Pimping up the van

Now that Trevor was in running order, something had to be done about the dire state of him - all the welding had made him look like a patched up tin can, so drastic measures were in order.


I'd initially thought we'd get someone to do a full respray of the van in a vibrant colour, but as usual the Husband had a "better way" - that was also, naturally, cheaper...He suggested we paint it by hand (Rustoleum Combicolour) using small rollers. Hmmm. I was convinced...that it would look shocking...but at the back of my mind was the option that we could just get it sprayed afterwards if it looked rubbish.

So what colour?  Or as our thoughts evolved, what design? We wanted something cool and different, so opened it up to friends and family to gather their thoughts. A competition was launched:

 The winners were set to get tea and cake in the new improved van (ummm...we haven't actually done this yet...) and we chose two designs, which meant each side of the van was going to look slightly different. On one side it would be an English countryside scene and on the other, a beach landscape.  We tweaked the designs a wee bit so they would link better, and got to work....

We started by masking off large areas of the van which were going to be in a single colour, so we could roller on the paint and get the backgrounds sorted:

the sky's forming...

bit of the beach

base colours for the countryside done

 We linked the two sides by sort of creating a 'seaside bay' at the back doors, so it was a cohesive design:

you can see the sea now!

Masking tape was our best friend and we went through reams of the stuff, using it to block off areas done and to shape the next bits. Husband did really well at managing to create a deckchair using the masking tape:

The last bits to do were putting the hills on the country scene, and adding the fun bits - flowers, a snail, a flock of sheep, a sandcastle and bucket and spade. Lots of these bits we did with stencils, or just by hand. Because we wanted to get the van completed by our wedding day (cos it was our honeymoon vehicle) we often ended up getting up at 5am to do a coat of paint before work! This also meant by evening the paint would have dried, so we could do the next layer:

nice morning for painting!

So, after months of rollering, sticking tape and hand painting, Trevor was looking absolutely ace- and extremely distinctive!

the beach scene

The country scene, and me waving as we drove off from our wedding day!

We've now decided that each year we'll add another 'element' to either scene, so this year's addition is a beach ball. I'm keen on a tractor or a hot air balloon. Have you got any ideas of what we should do next?