MadaboutKitcars

Swifty, here's where the fur came from:

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I think you're right, I seem to be knee deep in it all the time!

I found several white ones, but that one would not have been my choice!!
We'll have to get TonyT to post a pic so we know for sure,
Over to you Tony......

Tuesday

I'd go for it Tony, it will look well Vee dubeee done some thing like this:

(you'd need to colour code the bumper I think)

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Its a cracking looking bus Tony, like you say, apart form the front, it looks very much veedubby.

You may well have to let some meshing into the front for airflow like I did, although I've not got around to fitting it on my bus yet.
I also bought a few miles of stick-on 8mm chrome beading for the V look, eventually! Keep us posted on your progress, a lot of people are interested in this sort of thing.

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I'm not sure about that bonnet panel Tony, would personally go for a lower front panel, which is all you really need a bit like this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251730855422?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT



The bloke has chopped the top off, which you don't need anyway, and he's up for offers in the advert, might be worth a try

I'm sure you know what you are doing Tony, I know nothing at all about the 206d, except it looks like a really nice camper van.

The reason I have a micro van is that anything bigger would not fit under my hedge archway!

Good luck with whatever you do to it eventually!

Sounds like you've a real bit of history in that van!
Like you say, a gun carriage is built to last.

Wednesday

I have spent all day on the build, and only just finished now (2055 hrs)

So what have I done?

Built two speaker boxes around the speakers to protect them.

Fitted the dash support frame, finally, ( modified yet again, with a bracket to take the heater control)

Fitted the sterio sound system, including the speakers and wiring, all hidden from view, under, and at the rear of the dashboard.

Fitted the heater control.

And before anyone says that the sound system should go in last, bollox!

Not in this build! It had to go in now as the restricted space is so tight, its taken me all day to put it in. There is no way it could go in later as there simply will be absolutely no access at all.

I have double-checked all the fittings, connections and soldered joints, as if something were to fail. fixing it would most likely take several days, as everything has to come out to get to it.

A little bit about the sound system. (which I will most likely never ever use, but wanted the option for it to be there)

I had considered a radio/ music player, but the cost was a lot for something I most likely would not use much if at all.

Then,on the net, I found an absolute gem of a machine.

It was billed as a "micro-amplifier", but it is in fact an FM sterio radio, which scans up to 12 radio stations and automatically saves them for you.

It plays Mp3, so it will play from a phone, ipod laptop etc. It plays USB sticks,
which is how I like to play my music, and its supposed to play SD card, but that function didn't work for me.

It has on/off, bass, treble controls and so on.

It also has a micro remote not much bigger than a matchbox, which does everything, without touching the main machine.

I cannot remember the RMS wattage per channel, but its enough to hurt my ears, but the best thing of all, was the cost.

It was delivered to my door for the princely sum, (including postage) of
wait for it--- £11.90. I was so impressed with it I have bought another one.

Made in China of course, but it makes mockery of the 200 pound sterio.

The chinese must be giving them away free with petrol at that price.

Here are some pictures:

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I went on that link and some of those amps on there are identical to mine, but a bit more cash, and in the states.

This is where I got mine in the UK Dave:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131333796744?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Like you say they have a digital display, but mine will be totally out of sight, but I can sit there and select what I want by the remote control, and switch it on and off etc. so I'll have the best of both worlds.

That's exactly what I did Dave! But was so impressed I bought another one to play with.
Like you say at that price, its a throw away item and you can't go wrong.

Oh, one last thing, if you don't have a spare battery to power it for playing with, I used the power supply I borrowed from one of my spare pc screens, it was 250v/ 12 dc at 5 amps

It takes 3 amps to run the amplifier, anything less amp wise, and at higher volumes it will distort badly as there won't be enough current to power it correctly.

Dave, I'm not going to forgive you for this, but I resisted the urge to visit that website for 24 hrs, I broke down this morning and had a peek!

Bloody hell, I found that I need about 90 per cent of the stuff they are selling DESPERATELY!

So, for all the gadget freaks out there who cannot resist the urge, take a look at this

http://www.dx.com/

Thanks Landmannnn, hopefully mine'll look a bit like that when its done!
Some of the earlier vans like that had 600cc engines, then they upped them to 998cc, but mine has a 1300 water cooled lump.
I guess the 600cc ones must have been air cooled, as I don't see any holes in the front panel for airflow.

At 1300cc mine is hardly in the Aston Martin camp, but at 660cc it must howl along like a wounded snail!
6 grand!

I took advantage of the sunny weather today and put more blue paint on one of my other projects, my micro-van VW front panel.

Not a brilliant picture, but it does show that the panel is blue, and not the horrid pink and white which is how it came to me:

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Wednesday

Today I trial fitted for the first time, the dash after having completed the
support frame.

Unfortunately, the speedo was fouled by another support bracket I had modified earlier. Back to the drawing board.

To be really honest I shoved the dash forwards, and snapped off one of the spade connectors on the rear of the speedo. Thankfully, it was a "twin" and only one side is used, so I got away with it this time!

I re-worked the frame and made a 2 inch tube spacer to keep it behind the speedo more.

With each thing I do behind the dash now, seems to reduce the amount of space available, which was tight to start with, but it really is getting very cramped now. I think I will have to lengthen some of the wires feeding the instruments as I can now see that they will no longer be long enough to reach their new positions

So much still to do, and so little time it seems.

Here are a couple of pics, the second one is a bit blurry, but I was so cold having been out in the tent for so long, I could not face going back just for a better pic!

But it does show the difference:

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I managed to get a little work done on the car today, and like the super market says "every little helps"
I soldered some extra cable onto one of the gauges, and started on the other one too.

Once done the gauges will then reach the new position on the dash.

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Monday

I have not updated for a few days, and feel perhaps I should.

I have done lots of small jobs on the car, but because they are small jobs, I have taken no pics, so didn't think it was worth posting.

I have found some Jag switches, which I will need for various things, and checked out their workabilty, soldered ends on with connectors, (because I can do this in the WARM house!!) Also with long leads and connectors it will make the job of finally doing all the dash connections a lot easier.

Drilled holes in the dash to fit them, tidied up some of the spaghetti under the dash, etc, etc.

Doesn't sound like much, but all takes lots of time as its fiddly stuff to do.

Also, I must have spent a day or two helping a friend who was told his central heating boiler was completely buggered, and he would need a new one at a cost of £2500.

The boiler was producing hot water, but no radiators would work.

He got a second opinion plumber, who told him it could be fixed for £2000.

I asked a mate of mine to have a look at it, and finally, I sourced a new divertor valve on line at at 80 quid, and he an I spent 6 hours yesterday fitting it etc, and now the house is red hot, and the radiators are so hot they hurt the hand when touched.

It really pays to persist, and I have a talent for that.

two and a half grand my arse.

We were so busy, we took no pictures of that either!

I will try and buck up on the picture front!

Scottie