The Repaint Story

Well as posted earlier Le Puck is back from its repaint at East Midlands Coachworks here in Castle Donington where Chris and the team have done a tremendous job repainting and retrimming it. I have posted below some of the pictures that Chris took on my behalf during the process.
Firstly the stripdown:

Ready to prime

First primer on

Top coats going on

Sorry no pictures of the reassembly but you have seen the end result!!
I will post some more pictures when it is fully finished ( trim tidied, hubcaps, GB plate fitted and curtains up) but that may not be until after Christmas

Le Puck returns!

Picked up Le Puck at lunchtime before dashing to the airport! It looks fab.  I will post more pictures when I am back but a quick taster

  

The missing link arrives....

Le Puck has been just about finished in the paintshop for nearly a month waiting for the new front window to be made.  The supplier has been quite frankly useless and I have had 6 weeks of broken promises and frustrating phone calls so I was surprised to ring them today to be told it was ready.  So it is collected and delivered to Chris at the paintshop. This means Le Puck should be ready in the next few days.

The Parts Arrive!

Well the arrival of 2 boxes of seals grab handles and trim from Jandi in Scotland and new hubcaps from Heiner at Eribasar in Germany mean all I need is the front window. Off to see the plastic people tomorrow !

 

And so it begins.........

Well Le Puck has been emptied into the spare bedroom and delivered to the paintshop hopefully to reappear sprayed in a shiny coat of pastel white and with all new red trim and window rubbers. Here it is looking slightly sad in the rain on delivery.

The front window is now out and ready for me to take to try and get a replacement made.
Hopefully some parcels of parts from Scotland and Germany should arrive in the next couple of days!

Beetle Drive, Crich

Great day out today at Crich Tramway museum for their annual Beetle Drive day.  Fantastic weather and a big turnout of bugs of all shapes and sizes mainly beetles and all breeds of camper.  Some pics attached.

Cornwall - A Summary

So we are back home and back at work. So a few thoughts before it all fades:

Mr Happy & Le Puck. - Well considering the heat the camper pulled magnificently a couple of stints of 2nd gear up to Indian Queens and Okehampton but no crises!
We did need to pay a quick visit to Evil Bens in Truro halfway through to blow through the carburetor as some grot had resulted in the loss of any ability to idle and some rough performance especially at low revs.

 

 

Fully restored there were no other dramas and we travelled 951 miles in total 680 with Le Puck on the back at an average of  just over 23 mile per gallon and very little oil.

Le Puck was a lot more fragrant with a new poptop canvas and other than one cupboard door falling off performed as it should, even the bed became tolerable after several nights kip.

 

The Journey - Top tip fuel at ASDA Cribbs Causeway Bristol is as cheap as it gets and is just 5 mins from M5 and if you are coming from the midlands gives you enough to get to the far end of Cornwall.

Bridgewater services on the M5 is pants and cannot cope with holiday traffic (as in all fairness are most of the services on that stretch.

Stopped at little services both ways based around a BP petrol station pretty much on the top of the a30 at Okehampton where they open a field with picnic tables for parking towing vehicles and exercising the dog - recommended

 

Other thoughts:

Lost Gardens of Heligan, fascinating and great value on a hot day and very dog friendly

Speaking of dogs St Ives is not very pooch friendly. Found the beaches at Perranporth and especially Trevaunance Cove (St Agnes) a lot better if a bit of a trek. With the latter you can get lunch at a little restaurant called "Taste" in the village which was ace.

 

 

Generally saw lots of other vdubs especially T4's & 5's but only 2 splits which makes you wonder whether they are getting to valuable to camp in!

 

So a great holiday so I suspect we will be back next year.