My Walk Thru

[commer walk thru]

Just caught this new site from checking over the Car Survey site (which I posted on way back in 2001!).About time we had something decent on the web for Commer van enthusiasts...

Have you seen the Commer Club de Nederland site (http://www.commer.org/) - they're very up together and have loads of beautifully kept/restored Commers. I met them several years ago on the way back from France, when 2 of their members came running up to my van to inform us that they had 15 Commer (Walk Thru) vans parked round the corner (much to the disbelief and amusement of my passengers)!

Anyway, here's a couple of pics of my van, taken on a recent trip up to the Lakes (its just climbed a pretty steep road, with my girlfriend freaking out all the way up). Hopefully they'll come up ok.

I bought the van in 1995, and have done quite a bit to it over the years (engine recon, new clutch, bearings, steering box, radiator, bearings, track rods, brake cylinders, etc, etc) including converting it to run on (pure) vegetable oil (on a 3 tank system).

Here's another pic - doesn't look too bad, but I've promised that it will definitely be going in for a full respray this year (once I've heard back from Pimp My Ride UK!)

 

[commer walk thru]

Just started ripping out pretty much everything I've built into my van over the last 10 years - cooker unit, sink unit, shower, cupboards. Decided to go minimalist, with just a seat/pull-out bed and small hob and sink, freeing up the space for people or gear.

But prior to this I'm stripping it right down to sort out all the rust spots, plus removing the windows and returning it to a van. Roof has been leaking recently so that'll be the first thing to tackle, will probably take it in to get this professionally done, but going to try to do as much on the van myself as possible. This'll mean learning to weld, but the friendly (Porsche!) garage next door have offered to give me free lessons.

All this activity is geared to one main event this year - a road trip thro France to Benicassim festival in Spain in July, just under 2000km from Bristol.

 

[commer walk thru]

just started some major work on my van, i'll post some pix when i can. been given a crash course in welding by my work neighbours, 'Porschemode', who strangely (for mechanics) are decent human beings. anyway, got a bit carried away with my angle grinder and have cut away the driver's step, plus a bit more... trouble is the more i look the more i find.

not as ambitious as that other bloke on this site who's dropping his entire van onto a new chassis, but i'm hoping to completely change the sides and roof sheets.

the big trip to benicassim in spain has been booked for july 16th and the days are counting down.

 

[commer walk thru]

some recent pics

chopped out quite a bit, as you can see from these pics taken a couple of weeks ago, but welded the basic framework in now.

completely ripped out the back

MOT due in a week or so... might have to wait a while on that, but reckon i'll be ready in a couple of weeks

 

[commer walk thru]

managed to get the van sprayed up ready for Spain (tho no time to finish roof) - below is a pic early the next morning after:

a mate did a piece on this on his blog - you'd think we'd have better things to do in the evening(http://christopherneale.blogspot.com/2006/07/respraying-bennetts-van.html)

and here's a pic from southern france just before Milau (on the way to Benicassim). the front left tyre has just exploded and we're attempting to borrow one off the back. this is just before the motorway maintenance and then gendarmes arrived on the scene...

and safely at Benicassim festival a day or 2 later.

having a few problems with my engine at the moment, had the injectors and injection pump overhauled (pricey) and ripped out all my veggie oil system to return to diesel only - don't think this caused the current problems (which i reckon now are due to the timing being out), but reckon might've eventually caused some hassle.