Mignon - The Restoration of a 1979 Bedford Camper

Hot water at last. Replaced a dodgy thermocouple and, more importantly, swore at it constantly for a couple of hours. It got the message...

Started some serious work on Mignon the Camper this afternoon. None of the gas-powered facilities were working, but a blast through the lines with a tyre-inflator blew out the dead wasps, bugs, grass and other assorted rubbish. The heater, the cooker and the oven now all work perfectly.

Shame the same can't be said about the water heater which is defeating my every effort to understand it. Time to pop over to my friendly Bedford Owner's Club website and ask those-who-know. If you ever buy anything like this, it really is worth the small amount of time and money needed to join a club.

Here's Mignon with a set of newly acquired blinds, oil and filter for a service and the leisure battery. Leisure batteries (I hadn't heard the term until a few months ago myself !) are used to power stereos, TVs, etc separately from the main car battery to avoid draining it. This second battery needs a charging system which can be quite complex, but I've invested in a 'Zig' unit which will take care of it for me as long as I wire it up properly.

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So, I set about cleaning out the cupboard the Zig unit is going to be mounted in. Old campers do tend to turn up a lot of stuff, some good, some rubbish, some just plain odd.

On the table you can see the Zig. It's the gold-coloured thingie with lots of switches to place in the wrong position and drain every battery, leaving you stranded. Time to write an airline-style checklist methinks ! Plus, my Dad loves rituals and checklists. He'll follow it slavishly, so I'd better get it right !

But... what's that, lurking next to an old can of paint, some underlay, a half-drunk bottle of mineral water and a brush ??

Captions on a post-card please ! They look new, but I wasn't going to investigate any further.  And anyway, with a quick wash, they'll be ready for Gil to wear.....

Battery went in ok, but it looks like some painting needs to be done !

And the air-con was installed. Overall, a good day. Enhanced dramatically by the discovery of used ladies underwear.

Note hugely interested cat nearby 

This system uses no freon gasses, no evironmentally-harmful emissions.... Air Con Mk.I

Hope you can take a joke Kev !

Here's your cat-flap (and a fair bit of panel beating for me !)

From left (clockwise):

Mag's 'this-cost-70-grand-new-I-tell-you! gently decaying vision of grandeur', a BMW 740, Mignon II, Mignon I, the mighty Ebay Ford pickup and Gil's new birthday present, an Astra twin-top. Looks like a dodgy second-hand dealer's yard instead of our house !

The village think the gypsies have moved in...

Do you a new driveway guvnor ?

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It's a bit like this round our place at the moment !

Well, it's mostly good but there is some 'oiliness' to be getting on with. First and foremost are the front brakes. Bleh.

They're drum brakes and I've never dealt with them before. The front brakes shudder quite badly and pull to the left, but I'm hoping it's just a new set of pads that are needed. (Caution: Pub Talk !) The pull might be the slave cylinder binding which is even more 'bleh' as I've never attempted to change something like that on any vehicle. Fortunately the bits are easy to get (Mignon 1 is parked nearby !), even the special tool you need to adjust the brakes. However, the manual says 'you may find this tricky' which translates to 'do not attempt unless you possess Superhuman powers....'

Mignon is too big to fit into the local garage so I'm on my own. Me and the trusty Haynes manual....

Secondly, the Gauges of Doom.

The temperature gauge plunges into the red about a minute after starting up, yet I know it is not overheating. The fuel gauge has a link to a parallel universe and is reading the contents of a fuel-tank in a different dimension. The fuel gauge we can live with - a simple bit of mental arithmetic will tell you when you need to fill up (i.e., before I didn't !). However, if it does overheat, we have no way of knowing.

I know the gauge itself is ok, so it must be the sender unit. Easy job, happily. Replacing the fuel gauge sender requires the tank itself to be dropped out. I'll see how I'm feeling !

(Caution: More Pub Talk !) Usually, behind the dashboard is a little device called a voltage regulator. It smooths out the electrical current reaching your gauges as the engine revs rise and fall (and thus the output power of the alternator). With both gauges a bit dead, I assumed it was probably that and asked on my club forum if anyone had a spare for this particular model.

Well, it turns out this model doesn't *have* a voltage regulator; it was fitted to later models only. When I asked someone why they hadn't let me know, they said: "We didn't want you to feel like an idiot !" 10/10 for social discretion, 0/10 for usefuleness !

So, both the senders have failed. Not the non-existent voltage regulator. Or the lunge-sprocket.

Interior-wise, the roof boards need replacing as a previous leak has pretty much destroyed them. Not difficult, but very time consuming.

Then all I need to do is install and wire the Zig power management unit, connect that to the car battery, wire in the leisure battery, wire that to the Zig, route the existing lighting circuit to the Zig, change the lights over to LED and fit some additional ones, attach the stereo to the Zig, the CD changer to the stereo, wire the TV in, connect the audio-out to the stereo's audio-in... *breathes*...... panel beat and respray the fridge vent, respray all additional vents, get the windscreen seal replaced, new carpet, new curtains and the furnishings recovered, fit wall brackets for the microwave, attach the awning, shot-blast the wheels, fit the chrome covers, replace the hazard light unit, re-wire the existing cab CD unit, clean/replace the roof vent guards, strip and respray the heater, fit new door mirrors, remove and respray the gearstick and steering column... *struggles to breathe*.... sand, prime and respray the cab interior metal, fix crack in worksurface, re-attach loose pieces of interior trim and fix or replace the ship's clock at the rear. *chokes*

Piece of cake these old campers, eh ?!

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Sometimes we men have a tendency to complicate our problems, especially those of the mechanical variety.

"Ah yes, it's definitely the splunge-sprocket wearing against the giggle-pin, which has caused the half-widget to come loose and that's stopped the lunk-ratchet from engaging properly. I'll definitely need a new whurt-grunzle first..." I bet you've heard talk like that in the pub...

Mignon 2 was losing power going up hills and then finally conked out, arriving on the back of a recovery truck (see below). I diagnosed a faulty fuel pump - all the signs were there of fuel starvation under power.

Which was true.

Because it had run out of petrol.

Doh !

Filled it up from a jerry-can and within 30 seconds she had sprung to life once more. Note to self: must fix fuel gauge !

(And repaint the camper body... time to buy a proper spray gun, primer, cellulose paint and find a neighbour's car to practice on )

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