I did it. After years of wondering, thinking, planning and talking, I finally did it. I bought a van and let me tell you all about her.
She is a Mercedes Sprinter from 2012, with 180.000 km on the clock. She is originally from Germany where she lived the first many years of her life, before her owner drove her down here to Spain, where she has been driving wood around for a carpentry business.
The list price was 12.400€ including IVA (spanish tax) and transfer of ownership. Our mechanic Mark, haggled the seller down to 11.800€, all included, so I think I made a pretty good deal. She’s is great mechanical condition and the interior of the cab is also really well maintained.
Since getting her home, I have been hard at work getting her ready for the conversation. Since she has been driving many of her kilometers in Germany, rust is a thing and we have been grinding, applying rust eater and priming her. The entire floor, most of the wheel-wells, the walls and roof have been checked and treated. The plastic panels on the outside, have all been removed so I could treat the holes where they attach. Back on and Sikaflex’ed the hell out of the attachments on the inside, making sure water never enters there again. Any vanlifer who owns a Sprinter; What the hell was Mercedes thinking here? 20+ holes directly through the walls on either side. Anyway, nothing will ever come through there again.
Cinematic! 
Even the inside looks quite nice. 
The van when we bought it. 
Sikaflex 221; Many vanlifers preferred sealant & adhesive. 
Rust treating all the holes left by the sidepanels. 
Just taken the floor off. Rust and dirt a plenty! 
Great condition!
Right now, I only have a few tiny areas to prime and then it’s on to fixing two holes in the floor left by a few of the stock floor attachement screws that I had to cut, as they had seized completely. I will be covering those with an epoxy resin and then painting over that. Once this is all done, I am ready for the weekend where I plan on building our floor, and noise dampen the walls and roof with Noico.
So I will be seeing you after the weekend, or during if you fancy following along on our Social Media! 👋
And if you haven’t already, you can meet me here in my first ever blog post.