Monday, 29 March 2010
Let Work Commence!!
In five hours we have painted the van matte black and some of the trimmings “Honda Gold”. Darren attempted to paint the roof by pouring a tin of Hammerite all over but this appears to have ended badly.
Special mention to Matt Jones and my old man for helping out. Matt for creating some beautiful steelwork for the back and Rob for doing the jobs the rest of us haven’t got the attention span to complete and finishing the mechanical issues none of us had a clue how to do.
Neil completed the outside paint job after turning up extremely late, but all is forgiven as he now cannot move his finger due to extended amounts of time on the spray can.
LESSON 2: It takes roughly 11 tins of spray paint to cover a transit.
Another good thing that came out of the day was that Phil and I found the best salesman in all of Kent. Whilst out to get the second load of spray paint we decided to buy the lino for the rear of the bus and stopped at Carpets for Less on Sevenoaks Way. Phil and I told the salesman we wanted roughly 10’ X 6’ of sparkly lino for a transit which we thought would cost around £10 - £15.
We ended up buying enough lino to cover a basketball court…for £75…but it was “reduced” from £220, so there is a saving in there somewhere.
LESSON 3: Don’t trust shifty looking carpets salesman who welcome you by saying “alright bruv” when you enter their shop.
Next on our list of things to do is to install our smoke machine, strobe light, over the top sound system, tv, xbox and wii.
Videos and photos to follow.
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
EPISODE 1 – The Journey Begins
EPISODE 1 – The Journey Begins
It started with a slightly drunken discussion about various humorous modes of transport we could take to Le Mans this year.
After a few more beverages the decision was made to obtain a London Ambulance and convert it to our needs. After scouring the internet, particularly eBay, we found one within our price range which looked, on the face it, to be in reasonable condition.
So on Sunday four of us (Darren, myself, Phil and Ollie) rose from our pits at the crack of noon and travelled to the fabled and mysterious land across the raging Thames river to a humble village called Grays.
Whilst surveying the wonderful landscapes of this area, we all came to the conclusion that Grays, and quite possibly all of Essex, is the biggest shit hole on Gods Green Earth.
We found the ‘property’ that was selling our soon to be Fun Bus and luck would have it that it was in fact a gypsy site. Some of the various roaming animals were three of the mangiest looking canines I have ever had the luck to see. If they were not tethered I am sure we would not be here today. There were chickens also, plenty of chickens.
To cut this already long story short, the ambulance was a wreck and we would have to re-think our mode of transport.
LESSON 1: NEVER TRY TO BUY AN AMBULANCE FROM A GYPSY
Whilst brain-storming (ten pints drunk and sick down Darren’s truck) in The Cock Inn in Halstead we came to the consensus that we would buy a transit van and convert it to our needs.
Again we all thoroughly searched eBay in the hope of finding something suitable. Darren found a transit van in Portsmouth for £500, BARGAIN.
This part isn’t as interesting as the previous part. We went to Portsmouth, bought the transit and brought it back to Halstead. Job Done.
We would not contain our excitement and started work on it immediately (see video).
