Category Archives: Camper

Free Bird

When cleaning the van, I discovered that it previously had a name. Free Bird. I’m assuming that this was Lynyrd Skynyrd related, and that it’s a legacy of the van’s past life in the US.

There’s a trace of old lettering, facing outward on the dash. It has a hand painted look about it, although it’s very faint; I only spotted it when the sun was on the windscreen.

Another new discovery is that the reversing lights don’t work. On searching online for possible causes, it seems that, while the lights appear to be there, they may never have been wired (apparently, they didn’t always come as standard).

It’s nice to have a new interest.

Diet Coke

I have to confess that I’d always doubted the magical cleaning powers of Coca Cola. However, after watching a YouTube video about rust removal from chrome, I felt compelled to try it. After all, we now have a vehicle with a moderate amount of corrosion.

And it does work. Dousing the area with Diet Coke and rubbing with aluminum foil really does work. While more work is needed, this wing mirror was previously almost completely covered with rust.

Home

We picked the van up this evening, so went for a drive. It rattles quite a bit, the engine’s noisy and smelly, and there’s the obvious rust. But it’s just great.

Naturally, we took the van to its first pub on the way home.

And now it’s home.