Hi there,
What a great site! My wife and I bought a converted 1997 Transit 6 months ago but we were unfortunately burnt by the seller and taken for a ride (excuse the pun!) due to... (you guessed it) serious corrosion. We had a great couple of months in it and have caught the camper buzz!
So the plan we have is to buy another Transit (preferably a little younger and without corrosion!) and take EVERYTHING out from the corroded van and transfer it into the new one.
I have not done anything like this before! I am not a mechanic, nor an electrician, nor am I a budding DIY'er (my DIY shelves are a little on the wonky side!) But I feel I have enough confidence to pick things up along the way. I am positive and enthusiastic, but best of all I have a few friends covering skills in carpentry, electrics and amateur DIY camper modifiers.
What I am finding hard in these early stages of decision making is realising how long this project may take... can anyone give me a (rough) idea of how long a similar project has taken them? I'm assuming it wouldn't take as long as a converting a new van as I'm hoping it's almost a practical 'copy/paste' job. The materials and furnature are already cut and measured, etc...
I'm trying to be completely realistic as I do not want to underestimate the time it take or indeeded the effort.
The camper itself consists of double bed, wall cupboards, plumbed toilet (I am guessing the new conversion would be minus this and maybe just use a potty in place of it), table pole station fitted into the floor, fridge, gas hob unit, sink with electric pump, leisure battery and altometer, DVD screens, speakers, CD disc changer, etc...
If anyone can add a little realism to our dream we would really appreciate it.
Cheers
dave
Hi Dave,
Good to hear you've not been put off despite being sold a duff van. In a lifetime of buying vehicles there's always going to be one or two you wish you hadn't!! Time estimates for re-using the conversion? Well, it's largely a classic case of Parkinson's Law - work expands to fill the time available! I guess you are looking for a realistic minimum though.
If the model of vans are the same and the stuff will fit without modification it shouldn't take ages. Ditching the toilet will also save time. I've done something similar but with a lot less to transfer - just a sink unit, stove, cupboard, leisure battery, water and gas. Building units and installing rails and a seat is time consuming.
You will also need to strip the old van to get at the stuff you want to put in first to the new van, so units out to get at electrics and battery etc which you want to put in to the new one at the start. I'd give yourself a weekend per task - 1) strip the old van, 2) wire and plumb the new van 3) install the sink / stove / fridge 4) install the units 5) install the bed 6) install accessories - DVD etc 7) Table and furnishings - curtains etc and 8) Add some contingency for those tasks you've missed or which take longer than planned. Definitely getting mates who are good with electrics etc will help A LOT. If you can do work on it during the week and get a bit of help I guess you could be looking at bashing through it all in a dedicated 3-4 weeks? However if it needs to fit round things and is limited to a day or 2 at the weekends I guess you will probably be looking at 2-3months??
Hope you stick with it and manage to get it done :o)