De-Rusting the Floor Pan

Classy Window Winders

One of the things I'm enjoying is trawling eBay looking for bits and bobs for the bus.  I bought these lovely wood and chrome window winders the other day.  They're gonna look lovely on the new door cards :o)

Upholstery Sketches

We've been chatting for a while now about what colour we'd like the interior to be and what would go nicely with the stripy fabric we bought, so today I got the paint box out.  I've also had an idea in my head for a while now (after seeing a beautifully trimmed bay on the web) about taking the theme through to the front of the bus onto the seats and door cards.  Here are a couple sketches of how I picture it to be.  Luckily, I showed them to Ange and she loves the idea!

Testing colours for vinyl and upholstery fabric detail for the seats & door cards.

Captain's chair finished in vinyl, with stripy centre panel and piped edges. 

Passenger door card finished to match captain's chair and with diamond stitching detail on vinyl panels.

New kitchen!

I'm all excited!  I've just placed an order with Clearcut Conversions for a shiny new Smev 9222 hob & sink unit! Sad I know, but it's quite sexy for a kitchen appliance AND it means things are starting to make headway! :o) Should be with us in a couple of days.  What with the imminent arrival of the audio gear, and Ange's bargain fridge, this week's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Smev 9222 with left hand sink, electronic ignition, and single mixer tap.

Somewhere For the Bacon & Beer

Another internet bargain!  This time from good ol' Gumtree.  It seems to pay off spending lots of time patiently watching eBay and such like... you can get some cracking stuff for peanuts.

This lovely little fridge was bought by the previous owner with the intention of putting it in a horse box, but for whatever reason (possibly the fact that horses don't have opposable thumbs and therefore can't get the door open???) the owner decided against that and advertised it for sale as brand new and unused.  Ange spied it, noted that it was the perfect little fridge for our bus, and so arranged a courier to get it from the heathery hills of Scotland to London.  It arrived safe 'n' sound looking spanky new and incredibly diddy.  It's pretty cute for a fridge!  As long as we can fit supplies for a bacon sarnie and a cuppa cha, we'll be happy!

It's just crying out to be plastered with novelty fridge magnets.

Rinky dinky shelves for rinky dinky supplies.

All very tidy looking and ready to run off gas, 12v, or 240v hook up.

Stunners in the Sunshine

Today we had a family day at my aunty's in Felixstowe.  We had a lovely BBQ and jug of Pimm's, followed by a trip down to the ferry for a spot of crabbing and an ice cream.  On the way back along the coast road we caught sight of these chaps.  Alright, so they're definitely not wedges... but WHAT a pair of beauts!  Seeing the result of someone else's love, elbow grease, and attention to detail really puts a smile on your face and makes me feel like one day we'll have a bus to be really proud of too :o)

Felixstowe Ferry -  A lovely old boat yard unspoilt by tourism and a great place to drop a crab line whilst drinking tea from a polystyrene cup.  Happy days! :o)

Abso-bloomin' gorgeous.  Total bus envy!

Chosen Fabric

Remember that lovely green striped fabric we found back in Feb?  Well, we did some research and it doesn't appear to be a current line.  Eek!  We went back to Anglia Furnishing Fabrics (very helpful people) and loved it just as much as we did the first time we saw it (always a good sign).  On asking about the availability we were reliably informed that what they had in stock was the remainder of the run... so we bought six metres of it!  Hopefully, if our calculations are on track then we've got enough to do the rock 'n' roll bed, the cab seats, and the door cards (with a bit left over for my mum who loves hoarding fabric remnants!).  To get an idea of what it's going to look like we draped it over the sofa.  Check this out, groovy or what?!

Beautiful!  It's going to look so cool!