Post by pizzaofdreams on Jun 17, 2013 11:08:44 GMT
Well it has been a while since I last posted and talked about my plans to restore a citroen H Van and which ovens were suitable etc.
Much headscratching, tears, a lot of money and a little blood later and it is finally finished.
The original questions I had to overcome were the type of oven to use, the flue, extraction and space etc.
I decided to go down the route of two smaller ovens for several reasons.
Weight, space and resistance to damage in transit, not to mention aesthetics.
Having used a large Bernito oven in the horsebox I was concerned about the damage that constant bouncing around causes to the floor of the larger oven. I felt a more traditional construction technique was going to be too heavy and to get the cooking space I wanted meant a big oven which would mean taking up half the van with oven, leaving little room for all the prep and serving areas. In the end I decided to go down the route of two small 80cm ovens each weighing only about 40kg and Bernard reinforced the floor and coloured them cream for me. I worked with the restorer to design a sliding box mechanism to hold the ovens and when parked up the ovens slide out of the side of the van (not dissimilar to an American RV lounge which slides out. This gives a large working area at the rear of the van and more importantly keeps both ovens facing the customer so that the all important wood fires can be seen clearly.
The flues remove a fair bit of smoke but not enough to make it acceptable to work inside with so we designed an extraction unit at the rear of the sliding oven 'box' which whips away any escaping smoke. This is proving pretty effective and with a couple of small modifications it will be nigh on perfect.
Initial feedback is that customers love it and I am really glad that I went down this route though it wasn't for the faint hearted.
Advice for anyone considering anything similar in the future? Plan well ahead, leave about 3 months more leeway than you are told by suppliers, don't believe when you are told that the vehicle is sound with no rot! any 50 year old vehicle is going to have rot which you will find when it is shotblasted back to baremetal.
Much headscratching, tears, a lot of money and a little blood later and it is finally finished.
The original questions I had to overcome were the type of oven to use, the flue, extraction and space etc.
I decided to go down the route of two smaller ovens for several reasons.
Weight, space and resistance to damage in transit, not to mention aesthetics.
Having used a large Bernito oven in the horsebox I was concerned about the damage that constant bouncing around causes to the floor of the larger oven. I felt a more traditional construction technique was going to be too heavy and to get the cooking space I wanted meant a big oven which would mean taking up half the van with oven, leaving little room for all the prep and serving areas. In the end I decided to go down the route of two small 80cm ovens each weighing only about 40kg and Bernard reinforced the floor and coloured them cream for me. I worked with the restorer to design a sliding box mechanism to hold the ovens and when parked up the ovens slide out of the side of the van (not dissimilar to an American RV lounge which slides out. This gives a large working area at the rear of the van and more importantly keeps both ovens facing the customer so that the all important wood fires can be seen clearly.
The flues remove a fair bit of smoke but not enough to make it acceptable to work inside with so we designed an extraction unit at the rear of the sliding oven 'box' which whips away any escaping smoke. This is proving pretty effective and with a couple of small modifications it will be nigh on perfect.
Initial feedback is that customers love it and I am really glad that I went down this route though it wasn't for the faint hearted.
Advice for anyone considering anything similar in the future? Plan well ahead, leave about 3 months more leeway than you are told by suppliers, don't believe when you are told that the vehicle is sound with no rot! any 50 year old vehicle is going to have rot which you will find when it is shotblasted back to baremetal.
