Page 28 - Transporter Talk Issue 195

ERIC THE VIKING
After that, I moved to the windscreen area and started preparing the surrounds, sanding, priming and painting them. This left just enough time to pack bits in the cargo area and ship Eric off to get the doors hung on the van and the engine fitted before I headed off on holiday to the Isle of Islay for the whisky festival.
En route home after a brilliant trip (hic), I got a message asking me to visit the workshop to discuss Eric. It sounded ominous and
by that I mean expensive. Sure enough, Stuart was looking to break the bad news to me. The freshly and fully restored doors have quite a bit of damage to them because they do not fit. The roof is too low, caused by the A post being too short and at the wrong angle. The front panel is tipped backwards making the front to rear gap too small for the doors as well. And the wheel arch is in the wrong place. And the B post as well.
He said that some people in this situation would throw their hands in the air, take it home and sell it. My key concern was Stuart not wanting to fix it! Once he said it is always fixable, I breathed a sigh of relief
and asked him to fix it. We have no idea how long that will take or what it needs but I have lots of trust that he will do it correctly, quickly and without wasting anything, especially my money. We also noted that the sliding door bottom runner might be tapering at one side. I was pleased to note that my welding quality was quite good, and that the parts in the wrong place were not done by me, but were from some outsourced work. Next time remember to leave the doors on the vehicle to get the other parts in the right place. Ah well, you live, you learn.
With the vehicle away from me, I can only do bits. I found all of the door mechanisms, locks, latches, brackets and so on, cleaned those thoroughly and delivered them ready to finish the doors.
Then one of the remaining pieces was the plastic Viking roof. This can be the Viking Spacemaker configuration giving 2 double beds upstairs and with 2 sleeping downstairs makes the ability for 6 overnight. However, Eric’s kitchen pod means that you can only travel 4 people, 5 at a push with the third person between the front seats, so the plan is a king-sized bed upstairs at the back and space at the front for “stuff”. Downstairs is the sitting room and kitchen with the boot available as the boot instead of being the top half of the bed like in our other van Poppy. No more moving tables and chairs from one
28 | Transporter Talk Issue 195