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.

Polmanter. The Perfect Site?

This is the 2nd year in a row we have been here, and as a site it really hard to fault. The pitches range from generous to enormous most separated by hedges or in pairs if you are not alone .  As I said before we have a shaded grassed area next to our hardstanding and the pitch opposite occupied by a T5 is even bigger.

What is more nobody tells you how to pitch, front in, back in, sideways or at angle and certainly not within 6inches of some poxy pitch marker it is entirely up to you.
In addition the whole place is immaculate. The loos are cleaned at sensible times, there is spotless pool a bar / restaurant with decent ale and reasonable shop.
There is also a minibus service into St ives which runs until late so meals in town are possible.

So Okay wild camping this aint and it don't come cheap at £38 a night for 3 of us plus dog but you know what i think its worth it for our main holiday.
We have been touring for 25 years and I dont think we have stayed anywhere better, it has the feel of a top class continental site.
lets also not forget the sun has not stopped shining since we arrived. 
Always helps!

Mr Happy does Cornwall

The next destination for Mr Happy and le puck is our main 2 week holiday to Cornwall. We had an early start on what was forecast to be one of the hottest days of the year.  First stop was only on the M42 to stock up on caffeine and to try and shut Milo the dog up

After we chugged steadily on stocking up on cheap petrol at Cribs Causeway before the stretch of the M5 that seems to go on forever.
All went pretty  well although the hills on the A30 around Okehampton were a bit of a struggle. We arrived after 140 miles and nearly 6 hours with a very numb bum at Polmanter in St Ives got everthing set up and collapsed in glorious sunshine

Pop Top Canvas Replacement Part 2

This should really be entitled beware all who enter here.
The new canvas arrived and I duly started to glue it to the refurbished ring using Evostick. About halfway round it dawned on me this canvas is too small...Argh!
As illustrated below

Several e mail exchanges were then had with the ever helpful Matt and we came to the conclusion that, I had the later (larger) roof but with the earlier internal hinges front and back rather than the external cantilever hinges on either side and the canvas was fitted again by the earlier method of self tappers rather than the later method (whatever that is). Which Matt had not seen before.
This only underlined that I had a crossover model and Eriba at that time kind of built their vans with whatever parts they had!.
So Matt agreed to take the small canvas back and replace it with a hybrid one to fit my spec, this he did in double quick time and I cannot again fault the service or quality so one more plug:
www.matts-soft-tops.co.uk
So with right canvas delivered the gluing restarted, following the pencil line, as the instructions said the holes in the ring were located using a bradawl

One top tip here is to make sure you keep the canvas stretched as you work your way round otherwise it wont fit!!
Fortunately if you get a move on the glue can be unpealed and restuck.
45 minutes later and we were fitted.

Now the next stage involves a good screw (sorry couldn't resist that!) The screws you need are no. 6 stainless steel 3/4 inch raised head countersunk self tappers.
These match the originals and give enough play to allow for the fact that not 1 hole is drilled vertically.
You cannot get them at places like B & Q so you need a specialist shop or on line. I got mine from

www. pts-uk.com.

 I had to buy a packet of a 100 but at less than £8 delivered I couldn't complain.
I found it easier to assemble the roof upside down on a table
2nd top tip is to align the various holes using in my case an old darning needle, a long thin nail would work as well

Ok screwing upside down is not easy (sorry!) but once you have aligned a couple on each side then the rest go in easy enough.
At this stage they do not have to be fully tightened. I the turned the whole assembly the right way up and took the screws out one
at a time and put a dob of exterior silicon sealant into the hole before screwing down tight.
So then behold the roof is finished!

           
The sprung wire was then fed though the provided slot at the front of the canvas and the joint then worked round to the side. This was a surprising painless process.

Fitting back on the puck was fairly straight forward although it does need two people and an element of supporting the roof on you head as you try and push the sprung wire over the lip, plastic bike tyre levers do help this process.
I would also add that I replaced the rotten linen strip that covered the roof fixing staples with 24mm duck tape before refitting the top.
So the final result

I have to say I am really impressed by the quality and fit.
So as a final reminder if you are going to do this do not assume you have a standard model Puck especially if it was built in the mid '70's!!

Poptop canvas replacement, part 1

When we bought Le Puck the pop top canvas had definitely seen better days having gone mouldy in places and rotted around the zips.  So it had to go.
Much hunting around the Eriba forum produced a company called Matts Soft Tops who specialise in 2 CV  roof canvas and make the puck ones as a sideline in a great variety of colours.  Their Web address is www.matts-soft-tops.co.uk
I chose a conservative beige. This duly arrived and looks well made.
The first stage was to get le puck undercover then locate the link which joins the sprung wire which holds the bottom of the canvas to the roof rim. This is done by feel and slicing the old canvas

The hooks were opened slightly and the wire unhooked and then eased over the rim.  Next step was to undo the internal hinge supports and simply lift the whole lot off.

The next job was to lay the top down flat and undo the rusty 35 year old self tappers. All bar one yielded so quite pleased by that.
With the screws out the mounting ring came away with the old canvas attached, leaving the white vinyl roof lining. This previously had a foam insulation layer which had completely rotted away and was scraped and brushed off.

A replacement was made by using Thermowrap insulation which is the foil bubblewrap stuff which I had previously used to insulate my westy top.
This was cut to shape and then glued to the cleaned up white vinyl

The mounting ring was then wire brushed off and given a coat of Hammerite

Then its ready for the next stage which will be the big reassemble

Shiny Wheels!

Well having lost the wheel covers on the way to Normandy and with no chance of either original hub caps or 10 inch trims, I decided a quick refurb was called for. So with the aid of wire brush, hammerite some nut covers and a couple of mini alloy wheel centres and a mornings work has resulted in what you see below

Reasonably pleased. I knew the centres were a bit wide so some brute force was needed so they are a bit battered. Still big improvement.

In Summary.....

Mr Happy:

Travelled 821 miles over 450 with  Le Puck on the back and did not miss a beat, which is testament to Simon and the Boys at Absolute VW who gave the rattly engine a bit of seeing to before we set off, also when you consider it is a 1600 single port it coped well with extra weight and only had to to change down once on the steepest part of the Ridgeway (A34) we did do few hills at 40mph however. The overall mpg was 23.6. So really impressed overall

Le Puck:

Towed well and aside from disgracing itself by losing both wheel trims was fine. The roof canvas definitely needs changing as it does add a certain "musty" aroma to the inside.

Camping Chateau le Colombier

Not its fault it was in the wrong place, that was my lousy geography but was good with decent size pitches and spotless toilet blocks, how it copes when it is full as there well over 100 pitches who knows.

A few pictures below

Brittany Ferries:

Suitably slik, two very smooth crossings in Commodore (posh) cabins but bloody expensive!

Overall a good holiday with mixed weather and too much driving on the autoroutes to get to the bits we wanted to see, but would definitely go to the area again.

Next up Cornwall..................................

The Normandy Beaches

Wednesday dawned another glorious day so we decided to drive along the coast road west of Caen and take in some of the invasion beaches. The first one we reached was Juno beach where the Canadian troops landed with some of the Highland regiments at Bernieres sur Mer. We avoided the Juno Beach Centre further along the coast.
Below is a memorial to the Canadian troops

It is also the site of the first official monument to the invasion erected in 1949, which is next to the house which is claimed to be the first liberated by land forces in france

That house is now a museum in memory to the 2nd Canadian Army.
The drive along the coast really a very pleasant and sedate trundle with invasion memories everywhere.
We next stopped on the cliffs above Arromanches, where we picnicked in the car park overlooking the remains of the Mulberry Harbour

This was a truely incredible structure. It is difficult to believe it was manufactured in England in pieces in secret then floated over to Normandy and assembled filling Arromanches bay creating Port Winston.
Some of the concrete pontoons remains along with a preserved pieces of the modular bridging that linked then.

There is the obligatory museum in Arromanches town and a 360o cinema experience on the hill top.

We finished the day along the coast at the German gun battery at Longues sur Mer. These were 4 152mm guns built into the reinforced concrete bunkers on the cliff top, aimed by radio telemetry from a spotting station on the cliff edge. They were built early in 1944 as part of the defences planned by Rommel and were not fully finished at the time of the invasion, however they survived a 1000 tonnes of bombs on dropped on them the night before D Day and with a range of 12 miles they took on 3 warships and slugged it out on D Day until being put out action eventually before being captured by the Devonshire Regiment the day after.

This ended our day with lots unexplored but we needed to get back to base as we going out for a meal and it was an hour and a half drive.

Thursday was a bit of a washout as it p*ss*d it down for most of the day and I didn't want another days driving as we were back to the port that night. So it essentially involved a bit of shopping and waiting for the weather to break so we could pack up before heading for the overnight ferry home and on the way to the port we passed a dark blue and white bay whose registration ended BAY and were accompanied on the boat by a very nice splittie and a spotless late Westy in that lovely snot green!