Diary Of A Camper Conversion
Busy day today, tackling 3 jobs.
Firstly I tried to finish off as much as possible the worktop. I had previously reinforced the cabinet that will support the join. Now I just had to cut to length the last part of the kitchen worktop and then fit it to the window reveal. This was all pretty simple and straightforwards, but it chewed through my skill saw battery because it’s very thick and dense plywood.
I am leaving it slightly over long at the join end to be trimmed later. I plan to use worktop joining bolts, but they require a special routing jig I don’t have. Hopefully my tradesman pals will help me out with this later.
There was an annoying small piece under the electrical tower that was separate to the main worktop run. Try as hard as I might I could not cut it accurately enough to minimize the joint to my satisfaction. So while I had everything set up cutting worktops I replaced the whole thing. Now it’s done I’m so much more happy because the result is very neat.
Next was up another major mechanical part, the draw slide for the battery system. This design was annoyingly influenced by a chain of other parts.
To get the draw to extend far enough out the back of the van I had to use over long draw slides. These had to pass through one of the cabinet panels into the next compartment. The next compartment is meant to house the gas locker and so I had to bring this up to the van to check it would still fit. Of course, because this positioning was now influenced by the draw slides I had to check that where the gas locker dropout vent would pass through the floor of the van, it would not interfere with a structural member nor where I plan to mount the water tank.
I spent a long time with several long bits of wood trying to measure inside the van and then transpose this to under the van. It’s not 100% accurate but I am reasonably confident that the gas locker vent will drop out just next to the brake lines and a van structural member. Being relatively confident that I could fit the gas locker I committed to building the frame and installing the draw slides.
I then built a platform much like the fridge drawer using some substantial plywood and chunky battons. When it was all screwed together I did a test fit of the battery on the draw and they took the weight nicely. However I did notice that the battery leans backwards a little onto its wheels meaning it does not sit square in the cabinet, and being on wheels it may move around in transit.
I added a short piece of wood and a backing plate so that when the battery has lifted onto the draw it locates in a specific position and cannot move any further past a certain point. This means it will always be perfectly positioned on the draw. To finish it off I cut a pull handle into the base.
Lastly I nearly finished one of the rear door storage shelves. Sitting as a part finished job for about a month now. I managed to find enough off-cut panels of 12 mil ply to finish all but one length on the left-hand door. It’s a pretty simple and ugly construction right now, but it will look great when it’s covered in carpet. Not just to deaden the noise of things rattling, but also to cover all my shoddy craftsmanship.
