Author Archives: Nick Gillott

About Nick Gillott

Website Manager and General Committee member of the Owners Club. Owner of Eric the Viking (converted panel van with Viking roof) undergoing complete restoration. Tinkerer to Poppy the camper van (1972 Crossover dormobile).

Member’s Motor – Nigel Came – “Ferrari Mio Ferrari”

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For this edition of Member’s Motor, we look at Nigel Came’s Late Bay Window as he shares some stories of his early ownership.

My Late Bay T2 Camper (DET 710V) is ‘Ferrari Mio Ferrari’ (Ferrari My Ferrari); this is a word play on ‘Ferrari La Ferrari’ (Ferrari The Ferrari) a £2m hyper car.

The following may sound like a tale of woe but:

  1. Whilst there is a big lesson to learn when it comes to a restoration project, ‘don’t be led by the heart but approach with extreme caution’!
  2. I am the proud owner of an almost new (?) 41.5 year old T2 bay and over the last year, my first year running it, I have had a lot of fun & pleasure using it and a lot of compliments made about it.

Back in the summer of 2018 I had a retirement job working as an onsite driver at the BCA Blackbushe car auctions. Every now and again an unusual vehicle (not an ex-company car or van) turns up for auction, this T2 Bay camper being one of them; from what I could see it was rusty in all the right places! For some while I had been thinking about getting a campervan for my motorsport marshalling trips and from the moment I first saw it, I could see how I wanted it to look once restored; a big mistake!?

The first week going through the auction it did not sell getting nowhere near its reserve of £10K. The second week, the van was up for sale again on Thursday, I told everybody at work that I was not going to put in a bid for it. But on the Wednesday morning I could not help myself and I had to put a bid in. I put in what I thought was a low bid, relative to the reserve, but close to the price offered the previous week. At the end of the day, on Thursday, I found out that for £7k I was the owner of DET 710V.

My initial plan was to restore the van myself. A neighbour was restoring a split screen van and had all the relevant equipment and offered to help me.  [As an aside his van is another story in itself, he bought it from the estate of an acrimonious divorce and the wife had attacked every body panel with an axe!] So, I bought the Haynes VW Bay Transporter Restoration manual (written by Fletcher Gillet) and having read the introduction I knew I was in trouble! I had also discovered a local VW specialist and decided to take the van to them for a restoration estimate. Based on their experience, from restoring vans in similar condition, the owner gave me a pre strip estimate of £20 to £30K. This was within my budget range so in July 2018 I left the van with them.

This VW specialist is a very successful and busy business, there are lots of air-cooled VW’s and early Porsches on site at any one time, and it took just under a year for my van to reach to top of the queue and the work began in June 2019. From then on it was like walking down a slippery slope and I describe the experience of being like ‘peeling the rings off an onion’; the more you exposed the more that need restoring! After a further 18 months, progress being delayed by COVID, 2000 mhrs of labour (plus parts and VAT) I collected my ‘Ferrari Mio Ferrari’ in November 2020. She looked fantastic, the VW specialist had done an excellent job, and it looked exactly as I had envisaged it back in the summer of 2018.

I knew I could expect some teething problems with a fully restored van but did not expect, and I was more than a little disappointed, the first one to occur on the drive home. The steering was almost uncontrollable; to say it was vague and sticky was an understatement. After a couple of short local drives and an exchange of emails, with the VW specialists, I took the van back to them in December 2020. Again, the work was delayed due to COVID but I collected the van in February 2021; with a new steering box and anti-roll bar fitted, the steering was fixed.

My next problem occurred a week later when I took the van to a tyre fitter to get the wheel tracking/alignment sorted; the VW specialist did not have the laser equipment. Firstly, as the van has been lowered, their equipment did not fit and on driving away after a few hundred yards I lost all drive! I was pushed to a safe place and called the VW specialists, the owner said it sounded like a gearbox issue; once again I was more than a little disappointed as the gearbox had been refurbished as part of the restoration.  The van was recovered back to the VW specialist later that day. Fortunately, the loss of drive was not a gearbox issue but was due to the drive shaft bolts working loose! I collected the van in March and it has run like a dream ever since (touch wood) and it has not been back to the VW specialist again.

My marshalling season runs from March to November and during the past 2021 season I have used the camper most weekends covering around 3000 miles visiting race circuits around the country. This year I am planning to go even further afield and drive it to the Spa circuit, in Belgium, and marshal there.

Whilst I will never fully recover from the trauma and expense of the restoration ‘Ferrari Mio Ferrari’ is everything that I wanted for my weekends away marshalling and I am a very proud member of the VW T2 Owners Club. PS: my wife calls the camper ‘my 5* plus hotel’.

VW birth certificate

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Here we advise members how to obtain their VW’s Birth Certificate and Data Sheet, which is a nice novelty item and can also prove to be useful if you are missing important information from your V5 etc.

The certificate and data sheet can be obtained directly from VW using their Classic Parts online shop.

The specific web address required is detailed below:

https://www.volkswagen-classic-parts.com/en_uk/service/certificate-data-sheets.html

when visiting the site, you will need to enter either you chassis number (VIN) or engine number. Seeing as many VWs have had engines changed over the years, it is probably better to enter your VIN.

There are three purchase options:

  • Birth Certificate – €99.95
  • Data Sheet –  €59.95
  • Bundle (Certificate and Data Sheet) –  €129.95

We would recommend the bundle option, it is nice to have additional data about your vehicle if it is available.

This is what VW have to say about their service:

Original and exclusive.

With your hand on your heart: do you know the exact production date of your car? Do you know which special equipment the first owner ordered? Or which upholstery material you need to look for to restore your classic car to its original state?

You can find the answers from us – in the form of the Volkswagen certificate and the Volkswagen data sheet, which we issue exclusively on behalf of the manufacturer. By the way, this is not only for classic cars and modern classics, but also for more recent models, which were first registered at least 15 years ago! 

Just like it was ex works, once upon a time.

On the basis of the chassis number or vehicle identification number (VIN), the original delivery condition of each Volkswagen model can be determined exactly – regardless of whether it was built in 1949, 1989 or 2007. For research purposes, we have access to millions of records from the archives of the Volkswagen Group. Information on almost every vehicle ever produced is stored there – on car master cards, punched cards, microfilms or, of course, in digital form.

This documentation forms the basis for our “detective work”: using old lists, historical brochures, sales programmes, colour sample cards or fabric samples, we decrypt the codes for the engine and transmission, original paint, upholstery or additional equipment.

As well a great deal of expertise, this, of course, requires some time. Usually, however, the period between ordering and the delivery of a Volkswagen certificate or data sheet is a maximum of six to eight weeks. You will receive then a document specially issued for you, which contains valuable information on the original condition of your classic.

The next club magazine is on its way

The next edition of the club magazine has been finished by our Editors and looks fantastic. It should be arriving through your door soon! If you are enjoying the club magazine and have a story about a trip, an upgrade, a restoration or just a tip, send a contribution to our Editor at editor@vwt2oc.co.uk.

Time for bed!

As the long season comes to an end and following on from last week’s winterizing, some owners may elect to cover their pride and joy with a cover.

Please. Pretty please. Pretty please with little chrome covers on. Don’t cover your expensive paint work with a tarpaulin that will get condensation inside it, press that moisture onto your bodywork and accelerate the attack on the paint and the metal underneath.

If you don’t have access to a garage or a car port that will keep most of the weather off, try to invest in a good breathable cover. Get the right one for your vehicle and make sure that the material is not flapping around, abrading where it touches.

Ideally park on hard ground that will not have standing water. Parking on grass at the bottom of the field will collect water underneath which will evaporate upwards into your van and its little cover. A breathable cover will let some or most of that collected moisture out but ideally you should remove the cover over winter every month to let things properly dry out and then put it all back to bed once more.

If possible, get a cover with straps that go under the vehicle from side to side, so that the wind cannot lift the cover off the vehicle. It is disheartening to get home from work in the dark and find your expensive van exposed to the elements and a wet cover wrapped across your hedge.

For those of you lucky enough to have a garage, a dust cover is optional but again, think about the possibility of trapped moisture pressing against the bodywork. Does a quick dusting or a nice spring time wash and wax give more benefit than the winter cover?

Yes, it is that time again, winter is very much heading our way. For anyone with a vehicle, VW or not (apparently other vehicles are available!), winter in the UK is the worst time for metal on the roads.

Some suggestions:

Inside

Water

If you have anything containing water, drain it all out. Water tanks, boilers, kettles. Don’t just empty the tank, drain the whole system including the pipes. Remember that water in pipes still expands when it freezes, not just in the tank. It also goes stale after a period of standing. If possible take the tank indoors to keep it above freezing and/or clean it thoroughly.

We use a mild Milton solution to thoroughly clean ours including the impeller that sits in our tank and its associated pipe and electric cable. Then we rinse everything and air dry it all. Other options are available too!

Power

Leisure batteries like ambient temperatures and extreme cold will reduce their operational life. Keep them above freezing by removing them and keeping them in the garage or similar. Remember to keep the electrical contacts in the van safely insulated if applicable.

Keep those batteries charged using a trickle charger that is fit for purpose, which will also prolong their life.

Gas

Butane or propane tanks and bottles should be removed from your vehicle and stored safely with their openings closed properly – don’t leave the regulator open relying on the gas tap on the cooker as these can fail. Now is a good time to weigh them against their empty counterparts to know when you need to change them!

Boring cleaning

Now that you have opened up your van, removed the relevant tanks and bottles, you can get all misty eyed and miss the peace and tranquility of your van by getting in there and cleaning it all. It gives you a great sense of personal achievement as well as going into the winter with a nicely clean kitchen area, the fridge has been bleached and rinsed, and if applicable the bathroom, the shower and maybe the hot tub are all clean. Leave internal doors slightly ajar to keep mould and mildew at bay.

Soft furnishings

If possible, remove curtains, bedding, that emergency woollen blanket from Granny and take them indoors for a good wash or airing.

Ingress

Don’t be tempted to leave doors open or windows more than cracked open. All sorts of miscreants can get in and eat your lovely interior.

Outside

If possible store your vehicle in a garage. If that is not possible, a car port will do a similar job. A breathable cover can be good but make sure it is listed as fully breathable otherwise moist air gets under the cover, rises when things warm up and the vehicle will get wet, holding that wet against the bodywork. Avoid a heavy cover for sure!

Tyres

Tyres degrade from extreme temperatures and long periods of standing still. Winter does that very well! Inspect the tyres, check the pressures and consider putting the van on axle stands if you are not using it for a very long time, taking the wheels into the garage or shed. It also makes theft more difficult!

Moving parts

Lubricate everything. Hinges, moving parts, sliders, mechanical parts. Check the oil level. Use the right lubricant for the part in question. It will pay dividends next year and will keep water away, which is good for the life of the part.

Boring cleaning

Again, give the outside of your vehicle a proper clean, ideally by hand. Dry fully including the fiddly bits inside doors and between panels. Give it all a good quality wax polish. This also keeps water away and prolongs the panels and parts. It also makes you happy as you pass over the cold season when you don’t want to be away.

Underneath

If you are an advocate of underseal and waxoil, get the old visible stuff removed and apply new underseal to dry clean parts. The jury seems out on the benefits of underseal against the downside of it trapping moisture but waxoil or similar applied hot into cavities must be better than not applying it?

Engine

Some texts state to start your engine once a month and run it on idle for 30 minutes. More than that is not necessary and I don’t touch our air cooled engine at all.

An oil change just before the winter alongside a fuel-storage additive in the fuel tank if you like that sort of thing.

Main battery

We leave the main battery connected and the solar panel bolted to the roof of a van in a car port for the leisure battery. If that was not the case, we would trickle charge the main battery once a month over the winter. Again, this just makes sure that you don’t degrade the battery and end up having to replace it all of the time.

Got to dash, I think my van might be snoring.

Ask The Mechanic – Cool air for hot heads

Cool air for hot heads

Camping is great in the summer; that cool rain swept evenings huddling under the duvet listening to the “pitter patter” of the rain and comforting howl of the wind. Quote from Val!!! This is of course what we all enjoy? But camping in France yields a different problem too much heat night and day.

Connie is equipped with insulation double glazing and a heater but no cooling so it’s open the roof vent and side window and spend sweaty night on the duvet. Also cooking causes heat to build up and if it is raining then hot heads result! I decided an extractor fan would help, but how to do this?

The obvious suspect was the roof vent pix 1. I obtained a piece of 3mm polycarbonate sheet, 2 of 100mm cooling fans 12 volt with grills, a double throw double contact centre off switch and a 2000 microfarad 63 volt capacitor (actually from my stores but easily purchased).

The polycarbonate sheet was chosen as it does not crack like acrylic and transparency was not a prime criterion. This was cut to fit the aperture under the roof vent it presses against the seal on the inside of the van. In Pix4 you can see that one edge is supported by 2 aluminium brackets fixed to the hinge bolts and the other edge is held by the raise lower mechanism cover. The edge strips add rigidity and stop rattles.

The parts were then positioned and the holes cut, the fans and switch project upwards under the roof vent. The switch is wired to put the fans in parallel for maximum speed (and noise) or series for virtually silent running at night. The power for this is by means of a cable fixed to the roof and lifting frame and connected to the over door light.

An important part is the switch wiring and the use of the capacitor. The fans are “brushless” so use an internal inverter to drive the rotor when used in series one can react with the other and so a capacitor wired across one fan will smooth out the supply and prevent “hunting”  pix 5,6

The results were very satisfactory, with the vent open, roof up and all doors and windows closed full power pulled in the roof “tent” so opening a cab window produced a strong draft. At slow speed the noise was very much less but a useful draft could still be felt.

As each fan can move 90 cu ft min so 180 cu ft min at full speed the air in the van could theoretically be changed every 3 minutes and this can banish the heat and smell build up during cooking.

Winterizing your vehicle

Yes, it is that time again, winter is very much heading our way. For anyone with a vehicle, VW or not (apparently other vehicles are available!), winter in the UK is the worst time for metal on the roads.

Some suggestions:

Inside

Water

If you have anything containing water, drain it all out. Water tanks, boilers, kettles. Don’t just empty the tank, drain the whole system including the pipes. Remember that water in pipes still expands when it freezes, not just in the tank. It also goes stale after a period of standing. If possible take the tank indoors to keep it above freezing and/or clean it thoroughly.

We use a mild Milton solution to thoroughly clean ours including the impeller that sits in our tank and its associated pipe and electric cable. Then we rinse everything and air dry it all. Other options are available too!

Power

Leisure batteries like ambient temperatures and extreme cold will reduce their operational life. Keep them above freezing by removing them and keeping them in the garage or similar. Remember to keep the electrical contacts in the van safely insulated if applicable.

Keep those batteries charged using a trickle charger that is fit for purpose, which will also prolong their life.

Gas

Butane or propane tanks and bottles should be removed from your vehicle and stored safely with their openings closed properly – don’t leave the regulator open relying on the gas tap on the cooker as these can fail. Now is a good time to weigh them against their empty counterparts to know when you need to change them!

Boring cleaning

Now that you have opened up your van, removed the relevant tanks and bottles, you can get all misty eyed and miss the peace and tranquility of your van by getting in there and cleaning it all. It gives you a great sense of personal achievement as well as going into the winter with a nicely clean kitchen area, the fridge has been bleached and rinsed, and if applicable the bathroom, the shower and maybe the hot tub are all clean. Leave internal doors slightly ajar to keep mould and mildew at bay.

Soft furnishings

If possible, remove curtains, bedding, that emergency woollen blanket from Granny and take them indoors for a good wash or airing.

Ingress

Don’t be tempted to leave doors open or windows more than cracked open. All sorts of miscreants can get in and eat your lovely interior.

Outside

If possible store your vehicle in a garage. If that is not possible, a car port will do a similar job. A breathable cover can be good but make sure it is listed as fully breathable otherwise moist air gets under the cover, rises when things warm up and the vehicle will get wet, holding that wet against the bodywork. Avoid a heavy cover for sure!

Tyres

Tyres degrade from extreme temperatures and long periods of standing still. Winter does that very well! Inspect the tyres, check the pressures and consider putting the van on axle stands if you are not using it for a very long time, taking the wheels into the garage or shed. It also makes theft more difficult!

Moving parts

Lubricate everything. Hinges, moving parts, sliders, mechanical parts. Check the oil level. Use the right lubricant for the part in question. It will pay dividends next year and will keep water away, which is good for the life of the part.

Boring cleaning

Again, give the outside of your vehicle a proper clean, ideally by hand. Dry fully including the fiddly bits inside doors and between panels. Give it all a good quality wax polish. This also keeps water away and prolongs the panels and parts. It also makes you happy as you pass over the cold season when you don’t want to be away.

Underneath

If you are an advocate of underseal and waxoil, get the old visible stuff removed and apply new underseal to dry clean parts. The jury seems out on the benefits of underseal against the downside of it trapping moisture but waxoil or similar applied hot into cavities must be better than not applying it?

Engine

Some texts state to start your engine once a month and run it on idle for 30 minutes. More than that is not necessary and I don’t touch our air cooled engine at all.

An oil change just before the winter alongside a fuel-storage additive in the fuel tank if you like that sort of thing.

Main battery

We leave the main battery connected and the solar panel bolted to the roof of a van in a car port for the leisure battery. If that was not the case, we would trickle charge the main battery once a month over the winter. Again, this just makes sure that you don’t degrade the battery and end up having to replace it all of the time.

Another one in the bag – Brooklands – German Day

A new club event near Weybridge at the Brooklands Museum.

Management team member Wendy Marriott reports:

On arrival at the gate for display vehicles, we were met by the lovely Wade, who on seeing club entry ticket in the van window said “You must be some of Lorna’s lot” and ushered us to the front of the queue.  Lorna, your fame precedes you!

Five vans from the club attended the event. There would have been more but unfortunately it was discovered that dogs weren’t allowed, and so some members had to cancel. Although overcast for most of the day, the weather was kind to us, and it didn’t rain.  

There was a great deal of interest in all of the vans, especially from those with young families (future owners perhaps?). The majority of the vehicles attending were Porsches, but there were also lots of other interesting displays from many other vehicle clubs.

The museum itself was amazing, with exhibits of planes, buses, racing cars and motorbikes of all eras and of course the history of Brooklands circuit.  At an extra charge of £6 per adult, we had a guided tour of the Concorde which is on permanent display at Brooklands and heard all about its history.

Everyone we spoke to said what an enjoyable day it had been.  Hopefully this is something that the club could take part in again.

Displaying together
Inside the museum
The legendary banking
You can’t sleep in that!

Upcoming event – Brooklands German Day

Are you going to this one day event? We have about a dozen club vehicles attending!

A day devoted to all things German as Brooklands welcomes a host of German cars and motorbikes. 

Expect a wide range of cars to admire from the Porsche to VW, Audi to Mercedes-Benz – see the best examples of German engineering through the years.

It’s not just German Cars and bikes that will be filling up the site, the Paddock will be alive with German themed entertainment, food and memorabilia. 

Sunday October 1st at Brooklands Museum, Weybridge from 10am to 5pm