Action time!

Danny and Clive’s T4 adventure moves on to bodywork and interior

On day three of filming our new resto series, Fixing Up, things got serious. Two episodes down, four more to go and Clive and I were beginning to feel it but, at last, we were getting down to the nitty gritty. The previous day, while we were getting oily and sorting the T4’s mechanicals, the cabinets and rock ’n’ roll bed that would make our van a nice place to live and sleep had been put together and painted. They were ready to fit – but we needed to sort the paint and rust first. Our T4 was bought with an aftermarket black nose panel fitted. Obviously at some point a ding had occurred and a replacement of the original panel was required. It lets the whole van down, so I set out with my premixed paint to sort it. Clive, in the meantime, cracked on cutting and patching the inner wing. With my panel done and Clive’s welding complete, we got into glamour mode with wire brushes and facemasks… two hours of intense scrubbing followed, by the end of which we both looked like miners. But at least the worst of the rust was cleared from the underside of our VW and that gave us the opportunity to get stuck in with Liqui Moly 7390 Rust converter, followed by 6047 primer filler along the seams. Finally, we finished o with a coat of 6104 wax rust protector. Day four dawned and we were ready with the cabinets and rock ’n’ roll bed. Our friend Nicky was with us to help with the heavy lifting because this wouldn’t be a simple case of putting cupboards in a van. No, – this was going to be a proper fa . It took a full day of measuring, cutting cajoling and nailing down but eventually it was done. Next up: electrics and accessories.