Bunking Up - One goes in!

On Monday I had a text from next door to say that we had a parcel. I wasn't expecting anything. However it turned out to be these!




Thanks to the superb customer service provided by Jim at Dormobile we were amazed to receive our new bunk covers on Monday this week, as opposed to Wednesday next week! To say I was excited was an understatement.

We already had the bunk stripped and painted and on the dining room floor looking like this.





It was a small matter to reassemble the bunk with the new cover on, making sure that the narrow end of the material was at the narrow end of the mechanism.

Tonight we tried to fit the bunk. We had already decided to replace all the fixing bolts with new, and had picked these up from our local hardware place. They are a very useful shop as I can go in with a filthy nut and bolt, ask for 8 new ones 'just like this' and 8 new ones will appear from Out The Back.

Now, at this point Dear Reader, it is important that you understand that the bunks were not fitted when we got Brian, and therefore all we had to go on was a mysterious 'RR' written on one end of the bunk we had taken to pieces.

One bunk. Two potential positions, (drivers side, passenger side) and two potential ways around (narrow end at the front, or narrow end at the back). This gave us 4 potential ways around, so clearly VW law was proven true, and we put it in all three wrong ways first. This is partly because the right way looks so very wrong.

Here is the bunk in situ.





I'm not sure if it is clear from here, and I will take more pictures, but the mechanism sits either side of the roof frame, so that when it is open the pole sits on the l shaped bracket in the picture. This means that the other side of the mechanism sits close to the canvas - almost precariously close! It looks as though the metal will go through the canvas when the bunk is opened, or through the canvas if you try to shut the roof.




However, the bolts lined up, and so we cautiously opened it - and there was space. We closed the bunk, rolled it round, and very carefully shut the roof. Amazingly, there was room! The metal doesn't even touch the canvas. Clever chaps these Dormobilers.

There was, of course one last test to do.

The child test.




He is a reasonably sized 10yr old, as mentioned before, and seems to fit quite nicely. He is very excited about sleeping in at Busfest at the weekend after next (when we are also paying our deposit for the new ATT interior!)

Tomorrow I shall take the second bunk apart, and strip it down ready to paint.

Brian is making a visit to Paul at Mid Norfolk VW at the weekend to have a heat exchanger and a gaiter done, and should be back on Tuesday, in time for us to fit the bunk, prep Brian for a weekend away, and be ready for a fab weekend at Busfest!

Obviously, there will be pictures!

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone so don't mock the spelling and I'll be back later to sort the layout!

Bunking up Pt2

The second instalment of the Bunking Up saga.

The plan was simple.

Remove bolts, remove fabric, sand and paint everything, -and installation is the reverse of removal as Mr Haynes would say.

Some bits of this went quite well.

Poles were marked up with string and knots.



They were hung up and sanded.




Shiny poles.




Back on the floor for the evening.



They were hung up again to be painted.



Everything looks good so far?


Indeed. And then we got to the fabric. It was dirty and dusty, so I hung it up, gave it a quick beat, then brought it in and hoovered it with the skinny end of the Hoover thing.




Oh dear.




Oh dear, oh dear.





We have two moderately sized children, of 10 and 12. We began to have doubts as to whether this would support their weight.

In the end we did the sensible thing, and spoke to Jim at Dormobile, who was able to order the material for us. They have 20 colours but the down side is that because they are made to order, it will be two weeks before they are here, leaving us a night to fit them and go to busfest the next day.

No pressure then....

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone so don't mock the spelling and I'll be back later to sort the layout!

Bunking up (pt1)

Yes, dear reader, this is going to be a long job.

This is, apparently, a genuine Dormobile bunk. Oh yes.

They both came with Brian and, whilst clearly not red as we would probably like, they are original.



See the level of original rust. They were rock solid. WD40 was our friend once again though, and after a 30 minute soak time, they were a bit less stiff!





Between the two of us we managed to get this one open.

The canvas is grubby, but solid, and whilst the steelwork is solid, it was also very rusty. Well, the bits we could see were....



The whole bunk.




Obviously when you can't see all of something and then you are going to trust it to hold your child and look awesome at a show (you can put those in whatever order of priority you like!) then the obvious answer is to strip it down.

So we did.




We took it to bits. More WD40, flat bladed screwdriver, Phillips head screwdriver and mole grips, and we were there! The poles can be seen to be in quite good condition, with just a bit of surface rust and some old paint.




Much rubbing down later, and the poles are ready to paint (but not painted) and the ends have been degreased and painted in silver smoothrite, which has gone on like a dream!




And there we go, dear reader. Part 1 is done! More sanding tomorrow, and some canvas cleaning, and some putting back together. Then paint the poles, take it apart, put the canvas on, and install in the van. How hard can this be......

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone so don't mock the spelling and I'll be back later to sort the layout!