Category: Van Travels

The Building Of Skylar

Skylar Continues To Grow

Progress Continues I’m pleased with the way things are going at the moment, and looking forward to my up coming road trip to Cornwall nest month 🙂 .
The new additions to my van
Things are starting to take shape at last I now have my twin gas ring hob installed see (Fig.1) next to that i

Hob 001

s a small sink I have yet to plumb the water in and wire up the water pump, something else on my list of jobs.
No gas yet as I’m still waiting for my gas locker to arrive from https://www.jacksonsleisure.com/ had a bit of a hold up with the delivery due to a computer technical hitch! But should be arriving tomorrow, so once I have it I can see if the space I have constructed for it is going to be right, otherwise I’ll have to re-plan.

Figure 1 New Hob

Moving on 23/05/2018.
Things have progressed quite well over the last few days as the weather has been good, don’t know how long it will last so I’m making the most of it!
My gas-locker finally arrived a week late although it is of good quality a well-made item although I think it was a bit pricey.
When it came to installing the locker it fitted great in the space I had purposely built for it, but unfortunately when I went to drill the hole for the drop-out I couldn’t locate a suitable place under Skylar were the drop-out hole could go, so I ended up having to move it round to the side door where there was plenty of space for it to go.
This is Dan my nephew helping out, he’s painting red oxide on the bare metal where the drop-out hole was drilled (See Fig 2)

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Dan Working on Skyler

Hear you can see more photos of the progress made on this day.

Please leave any comments or questions in the box below, don’t forget to like and share.

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Little Yellow Bus

 

 

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Little Yellow Bus

Just outside Southend is a village named Great Wakering, it’s only small with a population of about 5500, one of those residents is Heather Laskey the owner of “The Little Yellow Bus” a 1970/71 VW Early Bay window Volkswagen Campervan T2. She hire’s this out for weddings, corporate events, proms and other functions. I arranged to go along to see Heather and find out a bit about her lovely VW Campervan.

As I pulled up outside I could see the bus all covered up in her driveway, this was really exciting as I love the VW Campervans. Heather’s had her T2 since 2011, asking Heather what attracted her to getting a VW she told me “she’d always been around campervans”, some close family friends had bought a new campervan in the 70s that had been passed down through the family from generation to generation. Sadly it had problems with water leakages and ended up needing many welding jobs, in the end it had to go. Heather really wanted to get her own Van but didn’t think she would ever be able to afford the one she really wanted, a Split or a Bay (she really was averse to a T25). She made many searches, but alas they all seemed to have issues, batteries going flat far too quickly, problems with rust, damp or just about anything you could think of. Then Heather heard about an early Bay Window in Colchester, (not too far away from Southend), the vender agreed to sell the van for very nice price, well within Heather’s budget.

Heather drove her lovely campervan around for two years, did a few small repair jobs on it but then decided it was time to go for a full restore. She knows many people in the VW world, after asking around, she was given the name of someone, recommended for their restoration work. Heather left them with the van for two years in good faith. They sent her photos of the progress, which all looked good. The van was supposed to be ready for the VolksWorld Show in the September, so in March, before the show, it had only just come out of the paint shop. Unfortunately the paint work had that horrible orange peel look about it, also it was being fitted out before the paint job had been rectified. Well not to put too fine a point on it Heather was not a happy lady, things went from bad to worse. Heather’s had to pay the bill (under protest) to get her precious VW back. She went down to pick it up on a low-loader and bought her home.

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When she arrived home, whilst trying to unload it, she was unable to get the van into gear. Heather took it straight to a local garage for repairs. Just when you think things can’t get any worse, OMG it went up in flames. I would have been crying by this stage!

Well it ended up being there for a whole year. Realising that the job was a bit too big for the local garage, Heather once again got a low-loader to pick it up and take it over to her Dad’s farm, whilst deciding what her next move should be. Heathers Father had a friend who he thought could rebuild VW engines, that friend was Harry Harpics, one of the best VW mechanic’s and engine restorers in the UK. What a stroke of luck, (“well about time!” I’d say) a straight forward restore had been a nightmare for the poor lady.

 

Now not the original colour, (orange) that you see everywhere, but yellow (which I think looks fabulous). The Little Yellow Bus took a long, long, time and a many more £££, but the condition it is in today was well worth the cost and the problems that Heather had along the way. The van has been completely refurbished, the original pop top has been taken away, and it now has a rag top instead, as its crowning glory.

So, now I think it looks rather spectacular, it went through some unfortunate issues to get to the stage it’s at today. After all you went through Heather you deserve to have many years of pleasure from your Little Yellow Bus. So good luck! And hopefully I will see you at some shows in the coming years.

 

Thank you very much Heather Laskey for giving me your time today and telling me about your long journey, best of luck for the future.

Below there are some lovely photos of Heather’s T2

You can follow Heather on Facebook and Instagram.

 

https://www.facebook.com/littleyellowbus1971/

https://instagram.com/Little_Yellow_Bus

 

 

 

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©Kirston Tozer

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Van Travel Photographer

Van Travel Photographer

As a photographer I meet lots of different people most of the people I meet tend to be young up and coming models some have gone on to be quite famous models and there are lots that have great potential to hit the big time in the fashion/model img_3659.jpgworld,  anyhow with my love of traveling I decided to combine the two and become a Travel Photographer so I thought I’d add a few shots here from a trip to Italy last year to Naples and Pompeii. Here you can see one of the many bodies that were covered in several feet of hot volcanic ash their body preserved for all time.

 

Here we have one of the many streets of Pompeii that has been uncovered alIMG_3646.JPG the ash cleared away, there’s a rumour that 2018 is going to be the year that Mount Vesuvius has a major eruption that will be more catastrophic than the one covering Pompeii all those years ago.

 

 

This is the city of Naples where I stayed for a week in March 2017.  A lovely city the hotel I stayed in was a nice Family run business with still three generations of the male part Grandfather Father and Son, Grandfather was 96 years old, a lovely gentleman who came and spoke to me everyday I was there he didn’t speak any English I didn’t speak any Italian but managed to get the drift of what he was telling me and the bits that I missed his grandson would fill me in with.IMG_3625

 

Lots of Street Merchants

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Long alleyways between the main shopping roadways lots of sidewalk pavement cafes with the Strong aroma of coffee everywhere I went.

 

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I also visited some lovely parks with tree lined pathway and very old statues most of which had their heads missing…

 

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The Van Progress

Progress on the van

Well at last I have managed to relocate the two batteries20180320_130732

to the front of the van rewired the split charger and one of the fuse boxes, which is fantastic news as I can now press ahead the next part of the plan/ plumbing in the water and water pump/ putting some running lights on the side of the van (to cover up the drill hole I accidently made) and to install the inverter so I can rung some 230v appliances.

 

Painted the Battery cupboard.

 March 23, 2018 Paint on Battery cupboard

 

 

 

Rear View 002

 

Rear View Camera

So I can see behind me while I’m driving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Found The Problem With Leg

Problem Solved 

At last found the problem with my leg, had to go to a private hospital and see a dermatologist who took one look at my legs and some medication that I take for high blood pressure (that I don’t think I need) and that is the cause of the swelling in my legs.

The other part of the problem was this nasty red rash that spread all over my body, now this is a type of eczema predominantly caused by stress so stressing about my legs had triggered the eczema off.  So it’s come off the blood pressure tablets two days later well take a look for yourself.  A before and after shot!!

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More news on my leg situation

The Leg

Latest news on my problematic leg situation, well it’s now been suggested that I may have either lymes diseases or a blood clot so now I’ve been given anticoagulant tablets to take.

I’m beginning to think they don’t really have a clue what’s happening with my leg…..next trip to hospital is Wednesday for a scan so I’ll keep you posted as to what the next diagnosed disease is!!!

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