Holivan Vintage Caravan

I have neglected my blog but now I have my head back in the game as they say but for today I am parking up the campers and sharing another project with you.

I have spent the last couple of years dreaming of owning my own vintage caravan.  At the last house we had no room for a caravan so there was little point.  When we bought this house, it came with a 'secret garden' however there is no access but my husband liked the house and suggested we could crane a caravan in to the garden.

The Secret Garden

I think he thought I would go off the idea but I didn't and as some of you will know I finally purchased my very own space on wheels.  If it works out safe enough to tow then that is what I'll do but if I can't manage a good enough restoration than it will live in the Secret Garden.

Unamed Fisher Holivan

She is a Fisher Holivan believed to be from 1969 but I can’t be certain on this.  She is in a bad state with a LOT of damp, even more than I had originally thought.  However this does mean I don’t need to be too precious with her and worry about ruining her as she couldn't get any worse.

These are the pictures from just after I bought her.

You can't see the damp but the whole corner is rotten

The Workshop

The first issue was where to work on her, so the first few weeks were spent securing my very own workshop, helpfully this came about at the same place I store my campers so it has doubled as a work space for the vans. 

Give a week or two & bunting will start appearing in the workshop!

Once I had it sorted and cleaned I began work, stripping out the rotten parts of the Holivan.  There is lots but the worst is down the rear corners, the wood here has crumbled to nothing.

I have been very busy trying to get the campers all working correctly so I haven’t progressed much but this week I am determined to spend some time on the caravan.

Floyd setting off on another adventure

After checking Floyd back in yesterday and sending him back out on a new adventure, I got stuck into removing the other seating carcass in the Holi and stripping the ply off the back wall.

Today is time for shopping…..top of the list is a jigsaw as I managed to break my last one on some stupid DIY job that it probably wasn’t meant for! Thanks to the lovely Sally from the Vintage Caravan For Beginners facebook group I have a list of what else I need to purchase.  So a cup of tea and then I’m off to B&Q.

I will update again in a day or two and I might actually share some campervan news as well.

Kerry x

Custard Campers

2013 Round Up - A Year Of Custard Part 1

I have spent the last couple of days making plans for 2014, and one of the things I pondered was whether to restart this blog.  On reflection I'm going to give it another go, I'm never too sure how beneficial it is to the business and whether anyone really reads it.  According to  the stats plenty do but I get very few comments, so if your here feel free to leave a comment, even if its just to say hi.

Another issue I've struggled with on the blog is what to write, being a girl I do tend to veer towards the pretty things in life that catch my eye, but as I run a campervan business I wonder if this is too girly to fit with the brand?  Are people here just to see campervans?  or is it ok to mix it up?

Anyway enough of my musings, on with the blog...

Inspired by the very lovely Emily over at @fisheedesigns  I thought I'd do a look back at 2013 highlights

Hugs For Ramsey

In January we said a very sad goodbye to Ramsey, as he headed up to Norfolk to be sold by a third party.  My son in particular was very upset to see his favourite camper leave.

Moving Day

After a very tense wait to exchange contracts, this finally happened a week before we were due to move.  A mad dash to get packed up in time, washing out kitchen cupboards at midnight the night before you move is very stressful!  A big thanks to my wonderful friends who helped no end especially on moving day.  They helped finish packing up the old house and cleaned it.  Provided scones for lunch while waiting for the new keys and then helped scrub and sterilise the new house, now that's true friendship for you!

First time meeting our new camper

Having finally found Ramsey a lovely new home, we were ready to start the search for a new camper.  We found this 1973 Westfalia Continental buried in the For Sale forum on VZI.  I have no idea why he'd been overlooked, as he was lovely and a good price.

 

Heart Wedding Show

We took the very pretty Nigella along to exhibit at the Heart Wedding Show at Brentwood.  It wasn't as busy as we hoped but did secure some bookings later in the year.

Still up to our eyes in work on the new house, having had to rip out the kitchen, have the whole house rewired, replumbed and everywhere needing decorated, it was a major project.  Also it is not easy to live in house with kids and pets while the floorboards have to be taken up everyday for the wiring....horrendous.

Needs a bit of work!!

Think we needed a break from the house....

Volksworld Show

We did manage a day trip to Volksworld but alas not in a camper as there was snow on the ground.  Dan had spent the previous day driving our new camper 'Floyd' down to Sussex in the snow and was not keen to repeat the performance!

Volksworld is a really good show as there's a good mix but it was so cold that we only did quick dashes to the outside displays and spent more time in the show halls.  Want to see more on our visit check out the blogpost on it here.

Another month and another new campervan ;)  The very gorgeous Mrs Beeton, I LOVE this camper, she makes me happy and it's as simple as that!

Delia finally made it back on the road after having numerous engine problems.  We were badly messed about and let down by the mechanic, so after finally rescuing her, we took her to someone far more reliable who sorted out the mess left behind.  On the plus side of this very stressful episode, it did mean we established a great new link with the new mechanic who I'd now count as one of our good friends, every cloud and all that!

Rolling once more :)

The month finished with a lovely surprise weekend in Brighton with my lovely husband Dan to celebrate my 40th Birthday.

We had a fantastic time and I had a surprise party on Portslade Beach with my friends who all came down to help me celebrate...love my friends x

May was busy for Floyd & Delia, out on loads of hires..

We did manage to fit in a few shows though and started the month at Vicky Farm & The SSVC campout.  We liked this but arrived fairly late in the day, pictures from it here and here.  This campout is followed by a crusie to Stanford Hall VW show.  Fantastic cruise, loved every minute of it!

Stanford Hall is a great show, we were lucky with the weather which makes all the difference.  Loads more photos here.  We purchased a BMX for my son and didn't really think about how we were going to get it home!

Bit of a squash!

We also visited the Essex Dubbers show at Battlesbridge, loads of photos here and also the Battlesbridge Classic Car Show, which is a lovely really well attended show.  Both good little shows, just a short drive from us.

June started off with a lovely girls glamping weekend to the Vintage Nostalgia Show.  We had such a good time, celebrated my friend Katie's birthday in style and shopped, drank and most of all chilled.  I took endless photos which can be seen here but just to give you a taste....

We also took a both Nigella & Mrs Beeton to Alive & V Dubbin.  I like this show and its fairly local to us but it was very cold this year which did dampen spirits a bit but write up & photos here.

We got a new member of the Custard Crew, the fabulous Matilda, Tilly to her friends.  She is actually my daughter's dog and it was her that desperately wanted a Pug.  Tilly is a rescue pug, who was used for breeding, she was very overweight and unfit but has now slimmed down and can run around with our greyhounds.

She won third prize at the dog show for her unicorn!

As this blog post is so long and will run through the second half of 2013 in a separate post.  Don't forget we post loads of pictures and bits and bobs over on our Custard Campers facebook page, so worth a little look.

If your thinking of hiring a campervan for either a wedding in Essex or a campervan holiday get in touch and we'd be happy to help.

Kerry x

Custard Campers

Engine Rebuilds, Weddings, & Late Nights

We went in to the season with a pretty busy diary for our Delia, she duly set off on a weeks holiday to the Lake District and came back with some happy campers aboard...

What more could we need to get us back in the full time swing of it but sadly Delia then had other plans, she set off down to Cornwall but then had some niggling starter motor issues and ended the week with her engine completely giving up the fight.  Regular followers of our page will know we invested heavily in having large parts of her engine rebuilt (twice!)  The first time we were badly let down by the mechanic we were using who took much longer than promised and didn't complete the job in the end for reasons that we haven't managed to fathom, oh well we thought (well they weren't quite the words I used..) but onward and upward we thought and paid someone else to sort out the mess.  The job was done properly this time but only a couple of hires later the engine had died, which no one could of foreseen.  We bit the bullet and bought a new reconditioned engine and had that refitted. 

We're happy to report Delia now has been back out on the road and has 'ran in' her new engine on a trip to Glastonbury.  Her hirer's loved her and I feel relieved that our Delia is happy and working hard once more.

I think our Delia's being drinking while partying on at Glastobury......

I'm fairly confident that any camper hire company will have similar tales to tell as these campers are classic vehicles after all and they have to work exceptionally hard.  I'm not about to shout from the roof tops about problems we sometimes have but I'm happy to be able to say that when we hit a problem we work incredibly hard to resolve the issue and offer alternative campers etc whenever possible to try to minimise any inconvenience to our customers.

Floyd has been a star so far this season and has stepped in on a couple of occasions to take on some of Delia's hires when she was poorly.  Now he's got all his new upholstery he is a very smart looking camper, and I always think he's got an exceptionally smiley face.  If Floyd was a person he'd be the one always cheerful and happy to lend a hand I think.

We've been busy with weddings this year mainly in Nigella but Mrs Beeton has also been out on a couple and we received some lovely feedback on her...

"Hi!

Me and adam just want to say a huge thank you for making our wedding day so perfect and fun! We loved the camper to pieces and dan made the trip easy going and relaxing.

Thank you so much again!

Rebecca jenkins ... Now hilton lol x"

So now we're heading full steam into the silly season for camper hire, lots of campers to wash, maintain and get out on hire = lots of late nights at the barn.   It's once again a case of juggling work with the kids and all the normal dull stuff that needs doing, like the weekly shop etc.  One day I will get more organised but until then we'll keep muddling through like we always do and hopefully we are instilling a strong work ethic in the younger custards!

Right Dan's home from the barn so I'm going to wrap this up now but I will be back very soon as I have lots of new blog posts to share.

Don't forget if you need vw camper hire in Essex or London then the Custard's could be just who you need ;)

Kerry x