JohnDragonMan's Dispatch Camper Conversion

JohnDragonMan · 2020-07-15 15:13:29

heh yeah. Asperger syndrome combined with dyspraxia and slight autism has it's benefits I guess..
I just don't want a vehicle that will fail on me In some way in the future. fix everything now and it will be cheaper in in both time and money in the future. I have another car i can use and am still on furlough. so fix it fix it fix it..

I have the aircon system vacuumed down and ready to take refrigerant. the Halfords "top up" bottles get around the UK law on charging a AC system but I am not sure how.

this is my latest video taken before i took the van out for a test drive. i am pretty happy with how its all gone together!

Last edited by JohnDragonMan (2020-07-30 00:41:47)

JohnDragonMan · 2020-07-18 02:47:10

so this.

i really need to lock the socket set away.

lincolnexpert on here has just done their rear axle bushes. so i though for what it takes, ill just completely take off the rear axle. its a rather easy job if you can get your brake pipes off. i hate "crimping" brake flexi hoses but i thought with me replacing them, like it matters. hand brake is a pain to disconnect as you have to undo the 10mm adjusting nut all the way off on the shorter cable to get it off.
Abs sensors are pretty easy.

just ordered myself some bushes, cant seems to get bushes for the anti sway(?) bar, the bar that sits above the rear axle.
my one is pretty rusted and the small bushes at each end are pretty rough.

heres why the axle came off. so i could get under i and clean before treating and painting

theres a video on its way too!

Last edited by JohnDragonMan (2020-07-18 02:52:24)

lincolnexpert · 2020-07-19 09:23:49

Great Thread John. I would of had a breakdown at many points of this project. Going to enjoy following it to it's conclusion.
Man I wish I had your Skills!

JohnDragonMan · 2020-07-20 00:35:58

heh this is not skills. this is a combination of living as cheaply as possible and years of bad luck, knowing what will happen if i dont fix it now.

should see it now. the back end is now totally rust free. that means no surface rust or hidden rust.

got new brake hoses on the way. very tempted to change the shocks as its like riding a pogo stick over speed bumps. after taking the rear axle off and inspecting them it takes nothing to compress them (they move in under their own weight) and are slightly more difficult to pull out. yep pretty much at the end of their life.
can pick up a replacement "QH" branded pair from Ebay for £50... but i am tempted to push the boat out a little and get Sachs. of which there's 2 different hardness to choose from. some nice soft ones would help the old pots and pans in the cupboards but the stiff ones will give better handling.. hmm

i do have some old Fiat panda shocks which are the same length as the ones on this van.. for what they take to change, it would be interesting to have a play and swap them over to see how much difference they have.

ill take some photos tomorrow of the work i have done so far as i know you all like pictures.

sadly i have been called back into work. my virus holiday has come to an end and next monday (3rd) it will be back to setting the alarm for the old 9 to 5, battling traffic and heading of to my place of deconstruction. though more than likely i will spend the first few weeks welding all of the broken skips up and fixing broken machinery. hey at least ill be back up to full minimum wage rather this 20% off stuff it has been!

Last edited by JohnDragonMan (2020-07-20 00:37:26)

lincolnexpert · 2020-07-20 10:40:49

Looking forward to some more photos. Interesting re the panda shocks. I'd be tempted to go with the Sachs if you have the pennies.
I'm guessing going back to work will slow this project right down now. At least the Lockdown has been good for something. Loads of people have finally got round to starting/finishing projects smile

JohnDragonMan · 2020-07-22 01:33:42

alright. so heres the pictures of the rust protected finish.

all i can say is its not a very pleasant job chipping, wire brushing and filing away all of the rust.

so i pretty much got everywhere i could back to shiny metal. i then painted everything with a paint that has a built in rust converter and inhibitor (2x coats). i then went over the paint after a few days of drying with a thick brush on underseal. theres a few cavities in that area too that you can get the dynax tube in and give it a good internal coating. stop and prevent any bastard rust in its tracks.

i have the rear axle kinda back in now. i spent most of today cleaning up the coil springs and those 2x bars that slot in above the rear axle. both really rusty. then just cleaning up other bits on the rear axle and painting. this job is 90% waiting for paint to dry and 10% doing the work.

while i was waiting for paint to dry i decided to wire in door pin switches on the rear doors for my newly fitted alarm. now my alarm knows if a back door has been opened. this is good for 2 reasons.. 1, the obvious theft factor. 2, the alarm has an auto lock feature, so if you unlock the vehicle and never open a door it will auto lock the vehicle after a while. all well and good till you unlock the van, throw your keys in the back, the alarm does not know a door has been opened then locks the van via central locking.... then keys locked in back of van... thankfully that will never happen now. phew.

thats all for now...

JohnDragonMan · 2020-07-25 00:47:31

so today in my local scrap yard a dispatch van came in... which had a full after market bulkhead in it. no curves all angles.

all well and good but my van was not on the road.. i still had it up on ramps, with all the brakes disconnected and all of the hand brake components hanging up from yesterdays de-rust and paint-a-thon that i was doing. so hit the ground running when i woke up this morning and checked my facebook to see my local scrappers had this van in.

yesterday i managed to wire brush and de-rust the whole length from wheel to wheel on the drivers side, then repaint rust patches with metal paint (with built in rust converter). it was all dry by this morning so i undersealed the lot then set to rebuilding the hand brake. when that was done i changed the rear brake flexi pipes then bled the brakes.. it was getting on for 3pm by this time and the scrap yard closed at 4pm so the test drive for the van was going to the scrap yard to get the bulkhead..

and it worked flawlessly.

it felt so good. great engine power, nice suspension, corners lovely. real nice.

called into costco on the way back home. big_smile

its a shame the van i got the bulkhead was scrapped to be fair. it needed rust repairs but all seemed pretty easy work. just the outer sill needed cutting out and a new bit welding in. the van started and drove quite nice. brakes needed changing on the back as the handbrake was a bit strange maybe stuck adjusters. had the DW8 engine. sadly i dont think they would sell the whole van cheap though. for a car its a minimum of £500.

though i have had some absolute cracking cars from this scrap yard in the past:

https://www.fiatforum.com/members-motor … a-fun.html

https://www.fiatforum.com/members-motor … -mjet.html

still have the last one^^ big_smile

its impressive this scrap yard still lets me buy cars from them big_smile

JohnDragonMan · 2020-07-26 12:17:31

so this is the bulkhead. its pretty beefy! kinda a shame that i am going to cut it up a bit for what i have designed.. but oh well..

so the plan is to make it so the drivers seat can fold flat, so i can get access from the back into the front by dropping the seat back should i need to (because i am too lazy to get out and walk around to the drivers door haha)

now i just need to get it in here.. hmm.

Casper · 2020-07-27 02:16:39

I found bulkheads to be a tad shit. Being tall i could not get the seat back far enough so managed to get 50 quid for mine and hammered out the lower section to allow swivel plates for the seats. Made a R n R bed for the back and found incorporating the front area made the van huge again.

kenbw2 · 2020-07-27 08:57:28

Same. I used to have front facing seats and it was painful - swivel seats make the front space useful and saves you from needing additional seats in the back

tee_cee · 2020-07-27 14:35:06

Having removed the bulkhead in my 2015 Expert, I sometimes wonder if it may have been part of stuctural protection in the event of the van rolling on to its roof.

Casper · 2020-07-27 16:18:45

tee_cee wrote:

Having removed the bulkhead in my 2015 Expert, I sometimes wonder if it may have been part of stuctural protection in the event of the van rolling on to its roof.

Do you mean that lower section? I would like to think if it was structural it would have been welded in place rather than two bolts and a bead of some form of silicon

tee_cee · 2020-07-27 17:15:47

The upper section had beefy rivets. The lower section was welded to a seam in the floor in a couple of places for a couple of cm. Plus copious amounts of tough as nails sealant.

OAT · 2020-07-27 20:50:36

I doubt they would consider roll over protection to a van but not a people carrier.
Any strength in the bulkhead is to stop the load hitting the back of your head.

JohnDragonMan · 2020-07-30 02:52:15

OAT wrote:

Any strength in the bulkhead is to stop the load hitting the back of your head.

This.

so i plan on installing some pretty heavy things to my van such as an inverter and a compressor fridge. all of this is going to be behind.. me. well in a crash i dont think the wood i am going to build the cupboards out of will stop said inverter and fridge from flying forwards and giving me a bit of a head ache. so i really want the bulkhead.

i also want it for security, and heat retention. the front of the van is pretty pointless to insulate in my eyes with it having so much glass. so i will insulate the bulkhead and that can be my thermal barrier.

my plan is a sliding door behind the drivers seat that i can slide across then drop the back of the seat to gain access into the front/back.
yep im a little nuts but hey, we already know that.

videos coming soon.. technical difficulties..

Last edited by JohnDragonMan (2020-07-30 02:56:10)

JohnDragonMan · 2020-08-16 23:27:50

ok so its been a few weeks. the bulkhead has not been done yet.. sigh.

but enough about that.

a few weeks back i picked up a rather nice roof rack. the galvanised type. its a bit thicker than the genuine rack, has the ladder roller on the back. sadly however it does not fit on my van. well it would but i have the roof vent, so i have had to make some extended roof mounting brackets so the rack can straddle the spinny roof vent (no way i am getting rid of that, always said as a kid that if ever i was to have a van i was SOoo going to have one on it! i never really grew up and i still smile when i see it spinning.. ahh small things).

the task i am finding most difficult is finding some adequately thick rubber to remake the mounting brackets "feet" out of. i could mount it as is but originally it did have some and i dont want to chafe all of the paint from the mounting points. also vibrations.

now me being a "millennial" (at least i think i am.. 32 years old.. 1988?) i want to have a nice audio system in the van.
i managed to win a set of rather nice 3 way component speakers and crossovers on ebay for a good price. they consist of a 6.5 inch low frequency "woofer" (standard van door speaker size), a 4 inch mid frequency speaker, and a small 1.25 (i think) tweeter for the high frequencies. just to note that the tweeter is quite directional so needs to be mounted somewhere where it points at your face.
many people go with Coaxial speakers where they have the tweeter built in but this would not be good for the Dispatch door speakers as its mounted very low down.

so the 6.5 was easy enough to mount, the 4 inch was a little more difficult, and the tweeter was mounted right in the corner where the mirror adjuster stick is.
the 4 inch speaker i did make a hole in the door card for. its mounted at the 5 o'clock position 14cm away from the middle of the window winder. i chose this location as its got a big space behind it so it wont foul on anything.
the crossovers were a little more hard to find a home for but with the use of the mighty sticky pad it now lives just above the 6.5 inch speaker.

now the only issue i have is that these speakers run at 80 watts RMS... and my android head unit only pushes out a max of 30 watts if that. so you all know what that means! i need to get myself an amplifier. well i already did. its a bit over powered at being 150w x 4 RMS but it will do for rear facing forward speakers that will be mounted in the bulkhead... when thats done. the amp has 2x gain controls so i can set a front set and rear set differently.

i may have also bought a set of 6.5 coaxial speakers for the rear living compartment of the van.. now for the rear i went for coaxials because the speakers are going to be mounted in the bulkhead at almost the roof level. so the built in tweeters will work perfectly.
for the living space in the back i do plan on having a full quadraphonic setup with its own separate amplifier (or the same one on a 4 way switch) so i can plug my laptop into it with one of those mini LED projectors you get cheap now and be able to watch movies at night (with me being a sad person, not liking pubs or nightclubs).

its a plan.. just a plan. ive not got to much of this yet.

as the van goes to drive, i need to get the tracking done.. i think something was bent on the old suspension stuff i replaced as now it pulls to the kerb even though i counted how many turns it took to take off the track rod ends.
the van is also good at caring weight too.. i am pretty sure i uhh.. did something naughty with car moving car batteries. 1120kg of them, plus 2 big people (yes i was one of them sad ) i only really had to press the brake pedal a little more than normal to be fair.. other than that it took it really well! pretty impressive that the van paid for its self just by moving them alone.

then theres me.. never really felt so connected with a vehicle before well besides my old panda 4x4 but hey, i cant carry that in a panda! really good van. not bad on fuel (probibly change when i get that roof rack on), handles really good! i throw this thing around and it goes around corners really well. just got to remember to make sure the socket set is locked together as now i have about 300 sockets rolling around in the back.
really goof, very happy with it big_smile

thats about it for now.

OAT · 2020-08-17 00:29:52

What about the camper layout, have you decided on what sort of set up you need?
And where it will go?

JohnDragonMan · 2020-08-17 00:50:21

yes I have the layout planned. I know what I am doing... I think.

still a kinda make it up as I go but I know what measurements I need to stay close to.

if I was good at building cupboards it would be done by now. I am hoping I can just pay some one to do that side of it for me to be fair.

OAT · 2020-08-17 19:09:53

JohnDragonMan wrote:

yes I have the layout planned. I know what I am doing... I think.

Glad to hear it. I had visions of you wedged in among the tech like an astronaut in a space capsule. smile

It's gonna be tight though.

JohnDragonMan · 2020-08-17 19:37:19

OAT wrote:

Glad to hear it. I had visions of you wedged in among the tech like an astronaut in a space capsule.

you should see my bed room (both for the size and the tech). i have to have a lofty style bed just so i have a bit of space. the van will be roomy to me haha!! its amazing what i can fit into a 10 by 8 ft space.
i even have a fridge freezer in here, an extended sized ATX tower gaming PC, a few filing cabinets, and the NAS lives in here. the biggest issue i have is trying to keep my room cool without putting the split AC on.

years ago i had a twin rack mount server in here as i hosted online game and chat servers for people. easy way to make money when you get the kit for scrap price. wink
(yes everything came from the scrap yard i work at)

just got back from work and stuck my door card back on. it hammered it down last night so i had to run indoors and leave everything haha!

JohnDragonMan · 2020-10-02 20:05:52

been a while! so not much has changed as i have just been using the van to go to work and back in.

the speakers are oh such an improvement from the old ones. the best money i have spent this far on audio upgrades ever.

the roof rack is on and is very good. i made some feet/brackets for it that sit a little taller than the originals. i kinda made them a bit to big though but thankfully i drilled multiple holes in them as i knew they would be a little high. i just didnt know that i would have to use the lowest hole i drilled in them high haha

i have also drilled a 40mm hole through my roof, behind one of the roof rack mounting points. in the 40mm hole i fit a bit of under sink plumbing U bend pipe. this is what i will use to run my cables through. the U bend will stop water getting inside yet provide a nice smooth conduit to push cables through. the U bend is something i have used before on a vehicle and never had water enter via it. what else you can do is put a rubber or plastic gator/bag over the end of the pipe and zip tie it to the pipe, run the wires through it then zip tie the gator/bag to the wires. works as a wind stopper then.

most of the vans lights have been converted to LED bulbs. both complete rear clusters are now fully LED along with the side lights and all indicator lights including all the internal illumination lights and dash lights. the only bulbs i have not changed yet is the number plate lights as i am not sure how you get into them yet. the bulbs i am not changing are the main headlight bulbs (because of beam pattern issues) and the dash battery light (as the alternator needs that 5 watt load to excite the field winding to start generating electricity however this could be changed to led with a load resistor making up for the bulb's wattage load however i cant be bothered to do this.)

a general "over all" look of the van is that it is working flawlessly with only slight issues i have to fix. i have never been more happy with a vehicle. i should have had one years ago!

the slight issue is the central locking motors on the sliding doors really need an upgrade. the actuators have such a weak push/pull force that often it fails to unlock the doors and you have to use a key. i will upgrade these with after market actuators at some point in the distant future as its not yet annoying me enough big_smile

happy to report that the aircon is still holding pressure and no noticeable leaking has happened. it seems all my O ring seal replacements paid off! it works really well. the more i use it the better it seems to get. makes me wonder if the TXV was jammed up and its now slowly working its self free.

the back of the vans floor has been lined with some 4mm rubber flooring. nice and hard wearing while being anti slip. should work well.

the bulkhead is still unfinished however it is all welded up as one piece now with some thin walled 2cm by 2cm box section welded into it to give it strength.
my "tip the seat all the way back to get access to the back/front" system works well. i just need to make a sliding door for it i also need to weld on some angle iron to make some mounting points to the side of it.

that is all really i can report on.

with the darker nights rolling in, i need to get some interior illumination sorted out. i am struggling to find the ignition barrel. it is something i am going to look at tomorrow i think. also add some map reading lighting.

really need to start building up the inside. stick the closed cell auto carpeted wooden ply back on. i am sick of looking at the damp proof membrane covered insulation.

heres my last video:

till next time!

JohnDragonMan · 2020-10-31 02:59:49

Well no real update sadly, i am using the van to commute to work in and as my general run around waggon. so wished i had a van sooner in my driving life.

the exhaust must have shifted somehow as now it hits the tow bar... bit of a pain to be fair as its rather loud and its damaging the paint on it! mad
i have seen some wheel chair converted vairants of our van where it has a side exiting exhaust just before the rear wheels. this is something i would like to do. add an extra silencer closer to the CAT and just shorten the exhaust length slightly with a 45 degree bend exiting just before the rear wheels.
i did take some pictures of one that was scrapped.. but instantly sold. so here is what i want to do..:

this is to make way for the wheel chair ramp built into the back. i think it would work quite well for what i want it to do.
also if ever i wanted to put a tent on the back of the van, i could have the engine running and not be pumping diesel fumes into it lol

Last edited by JohnDragonMan (2020-10-31 03:00:36)

JohnDragonMan · 2020-11-10 01:06:21

so i have been pulling up some designes for a hot water system.

the system will consist of a diesel powered coolant heater (think of it like a slow central heating boiler), 2x plate heat exchangers, a thermal storage tank, and 2 "coolant" circuits. (the engine and the diesel heaters)

under the van right in the middle between the fuel cooler and exhaust CAT (on the HDI) theres a nice gap that could home a nice 20L jerry can. i was considering using the jerry can as a thermal store for hot water the can being made well insulated..

using a plate heat exchanger between the engine and diesel heater then another between the diesel heater and fresh water for the sink.

hmm be more easy if i drew a picture...

see, i design it this way so i can completely drain the tap water side with no ill effect.. the party trick here is that the diesel heater can also pre-heat the engine.

what do you think?

Last edited by JohnDragonMan (2020-11-10 01:08:36)

JohnDragonMan · 2020-12-21 21:36:35

Yuletide Blessings to you all on this rather overcast midwinters day.

well i have not done much since the last update. i have however upgraded the speakers which is quite nice it also has a nice android head unit.

heres how they have been installed. quite nice with the little crossover box hidden behind the door card to make it all neat.

when was the last time you saw a Gismo air freshener?! big_smile

still working on that bulkhead.. i tell you its been in and out of the van more times.. sigh. i just hope all the new brackets i have welded to it all align up to the bolt holes...

till next time!

dRoyd · 2020-12-21 22:16:20

... and a merry Christmas to you too!

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