Welcome

WELCOME

Welcome to the blog for our campervan build

This project began in May 2020 during the 'lockdown' in the UK due to COVID-19. We were supposed to be touring Europe in our existing camper conversion 'Movano The Van Hoe' but this obviously wasn't going to be possible... So after finishing a pretty ambitious Hot Tub Trailer build (see the blog here) we decided we needed another project to keep us occupied during however many weeks left of lockdown.

We put Movano The Van Hoe up for sale and bought a Renault Master which we will convert over the coming weeks/months.

We are fortunate in that Elliot has a fully equipped workshop with tools and space to work, and we're also fortunate in that this is Elliot's second camper conversion, so we're not totally winging it!

This is a blog of the full build and I make no apologies that it is very photo heavy. The primary purpose of the blog is to document this build both for our own records, and for anyone else who's interested.

We plan on touring around Scotland with our Trailer Hot Tub when travel restrictions are relaxed enough to allow this.

Disclaimer: This is NOT meant as a tutorial. Do not try this at home. Always seek professional expert advice.

Thursday, 24 September 2020

Roof Vent & Ceiling!

Today we started on fitting the Fiamma crystal skylight, going in at the front of the van next to the kitchen and shower to help extract cooking and shower vapour, and to get a bit of daylight to the front of the van

The position we chose meant the majority of the roof was flat, and had a lower drain recess next to it so there will never be standing water around the seal. There were the ends of a couple of stamped raised ribs in the section we cut out which we hammered flat with metalworking dollys rather than packing out the whole vent. Doing this however then created some extra tension in the metal around the cutout which distorted the hole so it was no longer flat. In order to correct this we used a metal shrinker tool to remove the tension and make the cutout totally flat again.

Shrinking the edge of the hole to remove the tension/warp from hammering flat....

A wooden frame was mounted around the inside of the hole for the ceiling to attach to and the skylight to clamp into...

The insulation had to be recessed in places to allow it to sit tight into the roof and keep the ceiling flat.

The Vent was prepared with non setting mastic sealant tape and then installed.

Roof vent installed. (still need to clean the rest of the Roof)

Ceiling installation:

The insulation was fitted first. We used 50mm polystyrene in this case as it has a bit more flex to it than Celotex and easily follows the curve of the ceiling.

The main ceiling structure is 5mm column plywood. The grain is laid up lengthways which makes it nice and strong, less likely to sag and it bends beautifully around the curvature of the ceiling.

We then carefully measured out the precise positioning for bespoke oak strips, and paint the gaps charcoal grey.

These bespoke oak strips are manufactured from a sheet of oak faced 8mm MDF cut into 95mm strips by our friend Chris who kindly loaned us his big table saw.