Our Bob Is An Awesome Bob!

This afternoon I went out to have another go at starting Bob and after a few goes she did get going. The tickover was, however, lumpy and she is going to need some tuning to be right. I shall investigate the best way of this happening during the week and report back! Exciting eh?

In fact this afternoon Bob won’t even turn over. The ignition and oil lights come on and then there’s nothing. The little tricks that have made her start before didn’t work either, so in the end we went out in the Picasso.

I’m disappointed and unhappy that we’re still having such problems.

A watched drive takes an eternity to fill, but just before midday Adam from The Old Volks Home arrived with Bob after giving her a final fettle earlier in the week.

We immediately took her out for a drive to find, thankfully, that she’s in a much better way than at the weekend. Helen also discovered that the CD I’d prepared especially for the occasion only had ‘Where Are You?’ – the theme from ‘Moonraker’ – on it! On our return home we showed the inside a cleaning cloth (Helen) and stuck the tax disc in and took photos (Me).

Here we go with the first proper pictures of the outside…

and of the inside (and engine)…

Once I’d worked out what all the keys do (and discovered that there’s a knack to unlocking the front passenger door that only Helen has) we had the two hour wait until the end of school.

Alfie knew nothing of Bob and as far as he was concerned we were going to go and pick him up so we could do some Christmas shopping at Freeport, a prospect that he was not at all excited about. We’d had to stop whilst getting petrol and ask one of his teachers to keep the secret as he’d seen us, and we’d also spoken to Pete around the corner to make sure he didn’t rumble us either.

The time came and we went to pick-up Alfie from school. To add to his misery I announced that we would be going to Freeport in the Nissan! As we walked around the corner from school Alfie saw Bob and excitedly pointed her out to us “Look! An orange VW!”. We tried hard to keep straight faces. Walking along chatting about school we finally came to Bob and I took out the keys and unlocked her without saying anything. Alfie, who doesn’t like surprises, was suitably surprised and there was a lot of grinning going on. Then dawned the realisation that the camping trip to Italy was going to involve Bob, and that the roof was green! Even incredibly cool boys are impressed by such things. We went for a bit of a drive and then returned home and sat in it for a while discussing future camping trips and trying out the up-top bed for size. It’s more comfortable that a popped airbed apparently. Phew…

In the end Bob scored 9.9 out of 10! 0.1 was lost because the bed seemed a little unsafe. Even though it’s been found to be safe it’s staying at 9.9. Because it is…

She’s arriving tomorrow morning!!!

So, the weekend started with a bit of a lie in as we didn’t need to get to Bob until about lunchtime. The drive over was very exciting as we were soon to pick up our own VW Camper.

On arriving we went through all the details and checked over the things that had been due to be finished on her, and with much pleasure drove her over to my Dad’s where we were going to stay for the night.

I’d driven a few campers before but usually only test drives around the block or on a short bit of A-Road, so the 35 mile drive along motorway, dual-carriageway and through towns was something the driver in me was really looking forward to. First impressions of Bob was that she drove very nicely. The gearbox isn’t as vague as some I’ve driven (although it’s still very VW Camper obviously) and I was able to relax and cruise along at 55-60mph easily. I was caught out a few times though by what I thought was me being in the wrong gear (I’m glad the Mitsubishi on the roadabout had good brakes – I accelerated and nothing happened!) but ended up not being me. I also found the steering to be a little heavy at times, but found that if I breathed in it became suddenly much lighter – another reason I could maybe do with loosing a few inches from my waist!

On this first drive we also experienced the VW-effect for the first time as groups of children on the pavement stopped and pointed and grown men walked along discussing us.

At Dad’s we looked her over and he took it out for a test-drive. Being a mechanic he was far more able than I to give it the once over, and although VW Campers are very much not his vehicle of choice he knows a fair bit about them. As my cousin Simon (also a mechanic) has a ramp in a workshop nearby we decided to take it over and have a look underneath. Also joining us was Simon’s friend Mark, who has restored and repaired a number of VW Campers over the years. We all looked over Bob and decided that she was a fine example of the breed but she needed a bit of finishing off to make her right, and so when we got back to Dad’s I called the garage and went through what we felt needed sorting.

The garage were great, and were almost as disappointed as we were. So we agreed that Bob would go back to the garage on the Sunday, be sorted out Monday & Tuesday and then be returned to us Thursday.

Sunday morning we had a late start and at around eleven went to set-off for home via my Nan’s to show off Bob, the garage to drop Bob off and my Mum’s to say hello. Bob wouldn’t start. Dad fiddled around a bit with the engine cleaning out the distributor and making sure the leads were on properly and eventually she started. We set off for Nan’s and when we got there the VW-effect kicked in again. On the way a T5 VW flashed and waved and when we’d arrived a group of boys from up the road came over and with big grins started taking pictures of Bob on their ‘phone. We were told this would happen but…!

From Nan’s it started second flick and we had been driving for all of 5 minutes when the engine died whilst I was about to change from third to fourth. We tried to get her going but with no success. So we called the RAC and waited for a bit in the Picasso before heading back to Nan’s where it was warmer and equipped with facilities.

It was during this time that we pondered whether the VW Camper had come about because of its legendary reliability. Presumably there were lots of people breaking down in them and thinking “If only we could make a cup of tea of have a sleep whilst we’re sat here waiting for the breakdown van.” and so decided to put a cooker and some beds in the back. I know I’m being a bit harsh, but I wonder how much so! Time will tell.

When the RAC man arrived he got in and she started first time. It must be the orange jacket… He played with the engine a bit and found that by adjusting the timing a little he was able to stop it from being so lumpy at lower revs and when idling.

After a time making sure the engine was running well, an explanation of how the automatic choke worked and a comparison of our vans’ shades of orange we were on our way again with the RAC man following to make sure the engine didn’t die again. Mum was called to say that we’d have to give her a miss because it was getting late.

The drive to the garage was great. Despite being wary of further problems the way of driving is wonderful. There’s none of the urge to rush and overtake that there is in the Smart Roadster or MX-5. Roundabouts and junctions are places you wait until the absolutely right moment rather than seeing an opportunity and going for it. It’s all so sedate wafting along in Bob. Despite the inevitable crosswind wobble and my nervousness about driving her in the dark and rain for the first time it was just so relaxing…

We dropped her off at the garage and said farewell until later in the week. It was an odd weekend. In some ways it was a waste, but it did give us our first taste of Bob, and she’s very much under our skin now…

We’re all set to go, and in about an hour will be leaving to pick up Bob.

Excited? Yes. Nervous? Yes.

Excellent!

I have resolved the thoughts in my head.

It’s OK on the front.

I want it on the front.

Tomorrow!

The spare wheel decision is causing me mild anxiety.

It won’t fit inside so we decided to put it on the nose despite it not looking as good and the front panel (which is new incidentally) never really being designed strongly enough for the job.

And I was fine with it.

But no one has said they think it’s a good idea. No one. Of the 10+ people I’ve mentioned the spare wheel decision to no one has agreed.

Now I’m a man of my own mind and I know why the decision was made, but in the face of such overwhelming negativity I’m starting to regret the decision.

Oh dear…

The insurance is sorted (an excellent deal from Just Kampers), and the wheel cover came yesterday too…

so now it’s just waiting until Saturday. Alfie thought the week was going quickly yesterday, but I know what’s happening at the weekend so for me it’s dragging and dragging and…

On a weekend of much driving we finally got to see Bob in the metal. It was with a mixture of excitement and relief that we found him to be as good as had been described. There’s still a bit of work to be done on him before collection this Saturday but the money has been transfered and the insurance sorted.

All very exciting, and still he doesn’t know!

A new shot showing the green roof extended.