Page 29 - Transporter Talk Issue 195

end of the van to the other before going to bed or driving off!
TheoutsideoftheVikingroofwasfilthyfrom 10 years of accumulated garage dirt, the inside was rusty, dusty, musty and mouldy, the fabric was torn and the brackets and hinges in need of replacement. All of these were removed and the few parts being reused were stripped to bare metal and reworked. New hinges, securing brackets and rubber seals ordered from Proud To Pop in Gateshead. Out with the old fabric, all fibreglass cleaned, mould, spiders, spider webs, bugs, 500 nails for the old fabric and anything else removed. The inside received a coat of L90D Pastel White around the sections that will be visible and the central section that will be upholstered received just over 3 metres by 1.5 metres of insulation glued down to the fibreglass with spray adhesive. What a difference!
The new roll of headlining should be enough to do both the Viking roof and the metal roof with enough left over to do the bits around the windows.
A Viking roof and many of the others are a wooden ladder frame with plastic sheets on top and sheets of glass fibres soaked in resin draped across the inside that dry to a super hard and lightweight finish. Over time holes develop due to wear and these can be patched with easily accessible sheets of more fibreglass and more resin to build whatever you want shapewise. This has been around for nearly 150 years and is tough, fire retardant and waterproof making it ideal for the boat builders. Modern materials have superseded it with carbon fibre although that is rather more expensive!
A few repairs were made and 2 holes cut in the back to pass in the solar panel cables. The paint ran out and it is not available around here in person, so I waited on the postie.
In the meantime, I took measurements of one wheel and cut a square of the interior fabric. I traced a circle in pencil on that square to match the tyre, sewed a rectangle of the fabric’s ends together to form a hoop and edged that with contrasting brown piping.
A little time in Photoshop on the silhouette of the great man himself, a printout of the silhouette was cut out and traced onto some brown fabric and Hey Presto I have an image ready for the front of the van of my comedy hero, Mr Eric Morecambe after whom the van is named.
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