I’ve been focussed on finishing off as much of the van as possible recently. At the end of this week, I am off to Scotland for a tour with a mate, so it has to be at least useable.
The cabinet has a long space that will be perfect for a big drawer. There will be nothing that I can buy that will fit it efficiently so looks like I’m making it from scratch. Where possible, in the Van, i’m trying to keep the face of the wood fixing-less. I want as clean a finish as possible. Sometimes this is not possible which is fine but a nice flush fitting, uncluttered look is what I’m going for. To this end, the front face of the drawer is a good bit of plywood – probably thicker than it needs to be, so I can screw into it from behind. I am also using wood glue so the connections are secure. This has turned into a very strong drawer. It slides on some batons and when loaded is heavy enough that it won’t slide out by itself when going around corners – hopefully.
It fits the space well but because I built the drawer out of the van, and it’s 100% square edged, when placed in the van it highlights that the van and cabinet is not square…. At all. This isn’t really an issue, the van and my first attempt at a conversion was never going to be amazing. A small piece of wood to infill and it looks neat, if a little lopsided.
Next I tackled the space above the driver. Here I have made 3 little lockers. One of which contains the electrics and a large and small storage area. Previously I have covered all this in carpet and it looks really neat but unless I make doors, anything I put in there will come sliding out. I’ve only got a few hinges left so getting together the best of them and some MDF I’ve made some doors. They are a bit… rustic and look more like a year 9 students woodworking attempt than a professional camper conversion. This is fine for now. They stop stuff coming out. Eventually when I decorate the van I will cover these and they will look a lot better.
Lastly I have to connect up all my electrical bits. I ran the cables in conduit in the walls; under the carpet, behind the plywood and vapour barrier and in amongst the insulation, so let’s hope everything is connected as it should be! There are so many cables, it’s a complete brain-fuck to keep it neat. I’m doing my best but it still looks like an orgy of snakes. I’m using 2.5mm crimped spade connections. A friend of mine produced me a laser cut plastic backplate for the switches I’m using. They have all the circuits names etched under each switch and looks really professional. This is screwed onto the hatch door over a hole so the switch terminals are accessible from behind. When I finally had finished connecting up the wires they all worked. Now I have;
- Main lights x 3 white LED spots
- Mood lights x 2 strips of colour changing LEDs
- Right sockets for 12v and USB
- Extractor fan
- Reversing camera
All these run from the leisure battery and hopefully won’t be too much drain. The Van for some reason has two batteries. Presumably one for starting and the other for running electrical equipment. All the circuits work and the lights look amazing. It’s so satisfying to have lights wired in and looking so professional. The spots offer just enough light to work or cook by. The LED “mood” lights don’t really illuminate anything but look very cool!
I still have a few circuits to wire up but it had gotten dark and this was the last night I could work on the van before the trip so they will just have to wait. I’m so excited to test them out in practice!
