Category: Conversion

Diary Of A Camper Conversion

Somewhere in my history I picked up some sprung loaded cabinet hinges so today I tried to fix them to the over cab locker door. With the thickening panels glue having dried overnight I marked them up and screwed the hinges into place before using some quick clamps to hold the whole thing up while I attach them to the van. 

Diary Of A Camper Conversion

Today was a fiddly day. I’ve got to get the last couple of wall panels on so that I can start carpeting. 

Diary Of A Camper Conversion

Well I didn’t fully think through what I was doing, and now I have a difficult challenge. In my haste to get things ready enough for camping I pressed ahead and built the fridge cabinet before getting the windows fitted. Because the windows weren’t fitted, this meant I couldn’t finish the insulation and wall paneling. And so now I have to try and fit the wall paneling on the sliding door with only a fist width space.

Diary Of A Camper Conversion

“they’ll let any old riff raff in here these days…” someone overly casually called across the carpark. Jord rounded the corner of a pallet of wood at the merchants. What are the chances!

I’d just dropped a few bits off at a powder coaters in Stoke and then popped across to Newcastle to pick up (hopefully) the last few sheets of ply. I only come to Howarths Timber because Jord recommended it. We had a bit of a catch up and I showed him progress on the van. He only saw it as an insulated shell and now it’s got cabinets and a bed!

Diary Of A Camper Conversion

Finally I can finish off the insulation and seal up the last of the vapour barrier. I’ve been waiting till the windows are installed so these bits can be finished off.

Diary Of A Camper Conversion

Now to tackle the bottom half of the doors. Here I’m going to make some open shelf storage for things like extension leads, shoes, tools, bungee straps, frisbee, fire pit, and all those other bits that are useful in a van.

Diary Of A Camper Conversion

I’m a sweaty, stinky man this evening. Its not been a hard days work sweat as nothing was very heavy or laborious. And its not even a hot day sweat, as its only got up to about 25 deg and there has been a lovely breeze all day. No, its been a day of stressful sweat.

Diary Of A Camper Conversion

Some more carpet has arrived so this afternoon I wanted to tackle a small but rewarding job.

Diary Of A Camper Conversion

I had hoped to use some some angle brackets for the lip of the bed where it rests on the opposite counter, but after testing them they were not strong enough. So I gave a steel stock holder a call and they had six meters of 30x30x3mm RSA for £17 which is a bargain. They even cut it to 1.9 meters for me. Not sure what I’m going to do with the remaining 4.1 meters.

Diary Of A Camper Conversion

Well… I spent the whole morning going door to door, picking up screws, timber, plywood and gas bottles ( with a sneaky set of new t-shirts in there too )