Delays

We had hoped to pick Bertie up today, as arranged, but we hadn't heard anything from them so Jonathan called - and he's not finished. Apparently we can get him on Friday after 4. I'm a bit narked, especially as Jonathan came home from work early today to make sure he was available to help with the towing. Also, Dan can't work on him easily over there, and I was hoping to get him to do some more bits during this week.

Welding progress

I popped in to CWD over lunch to drop the seatbelts off, and to check on progress. The back step has now been cut away, exposing the extent of the space, and also the extent of the rust (!), under Bertie. Pete has been making a big box from aluminium to go beneath this space - it is really big and heavy, and will give loads of storage room - but I'm a bit concerned how low to the ground it appears to be. Pete says it will be fine, and probably once it's in place it will sit higher, so I expect I'm worrying over nothing.

Forgot to take the camera with me, which I'm really annoyed at myself for, as it would have been great to have a record of him with no back end!!

Happy birthday Jonathan!

Welding take 2

We towed Bertie back to CWD today for the next stage of his work. We have talked through lots of options to do with replacing the back step area, and building in some storage, but until the current floor is cut out, it's tricky to see exactly what spaces we're dealing with.

Dan suggested the idea of having a pull-out drawer beneath the back, on some super-strong runners like they use on race trailers for pull-out sections. I LOVE that idea, and it could make a back deck area between the doors to increase (albeit slightly) the living area. The horse-box conversion that was on the last series of Amazing Spaces, and which inspired George's fold-down caravan wall, used that idea of having a patio/deck off the ground...
I drew up how it would be, and showed it to the welders, but they rather poured cold water on the idea :(

Pete the welder said he didn't think the undercarriage has the strength to support something like that, and would be worried what it would do to the integrity of the vehicle... Very practical, and probably true, but I'm still sulking! He was also worried about being able to keep such a drawer water-tight, because of where the joints would need to be. We agreed that it will probably be better to build a storage bin into the floor forward of the step, with a lift-up access in the floor, and a second storage box under the tailgate with a step fixed to it. He's going to start removing the old step tomorrow, and then I guess he'll know more about dimensions etc.

We also talked with Pete about our new ideas for the bunks, and asked him if it would work to use the seat backs to support the hammocks. We talked over a few options, and agreed that they will fix some u-shaped brackets to the tops of the frames to hold poles to make pipe cots.

In further news, I have today ordered some seatbelts, so that Pete can weld the fixing points onto the frames before he finishes. I have no idea if we've got the right ones - who knew there were so many options?!- but let's hope they're OK.

No progress

Nothing much to report today, except that I had an email from Awesome saying that they would like Bertie to be converted to a negative earth, as they are going to be fitting various bits of electrics in the rear and have no experience of positve earth vehicles. Better work out what that means then!

We've been talking about the possibility of taking Bertie to them on a trailer or low-loader if we still can't get him going. Every day that goes by I am more and more worried about our timescales, and worrying that we will miss our opportunity to get him finished by the summer, and miss the filming schedules. On the other hand, the idea of spending the next few thousand pounds on fitting an amazing interior to a vehicle that doesn't go... now that really is a gamble that I'm not sure it would be sensible to take.

Issues

Dan has been brilliant, giving up another Saturday to come and work on Bertie. He was here for over 5 hours today - he brought Quin with him which made Nathanael happy, and we were all out in the garden digging in the trampoline (another story...) while Dan was working away.

He's pretty sure the problem lies with the ignition timing and he's been doing some research into how to try to sort it out, but he couldn't make any headway today. He also thinks we need to look into the earth of the vehicle - he says it is currently positive earth, which is not uncommon for vehicles of this age, but that we might want to look into what's involved in turning it into negative earth. He would like to replace the distributor, but needs to know which one to get first, and that would be affected by our decision on the earth.

I wish I knew what this all means!! Google is my friend, but I find myself combing through forum after forum and getting more confused rather than clearer...

More mechanical issues

So Dan came today with the rebuilt carburettor, but Bertie is still refusing to play ball. Dan seems to be reaching the extent of his knowledge and experience, and isn't really sure where to go with it - and we don't really know either. I just don't have the first idea who I would call or where we would find a mechanic who is going to know what they're doing with this type of vehicle, and who won't charge us the earth for whatever needs doing.

On a more positive note - the black and silver number plates arrived today! Can't wait to put them on, and ditch the horrid yellow plastic, but we've decided we won't swap them until he's all done - so they can be our icing on the cake!