Internal Affairs

Finally the sun is coming through and that means....another day of hard work on the Camel.
Goal is to finish the inside this weekend so a new 12 hour working day was used to reach that goal. Pascal came all the way from Utrecht to help me out on paintjobs and other decorative support. We installed toiletpaper, towelracks ;-), a cubboard, 24to220V converter and numerous other details. It was a fun day, thanks Pascal!

Paint job & other

Under the sunny skies of Holland (2 days in our summer...) there was finally time to paint the inside. A light sandstone yellow was used, just a little lighter than the outside color. After painting the carpet was cut to size and put in place. The fire-extinguisher and a powerful Maglite were put within reach and a few moments later the superstyle curtains were hung (thanks mum!) The first steps of my new livingroom ;-)

My good friend Bas helped out on the pumping-the-stereo part; a new radioCDplayer plus two gigantic 3 way speakers were mounted in the slightly adapted overhead panel. Also a 12V connector was fitted in to support the TomTom or other 12V equipment.

To avoid 'sate-pierced-pedestrians' the two steel pins (designed to hold to hi-lift jack) were covered with rubber doorstops.

Cable car

The REAL reason the engine didn't start was not only the faulty startermotor; one of the big batts passed away. It gave 12Volts but as soon a high current was demanded it collapsed. So after replacing the two big 95Ah batts the car started without a problem thanks to Mike and a very smooth running startermotor. After some testdriving I could start with the numerous smallerjobs on the car. Two cables were made which should prevent sweeping tree-branches into my tiny windows. Not really a must, but hey, they look very cool!

Startermotor out&in

On monday my new LaRo friend Marius helped me out with the removal of the 'faulty' startermotor. This beast is a big as a biscuit-can and weights over 12 kgs. Of course it was not an easy job since the exhaust pipe had to be disconnected. Rust rests so we had to drill one of the screws out. After 2,5 hours of hard work the beast was tamed.
It has been revised and overhauled; the relay has been replaced. ' Unfortunately' the startermotor was running fine so the cause of not starting should be the two big batteries which seemed perfectly OK. New batt's will solve my problems. The Camel should run Friday smoothly again! I build the startermotor in all by myself so I learned at least something from this exercise!
On the photo; Marius and the Beast

A new frontend!

After a week of patience I could to pick up my 'brandnew' bumper, bullbar and jerrycan holders. Sandblasted, coated and powercoated in shiny black the bumper section looks better than ever! With the bullbar removed I was able to clean the front side of the car properly with the illustrious Commendant 4 stuff. It looks all new again as the pictures show. Some small work remains like exchanging the lightcovers (they leak because of cracks in the plastic lightcovers). The jerrycanholders are back on the roof giving the car an even more adventureous look. Next steps are the attachment of the Highlift and sparetire.......

Dieselpump misery solved

Building in the repaired dieselpump would be possible, however to take no risk a new one has been installed instead. The main remaining problem now is to get rid of the air in the diesel fuel system. The car has not run yet since the startermotor seems to have a problem. The batteries seem OK with 25 Volts total, however the car makes an astmatic sound when I try to start the engine. To be continued once more.....

Losing it's manhood

Today a tough job had to be done; the bullbar and bumper had to be dimantled from the car. They will be sandblasted, primed and powder coated in semigloss black. Also the two jerrycan holders will be taken care off. For such a tough job I needed assistance of a tough assistent. Luckely my good friend Evelien was around. As the owner/driver of a Mercedes 2,5 ton firetruck from the late 60ties she knows how to handle the rough work. Thanks for your help! In one week the new bullbar and bumpers will be back on the car. Without bumpers and bullbars the car looks a bit fragile. It temporary lost ist manhood ;-)

Dieselpump misery

Since the car was not running smoothly above 50kmh I decided to change the dieselfilter. After changing it I had to pump manually (so called opvoerpomp) the filter full with diesel. Well, that didn't work at all. After some investigation we (me and Sebas) decided to open the pump to see what could be wrong. The two small valves were completely loose! They should be attached to the cover. We decided to heat the cover and put back the two valves. This worked fine. After this hot experiment we build the pump back in. Unfortunately the pump still didn't work :-(.
It does pump any diesel at all. To be continued.....

Time for the inside....

This weekend lots of work has to be done; clearing the 'living' area from all the old cubboards. Hell of a job, since the boxes were firmly attached to the floor and walls. Also 1 kg of Namibian sand and dust came out. I will need at least a day extra to get it all clean and sanded. Then the inside paintjob can start....

New rooftop :-)

The progress is slow but steady. A new roofboard has been put in place with the big help of my friend Lion (on picture). Its made of betonplex and has a antislip coating preventing me from falling down 2,5 meters! Attachments have been made for the two huge crates (80x60x30) which will hold lightweight camping gear.
Next step is to create attachments for the two jerrycan holders.

Next steps.....

In the past days I used a lot of evenings to get the LaRo stickerfree. Also the paint has been polished with 'commendant 4' to get rid of the color differences (sticker zones). Here some pics of the result so far. The car shines like a new one (uhh, almost). Next step is now to get new plywood on the roofrack and then restore the crates and jerrycan holders....

some more work to do

The spare tyre shaved off some paint. Luckely it is aluminium, so no rust.......

During the weekend the first main job started; getting rid of all the sponsor-stickers!
A hell of a job since all letters were attached seperately.......
But after a hard days work at least one side is almost sticker free.

Land Rover 109 Ambulance; 'original state'

The LaRo in his 'original' state in 2001, ready for big trip to South Africa. It drove more than 80.000kms through this huge continent

LaRo "Crossing Africa" plowing through the mud