As some of you may already be aware, I bought seats for the van. They're great seats, and I had every intention of using them in the layout I had in mind for the rear living space. However, as luck would have it, I found a double passenger seat for the front of the van that is out of another Iveco, the same as mine! I saw them pop up on my other favourite site, Gumtree (my favourite site obviously being this one!). I got in touch with the guy who had them, and set about for another road trip to Newtownards, again!

Saturday mornings it would seem, are slowly becoming 'Road Trip Time' but with one destination, Newtonbloodyards.

I have recently seen listed a mint caravan that I'd have loved to gone and bought, for carcass purposes. The problem being is, I've other things to pay off first *boo*. Such as the three European holidays we've taken this year for starters. Now we're kicking into the Christmas season, we have that to get out of way.

However, as with most things, the van build needs new tools, lots of them. Tools I've never needed for before, such as custom drill bits like these Zacro 3 pcs Titanium Step Drill Bit Set that comes with an automatic centre punch.

Step Drill BitsAvailable on Amazon Why do I need this? Well... I couldn't find a 19mm drill bit that would carve out the hole I need for my switches that are going to control the rear cameras. The little nubbin one didn't have the strength to withstand the 5Amp load going through, but to be fair, it was only rated at 3Amp, so that's my fail, not the switch, but damn it looked cool.

Thankfully, I bought a load of 3 Pin LED Rocker switches I'm going to have to use instead a few years ago, and they've been sitting in my electrical tool bag gathering dust for ages. So in a way, I've been sort of preparing for this build without realising it.

Now, as I'd bought new blanks for the van, and I've already set about tearing a hole in one of them, which is now useless, I needed more blanks. I have a search alert for scrap Iveco's on Gumtree and a new donor vehicle had come on the market, which meant last weekend was a side road trip to Mayobridge, in County Down, which was handy as I was down visiting family anyway.

The parts on my shopping list are currently:

• Circular Dashboard Blanks
• Instrument Panel Rectangle Blank (sits to the right of the steering wheel (RHD))
• Rear Door Restaining Hinge
• Side Door Original Interior Light

What I managed to get from the donor vehicle was 3 circular blanks and the rectangle, all for the princely sum of £5, considering I paid £10 for just the two circulars a few months ago, that's a win. Everything else in the van was long gone, but hey-ho, no big deal.

Mechanic's CreeperAvailable on Amazon The other 'tool' I needed was a Mechanic's Creeper so that I could slide under the van with ease and feel like a proper mechanic. There's a fair bit of wiring that I want to channel under the chassis, and this is the best way to get around. The build quality is fantastic, and I will probably keep it for other maintenance jobs, or sell it on, who knows? What I do know is, the first job it's going help me tackle is to replace the single passenger seat with the newly purchased double. This is obviously going to impede access to the front of the van from the rear (and vice versa), but I'd much prefer more seats up front, cause it's of little use at the moment with only two people capacity.

I'll do a video of me attempting this, and post it on my YouTube channel. There will probably be a lot of blood and cursing! Be warned.