I have now owned this for over 1 year and no one is more surprised than me that I have still got it but being a sucker for old vehicles having owned a 1989 Autoquest 400 and a Bedford CA I have sadly become attached to it, I say surprised simply because of the foolish way I bought it.

Like hundreds of other people I to was casually looking at campers on Ebay, when the Toyota caught my I eye, so I foolishly bid without viewing as it was 150 miles away and won it, of course with the better half’s blessing as I had convinced her it was the bargain of the year. So came Friday night and I hopped on a train down to London and met my Daughter there, who had agreed to come with me as she lives in London and had planned to come and visit us at the weekend anyway. Caught another train to Dorset and arrived to collect the camper at around 11 pm in the pitch dark, so after a quick look around I paid the money and set off. I bet someone can remember the column change it just would not select the correct gear or I could not get it to, any way managed to reach the M25 put it in 4^th and accelerated right up to 45 mph, yes that’s right no faster just misfired when you accelerated harder, my daughter who had already christened it the smurf mobile, found it all quite amusing with comments like "well mum will be impressed" well the smile soon disappeared when it began to make a screaming noise and the headlights began to fail. "It’s only the fan belt slipping I assured her and I could fix that "I say could, if I had remembered to bring any tools. So the next services we pulled in, luckily I have AA membership and they where duly called, and just tightening the belt the problem was solved and we where on our way again,  at 5.30am I arrived home where I duly switched it off came inside and went to bed. Now at this point I can say truthfully I hated it, but due to me having to put on a front to the better half, I still pretended it was really nice.

The first job was trying to find what the problem was with the engine because although a 1600cc engine was never going to fly 45 mph was to slow. Plugs, points, ht leads and condenser all replaced carb cleaned and reset, but if it was set up one way 55mph, but ran really rough bottom end, or to get it running the other way top speed went right down, asked various friends who came and had a play themselves but to no avail I then started reading through some of the receipts and on the last mot it was noted that it had a misfire. Tinkering around with it one day I decided to check the manifold bolts where tight running out of ideas first 2 tightened a little bit using the recommended torque settings and the third which was buried behind the carb and virtually unreachable was not there eureka I shouted and acquired a bolt to fit after a couple of hours fiddling managed to get it in tightened up started it up and hey presto ran like a dream smooth acceleration and a easily 60 mph pleased as punch and if any one else says I would have looked at that as a matter of course I will kick them its easy when your told what the problem was. The exhaust was the next problem as it developed a blow and under closer observation I found it to be badly corroded , no way could I find a replacement but due to the kind man at my local exhaust fitters who allowed me to rummage through his store room, I found various bits and with the help from my brother in law and a local garage we managed to make quite a respectable system.

With the running and mechanical side out the way, I decided after going away in it for a couple of days ,the modernisation that had been done on the inside not only did not suit the camper, but some parts where just impracticable. So I set about with a hammer and screwdriver, removing various parts. New chipboard doors had been fitted over the original cupboards at the back ,these I removed, as in the original brochure the cooker and the fridge where on show, and I made a couple of drawers and a couple of doors to fit where the originals would have been, the side as you enter had been covered in laminate flooring, this was removed to reveal what i believe to be the original cork tiles, the window plastic surround had perished and broke and also had been covered in laminate, this again I removed and obtained some new plastic surrounds, at the front the only thing I am not to pleased with, is there is no way into the front of the camper, just what would have been a back window on the Toyota Hiace pick up has been left out. This again was showing the ravages of time so I stripped it out looked at the possibility of being able to go from the back into the front, which I have seen on a Newlander but decided I would lose to much by doing it, so instead I put a new wood surround, and a very useful shelf in. The toilet compartment was the hardest, after stripping the old wall paper off and removing the old shower base and a variety of chipboard, I found the wall boards on the outside walls where rotten, along with the timbers, so these where removed and new timber put in. I then managed to acquire some  acrylic white plastic sheets , that although where a bit heavier than the original wall boards still made it lighter  after removing the chipboard floor that had been put in over the top of the original ply flooring . I then fitted a new opening skylight, fold down sink and shower tray making a modern looking toilet compartment not really in keeping with the rest off the van but we tend to stay on site without toilets so although I had decided I wanted to try and get it back to as near original as I could I decided this was something that needed to be modernised.

Chipboard doors Although these doors made it more modern they just was'nt practicle making the fridge and cupboards hard to access	Where the radio was I removed the radio because of all the wiring and I did not like where the speakers where, radio was fitted into the wardrobe with some laminate to cover a badly cut out hole for the radio I installed a 12v switch system with engine battery and leisure battery condition indicator.	Stripped out Removed a lot of chipboard not only the door but inside the casing.	Near completion The worktops are original kichen thickness but except for the leading edge they have been scalloped out to keep the appearance of being thick but saving on weight
Ready for staining I had wanted to put a sliding worktop above the fridge but it did not allow enough room to allow air circulation for the fridge	All varnished I really think that later on I may take all this out and start again,trying to use the original framework did not produce the result I want or is it just me that can't do the job properly	Finished toilet I did not take any before photo's of the toilet but it was not the best.	Laminate boarding The front had a lot of laminate boarding but did make it look quite neat, but to try and get it back to as near to original it had to go. The table was to large it made sitting around it difficult
New table and surround a new table was made plus the window surround was remade the speakers and loads of wiring removed. I put the blue flooring cause at the time it was all i had but going to change it soon.	Extra worktop One of the reasons I put this shelf in was it had a fixed triangular shelf and the plug socket in the photo was there, but was wired into a inverter with a switch, when I removed the shelf it left a mess so I built a fold up shelf that has turned out to be very useful when cooking.There is a mistake that made me laugh when I realised what I have done you can see it in the photo if you look carefully enough.	Carpeted I had originally used vynl, but we use the camper through the year and on a winters morning it was freezing on the floor.	New opening skylight The original skylight was broken and very brittle, one of the hardest things to do as it entailed removing rusty screws and a lot of sealer that previous owners had used to try and seal it from the rain.
Cork wall I believe the corking on the side is original and was uncovered when I removed the laminate boarding that it had been covered with. I only say original because I have seen it on another newlander,	Looks bad now really wish I had not started this	This is below the quarter light was a bubble due to the filler being pushed out by the rust, looks like when it was filled the last time nothing was used to treat the rust.	At the front near the wing mirror bracket this was leaking to the inside, in really bad weather it would fill the metal parcel shelf so really does need doing.
Decided to cut the rust out instead of using glass fibre or something similar to fill I thought I would have a bash at welding a new piece of metal in, cut a piece of metal out laid it over the hole, sprayed with red paint took the piece away and cut the unsprayed section out, just needed a little tweak to fit.	Using a magnate tool to hold the metal in place while i tacked it in.	Another hole to cut out.	Welding pretty awful, my excuse is how close it is to the edge of the quarter window that was quite rusty, so after treating it , I just kept doing small welds, not exactly perfect but I was suprised how strong it was.
Starting to fill at least the welds hidden	More filler	After a lot of rubbing down it's starting to look ok, still needs rubbing more and some small bits to be filled.	I have foung a lot of the filling that was done previously seems to have been pointless, there was a lot of filler on this vent and when I removed it there was good solid metal underneath. the reason I think was where the twopanels meet one had been bent under just neeeded bending out a bit and a tack weld to bring it to the same level.
Door sprayed before fitting back, Think when I do the other side I will do the last spray coat on the vehicle.	This is the reason three deep finger marks.	The drivers door will be coming off for welding later in The drivers door will need to come off later in the year as I plan to weld it like the passen	Just going to wax it up as it will all be rubbed down when I have repaired the other door.
But just needed to get it back on the road for the mot.	And two weeks holiday soon !!!!!	Did the grill in a different colour now not sure.	Painted the bumper black instead of silver, would love to have it chromed but the fact there is quite a bit of rot that I had to treat and fill .