VW Articles - with a little help from our friends and family!Kathy and Alex Fenton had always enjoyed getting away to the countryside with their tent during the summer. In April 2004 at the ages of 29, they decided that they were going to abandon their three bedroom dome tent and upgrade to a camper van. They had always admired the aesthetic shape of the VW camper van. After some research into the size and cost of these vans they very quickly decided that they wanted (nay NEEDED) a VW T25 Camper van. This hadn’t really been discussed or thought about too much previously, but around 24 hours after the first discussion, they were lost around the streets of Wigan on the way to test drive a white 1988 T25 1.9DG panel van advertised in a car magazine. Having only previously owned new cars with tiny engines and both being into IT and not car mechanics, the pair took along Kathy’s Uncle Benny in the hope that he could spot anything dodgy that would be a deal-breaker. This move turned out to be highly fortunate! Having test driven the van and inspected it as thoroughly as possible, they decided to make an offer – the deal however hinged on CA$H. This is where the Royal Bank of Uncle Benny came to the rescue, what a star! Before Kathy and Alex knew it – they were away in the van celebrating their wedding anniversary in nearby Clitheroe and plans were hatching to change the internal DIY conversion into, well – a superior DIY conversion. Uncle Benny was also an expert carpenter – which helped immensely. Between them they hatched a plan to make their own rock ‘n’ roll bed that folded between a bed at night and a seat during the day. They used some old futon hinges they had hanging around and got some wood (a lot of wood) cut at a local timber merchants. Because the van was a twin slider with a bulk head dividing the driver’s cabin and the back, they decided that the sink, fridge, worktop, cupboards and porta-loo should be built against the back of the bulk head. They purchased a new cigarette lighter fridge to replace the broken three-way fridge and the Fiamma porta loo was a £40 bargain from one of the cheap supermarkets. They also made storage boxes down the sides of the van with piano hinged lids. These looked fabulous, but they had to later remove them to make room for the LPG donut tank in the back and to make more room for sleeping. Several long hot weekends later – and hundreds of trips to the DIY shops, the interior was complete. It was a great improvement! Ever the practical experts, Kathy’s Mum and Aunty Sue made some fantastic cushion coverings and curtains from some bargain end of roll material they bought from a warehouse shop in nearby Oswaldtwistle. In that period, they managed to get away to the Lake District and Wales – but they were aiming for the biggy – CORNWALL! They saw what had been done so far – and they were pleased, but there was yet more to come. By this stage, Kathy had become very much involved with the fabulous Club 80-90. The club was (and continues to be) a massive source of help and entertainment. Ideas were flowing by now – they could get a great price on an LPG conversion and a re-spray – so why hang around they thought, let’s do it before we go to Cornwall for the week! They just about managed it. The highly experienced Gasure team (www.gasure.co.uk) did the LPG conversion and it exceeded all expectations. Suddenly, the fully loaded van was running cheaper than their small car. They could fill up their LPG donut shaped tank for between £16 and £20 and travel over 200 miles. On the rare occasion that they couldn’t find LPG (like on the way to Cornwall) they just flicked a switch and ran the van on petrol until they found LPG again. Within the first twelve months or so, the LPG conversion had practically paid for itself – but from then on it meant weekends away were even cheaper for them. The re-spray was a little rushed to be done in time for Cornwall, but for £550, it had been transformed from a white ‘builder van’ into metallic Poseidon Blue colour. It was READY for Cornwall, so they set off with Kathy’s brother Dave and body boards in tow! Dave also became hooked and went on to buy his own T25 the following summer. It was a very hot day travelling down to Cornwall, and they were driving at around 70 (10mph faster than normal). Lo and behold, the temperature light came on. This continued to happen every hour until they gave it up as a bad job and parked in a Cornish lay-by for the evening. The next morning, the temperature situation was fine – and this didn’t bother them again for a while. They had a fantastic week driving around Cornwall looking for great body boarding waves, culminating in a superb Supergrass gig at the Eden project complete with VIP passes. In the summer of 2004, the van racked up over 10,000 miles travelling all over Britain and a trip around Ireland. In that time, there were a few issues with the van. They only had to be towed once by the AA, and that was the dreaded temperature problem again. Steve Shaw from Gasure managed to solve this in the end. The previous owners had unfortunately put the wrong coolant in the van, and as a result, one of the pipes had become clogged up with a sandy residue. Luckily Steve fixed this by unblocking the pipe with an old coat hanger. Summer 2005 saw Kathy and Alex travel over to Sherwood Forest to the encampment of the Timber Technicians (www.timbertechnicians.co.uk) to get a high top fitted. They dropped the van off and took a tent and two bikes to nearby Clumber Park and spent an enjoyable couple of days waiting for the glue to dry on the new high top. When the van was delivered back they were mightily impressed. Finally – even more storage for all their stuff! The high top was a static hard fibreglass top fitted with a small window either side, and a Fiamma roof vent. The high-top was installed by cutting a hole in the roof of the van and then sealing the roof to the top. Some cunning woodwork was added to allow a bed base to slide out. This meant that it was now possible to get two additional adults sleeping in the high top if they ever needed to – although in Kathy and Alex’s case – they just wanted to be able to take more stuff away and stand up whilst cooking! There were other practical enhancements also. A cigarette lighter fitting was connected to their Leisure battery and two very helpful characters from Club 80-90 helped them fit rear seatbelts (thanks Horza) and speakers in the back (thanks JokerDub). They also installed a stereo that played MP3 disks and a remote control. A switch was installed that allowed the stereo to play from the leisure battery while stationary or the car battery while on the move (thanks Cruz). The remote let them control the stereo whilst sat in the back living area (as access to the front cab was blocked by the bulk head). The van has now been branded with “funplace2b” stickers for the high top and a big flag (with the help of a PrinterAl from Club 80-90). The idea came one drunken night when Kathy got the words wrong to the ACDC track “Hell ain’t a bad place to be”, thinking it said ‘this is a fun place to be!’. This also sparked the website: www.funplace2b.co.uk/vw - which has some more information about their van and other van related stuff. They also started a website for fellow camper van owners to recommend their favourite campsites: www.funplace2b.co.uk/camp They had some excellent camping trips again over the summer of 2005 including the fantastic Vanfest. It was then that they were delighted to discover that Kathy was pregnant! By this stage, having realised the potential of a camper van, Kathy’s brother Dave and two of their friends, George and Shaun, had also bought VW T25 vans and Kathy’s Aunty Linda and Shane had bought a VW bay. The first question that was asked on hearing the news of Kathy’s pregnancy was “Are you going to sell the van???” The answer – of course – was ‘Definitely not!’ They have learned on good authority from Club 80-90 that it is quite possible to take babies and young children away with a van, a high top and an awning. Despite some scepticism from camper van agnostics, they are really excited about the prospect of putting their foreign travels on hold for a while and making even more of the camper van and its new high top. They have loads more ideas for enhancements and trips away - Bring on 2006!
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