sorry for starting the rumour mark but could swear someone on vzi said it was you must have meant nigel as he has a nice bus as well and posts on here. Those wheels look familiar on the foz mate,trust me nigel beetles maybe smaller but once you get ordering the panels and by the look of it all the little bits you'll find your missing it won't seem any cheaper just remember custom can work out a lot cheaper than completely origional so pick your battles(i know this first hand and yes ebay struck again) you starting a build thread on here?

enough of all this beetle talk then come on Steve i'm now sat waiting for an update.........find that wi-fi
mik

So, rumours quashed! At Dover. Great ride down on A2. Nothing on the road. Very strange.

mik+nik wrote:Those wheels look familiar on the foz mate,trust me nigel beetles maybe smaller but once you get ordering the panels and by the look of it all the little bits you'll find your missing it won't seem any cheaper just remember custom can work out a lot cheaper than completely origional so pick your battles(i know this first hand and yes ebay struck again) you starting a build thread on here?

mik

Cheers Mik. The Foz wheels are still good

It will become a mild custom i think (few early panels too) and am planning to convert from LHD to RHD at the same time. Body is loose and ready to lift off but just need the space.

I'll have a think about a build thread...

Nige

Morning all

We left home 4.30am for the 2h15 drive to Dover for an 0825 ferry. We took the A2 to avoid any trouble. Bingo. It was deserted. Did the journey in two hours. Ferry 30 mins late but saw no trouble at all. Only three migrants spotted. Now in Dijon, 38 and humid. Cheers,
Steve

morning,
left home at 6:30, 31 mins drive and now clocked on for a days work.......i know where i'd rather be! have a great holiday steve .
mik

Ohhhhhh the silence is deafening !

Wonder what he's doing ?

Something a lot nicer than we are....

Bonjour mes amis.

J'espere que vous allez bien?

So, you remember that I took time out from Rusty one evening to make up a "reverse polarity" lead?

Good call. We've got reverse polarity here in Montbarrey, Jura. Also they use the French two pin plug to connect rather than the standardized connector. Luckily we had one of those too

Wifi crap here so not much chance to update. I have had a good look round an Eriba though....

Mange tout, mange tout

Steve

Aller aller aller
Ca Va bien merci... et toi?

Evening all

we're home

Quite a successful trip, no problems with migrants or French (ex) ferry workers.

A few pics for posterity and then a little quiz

Our pitch, right on the bank of the river Loue in the Bas Jura





and that's Cornelius' chair bottom left, not a French photo bomber
pic

I was sitting having a glass of wine when this hopped by…. I checked the %age alcohol on the bottle and it was normal……



apparently, so the story goes, someone took their pet rabbit on holiday and it escaped and bred with the locals like, er, well….rabbits so there's a few ginger bunnies hopping about.

This was the hook up. French two pin and reverse polarity, so be warned all you newbie European electric campers. Luckily we were prepared and thus didn't blow up the boy's Kindles



We walked up some local waterfalls and the boys took a (cold) shower





Did a bit of wine tasting (the wine here is not up to much really) and they're not asleep….I think...



The boys went "solo" on a local lake and by the end of the hols were shooting rapids so two extra kayaks now required



So, apologies for that bit of "off piste". Back to Rusty.

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

This is how we rolled until we got back to Kent today. This was in the Holiday Inn, Calais, car park and the migrants didn't get their hands on our boats



then we collected something…………first to spot wins……..nothing



Back on the bus on Saturday

Cheers,

Steve

Nice rack

That looks like a for mobile front wrap around rack...jealous, I'm on the lookout for one.

Evening all

Home, unpacked, tent aired - by the Sheila, some gardening, took the Sheila into town to buy a birthday pressie as was her b'day whilst away ( apparently an industrial overlocker AND a dormy roof rack doesn't count ) and then I was faced with starting on Rusty. It was a bit daunting and I found it a bit of a mission to summon up any enthusiasm I didn't fancy blocking……. so I decided to ream out the hinges and start to trial fit the cab door

Some time ago I'd bought these… adjustable reamers



I drilled a hole in a bit of scrap to have a practice…



I've bought the first oversize stainless mirror arms/ top hinge pin from Autocraft and they're very good. First oversize is 8.5mm so if I cock it up I can go to second oversize (9.0mm)



first off I did the hinge parts that are not attached to the door



gradually opening up the reamer until I got a good interference fit



then I did the part on the door ( the hat's there to soak up the oil that I use as a lubricant but it wasn't very successful )





then I tried the door in the opening but it didn't work very well but I tried it without being on the hinges and it fitted quite well, therefore……. the problem must be with the hinges and I 've seen what others have done so copied a few "techniques"

where the door didn't quite fit to the dogleg, I smacked it….. sorry, "finessed" it with a hammer or is it "fettling?"



it's starting to show some promise now but the gap at the "B" post is a bit too mighty



I did a bit of this



and some of this (using a smidge of seam sealer to keep the wooden blocks from falling out )



I "bent" the door to fit the gap and then left it clamped up to get "comfy" overnight. Then I tried Rusty's new "hat". We're quite pleased… don't really like the look with the dormy roof, but this should disguise it a bit…. and we can tie our boats on



That' s today done. I'm now sampling one of the many bottles of wine that we brought back so see ya later

Steve

Evening!

I'd left some wooden blocks in the hinges of the n/s cab door overnight. This morning I removed them and I'm happy with the fit A little tweaking should do it now



Then I did the same to the o/s. This fitted a treat around the dog leg with no "finessing" required



The gap twixt door and B post was again a tad on the mighty side so I put the blocks in and left it for a while clamped up.

The Sheila spotted that the doors were on and made me put a door top in Then she produced this….





Next job was to try the doors with the rubbers in I'd heard some horror stories about this step when the loveliest fitting doors then…… don't fit I'd been recommended to the WW rubbers. Ther'yre very soft and touchy feely



so in they went



and the doors still fit well Phew!



I'm still finding it hard to "get going" again after our hols and I still didn't fancy blocking so I decided to do the dogleg. Not too tiresome but another job to tick off. I've also been working on the engine lid and stripping paint off the second cargo door in between all this Nothing too much as I'm looking forward to having Gary back this week for a bit more instruction



I covered the dog leg with a fairly thin smear of filler, but did the lot so that I wouldn't have to keep revisiting areas



then blocked it back before applying a coat of Dolphin Glaze and doing it all again Then I started the other side. Then…... I got fed up…..



So that's that. Back to work tomorrow

Cheers,

Steve

Did you plan getting the rack on your route back?
Have you planned for an identical one for the rear?
I presume that is modern made one with wooden slats and could get another made to support the kayaks? Nice...