After owning two of the old type air cooled VW campers we bought a second hand VW
Caravelle 2l minibus. This was a "top of the range" vehicle fully lined inside
and had all the fittings of a car of that year (1985), it was an ideal candidate for
conversion to a Camper van.
We stripped out the minibus seats and drove down to Richard Holdsworth's factory in
Reading where we loaded it up with a Villa conversion kit which we had ordered.
Once home we set about installing the kit, the first job was to cut a hole in the roof and
fit the lifting top. This was quite exciting as I used an angle grinder to cut the hole
and nearly set fire to the insulation under the roof. Using plenty of bolts the roof was
fitted and the headlining cut to fit neatly around the edge and the lifting top fitted
perfectly. The only negative point was that the front of the top covered the sun roof
which we are now unable to use. The interior furniture was specially designed for this
model of van so it all fitted in without any problem. The conversion was quickly ready for
the road and with our two children we spent a number of weekends in it before heading off
for four weeks around Europe visiting France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Germany.
We now found some points where improvements could be made and slowly our van was customised to our own requirements.
1 The spare wheel is vunerable to theft so an Engineer friend made me a cup shaped device turned to take a locking petrol cap on the open end. This is held under the bolt which holds the spare wheel cover and when the petrol cap is locked on the bolt cannot be undone.
2 The top of the dashboard
is a good area to rest maps etc. but they tend to slide off so we fitted some plastic
angle strip along the front edge and this keeps things in place. The plastic dashtop
mouldings that can be bought are not so good because they can only be used for one purpose
.
3 The fuses inside the
front glove pocket are vunerable and once in a thunderstorm in Switzerland the windscreen
wipers refused to work because objects in the glovebox (which is like a ladies handbag)
had disturbed the fuses. To overcome this I taped a piece of card over the fusebox and we
have not suffered since.
4 There is not much storage
space in the front so I made tray which fitted on the floor between the seats and also a
box 12x18x10inswhich holds all our maps guide books and information leaflets etc.
5 Most vans have a table
which fits into a socket in the floor and this is positioned in the centre of the floor
space. If this is so then we find that with the table in place you cannot open the
cupboard or fridge doors an there is generally no room to access the cooking arrangements.
We have fitted our table socket near the front end of the floor in front of the passenger
seat which rotates to point rearwards and find that this can be used with ease whilst the
rest of the van is accessable. Usually though we like to be where we can live outdoors and
not eat in the van at all!
6 After a while the catches
on the lower cupboard doors stopped holding so I screwed little turn catches to the bottom
of the doors so they can be firmly held shut.
7 The shelf under the bed
seat which held the table leg took up too much room and we could not put our gas BBQ
easily in the storage. I took the shelf out and cut it a couple of inches narrower and the
access to the storage is greatly improved. The table leg is now stored in the dead space
behind the seat.
8 There was a little
cupboard on the front of the wardrobe unit which appeared to have no purpose so I removed
the false bottom to it, took out some clips and now it houses our low power electric
kettle and a container of coffee with ease
9 We never hang clothes in
the wardrobe (we like to be in sunny climes!) so I took out the hanging rail and fitted
shelves which gives us a lot more storage space.
10 After our
children stopped coming with us we left out the top bed support and made a shelf along the
side over the kitchen units. This allows us to store plates, cups, glasses etc. when we
are camped and makes life a lot easier and the van more tidy.
11 When the dropdown door for the cooker was opened the hinges did not allow it to be level with the bottom of the cooker shelf. This meant that the grill pan could not be slid under the grill without tipping it up so that the contens fell off. I fitten hinges from a kithen unit door which allow the door to open level so that dow we can slide the grill pan under without losing our toast.
Unfortuately Richard Holdsworth are no longer in business.