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Stripping & Cleaning the Van

Once we picked it up, we had to start from the very beginning, from scratch, and that is what we wanted! Wasn’t it? It was in a way slightly daunting, but also exciting. 

The inside of the van when we picked it up. Ply lining, some cardboard on the floor, an LED strip on the ceiling, and the cabin was sealed off from the back area...

This is what the van looked like inside when we picked it up. 

 

While the van is an ex-Royal Mail van, between them owning it and us buying it, it had been used by someone who did delivery driving for the likes of Yodel and Hermes (now Evri). It was very simply protected and lit; just a load of plywood on the walls and floors, the wheel casings were also lined out, and we got it with some left-over protection material that the previous owner used for heavier and bigger loads/deliveries.

 

This and more all had to come out… so, well, there we went! 

Stripping out and cleaning the van was a bit more than an afternoon’s work. It might seem easy, but well, it’s not. 

 

The things that needed to be done were: 

 

  • remove the plywood
  • remove the anker points
  • remove the bulkhead
  • remove any leftover screws
  • give the whole interior a good scrub
  • treat any holes with anti-rust paint
Plywood panels removed
Once the panels were out, it was clear it needed some cleaning
rene brushing out the back of the van
Rene clearing larger chunks of
a hand and pincers to get some of the screws out
Pincers to get some of the screws out
a brush on a very dirty floor
Heavy brushing needed
End of the first day: heavy cleaning to come later
End of the first day: heavy cleaning to come later
Gaby looking rather disgruntled with a brush and a bucket: she loves cleaning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who doesn’t like cleaning…?

Rene drilling into the rivets to get the bulkhead out
holes treated with anti-rust paint

There were quite a lot of holes from the screws that kept the plywood lining in place. 

 

Each of these holes had to be located and then carefully scraped of any rust and paint to make sure that the protective layer of anti-rust paint would grip properly and do its job.

 

It was a task that took quite a while, but it’s something that you don’t want to skip or skimp on: nobody wants a van floor slowly disintegrating and rusting away! 

 

 

While we were doing all this, we also still had to get the van through MOT. 

Yes, that was a gamble that we took when buying it. 

The seller had planned to do it themselves, but the sale came quicker than expected. Because we didn’t want to risk someone swooping in and taking the deal, because it was quite a good deal, we took home the van without the MOT done.

 

Luckily, the van passed with flying colours, and of course a beer had to be had to celebrate that!

 

Now we could finally start and put the actual plans into action! 

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