When is a five minute job not a five minute job?

Kim bought me a shiny new steering wheel for the Camper as a Christmas present. As she was out this morning I thought I'd tackle this quick and simple job. Disconnect horn, remove push button, undo 24mm nut, lift old wheel off, reverse the process with the new wheel. I got to the "lift old wheel bit" and thats where I stayed for almost four hours. Four decades of grime and grit and seized the splines together and none of the usual tricks was working. Boiling water hadn't loosened the grip. WD40 hadn't freed it. A hammer and block of wood and just cracked the rim even more. I even purchased a puller tool, which failed miserably. So I broke out the hacksaw and chopped through the boss before bashing the remains off the column. Once cleaned the new wheel looks great. Not a five minute job though!

Christmas tree collecting

With a week and a bit to go till  Christmas its finally time to start getting the place festive. So we piled in the Camper to go to the garden centre and pick up a tree. With limited space we opted for a small one again. It fitted neatly on the roofrack of the van for an air-cooled trip home.

More running in

Another weekend and another 100 miles put on the camper engine. This time Kim came with us and we also picked up her work colleague Steve. We headed down to the end of the Watercress Line and worked our way up finishing up in Alton for a cuppa with our friend Alan and ending the day at Lasham to watch the gliders. This was at Medstead and Fourmarks Station as a pair of steam trains passed by.

Running in

Having had a bottom end rebuild of the engine, the Camper now needs a 500 mile running in period. Basically a load of longish journeys to bed it all in before being tuned again. With Kim having some craft things to be getting on with and the fact I'm due to be away most of next week I decided that my co-pilot Lily and me needed to go on a daddy & daughter roadtrip somewhere. The sun was out, the sky was blue and the tank was full so we headed West down the A303 from Basingstoke to Popham airfield. They were having an Auster fly in so we were able to park up next to the grass strip and watch the planes land. We even got to walk around the planes and see the helicopter come and go. Lily loved it and spent as long watching planes as she did driving the Camper. When it came time for lunch it was a picnic out the side of the sliding door as the craft landed 50m away. With a slow drive home I managed to rack up 100 miles today. 400 to go now!

A trip to the seaside

We decided to head to the coast today as Beach Buggin, the VW show was being held on Southsea Common. As well as loads of nice Dubs, some cracking company and fish & chips there is the added bonus of several sightings of the Isle of Wight Hovercraft bombing back and forth across the Solent all day.

Gymkhana

A bit of a first for me today. We decided to take part in the Hants & Berks Motorclubs Gymkhana. A cheap and cheerful entrance into the world of motorsport, next stop F1! Its basically an untimed event where you have to travel round a series of tests designed to score your ability to manoeuvre your car through gates and get as close as possible to various points. For a first go I managed an average 65 penalty points in the morning session, by the afternoon I had got into it and dropped that to just 15. The winner scored -3 as he was able to park on the cone and throw hoops over stakes.....he was also half my age!

Camperjam of fail

We were all packed up and on the road before 11am, there was a few spits of rain in the air but we were going for it. Camperjam in Weston Park was the destination, just 150 miles of motorway between home and a chilled weekend away. Within a few minutes the rain got harder and by the top of the M40 when we pulled into Warwick services we were faced with a monsoon! We about turned and drove back in even worse conditions and aborted out weekend away. Photos and reports from site were mixed, some had loads of fun and a dry camp, others were ankle deep in mud and being towed out. We just didn't fancy dealing with it.

On the move

On long drives up and down the country, one of the few ways to amuse myself is spotting cool old and new rides. Theres normally something interesting on route. This time it was a tidy Split Camper.

Cool Prom ride

Every so often we get approached by people asking if the Camper is for hire. Sadly insurance prevents this from ever happening. But for friends its not a problem. Kim got a knock on the door earlier in the year from a friend of a neighbour of ours. Her daughter was due to go to the Prom at the end of term with three friends and they wondered if the Camper was available. SO on friday evening with the van washed and clean I drove round the corner to pick them up. The van was duly decorated and we headed off. Loads of cool rides were spotted on route and at the venue, from 50s Americans to a brand new Bentley. For our troubles the girls gave us a bottle of wine and some lovely flowers. The looks on their faces as they arrived was one of delight. Happy to help.

Happy Campers

This picture is slightly cheating, but we've done nothing today apart from break camp and come home to lay on the sofa watching TV. So I'm using this brilliant group shot of all our friends that made this little campout so much fun, it was taken on saturday evening after the mammoth BBQ.

Quiet meet

Our final day of a week off and we decided to head over to the VW meet in Bracknell, not a brilliant turnout but we had a good chat to some mates before heading home so not all was lost.

Travelling postcard

Today was Just Kampers open day, a chance for the VW parts supplier to throw its doors open and say thank you to its customers with a free BBQ and some bargains in the sale hall. There were traders and you could camp as well, we chose to go just for a few hours and parked in a field full of Campers. I've seen all sorts of things painted down the sides of vans, but this is a first and I really liked it. There were some more postcards on the other side as well. If it wee mine I would be covering the seats like deckchairs too!

Beautiful sight

There are lots of beautiful things in the world. When I got home today there was a colourful package on the mat, inside were wristbands, camping passes and details for Camperjam. A weekend away in the Camper with good company, food and VWs, thats beautiful to me.

Whats in a number?

There are an infinite number of numbers around. So I could choose literally anything. But I plumped for a number close to home. 1303. The unloved Beetle, many people consider it to be less trendy, less cool, not as pretty. However its the Beetle with proper suspension up front, that handles better than a 50s Bug. And its easier to lower too!

Favourite place

I have a lot of places I consider to be in my favourites. Chilling at home with the family, lazing on a nice campsite with some mates. But today's favourite place was the South Field at Bearwood College for their annual car show. Its all of five minutes from home so it seems rude not to take both our old Dubs along. In a convoy with me driving the Camper followed up by Kim and Lily in the Beetle I was in my favourite place

One piece at a time

A few weeks ago I picked up a bargain pair of front indicator lenses for our Camper. The 1971 originals having cracked and crazed in the Californian sunshine. What I forgot was new rubber seals to stop the water getting back in. I picked a set up at JK in the week and on a sunny Sunday morning set yo fitting them up. four screws each side freed off the perished rubbers and a clean up and a refit saw the front of the van looking far better.

Happy campers

My brother decided to treat his girlfriend to a weekend away in a Camper for her birthday. She would dearly love an old van so this is probably a good way to gauge how they'd get on. Sadly the first van he hired was a pup, mechanically it was knackered with gears hard to find and throttle response non existent. Finding this out on the morning you are due to go away is not good and personally I don't know how the chap who owned it can live with himself taking money for a heap. We offered our van as a replacement but it proved impossible to get insurance other than "any other car" from his policy so it was a stroke of luck that another hire company in the area who have a reciprocal arrangement with the original hirer was free. We popped over to check the van out in the morning and it was a beauty. Clean, well looked after and well stocked with all those camping essentials. As I type the sun is shining down so the weekend has been saved.

Spare parts

At the recent Volksworld Show I nabbed a bargain when I bought a pair of new lenses for the indicators on the front of the Camper. The old ones being cracked and dirty. I swapped them over soon after but discovered that the rubbers that seal them are well past it too. Normally this would mean a long wait until a show came up to get them at or pay postage. As luck would have it I was working not far from Just Kampers this week. They have almost an entire Camper on the shelf in parts and quickly found the two rubber gaskets I needed. Fitting will be a weekend job soon.

Flat six engine donor

We had a visit from our friend Mr Slater today, despite repeatedly stating he was being sensible and sticking with his Skoda he finally crumbled and bought himself a Porsche 911 Carrera 2. Its a 996, the first of the water cooled 911s, it ended 34 years of air-cooled power. Its often joked in Volkswagen circles that 911s make ideal engine donors for Beetles and Campers as the engine just drops in. What little I could see of the 3.6 litre 320hp engine showed that it would be a mammoth task to fit it into either. Which is probably for the best as its a really nice car as it is, we took it for a spin on a private test track near us and saw three figures. I wholly approve of his purchase. GT3 next?

The Volksworld Show

Today was the first day of the season opener at Sandown race course. I had a last minute call up to the club stand so went along on my own in the Beetle. As ever there were some amazing show cars and vans in the halls and club cars and vans outside. I never made it to the carparks like I normally do but there was still plenty to see. Top of my wanted list were the VW38 and streamliner. But photo of the day goes to this heavily patina'd Split Beetle.