Kitchen Units

As I said there's a lot of planning involved in any camper conversion.  We've spent A LOT of time planning this kitchen part...

Once we'd decided what sizes of units will suit us best, of course I'm out with my spreadsheets again to compare costs for several kitchen unit companies.

We compared Ikea, B&Q, Howdens and Wren and have decided on B&Q.

So we spent the whole day today building kitchen units...

We've gone with B&Q's 'Caraway' range as it comes in the sizes we want, and is pretty cheap...

Experts in flat pack furniture building...

For the base cabinets, we're having one at 300mm, two at 500mm, and one at 400mm. On top of the 300mm unit closest to the drivers seat, we're having a 150mm unit which will serve as a wine cupboard.

As wall units, we're improvising and using 2x 300mm wall cabinets turned on their side to open upwards.

We had to make another hardboard rear panel for those 300mm wall cabinets that we're turning sideways as the one that comes with the unit obviously has gaps to accommodate the side hinges that we don't need...

Here's all the base cupboards built and assembled!

Kitchen in situ!!

Roof ribs and more nonsense...

Today we've started the roof. We've measured and cut 'ribs' from 12mm ply.

We cut little grooves in the surface of the ply to allow it to curve and match the shape of the van...

The planks of ply were glued and screwed to the body of the van...

Next comes the nonsense... 

We sprayed the 'no nonsense' spray insulation into the gaps in the roof ribs to insulate. And the stuff went everywhere... We learned from the last time though and put down a protective cover to contain the nonsense... 

Framing Part 2 - and SO MUCH MEASURING...

Today we've finished the framing by doing the same on the other side of the van. Next we measure all the 'walls' of each little 'cupboard' space

These are measured out onto 5mm ply and cut out using a handsaw.

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Each 'wall' is carpeted using Veltrim...

Each carpeted panel is glued and screwed into place. Now we have some furry cupboards!

Framing part 1

Today we started to frame what will be the walls/cupboards/cubby holes/undecided what's actually happening with the walls yet...

To make the frame of the walls, we've used 75x45mm timber to form the main supports for the wall/cupboard/bed structure. The timber is both screwed and glued to the body of the van using Sikaflex, , and secured to the ply with little brackets. So it's super secure. 

The non-structural parts are made using 38x25mm timber, which again is glued and screwed.

This is the main structure of the wall/shelf/cupboards... 

Nonsense

We've pretty much finished insulating the van now. A small note about spray expanding foam... Now we've been using the Soudall expanding foam. However Screwfix do their own, slightly cheaper expanding foam, from the 'No Nonsense' range, so we thought we'd use that for filling the rib channels. Let me tell you, that shit is FULL OF NONSENSE. It expands so much and gets up to no good and needs close adult supervision!! The Soudall stuff sets quickly like a perfectly toasted marshmallow, but the No Nonsense stuff expands and expands and is soggy and wet and a big mess.

   

We actually needed to form a makeshift 'bib' from plastic bags to contain the nonsense while it dried... 

Once it was finally dry and had finished it's expandy-party, the excessive excess was cut off using a bread knife

Now that the insulation is in place, we can screw on the ply we created earlier. This is both glued using Soudall adhesive foam, and screwed directly to the body of the van using self-drilling screws. 

We leave ourselves little notes for things we've realised we've not done, or things we need to remember to do in the future... 

We've also sort-of planned where all our 'controls' will be placed...

Welding stuff... The fabrication of the bunk bed!

So after approximately 309 cumulative hours of Elliot scratching his head, looking at the van, and measuring my shoulder width, he's designed a system for a removable bunk bed which will sleep a third person should we want to bring a pal on adventures (that doesn't want to middle-spoon with us!) The removable bunk can also be used for extra overhead storage (thinking bulky jackets, inflatable paddle boards...)

Elliot has made four steel guides/supports that will house two steel poles that will form the 'sides' of the bunk bed, which will itself be made of strong stretched canvas (kind of like a stretcher).

The two 12mm side walls (yet to be installed) will provide most of the structural support for the bunk bed.

These steel supports were welded directly to the structure of the van. The poles will be able to slot into the supports with a button clip mechanism so they're secure, yet easily removable. The steel supports are sealed at the back so that there is no risk of condensation forming. 

The supports have been painted with 'trade spray' (I've no idea what 'trade spray' is...) 

While all this clever fabricating was going on I have washed the outside of the van, cleaning off all the old signwriting with acetone. Master 'Splores is looking MINT! 

We've also affixed six of the carpeted ply panels using Sikaflex, and fixed in the last bits of wall insulation.

(The wood and bits of insulation are there purely to hold the panels in place while the glue sets)

"I don't think I need to pose so much..."