Hi Renier - glad you're enjoying it! Progress - yes.
Fitted various electrical stuff - a Smartgauge to monitor the batteries, which seems to work really well (seems like there's some 'controversy' around them); wired in a decent (pure sine) inverter; a mains hookup with RCD; new hifi & speakers; and am currently installing EGT and boost gauges, and a tacho.
The head gasket went so I've had the head off and replaced with a fully overhauled Turner head, new exhaust, and various gaskets and seals, and have a set of new silicone pipes and alloy hoses to fit on the air intake/intercooler, as the current ones are the old & worn tatty things which I've had for over 15 years and are well past their sell-by date.
My back door skin was dissolving so I stuck a new one on last week. Thats the third one, they last 12 years! Needed decent security locks for the front doorsso found neat deadbolts with a mechanism that will fit well back inside the van side/door, away from water, salt and mank - I've had another type on for the last 15 years and had to replace them three times as they wear out, so hopeful these ones will be more weather-resistent.
My fuel pump was leaking badly so I bought a s/h one and had it fully overhauled by the local Bosch agent. When fitted it ran like a dog and the shop owner was perplexed but turned the fuel up which helped a bit, still not brilliant so I got a hold of the Bosch service manual and genned up on pumps and took the top off and found that the boost pin was jammed solid, held in by the fuel pin that runs up against it (the pin responding to throttle action). Pump guys got it back and had to weld a rod onto it to get it out. This was a first for them in over 30 years of pump servicing. Anyway they put new parts in it and when I picked it up they were still not happy with it, and as I drove it home the idle speed whacked itself up a good bit all by itself while I sat at the lights. It runs a bit better after this little hiccup but I still need the pump tweaked a bit to increase boost and fueling.
The hard sides are on hold while all the rest of this is going on, and the workshop where I've been allowed to work on the sides has been fully used for a van build anyway so it was a no-go there for a few months.
My rear awning got overtaken - I realized that a commercially available tent porch off ebay would be a possible fit and more elegant than the home-made one I was aiming for constructing, as well as being cheaper. It'll be here in a few days so I'll report on that when I've tried it.
Minor annoyances revealing themselves - the combination of etch primer and cellulose paint I used is proving a bugger to stick sealant to. I've sealed various bits using Sikaflex and it just hates the paint, eats through it and falls off leaving bare alloy! So I've had to scrape some of it off and redo it, that was started but is on hold for now as the weather has been rubbish with too much damp.
So yes progress, slow but sure!