Remember! We're in the Tropics!!!

You see all those nice Camper vans in U.S.A & Europe? Remember, they have very cold weather sometimes and need to do many things inside the vehicle like Cook, Wash & Dine.
Here in Malaysia the weather is mostly HOT! Use your Van for sleeping and Storage of your gear (Plastic Boxes work well). Take it all outside! Get a Tarp or a 10'x10' (or x15') fold out Canopy (Pasar Malam Type), My Bed platform converts to a Table (Banquet table legs) out doors or just get a banquet table at Tesco. Buy a Toilet Tent & a Porta Pottie. The little Butane gas Burners ( Not the tiny backpacker one, home one with cartridge.) are cheap and work fine, Poly carbonate water Jug for drinking water other jugs for wash up water. These local camper mods just clutter up the van, block windows, loose lots of space and cost allot. Cooking in the Van smells up the whole place (oil residue, maybe curry/salted fish?) and can be dangerous!
If you want to put back seats or haul gear or anything it's still possible. Don't forget JPJ & Puspacom can make your life miserable with any mods. Maybe a platform for a bed that converts into a table is good as you can also hide gear underneath out of sight. Keep it simple, see how your uses turn out ( I use more for Picnic/Day Trips than actual camping these days.) and go from there for any mods. My van becomes my Living Room & Bedroom while the outdoors is my Kitchen, Dinning, wash up and toilet.

My Vans over the years

!982 VW Transporter. Mine was red color.

Bought this Customized Ford Van new in 1989 in Ft Wayne Indiana. Drove it back to Maryland and used it for about 2 months. At the time I was planning to move back to U.S. Also bought a 2nd hand Caravan (Slept 6) to pull behind it. Plans changed, my Brother took over the Van and my Sister took the Caravan up to Maine to become a seaside play house for her Daughter! 

As you can see, the Foton is much larger than the Toyota. Much higher Ground clearance as well.

Stand up headroom and better driver visibility. 

Van complete and on the road!

It took about 2 months in all to do all the Body work, Painting and Interior work. Happy with the results. Many small details to do but they will happen when they happen. Only major job left is a complete new Aircon system, front & rear blowers. As it is a very large expense it will also be done when it can be done or not at all. No Aircon, still can jalan jalan. Please have a look at the restorantion of this old workhorse of 27 years and remember the begining starts at the bottom of the Blog.
Here's a condensed video of the rebuild over the last 3 months:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd4pGE6ZvAo
 I have started a new page to document our travels with our reborn "Dragon Wagon".
http://mycampervanmelaka.blogspot.com/p/camper-van-melaka-adventures.html
All this said and done, I have purchased a new "Foton View" 14 passenger Van. Click upper left of this page for more info.

Interior Work Begins

Next phase, Interior, a blank canvas. Wall Panels, Carpet, Cabinets (Mini Bar?), Headliner, Curtians, Stereo, Speakers, Aircon System, Insulation. Lighting, Bed/Cushions, Seats recoverd .

Interior progress! Rear cabs w/center piece for Table/Bed conversion. Stereo, Sub woofer power amp, (4) 3 way Speakers installed and (2) 10" Bass/Sub woofer Speakers installed, Insulation behind panels in the wall. Some wood panels will be stained with walnut color w/Polyurethane finish, others with brown carpet.

Rear Baffel boards Stained and Polyurethained, ready to mount back in van and......ROCK OUT! Carpet and Headliner work start on Monday. Right now like ridin in an empty metal barrel! 

Bought this shoe cabinet (Kit form), do some mods on it. Countertop with raised edge around it, stronger plywood back that can be secured to the van. Removable when seats or cargo space is required.The color even matches my stain!

Instant Mini Bar!!!

Finished the center panel that converts 2 cabs to a bed. Also doubles as a dining table outside the van. Tomarow van goes for final interior work for a couple of days and then.....Road Trip!

Last minute change on the headliner! Tiger skin! My Granson inspecting the workmanship.

Van's interior almost finished! Seats are being recoverd and modified a bit and should be ready by tomarow.

Basicly finished now, 3 seats with seat belts to be installed. Then all the small details - Curtains, Lighting and touchup.

 

Main Body Work

1st week of body work underway, finding all the rust (mainly along the roof) cutting it out and replacing with new sheet metal. Drivers floor has been replaced and primed with anti rust. All unnecessary wiring will be removed. Too much cut and snip over the years with Stereos & Alarms. I will use phosphoric acid based anti rust treatment (unheard of around here) to neutralize new metal before primer / paint / undercoating. The body man tells me the last body shop just welded plates over the rust and did'nt cut it out. That was about 12-13 years ago.

Here's a video after 2 weeks of body work

All the rust has now been removed and all the new metal has been treated with Loctite Extend Rust Treatment.

This chemical neutralises all rust and seals the metal to prevent rust. No Body man or car paint supply store had even heard of this here. Should help keep rust from coming back. Had to order from Johore Baru and came in one day by courier. Body work done, goes to paint shop on Monday!

As the paint shop is not able to start on the van for one week, I will have a welder put in the steel angle iron frame for the back storage/bench seats that with a board/table in the middle they will convert to a bed. These will be covered with plywood or MDF board and carpeted afterwards. Here's the plan.

Below is the finished job, done in about 2 hours! Welded in and solid.

Now the van is at the paint shop. Paint work will start 1st April and will take about 3 weeks.

Preped for primer

Primed and ready for Paint!

We have color!

Outside Finished!

On the road again!

My Motivator!

 A very special thanks to TJ Chang and his site "A Malaysian Campervan Journey"! Malaysia, with all it's wonders around, has got nothing on camping/campgrounds and how to organize your road trips. Very sad.
Google earth has helped me find those lakes & Rivers and ways to acess them. Mr. Chang has done more for the Campervans / motorhomes in Malaysia then anyone else. He has sourced much information and documented his trips. His site got me re-interested in the use of my van.
http://malaysia-campervan.blogspot.com/
I will also do my best to contribute to this micro-used mode of seeing Malaysia.
Road Trip!

My Hiace Van New in 1985

My new Toyota Hiace Van back in 1985. Did it up and took it straight out for a trip all around Malaysia for 10 days. Pahang, Trengannu, Perak, Kedah, Perlis, Penang and back to Kuala Lumpur. My 2 kids there are now 28 & 30 years old, one married with 2 children (grand kids!) Wow! I was alot slimmer/younger then too! Used it for many fishing trips & picnic/outings around Malaysia.
This van must have around 250,000 K's on it now. Engine, steering, brakes, radiator, suspension have all be rebuilt. Now to do: bodywork, cabinets, console box, Benches/bed, seats, paint, carpet, curtians, complete new front and rear aircon system, sound system, 220 volt hookups, roof rack/ladder with fiberglass box. Maybe a watertank w/electric pump underneith (for outside use/showers). I had it undercoated when I bought it and may have saved alot of rust problems.