Harold - the T25 van (1.8T content)

[GeorgeMK1]

Hey guys,

Thought in the spirit of keeping forums alive and also adding a journal of the life of our van, Harold, I'd make a build thread to also show his progress and maybe even get help in some areas of struggle.

I've always liked these older transporters and then one day I noticed the prices slowly creeping up and decided to jump on the instagram (vanlife) bandwagon - and buy a T25 to convert into a camper. The prices were pretty crazy for an actual camper already, such as the Joker or Westfalia etc. vans, ranging from $6000 - $11000 for the immaculate ones. So the only financial option we had was to find a tintop and do work from there.

My GF initially was very sceptical and couldn't be bothered delving into the whole idea (once we did our first trip though, she regrets nothing haha).

So we found a bloke selling this particular one for a reasonable $2500. Standard no reg/rwc sale. The van started very well but showed signs of age, however it was all original and pretty well maintained. Engine is a 1.9 and 5spd manual. Plans are simple, clean it, get rwc and club permit, slowly convert into camper.

I'll update this until I'm up to date with where I am today! Some fun journeys have happened since then, and most recently the engine has blown. Not to worry, plans are in the process.


So this is how we got him, quite neglected and moss everywhere!










After we bought it, I spent the next month and a half changing as much as I could as fast as I could to get it RWC and rego'd. Complete brakes were rebuilt and changed, wheel bearings all round, timing set, new plugs, oil/air/fuel filters, new tyres, new wipers, all rust damage repair, water pump, seals, coolant and hoses all replaced with new items. Some bushes were also replaced to pass RWC. Many cold winter nights were spent like this after work.






The day we passed RWC we cheekily took a day off and started stripping and cleaning everything!




Sorry if any of the photos are playing up, I'm trying to sort them out.

[LogicprObe]

Hi George.
Unfortunately, your photos aren't showing up.

[GeorgeMK1]

Hi George.
Unfortunately, your photos aren't showing up.

Yeah I know mate, I've been having so much issues uploading images. I FINALLY found a site that does it, and now the images are cut in half. Grrrrr it's just so frustrating as I've got so many photos and struggling to upload haha. I've been through 5 different image hosting sites and none work aceept for ctrlq.com, but it seams to cut images for some reason. I'll keep trying

[GeorgeMK1]

So after it was all stripped down and the entire van cleaned, it was time to the fun part. BUILDING

Fresh canvas



Flooring and underlay with my helper






After the flooring was done I came up with a solution for the bed. I didn't want to have a folding bed, rather a full time bed, laying flat.
I made up a template and did my measurements, then I started to cut and weld the frame. Its actually a lot lighter than I ever would have imagined. I think I used 1.2mm thick metal posts, which was as thin as I could go. Holds weight of both of us with ease.






On with some 8m marine plywood and it was done.
We got our measurements and bought a memory foam mattress. Cut to shape and wrapped up. Its super comfy!!




Quick night time test, and it's goooood
Also, our plan was to build, test, build, test etc. So we went to the beach to test the lovely new addition.





Thats it for tonight guys

[Gold Coaster]

Great stuff ... enjoying watching Harold evolve!
Keep the pics coming.

[GeorgeMK1]

Great stuff ... enjoying watching Harold evolve!
Keep the pics coming.

Thanks mate, we really enjoyed the evolvement of Harold too! There has been some really fun adventures in the old fella


So the whole build process I seam to be doing is, doing one thing just enough to get it done - and then coming back and revising it at a later stage 10x better than it was. This way it gives me time to see if I like it, or find a better method of doing said thing before I spend to much time and money into it. This can be said with the electrical and battery system. For now, all I did was make a batter box to hold the deep cycle marine battery in place. A simple on/off cut off switch from the main battery was added, so I can have it charging off the alternator while the car is running, and off when its not so it doesn't drain the main system. This is all for the time being, once I understand how the solar system and a proper 2 battery system works, I will eventually upgrade.
Also hooked up some lights and cig lighter sockets. After that we headed to our first over night stay in Bells Beach as a test weekend! Was a first stay.

[GeorgeMK1]

So after camping like that for a couple of weekends it was time to add a cupboard and sink for our little kitchen area. A trip to Big W got us 2 10L tanks. One for storing water, and the other for the drain catch. We also went to our local flee market (lavo markter lol) and looked for sinks. Everyone wanted too much for their sinks, and being on a budget we improvised.

Basic layout








We ended up buying a $5 stainless steel ice cream holder thingo majigy and drilled a hole and put in a drain. Worked really well. Here it is slowly coming together.






I eventually installed doors but forgot to take pics. One of the doors also acts as a fold up/down table and I made a leg to support it.

At that point I also decided it was time for the moss on the roof to go. So a high pressure wash and lots of scrubing and prepping was put into the roof - all before my backyard ghetto spray job was done. Still holding up really well to this day! (surprisingly)

[GeorgeMK1]

So the van stayed like that for a few weeks before our next upgrade. We decided to try out the new drive in cinemas in Docklands when they opened up, Harold is soooo good for drive ins. We had a great time.




After that I started working on another wardrobe/cupboard contraption. Just wanted something that can store clothes etc, and was really easy to access. I go snowboarding during winter, so made the slots quite large to fit my gear easily.
Mocking it up and slowly assembling it over a weeks period - including staining.












I used a lot of L brackets as the 10mm plywood I used wasnt of the best quality and I was scared if I drilled and screwed it would crack in half, so found L brackets to work best.

At that point we just enjoyed him through out the rest of the summer, on weekends whenever we were free and throughout Xmas too. Had a great 2016/17 summer break in Harold.





Here are a few pics from out trip over the this past summer time

[jets]

Thanks for sharing. It looks like you are enjoying your van & visiting some great places. Including people in your pics. really enhances them. Keep posting any more work you do, we don't get many T3 owners here.

[Sunny43.5]

Can I suggest one more thing to enhance the comfort , I would look into lining the inside of the roof with first some sound deadner and then some "Hull Liner "carpet , you will be amazed how much insulation it gives and the noise reduction as well [especially in the cool climes of down south] I know the original roof trim was on metal bows but a better option would be to do a hull liner job and you can do it yourself fairly easily . Great job by the way I havent got the patience to do nice woodwork like yours , the only woodwork I have done on a few vans is the stuff where I can trim over the wood with hull liner to cover my ****ty carpentry skills LOL. I would love to show you the inside shot of one van I did but those money hungry grubs at Photobucket have now rstricted me from sharing MY photos on this site .Update I found another way to retrieve my own photos that they tried to stop me from accessing .

[Kachingg]

Mate 2 thumbs up loving this thread please keep us updated

[GeorgeMK1]

Thanks for sharing. It looks like you are enjoying your van & visiting some great places. Including people in your pics. really enhances them. Keep posting any more work you do, we don't get many T3 owners here.

Thanks Jets. Yep, loving it a lot, it gives us a lot of freedom to go where we want and stay where we want really.
Also I have been on this forum for many years and not seen any T25/3 builds either, so I thought I'd have to share the build for sure

Can I suggest one more thing to enhance the comfort , I would look into lining the inside of the roof with first some sound deadner and then some "Hull Liner "carpet , you will be amazed how much insulation it gives and the noise reduction as well [especially in the cool climes of down south] I know the original roof trim was on metal bows but a better option would be to do a hull liner job and you can do it yourself fairly easily . Great job by the way I havent got the patience to do nice woodwork like yours , the only woodwork I have done on a few vans is the stuff where I can trim over the wood with hull liner to cover my ****ty carpentry skills LOL. I would love to show you the inside shot of one van I did but those money hungry grubs at Photobucket have now rstricted me from sharing MY photos on this site .[ATTACH=CONFIG]30081[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]30082[/ATTACH]

Hey bud! Thanks for that, we actually have been looking into it as well. This is only 3/4 of where we are up to in the build, I still have a few more pics to add over the weekend. We actually ended up filling all gaps with Amatelin sound/vapour/heat barrier. I did a Mt Hotham trip last weekend before the engine blew up, and was super warm!! Will post pics over the weekend.

Ps. I was using photobucket too and got caught out. I have been suggested a new link to use when uploading pics, I'll make sure to link you to it when I'm home and on my computer

Mate 2 thumbs up loving this thread please keep us updated

Thanks mate! There's still a bit more to go until we are up to date, will add a few more details over the weekend

[Sunny43.5]

Have a look in the general discussion section on the Forum I have discovered a way of getting my photos back from the mongrels as they wont allow me to retrive them from their site as per normal , but as they say where there's a will there is a way .

[GeorgeMK1]

Have a look in the general discussion section on the Forum I have discovered a way of getting my photos back from the mongrels as they wont allow me to retrive them from their site as per normal , but as they say where there's a will there is a way .

VWWatercooled Images < -

Theres the link I wanted to show you mate. That is what I now use to upload pics

[GeorgeMK1]

Just before we started adding proper insulation to Harold, there was a Vanlife Melbourne meeting held at Rubicon River, with 2 forums members from here (Brook and Elton). In total there was maybe 10 vans, with majority of them being super cool T3s. It was a pretty sweet weekend, with a projector and screen being hooked up to watch Top Gun of course.

Some pics I got (thats toms cool T3 in the background)




And this is Ty's camper next to ours.




After that weekend was a bit of a break from any camping as I pulled the whole interior back out to re insulate it for winter.

We used Amatelin 7mm thermal break sheets first, then backed by wool insulation, and finally a reflective sheeting at the end. Im no expert but this final sheet should also help against vapour.

Thermal break first on all panels




Including on the roof too. And then followed by wool




Tried to get it in as much places as we could fit it. This was us for a lot of the colder nights these past few months.






Then finally the reflective stuff on last.







After doing that step of the build, we went out for a quick weekend getaway to Mt. Macedon to test the new insulation. It was pretty damn warm to be honest, with no real concern during winter camping. We also woke up to an awesome morning full of fog!!






About a month ago I found a bike rack to suit hatch backs, here on the for sale section. I had a feeling I could modify it to better suit Harold as I wasn't happy with the current bike carrier. We were using the tow bar carrier, but that meant we couldn't open the boot if we needed to. With this new setup, it allows me to open the boot no worries.

It all worked so good minus a few slight modifications I had to make. I intend on going away for some weekends in search of Victorias best MTB tracks during summer, so should be fun.

Anxious late night quick test shows a few small mods needed to make it work.





And thats it, all finished up and ready to go.

I've got a few more things to update as per our build, stay tuned!

Thanks for reading