WORK BEGINS

Debby on her first day at the workshop

Despite looking quite shiny on the outside (thanks to a paint job by her previous owner) little Debby has her fair share of problems. First and foremost, she hasn't been on the road since 2010.

The beauty of Martin Walter Dormobiles is that the body, a fibreglass shell, is not quite as susceptible to to the usual problems faced by unloved classic vehicles, namely rust. This does not extend to mould, however, which will become clear later on.

An internet purchase, we made the trip to inspect Debby before deciding she was the 'one'. Her rusty, decomposing front wheel arches betrayed her lovely paint job but we decided, with a wooden floor and a solid-looking chassis, she was viable at the right price.

As we have come to understand through internet research and word of mouth, there are many other Bedford Dormobiles in much sorrier states rotting their little lives away in wet fields across the country. This is our retort when others cannot understand why we would want to customise our little beauty into a tea enterprise; if we don't restore her then there are very few people who will.

And so began the task of stripping, cleaning and strengthening our Martin Walter conversion....

Immediately we realised there would be slow progress under the bonnet; while we knew the front-end rust was not limited to the floor, it was worse than we thought and some dodgy modifications (of which there are a number throughout the beast) meant the angle grinder soon became Phil's best friend.

The sorry state of the front-end

Angle grinder love

Debby's face/off

Beyond the mechanics, one of the challenges we have is that this Debonair does not have a peaked roof. This means that while Lou, at 5"6, can easily stand up, we would be required to discriminate against anyone taller if they wanted to help us out. Namely, Phil. 

Previous headline in tact

While we already had designs to lower the floor of the van, we decided to gauge if we could get more space from the existing headline, which amounted to ripping it and its friend, the polystyrene insulation, out. In doing so we discovered all manner of holes and weaknesses giving rise to water ingress. This also meant whole new levels of mouldy fibreglass, which had already been discovered in the walls.

It was becoming increasingly clear the entire interior of the fibreglass body needed a serious date with bleach before we could even think of keying it for strengthening. Cue Lou finishing several days of work on the van smelling like a swimming pool.

Before & After:
The top right hand corner vs the rest after its first treatment

Progress:
Left vs. right

We soon realised that we were going to know every inch of this vehicle before she was anywhere near up and running.