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.