miniblog - alu back plates

Picked these up yesterday



An amazing £5 from Shaws Metals Derby!

I'm screwing the smaller side panels on as they are aesthetic only, the door panels will be coachbolted on for maximum security. Also need some goo i can inject into the door panels where they've come apart to create a bit more subtance.
I'm thinking expanding foam at the minute, but i'll see what i can find at Wickes in the way of 'filler'..

Interior 2 - kitchen units

Assembled the kitchen units today :)

£20 each from wickes :)



I'll need to cut out the back of the smaller unit to allow for the front heater to vent into the back properly :)

As you can see, it fits perfectly within the width of the 300mm cupboard.



I gotta work out next how to re-fab the cupboards without too much stress. These are gonna be used for food, supplies etc. :)


Currently looks like this,


Want it to look like this :)

Security issues

Back doors & front sliders

Hmmm. How to make it secure...

I'd notice the back doors had become a bit fatigued at the bottom and were liable for crow-barring off if someone had the audacity to break into her.

Down the metal merchants for some thick alu. Removing the back handle, and coachbolting some thick alu at the bottoms of the doors, either side should give the doors strength and the pop-riveted lock cover should deter the odd opportunist.

It means i can only open the doors from the inside, but it's no real bother. i might take the passenger seat out to give a better 'doorway' into the back. not sure yet.

The plates will be very subtle and shouldn't detract from it's 80's design too much.
I've marked the locations with some arrows just in case. lol. childish i know. hehe



Gotta see 'the lock man' sometime soon to see what i can do to bump up the security at the front end now :)

Oh, found out today it's only liable for tax exemption if it's being used as an ambulance still.. Even after i suggested it would be a part-time ambulance for transporting ill relatives and friends to the doctors. Bloody money-grabbing government. As if the price of petrol doesn't cover our road use alone! Grrrr

Interior 1 - Clearing out

Out with the old..

The NHS ply cupboards equipped with seatbelts to hold things in place had to go. Damn, they were well built! They'd used some horrible rubbery stuff to seal them in place too.





As you can see above, i started making the speaker cabinets that will sit at the back, but i'm scrapping the idea of building frames & screwing in, for a more 'direct ' fitting. ie. i'll screw each baton directly to the walls & build 'as-i-go' for a more precise & sturdy fit.

Went down to Wickes, and got a couple of kitchen cupboards to situate either side of the cab door. These will have worktop on, a sink in the left one, electrics in the right. I've got a portable camping gas stove i can sling on top and managed to get hold of a 12v oven to put in the cupboard in case i get culinarily creative :) £25



The plan is, to build two bench seats either side of the space, that open out into a nice big bed :)

They'll be a small kitcheny-type area at the cab end and big fat speakers at the rear doors end.

Excuse the crude 'paint' plan!

New Engine Bits

Water pump & Rad bust :(

Turns out the water pump had given up, burst the rad somehow.

Managed to get hold of a new rad from The Coolex Group in Nottingham for £45.
The pump was proving a little trickier to locate with it being a V6 engine...





Turns out, after helpful advice from the Bedford CF forum (www.bedford-cf.co.uk) which i joined as a member when i got my CF earlier this year (and shortly scrapped after!) - the engine is more common than i thought.

The pump is the same as the Essex engine in a Ford Scimitar, Capri mk1,2&3, Granada & a few others to boot. £45 later, i'd snatched a brand new one up from ebay.

Good old Stu managed to stick everything back in, and grabbed a few new belts for me from Derby Bearings (www.derbybearings.co.uk) for a fiver :)



Only trouble with the new rad, is that there are no fixings to hold the almost-20-year old fans on! So, dad gets in the garage, potters about a bit with some steel and a vice, and whips up a few brackets to hold the fans back in place. I debated mounting the fans in front of the radiator for ease of fitting (obviously reversed polarity) but scrapped this idea in favour of dad's. Photo to follow.

The Humble beginnings

Bought from Ebay for £900





It's a Ford Transit Mountain Ambulance :)
It's got an Essex V6 3.0l engine in it which goes like the clappers :)
Drove it all the way down from Huddersfield (thanks Danny) with no apparent problems.
Got home to Derby, and the radiator had run dry, was squirting out water :(
The battery (or both) had gone flat the next day too :(

I feel the credit card coming out ...

p.s. Hi, i'm Nik Smith, a Nightclub DJ from Derby working all over the country.
Feel free to contact me! BY EMAIL