Blog

2017 Stock Take. Sigh.

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Its April, that means another Brickwerks Birthday (12yrs old now… soon be a teenager!).
It also means the annual stock take will take place this coming week.
So, after around 3pm on TUESDAY APRIL 4th no orders will be shipped until Friday 7th April.

The webshop will still operate and take orders all through stock take – its our hardest working employee 😀 however no stock will be moved in our out until we’ve done counting. Everything!
We won’t be making any counter sales or picking any orders for collection after 3PM Tuesday either, so please bear that in mind if you’re local.

There are 5 of us now so whilst we have a load more stock to count and a whole extra building to deal with we aim to have it completed by close of play on Thursday.

It’s only once a year (thank god), and we’d rather not do it if we’re honest, but it sets any stock discrepancies right (which is a good thing!) and gives us a year end stock value for the accounts and insurance, so it’s necessary.
We also nearly always find cool stuff that we’ve forgotten about, so that’s another bonus.

Random picture of the new Panel Store…

Sales to the US and Canada – *Updated MAR ’17*

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Shortly after we opened the workshop doors in April 2005 we started selling parts, quite by accident really but selling parts none the less.

Once our insurance company got wind of it we were immediately made to write a letter and sign a piece of paper promising not to sell directly to the highly litigious societies of USA and Canada.

In honesty, we’ve buckled under the pressure, we’re pretty bored of the pile of emails daily and we’ve stumped up to cover ourselves in insurance to sell parts to North America.

So, shipping rates are set, insurance set, fill your boots! (been doing so for a couple of weeks just to make sure everything worked)

Yes, it does mean you can now just buy a sticker!

Notes on postage.

  • Royal Mail is our Post Office, keep it under 2kg for sensible prices.
  • UPS, you must know that right?! (usual transit time is approx 2 days going by recent orders but obviously the more we send the more we’ll get a feel for it and advise accordingly.)

If it says it’s in stock, it’s in stock.

Orders as always are printed as soon as we recieve them, they go in the queue with the rest and are packed and shipped ASAP.

Christopher at T3 Technique will continue to sell our parts, we’re grateful for all his help over the years, he’ll still get preferential rates over retail prices so if you need something quick then Christopher is your man.

Please note we are a business that makes a living repairing rusty old vans and selling parts for them online, we are not in the business of tax evasion, we will under no circumstances devalue our shipments so you don’t have to pay import duty, sorry! Other unscrupulous companies may do this for you, we don’t so please don’t ask!!

Fuel Filler Kit – T3

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We’ve just created this kit of parts for the fuel filler area on a T3.
Generally these are the bits that need replacing whenever you go into this area to address a leak.

OEM, or best quality where OEM isn’t available, so thats a Genuine rubber, Blau cap (with 2 keys), stainless retaining ring and screws and the best plastic surrounds available.

around 10% cheaper than buying as separate items from our webshop, and probably a bit more than elsewhere (for equivalent quality 😉 )

Don’t go saying we don’t look after you 🙂

t3ff-kit

Webshop Link

Come on… give us a break!

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This is us calling “Last Orders” at the webshop… last-orders

Technically, its not “us” it’s just a photo we found on the internet that suited our needs… just pointing that out before you all rush down to meet our new member of staff!!
Usually at this time of year we have a spotless workshop, and the stores is swept and tidy. We generally have all the deliveries booked in, we’re watching the clock and shuffling delivery notes and flicking elastic bands at Angus.

Today, we’ve had almost as many orders to process as a busy day at the start of summer. Mike is complaining because he’s had to change the label roll in the UPS printer and we’ve got 2 big deliveries from earlier this week to book in!

We’re not complaining though! We like being busy… but it has to end somewhere.
So, we’re a couple of hours away from our 1pm cut off for orders to leave today.
After that we’ll be playing “catch up” with the deliveries and sorting things for our return in the New Year.

Oh… and just for the ladies…

special-brew-tramp

Merry Christmas 🙂

 

T3 and LT Interior Light LED replacement Units

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This is something we’ve been asked for a lot, but we’ve avoided as the stuff available isn’t exactly simple to install and involves dismantling the existing light units and modifying the units internals to run an LED tube.

These however are a simple replacement for the complete existing light unit as used in T3 and LT Westfalia models.
No parts of the original light unit are needed. You can wrap your original Westfalia parts up and keep them safe for refitting later or even sell ’em if you’re not bothered about keeping your original parts.

Our LED replacements are externally identical to the originals. Nice clean lenses, new switches. No re-using anything from your old light. It doesn’t get any simpler.

They give a crisp light… 4000k is the figure, but its described as “Natural White”
Being LED, current consumption is much lower than the old Fluorescent units too… an important consideration if you’re a solar powered off-grid living spoon whittler.

We were going to make a small fitting video, but to be honest its so simple a couple of photos will do it. Read on…

Firstly, remove the 2 black plastic caps that attach the light diffuser to the lighting unit
Firstly, remove the 2 black plastic caps that attach the light diffuser to the lighting unit. (Small Flat Bladed Screwdriver)
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Next, remove the 2 small screws that hold the light unit to the interior. (Small Phillips Screwdriver).

 

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On the sliding door side at least, you will be met with something like this. 2 Wires connecting to the main interior lighting loom. Disconnect the 2 wires from the original light. (Just pull them out of the plastic housing).

Now at this point you have a couple of options. You can crimp new spade connectors onto the wiring for the existing light, and plug it back in. You’ll see the connectors on the webshop as related items. This is the nicest, most factory way of doing it.
However… on the non sliding door side you will most likely find that the wiring connectors shown in the image aren’t accessible due to the shape of the shelf there.
So the other option would be to snip the existing wires, and join the new wires to the old – Black to Brown, Red to Blue. Ideally solder them, but we’ll leave that up to you.

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If you’re crimping new connectors on, you’ll end up with something like this. Plug it back in… test it… that’s it.
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That’s it. Refitting is reversal of removal as they say. All the fixings are exactly as original, and the light units are even supplied with new screws.
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There you go. Exactly as original (until you turn them on) and you still have the original light units complete to keep safe, or do whatever you like with. As original (unbutchered) units are quite sought after you may even get a good price for them if the insides havn’t been removed.

Light units available here on the webshop, in stock and ready to ship.
Wiring connectors show as related items. You’ll need 2 for each light unit if you are connecting using this method.

WEBSHOP LINK

 BRICKWERKS Christmas Message…

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…shorter and probably a bit more interesting than that one the Queen will be doing in a few days time…

Chrimbopressie
Just a quicky regarding Christmas and New Year shenanigans.
We’ll be closed from Midday on Friday the 23rd December, and we will return to work on Tuesday the 3rd January 2017.
All orders placed up until around 1PM on Thursday the 22nd December will be shipped that day, and should be delivered either next day or in the period between Christmas and New Year.
Remember, we don’t make the deliveries and as this time of year is extremely busy for the Post Office and UPS then if anything is urgent, don’t leave it until the last minute!
All the services we offer for shipping are “Next Day” which whilst at this time of year that might not actually mean next day it does mean that it’ll get to you as quickly as is humanly possible.

Any orders placed after the 22nd December will by picked, and packed on Tuesday the 3rd when we return to work.
Similarly, any emails won’t be replied to until we return on the 3rd.

What else… oh yeah, Christmas stuff. We know at this time of year you’re spending your brass on other stuff… and rightly so.
But, as its Christmas, you might like to drop some hints to family or friends about some interesting stuff we’ve added to our range lately…. stuff that you might actually like to receive instead of another bloomin’ Split Screen Camper mug 😀
Read on…

 
Another one for the chilly months… we’ve used these for a while as they’re compact and self contained which is ideal when you’re trying to cram all your stuff in a small campervan. You’ll be surprised how much heat they give off though, and the bonus is you can boil a kettle or even cook a pizza on them if you have a pizza stone. And we find that most campsites that allow off the ground BBQ’s are fine with them even if they don’t allow camp fires. Oh… and you’ll see we have an offer at the moment where you get the stove and the carry bag for the price of the stove alone! And as if that wasn’t enough, free shipping too 🙂  
Atiwe. You’ve heard of Atiwe right? Oh… well… Atiwe make and have made a range of accessories for years. Steering Wheels, Gearknobs, even one of the Factory Option T3 Alloy wheels was supplied by Atiwe. So, when they offered us these, we couldn’t say no! They’re not “cheap”, but they are one of the nicest knobs we’ve ever had the pleasure of handling… fnarr fnarr They’re anodised aluminium and leather and once you’ve touched one that standard plastic one will never satisfy you in the same way…  

 
Lastly… if you have someone in your family who likes colouring in, we were sent these A3 posters by Squidoodle which are great designs and will keep you entertained for hours. Have a look at his other stuff if this is your thing. You can hang em on the wall when theyre done. Again, not something that we’ve been known to sell in the past but if it helps Steve get his stuff out there, we’re happy to keep a few on the shelf.  

In other news…
Webshop update is still ongoing.
A couple of recent changes are to the general tidiness of your Account area. You can check the status of your order here, or track it once its shipped.
You can also access the new returns section here, so when you’ve bought something you don’t need you can get a returns number and that’ll help us refund it quicker when it comes back.

We’ve struggled a bit this year with getting all the new stuff on the webshop. Traditionally this time of year has been our quiet period and thats given us chance to get all the new products we have in the wings lined up and live on the shop… hasn’t happened this year though. We’re working through them slowly as and when we get a few minutes though, so keep checking the new products on the home page for new stuff, and have a look on Facebook or the Blog for the more interesting stuff. Oh, we post stuff on Instagram too from time to time… apparently 😀

Speaking of Facebook, we have a competition running here at the moment for people who have ordered from us in the last 12 months… so if you havn’t seen it you might want to check it out.
If you’ve already ordered you have nothing to lose by getting your name down 🙂 You might win one of the very limited VW Monopoly sets we recently sold out of in one day!

Thats it ’til next time… might be another month, or it might be another 11 years, we’ll see how we go.

Whatever you do over the festive period, have a good one and we’ll see you all again next year.

Simon, Michael, Angus, Mike, Debs, Uncle Pete and Stanley.
(I think thats all of us!)