Retro '70's stuff!

The danger of joining the Retro caravan club is the temptation to buy assorted 70's tat, sorry memorabilia.
Needless to say been busy on eBay. Firstly some fantastic Orange Gaydon Melmex

This was swiftly followed by a Sona hob top coffee percolator

We were then looking for some chairs but prices were silly especially as we could find none at the local car boot. Then found this pair for £12

Even yellow to match the camper!

Then lastly felt we needed some 70's music, of course played on a cassette player so....

So I think that's enough....... For now!

Kitchen Worktop Trim Replacement

Whilst we were away the other weekend I wasn't too careful with the positioning of the Beauclaire oven on the hob resulting in melting the white rubber trim that surrounds the kitchen worktops

This not surprisingly was a bit of a b*gg*r!
Searching around on tinterweb revealed that this stuff was not available from the usual sources and I could only find it elsewhere in odd colours.
The solution was remarkably close to home, the camper in fact! Westfalia trimmed their units in a very similar material and surprise surprise it was available by the metre from various VW specialists I sourced mine from NLAVW via Fleabay. Wesfalia use a thick and thin rubber t section depending on the location the one you need is the thin. So ordered it duly arrived

The old trim simply pulls of once you gently start it with a crew driver. Be careful the trim can be more firmly attached to the laminate than the work top, so bits of this can break off.

To attach the new trim simply feed it into the slot and tap in place using a rubber mallet.

 Two top tips here. Firstly cover the face of the mallet in duck tape or similar this keeps the trim clean.
Secondly if you can take the worktop off it makes getting a smooth finish easier than trying to hit with a mallet at various strange angles.
The end result is shown below. A pretty straightforward operation and a better fit than the original!

Retro Caravan Club

We have never really been ones for going on organised camps. The exception being a couple of visits to Camperjam and Vanfest / Busfest. These are of course big shows with weekend camping.
We Joined the Retro Caravan club first on Facebook and then as a club a couple of months ago and thought we would break the habit of a lifetime and attend a rally.
 The venue was Firtree Farm near Banbury. This is a pretty good site on 3 levels with a toilet block between the two lower levels, It is set around two fishing lakes. The facilities were located in a portacabin cleverly fitted into an old barn which was then re roofed. They consisted of 4 self contained unisex washrooms each with a loo, shower and washbasin, which always seemed to be well serviced and clean.
Whilst the weather was bitterly cold and windy the welcome could not have been warmer, with 13 or 14 vans in attendance most pulled by something equally retro.
Chris, Cameron and co. need a great job of organising with just the right level of events to ensure a good weekend was passed, The bacon butties were especially welcome. Some pictures below

Colin and Julies Royale with the social "tent"

Whilst we were there I paid a quick visit to the British Motor Museum. I had been before but wanted to see how it had changed with opening of the new exhibition hall. Well what a disappointment! The layout of the main building has been altered to give  a new entrance which resulted for example in the time walk of cars finishing in the eighties. The new building essentially resembles a two story car park with cars packed tightly in rows. The downstairs Jaguar exhibition, consisted largely of a series of first or last models from the sixties upwards models obviously deemed not important enough to be in their main museum in Coventry. Upstairs was a range of cars either evicted from or chosen to not be important enough from the main exhibition and again a series of first and last late model Land Rovers.
So generally not impressed. The best exhibits to me remain the concepts that didn't quite make and of course the Monte Carlo mini Coopers. A few pics below

A30 sports tourer, every panel pretty much hand made

A potential Triumph Toledo / Dolomite replacement

A great display

And Finally the Monte Minis

In all I have to say it was a really enjoyable weekend with some good company and we are looking forward to our next meet up in Derbyshire in June