well.

Do you want one? 12v with mounting brackets and cables

Sent from my A55ho11 using Crapatalk

I'm not sure yet, we need to have some cooking facilities of some sort but I'm thinking of just getting one of those sink/hob units

[Airthies]

Oh and the microwave is gone as well.

Do you want one? 12v with mounting brackets and cables

Sent from my A55ho11 using Crapatalk

I'm not sure yet, we need to have some cooking facilities of some sort but I'm thinking of just getting one of those sink/hob units

That's why I've got one spare but we ended up with just an old 2 ring camping stove mounted to the top of the unit and wash everything in a plastic bowl. That way we can take it to the campsite sinks if we want to

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[dirtydog]

Well the strip out has started already removed a pile of wiring that was clearly not fitted by Clarks when they did the conversion as the wires were just wrapped around the stud on the battery and the other ends had just been cut.
Towbar wiring was removed as well because that was awful, will need to get new connectors for the rear light clusters as they're a bit of a mess

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[dirtydog]

A bit more stripping out today, glad I decided to start again with the electrics as they were a bit of a mess behind, people have added stuff with scotchlocks and half the things the switches controlled were no longer fitted

The dreaded scotchlocks

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Finding a melted relay is never a good sign either

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Found the floor is covered with aluminium sheet as well

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Fairly obvious the Fletner vent has been leaking

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[dirtydog]

Almost stripped out now

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Ripped out rear Fletner fan and found a bit of rust

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The aluminium sheets on the floor are 6mm thick

[dirtydog]

Finally got it mostly stripped out, just a few strips of wood on the floor to pull up

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Next job is clean and make it water tight in the back, there's a few holes on the roof from work lights etc that need bunging up and a few on the floor where stuff was bolted through.

The rear most roof join/seam leaks a bit as well so I'll have to cut of the seam sealer and re do it

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I can't think of anything I could use the aluminium sheets for in the build so I'll probably just weigh they them in

Also ordered a couple of Varta 110 batteries from Euro car parts for under £60 for the pair as I've found the front battery is as dead as a dodo

[dirtydog]

Not managed to do much over Xmas, have been working on getting it watertight as it was a bit rainy in the back
The rear roof seam was leaking and there was a plethora of holes in the roof and floor from worklights, racking, wiring etc

Rear seam sealer was cleaned of with a wire wheel on the grinder and resealed with tiger seal

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The bolt and wiring holes were cleaned up and bunged with closed grommets and sealed with tigerseal.

I then cut a big hole in the roof

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Next job was replacing the ignition barrel (door one I did a little while ago)

Fitted a couple of Varta Silver batteries that I got for an absolute bargain price of £29 each!

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[RustWidow]

Good job, I don’t know why mk6s have a problem with that rear roof seam, rubbish really aren’t they? Lol

[dirtydog]

Good job, I don’t know why mk6s have a problem with that rear roof seam, rubbish really aren’t they? Lol

It’s clearly a problem on some mk7s as well, might be because mine is an early mk7

[Noctule]

hello dirtydog,

glad you're taking pics, our next camper is likely to be a self-built mk7 so will be following with interest.

have you noticed that whenever you mention clarks the forum automatically links to a well known brand of shoes?

mat

[dumper]

They are referring to Clark’s vehicle conversion of Doncaster they build network rail mess vans