Meet 'Thunderbolt', my recently acquired LDV Convoy long wheelbase minibus.
Having looked around in an idle sort of way for a van to use to bring home motorcycles and scrap for scraptures whilst also being comfortable enough to use as family transport, I came across this gem on an internet website.
when I saw she was a retiring scout van, that really made the decision to buy a certainty, having been a cub scout leader for several years, I really liked the idea of contributing to scouting by buying this old bus
She was cheap, she is simple, she is big, she has her issues too!
This is a '97 model which means a nice, reliable pug engine without the electronic gizmos, gadgets and crap that infest the later models with Ford (Fix Or Repair Daily) duratorq engines( although i am told the ford 'banana' engine was ok too), so cheap to maintain, reliable and relatively cheap to fix if anything breaks.
First thing I fixed was the horn, because as everyone knows, the scout motto is 'beep repaired' (sorry, sometimes I just can't help myself)
Next, to go through all the common issues associated with these (which are relatively few)
If you are thinking of buying one, beware rust (particularly in the footwells and under the mats in the cabin), water leaks around the bottom of the windshield, windscreen wipers and holes left open to allow for easy left/right hand drive conversion and worn kingpins (grease regularly or tear your hair out in frustration replacing them, the choice is yours)
This one did indeed have the traditional soggy mat syndrome due to the aforementioned leaks, but it hasn't been doing it long enough to need a vast amount of welding, happily.
Kingpins were listed as needing attention in a previous mot, but she flew through with no issues for me, she must like me and presumably the kingpins were renewed, so I was a happy camper!
To drive, well, lots of body sway around corners (she isn't sophisticated in the suspension dept) very relaxing (you may as well take it easy, she'll get you where you want to go, but she won't be rushed!) , the driving position is great, much higher than most modern vans, or my jeep, for that matter and she isn't that keen on long inclines and will slow down noticeably (dropping a gear and revving her hard doesn't really achieve anything other than wasting precious fuel)
I really enjoy driving her, it's a fun experience for sure
Now, these things do have issues, they are not a sophisticated vehicle by any stretch of the imagination, they don't even have electric windows and certainly none of this modern abs business , IRS or airbags etc, this, to me, was a big selling point, I LIKE simple!
the flipside is that she lacks any creature comforts and she is NOISY and slow(but economical for her size, about forty pounds of diesel takes me 250 motorway miles at a steady 60-65), she doesn't so much accelerate as gradually gain momentum, still, she wasn't bought to go racing!
Next problem was that my wife was thrilled with my purchase in much the same way concrete blocks float, ah, ooops
Fortunately, the idea of it being used to earn some money was agreed to be a good one, the compromise being to stop it smelling, sounding and looking like a bus for taking little old ladies out in.
Step one, make it more comfortable, when I bought it, she had seventeen seats in her which are ok, but far more than I needed and if it was going to look good and be super comfortable, they had to go.
Seventeen seats take quite a lot of time to remove, especially if they have slowly been seizing their bolts into place over a decade and a half, they also take up a LOT of garage space- I still have plenty of them left, if anyone wants to buy some?
they were replaced by these lovely seats from an American dayvan (an Econoline, I think, or possibly an Astro)
So now we have two comfy armchairs up front, two behind and a three seater behind those that electronically folds down into a bed, humans and dogs are now much happier!
being a LWB bus, there is still plenty of space for cargo behind the rear seats, or if I remove the last seats (four bolts) there is 8 feet available, plenty for putting in most motorcycles and still seating for four in comfort
To combat the huge noise issue, the floor (large pieces or marine ply in this case) was lifted, all the old fag ends were ejected (hmmm, scouting has changed since my day....) and some bitumen backed flashing strip was laid down.
This stuff can be bought on e bay from various automotive suppliers, but its far cheaper to buy virtually the same product from a builder's merchant such as wickes.
the idea is that the bitumen backing adheres to the metal and stops it vibrating, and yes, it does work, a big improvement but you need to be thorough when laying it.
next came a layer of MLV or mass loaded vinyl, this is used for sound deadening, its heavy stuff, but very effective on the floors and around the wheel arches, like the bitumen flashing you need to be thorough and it also is cheaper to buy from the building industry than from specialist automotive suppliers who will cheerfully sell you the same stuff for three times the price!
Over this the original floorboarding was replaced on the bassis that it would help and gives a level floor .
Then I laid down a good quality underlay and some decent carpeting, both of which were purchased from e bay.
Although it was never the intention to convert thunderbolt into a camper, I found this blog by Vandog Traveller a very useful source of information.
Then....I took a break!
actually, I still need to finish the carpeting, before I complete the cabin area I'm going to address some leaks, Probably should have started with that, really, but I was overcome with a rush of enthusiasm for making her look better (and desperate to avoid deafness, in truth!)
I have also completely removed the dashboard panels ,(very easy to do, but the lower panel mounting tabs are quite fragile) used the anti vibration stuff on the metalwork and padded out the backs with sound deadening sticky backed closed cell(to avoid water ingress) foam .
the very cheap looking lower dash panels have been covered with Veltrim, a kind of very thing, stretchable material used for trimming vehicles.
yes, but DOES IT WORK?
well, yes, it has made a noticeable difference for sure, there is still more to do to to get the best results to be honest, the main areas of issue in terms of noise are wheel arches and the bulkhead areas in the cabin where all the engine noise comes from and I am waiting for delivery of more sound deadening pads to do the bulkhead and engine bay, after that I will get a better idea of just how much improvement has been made.
work still needs to be done on the sides and roof too, the idea was to deal with the floor and noisiest areas first
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