The week that Woz

We had beautifully warm sunny days all of last week, and so with autumn closing in and warm days on the way out Woz decided to use all the daylight hours working on the Fiat. All of them. Honestly I barely saw him. Which was fortunate because I was spending all my daylight hours with my computer. Reading.

He mainly concerned himself with the mechanical side of the car, in the ambition of getting it roadworthy and ready for inspection for registration in Austria, but he couldn't resist getting stuck in to the cosmetic things too. As usual, we have become a bit carried away with drawing the line on what should be replaced and what shouldn't, but we decided that the kitchen area of the camper wasn't very practical (or functional) so we decided to rip it out. We are hoping to design a kitchen in a cupboard, which will close up for travel and also to de-clutter the small space. As well as that, we want to fit it along the back wall (rather than an L shape that is/was existing.) The idea at this stage is to fit it with lockable wheels, make a ramp and then have the option of wheeling it outside to cook, turning it into a freestanding kitchen and BBQ. This will free up space in the camper and also make it a lot more fun! We're a long way away from that though, still at the ripping stuff out stage!

So, some highlights for this week. Woz has been busy .....

checking the brakes ...

pumping up the four flat tyres (with some help) ....

Ripping out old lightfittings and messy cords to eventually be replaced with LEDs ...

After (for now)

Before

After (for now)

Ripping out the messy kitchen arrangement (we'll keep the sink and the gas hobs) ...

After (for now) ...

accumulating A LOT of old wood ...

cleaning up the engine bay and repainting ...

Ta da! In order to paint the rocker cover (the black bit!) we had to bake it in our oven for an hour to harden the paint!

adjusting the valve clearances ....

and generally getting used to small spaces again!

All of the cosmetic work on the engine bay wont be in vain. We discovered from the inspection on our last car that the Austrians care a great deal about how clean things are. So, in order to get past the inspection smoothly we're brushing everything up with a sand and some black paint.

It is amazing how similar renovating a camper feels to renovating the boat. Particuarly one of this vintage. The curved plywood panels and the low head room (but for the skylight) are all too familar. As was the case in the boat, I don't have any issues standing up (not enough to bother me anyway), but it's a bit trickier for Woz. We've decided that it will be Nate's job to wash all the dishes as he's the only one who can do it without stooping!

So far today it has been cold and wet so Woz and I have both been inside the house, computer bound, but I'm pretty sure that the moment the sun comes out again I'll hear a 'Just popping out for a minute ...' followed by the door closing behind Woz. He's back in his element.

A new era

The workers.

After a lot of work on Woz's part we were able to organise for the Fiat to be delivered to us last night. Our intial thought was to drive our car to Poland to pick it up, and then we would drive home in the two cars, however we discovered that the car wasn't registered in Poland (or roadworthy) thus the bargain price. Thankfully Woz is exactly the right kind of person to buy an unroadworthy car and bring it up to scratch, so that wasn't daunting, however we had to first ensure that we'd be able to register the car here. It is an Italian car, purchased from the Netherlands, and then sold to us in Poland so the back history was a bit complicated. (Not unlike us!) We're 99 per cent sure we can register it, and it will be a similar process to when we imported our car from the States so we've been through the beureacracy before and will take it in our stride.

We don't actually have a carpark with our house (it is a townhouse which is directly on the street) so we had the car delivered to a car park in the village where we have purchased a community permit for a very reasonable price. So, the Fiat has a home, and there is plenty of room there for Woz to spread out and work, and it is quite private too.

Nate was beyond excited last night when it was delivered and this afternoon after school I dropped him straight off at the Fiat to hang out with Woz and dream about how we're going to set it up.

We did have a slight hitch when it was delivered. The skylight came off in transit. Woz drew the driver's attention to it when he arrived and the driver was horrified. Firstly because he was delivering the car in a worse condition than the photograph and secondly because he was worried it had caused an accident or damage to other cars ... somewhere between here and Poland. Thankfully we have a full week of sun forecast but in the meantime, Woz has had to make a makeshift repair to the roof. He'll make something more permanent tomorrow now that he has worked out a solution, and in the meantime we'll try to source a replacement sunlight.

Today was the first of many days working on the camper to get it up to the standard we want it to be in, both mechanically and cosmetically. We know that it will be worth a lot more once we've done all the work, but more than that, we plan on it being the beginning of a new lifestyle for us, one that will be an incredible childhood memory for Nate, and for us to look back on as a family.

To the Fiat!

Woz's overnight solution to the massive hole in the roof!

It starts here

It started with a fire truck.

Woz was spending an evening looking up weird and wacky vehicles on ebay late one night when he found a vintage German firetruck for sale. It had been converted somewhat into a sleeper/camper and his eyes lit up as he scrolled through the photos.

He was met with an outright no.

It was a bit of a random thing to look at for us. We're not camper people. I think probably we think we are a bit young for it. But who are we kidding? I'm 38 and Woz is 43. We're collectively nudging our way into 'middle-aged' and camper vans are looking seriously seductive. Especially when we have Europe on our doorstep. Landlocked Austria (where we're based,) shares the borders with seven countries. Perfect for road trips.

A few days later, Woz showed me some photos of a Fiat 238 camper with only a few days to go on Ebay. Having warmed to the idea of something camperish related (keeping in mind the last thing I looked at was a firetruck) the Fiat looked exactly like us.

'Buy it!' I exclaimed and a very surprised Woz jumped straight on it. As the clock counted down we put in our top bid and waited the last few seconds. Winning the auction was the best feeling in the world. A whole new world of travel had just opened up to us and a new way of life. It opened up Fiat Freitags. Friday afternoons where we take off in the Fiat and explore some of Austria's gorgeous scenery, with a free roof over our head and no need to pack. Just like our barge years but with a little more freedom and a little (just a little) more speed.

 It is the beginning of a new era of learning and exploration for our son Nate and a remedy to quench the relentless thirst for travel in us. Languages, smells, food, people and spectacular scenery await!