Ellie the Ellievan

by Unknown November 21, 2015 0 comments Conversion

So, after a long search, we have finally found a van that suits our budget and our needs. While visiting Callum at Rockinvans in Kilmarnock last week, he mentioned that a van had just come in, which may meet our needs. He was at pains to point out that normally he wouldn't show a van to a customer that hadn't already been cleaned up and prepared, but if I could see past the surface, it would be worth a look. He wasn't kidding! If I'd seen this van on gumtree I'd probably have skipped right past. Tired and unloved would be an understatement. But heeding Callum's advice and trying to look past the battered interior, large dent on the tailgate and bumper, oil stains on the passenger seat and even a tape player, I started to warm to the van, especially after Callum agreed to replace the seats, stereo and rear bumper and to colour code the bumpers, mirrors and handles to clean it up.

It's a long wheel base T5, with a tailgate, which were two of the things in our list of must haves, so after having a think about it and crunching the numbers, we phoned Callum and told him we'd take it.

Next most important thing was a name for the van, so of course we asked the kids. After going through many Star Wars related names our youngest finally came up with one we all (well except the star wars loving boys) agreed on and Ellie the Ellievan was chosen. This might change in the future, but it will do for now.

To keep costs down, but also to put our own stamp on the van, we want to do quite a bit of the conversion ourselves, but wanting to start using the van as a camper as soon as possible and recognising that there was some work we just didn't want to do ourselves, mostly cutting holes in the van, we would need some help along the way. After seeing the quality of their conversions, we decided that Rockinvans would be our main partner in this. So, we asked Callum to fit a pop-top roof, a swivel on the double passenger seat, windows all round and a Scopema three seat RIB bed in the back.  I quite fancy doing the insulation and carpeting myself, so following Callum's advice, we decided that the first job will be to fit the roof and swivel seat. The bed, with the custom covering from Kvadarat, would take eight weeks to come in, so we'd do this in January. The plan is that we'll pick it up on December 18th and that I would insulate and carpet it over the Christmas holidays and drop it back over in January when the bed arrives to get the rest done. Callum reckoned that fitting the windows after the carpeting will make for a better seal around the windows, hence why the windows will be done in the second stage.