Mercedes Vario 814 Build - Our New Fulltime Home (6 Viewers)

OP
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Wissel
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The more I think about it, I like the RAF Blue Grey.

It's an easy to get colour that is timeless (and surprisingly good value compared to most 2k paint). It will be easy to apply and blend - as I'll be painting each coat over a few days so I can do it in our unit, this is a big thing (unit isn't big enough to hit it in one go). It will be easy to repair. It really suits the vehicle IMO.

Here's another pic:
Vario RAF Blue Side.jpeg


It takes a bit of imagination to see how ours would be in this colour as there's a lot not finished in this image. For a start, I like to use a matt black on accessories like wheels, bumpers, grill etc. This is the paint I like for these things on our current wheels, which are still as perfect today as when I painted them a few years back:
IMG_20200626_133640.jpg


Also the wheel arch flares are missing in the image. These would be black as well, and ours doesn't have the side bars, which are ugly IMO.

I'm still going to do a test with the red and the blue. May as well as I've ordered testers of each. But if it were just my decision, the van would be this blue.

It isn't just my decision of course, so I'll have to see what Claira thinks when the samples are painted 🤞

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WESTY66

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All the gear, and no idea!
Sorry but to me it looks like it is in primer waiting for paint.
I can remember sitting in the pit canteen in 1985 and my mate kev finally turns up in his mark 2 escort proudly boasting that he’d just resprayed it (it was a similar colour to the grey/blue) so I looked out the window into the carpark, oh I said, “when’s the top coat going on?” He wasn’t best pleased let me tell you!!

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Oct 29, 2016
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Good Choice Wissel RAF Blue is def the colour IMHO.
Imagine finishing it off with a couple of round RAF Insignias, maybe even The Battle of Britain, Lanc, Spit & Hurricane along each side, sat with a glass or few on a stellplatz somewhere along The Mosel, or Rhine.:LOL:;):cool:

LES(y)
 
Oct 29, 2016
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Love it Otter Spotter, clean modern design with clever space saving ideas, the compromise for me would be the pop top bed though.
Bet it aint cheap either, but for a young adventurous couple this could be very attractive.
Get up them stairs girl!:giggle:
LES

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Oct 29, 2016
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Zee Germans will love it, especially with the toad on the back.:giggle:
LES
 
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Here we go David, the colour is right for your van and some great ideas inside



Enjoy

Some interesting idea's but as usual with this idealistic stuff, is it practical? Its obviously aimed at "adventurous young proffesionals" but where does their gear go? Is there a towbar so they can put their bikes/surfboard/Skis/walking boots! In the trailer? Will the towball make a dent in thedrop down flap. Where do clothes go especially skiing gear? Did anyone see a fridge?

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OP
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Wissel
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Some interesting idea's but as usual with this idealistic stuff, is it practical? Its obviously aimed at "adventurous young proffesionals" but where does their gear go? Is there a towbar so they can put their bikes/surfboard/Skis/walking boots! In the trailer? Will the towball make a dent in thedrop down flap. Where do clothes go especially skiing gear? Did anyone see a fridge?
For me the most impressive thing was the heat reflecting paint. I did a search on this a few hours ago, as I'd have liked something similar, but it doesn't really seem available yet. I think this is the future though as it would lower the dependence on AirCon in a vehicle - massive bonus in EV's.

I quite liked the pull-down desk.

The shower was just daft. Good idea, awful solution IMO.
 
Oct 9, 2019
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Good Choice Wissel RAF Blue is def the colour IMHO.
Imagine finishing it off with a couple of round RAF Insignias, maybe even The Battle of Britain, Lanc, Spit & Hurricane along each side, sat with a glass or few on a stellplatz somewhere along The Mosel, or Rhine.:LOL:;):cool:

LES(y)
Been done before see ‘Tonks‘ van it’s a stunner.

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Oct 11, 2019
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I really like two tone. Perhaps red at the bottoms and white roof and sides?

You'll get that red you like and most of the heat reflection of white too.
 

Soots

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Thanks for posting this (y)

I'm definitely painting our van myself, but I was wondering how Rich was getting on a few nights ago. I had no idea he now had his own premises and I quite enjoyed floating around his site for a while.

The Nato Green comment a few pages back by Floydster was a reference to them/him - I did threaten Claira with this and got a stern no :LOL:

PS - I like RAF Blue as well. Claira doesn't :LOL:
Hi Wissel, how about RAF blue one side and Claira choose the other side? Good luck🤣

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Soots

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Good Choice Wissel RAF Blue is def the colour IMHO.
Imagine finishing it off with a couple of round RAF Insignias, maybe even The Battle of Britain, Lanc, Spit & Hurricane along each side, sat with a glass or few on a stellplatz somewhere along The Mosel, or Rhine.:LOL:;):cool:

LES(y)
And living in bomber County too!
 

Soots

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For me the most impressive thing was the heat reflecting paint. I did a search on this a few hours ago, as I'd have liked something similar, but it doesn't really seem available yet. I think this is the future though as it would lower the dependence on AirCon in a vehicle - massive bonus in EV's.

I quite liked the pull-down desk.

The shower was just daft. Good idea, awful solution IMO.
Hi again, do you know who was pioneering the heat reflective paint?
If so, maybe they would paint the van for you as a testing exercise for their paint.
Just an idea. Tell me where to get off if it's bad.:cool:

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Oct 9, 2019
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Hi again, do you know who was pioneering the heat reflective paint?
If so, maybe they would paint the van for you as a testing exercise for their paint.
Just an idea. Tell me where to get off if it's bad.:cool:
It’s BASF, not much of a market for reel to reel recording tape so now paint 🤪🤪
 

Lenny HB

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Dave Wissel you might be interested in this thread.
 

Northernraider

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David, this is the colour your van should be 😁😁


I had a 1976 vw t2 painted in candy apple red.


What i will say is it is not forgiving. It needs a very very straight body or it shows up every dent and blemish. Id never have a van painted in a metallic or pearl paint again .
 
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OP
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Wissel
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Look what's just arrived :giggle:

20220810_141508082_iOS.jpg


So, RAF Blue Grey finally got Claira's vote (y)

20220810_141514071_iOS.jpg


Gone for a very tough military paint with an anti-corrosive primer.

Went with this combo as it's supposed to be very forgiving to use. It can be applied with a brush or roller and should dry flat (bet it isn't that easy). I'm also assured that we can do one section at a time - take back to bare metal, apply primer - and then apply the top coats at a later date without any issue.

20220810_141521060_iOS.jpg


Went with a very tough satin black chassis paint to do all the rails etc before a floor goes in. Northernraider did a great job of restoring the chassis and red oxide'ing, so a pretty easy job for us. Also bought a small shot blasting machine to get all the running gear and wheels nice and rust free, before they get a protective coat as well. We have a few tarps that will be taped together to catch the blast media so we can re use it.

I've not noticed any weeps from anywhere, but wanted to seal over the joints in the new panels to be safe. The water leak paint can be applied after the primer and before the top coat. Inside, all joins will be Sika'd or similar.

I'll also fill as many of the dents as I can before top coat. Not going to be too precious about this though. It's a Vario after all ;)

Due to start this on Monday 22nd. Best bit - Claira's doing most of it (y)(y)(y)
(she's way better at painting than me)


Obviously I've been a little concerned about the colour in the summer. But have a solution.

Firstly, insulation. We can get 50mm PIR almost everywhere and the ribs will be spray foamed. Then our usual way of vapour barrier'ing.
Although this should do a pretty good job, I want better than good. So the second thing we are going to add is air-con.

The plan is to get a second hand Eurom AC 2401 over the winter (if anyone has one that's maybe damaged and wants to sell, please let me know), tear it apart, make it as quiet as possible, then build it in to the van body.

We will have one 460Ah LiFePO4 battery from the start, wired ready to add a second before next summer. These, along with 1kw of solar, will mean we can run air con without EHU. It would work with 1 x 460Ah and that much solar, but I'd like more overhead in case of a really hot night, followed by a few really overcast days.

There's still a few things I haven't decided on. Firstly, do I make the solar tilt?

I think with 1Kw tilted we would be solar sufficient all year. But, is it worth the bother of a stronger rack, an electric elevator and electronic locks? The extra structure would weigh around an extra 40kg and I still wouldn't be confident of having it up in stronger winds. The van will use around 2Kw of electric per day and I'm on a fixed tariff at the unit for the next 2 years, so the cost of charging the van in the winter is a maximum of 40p per day. I think I'm leaning towards no tilt.

There's a few other thigs as well, but quite trivial so I won't mention them.

Anyway, we're looking forward to finally making a start on this. Loads of the parts are here, although 3 of the windows don't arrive the UK until the end of October, so not going to be a quick build. But this will likely be our home for the next decade and all that matters is, when it's finished, it's as good as it can be.

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Dec 2, 2019
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I have 600w on roof tilting. At 6pm with boiler for hot water on I was getting over 400w from the roof panels.
I know it adds extra kg’s for the mechanism etc. but, I’m kicking I haven’t done it from the start when we built the van. I had to modify the fixed to tilting. Tilting will also make sense in winter when the sun is low. Flat is only good in summer and overcast. I realised how much the flat is loosing out, when we added 230w portable pointed to the sun. In afternoon and mornings the 230w portable was always overtaking the roof fixed 600w. If I was to build a van now, tilting rack would be a priority for self sufficiency, you will forget about lpg if you couple to a LFP bank.
 

Terry

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Hi David you can get Gloss paint rollers 👍😉

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