Convert minibus to catering wagon

Can anyone help?


I am looking for someone to help us convert a minibus into a catering van. There are loads of people who do this on Ebay UK (and French artisans on LeBonCoin) but would love to give the job to a fellow "survivor" who can do this kind of work.


For an idea of what is needed - remove a window and make an opening hatch, instal non slip floors, clad the walls with stainless steel and wipe clean walls, erect a partition between the front seats and the back. Fit stainless steel worktops and a sink.


We will also need a gas man to install the pipework for our LPG appliances but that can be done as a separate job. We are in the 24 but are happy to travel some distance.


email: famillecalvert@gmail.com if you can help or if you know someone



Many thanks



Hi Peter

Hadn't thought of Colin. Is it something he could do?

Regarding the pasties. I am trying to squeeze in a workplace so that I can make and sell them as part of the chippy.

Hi Gerald,

I wish I could but I can't find what I want. My option are then is to buy something that might do and then change it. The problem is that an already converted vehicle commands a much higher price and would still require work. Undoing someone else's conversion and then remaking it to suit will still cost and and can be much more difficult. In the long run it makes more sense to me to start with a clean slate and end up with something that will be designed for exactly what I have in mind...

Hi Karen,

Miss your Cornish Pasties!

Have you thought of Colin Appleby?
He's available.

Just as an afterthought, why on earth do you not buy what you want in the first place, rather than buy something that does not fit the bill and then go to the expense and aggravation of converting it. The bureaucrats will lead you a dance, and if you can avoid having anything to do with the DREAL you will save yourself money and sanity. This is a very British thing, buying something and then converting it. Far better to buy what you want in the first place. Totally homologue and no aggravation. It might cost a tad more but you will live longer...

Don't even think of converting a UK vehicle. With a French vehicle changing the bodywork should not be too much of a problem, which is what your project amounts to - change of bodywork.

Hi John

Hoping to buy a French minibus thus avoiding such problems.... We will have to take it to DREAL (I think that's the name now - used to be DRIRE) to have it declassified but am hoping this will not be too problematic....

We were looking at a UK vehicle but have dismissed it as completely impossible!!

Thanks

Hmm, will you be able to use it afterwards, I ask because the CoC will say minbus so will you need to get some kind of re test carried out? BIL in the UK had an extra seat added, that meant single passenger seat out and bench seat in. That was a matter of a genuine Merc seat and a few extra bolts, holes already being there. Way too much technology for french civil servants when he tried to register it in france, who constantly rejected his application as it didn't leave the factory like that so the CoC said single seat.