There may be trouble ahead

Oh, it's here already...

Early in 2010 I was made redundant. This was quite a shock as we thought it was a job for life. But luckily I pulled in some favours and my brother got me a job with the company he worked for. This in place I could plan for my redundancy payment.

Obviously I wasn't going to spend it all on the van, if I was I'd be buying a T5 (actually I could have gotten the dream Splitty), but I was being responsible for once.

So having paid off most of my debts I took what was left and went to a local garage for a quote to fix the dents and bring the paint back to a nice shiney finish.

I don't know if they forgot about me or didn't take me seriously but I never got the quote. Thinking things through I decided not to have an expensive respray, I could use the money to buy some more parts for the van instead. So an order (or several orders) was placed for stainless sidebars, a fridge, an awning rail, an awning and some paint.

Yes some paint.

I had been reading about DIY paint jobs on the T4 forum, and I quite liked the idea of having a NATO green van. So an order of satin finish Olive Drab paint was made to "Fascinating Finishes", along with a trip to my local DIY store for some 4" gloss rollers and roller arms.

Yes, gloss rollers.

I didn't believe it either, but I keyed up the whole van ready for paint and filled the dents and one morning, in the road outside my house I started to roller the bonnet. I figured I'd do the bonnet first, if it didn't look good I'd paint it black and think of something else.

But it did work, by the time I'd finished the bonnet I was grilling like a Cheshire cat and moved on to paint the rest of the van. I am very pleased with the result, and although it's not going to win a show and shine competition, it is neater than the scratched and dented blue it started life as.

I don't class it as a rat van, although I can see why some others might. Sidebars and rear spoiler fitted too.

I also took the van back to Vansport to have an opening window fitted behind the drivers seat. Again they did the business, and also replaced the chipped windscreen for a reasonable price too.