Fairysteps Diary

Welcome to our latest restoration project :) Its super exciting this one because its going to hopefully enable the Big Adventure we have planned in May. A road trip from home to the Scottish highlands and up along the west coast. This is to celebrate and mark our combined 50th birthdays (10 months apart). Ive only ever got so far as the Lake District so its practically a Moon trip for me. Its also my Faerysteps van because my leather merchants are all 'up country' so obviously I cant go past and not buy leather ;)

Finding the right van has been a right slog though. Poor Mr F has spent so much time trawling through junk online. We even visited a few heaps to have a look. One such notable heap looked perfect in the pictures, but on arrival the entire base, thats everything from 2 foot down, was rusty as an anchor. The chap offered us £500 off the asking price for 'a spot of paint' to 'put things right'. The only thing that van needed to put it right was a last trip to the scrap yard... needless to say we didnt buy it.

Please take note at this point of the number plate. You can see where the name came from now. Number plate = WW + Trip to Scotland, land of distilleries, well it had to be the Whisky Wagon didnt it. I'd have preferred something tea related to be honest, but didnt feel it prudent to mention this minor point to Mr F after all his efforts....

There is rust on this one. It came from the Welsh mountains where it was being used as a mini bus for disabled passengers, hence it has lots of seats and a wheelchair lift in the back. All of which will be removed during the big strip down. It is a factory fitted minibus though so professionally lined with grey carpet, etc. Very swish if you look aside from the mould all over the seats and floor... Floor carpets are being removed for certain.

The rust can be treated and Mr F intends adding a charcoal strip along the bottom there in line with the lights. I might try to get some tree silhouettes to pop along the top. Want to keep it all very low key though. Just chuffed as punch its a dark silver body and not white. I was anticipating an instant migraine every time I approached it when the sun shone else.

Someone very thoughtfully tried removing the stickers. With a scotch pad and stanley knife... What were they thinking? So that's got to be sorted too.

Wheel rims are rusted and look awful so these need removing and wire brushing, undercoat and top coat. Same dark charcoal paint. It shows less dirt than white.

So then. Thats the outside at the very start of it all. So far Mr F has had a run around day yesterday getting the speed restrictor removed. That was a real worry, because if that had to stay we were relisting it for sale and starting the search all over again. Its such a relief that has gone :) Next its into the barn to dry off ready for stripping out the seats, floor, wheel chair lift and a myriad of other bits. Then a thorough internal clean of all whats left before the refit.

We have 8 weeks at the most to get it ready to roll. Watch this space ;) 

Ren x

Wander our 1970s Winnebago camper project is nearing the end of phase one and all but ready for the road next week. Got my wooden giant buttons on my cupboard doors! Mr Fairysteps recycled our old copper hot water tank for the cooker splash back.

Table back in.