My campervan build

Next came the gas cupboard and seat "box" Initially I thought about a 2 tone scheme for the doors but, after doing the first one I decided to leave it with only the oak veneer with 4 coats of wax finish. The gas enclosure is lined with a thin sheet of aluminium with a big vent to the underside of the van. The seat finish had me bend a piece of plywood to trim around the back and a construction bucket trimmed in half made the garbage bin in a convenient location

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Trevskoda gave a thumbs up so here goes :). Like I mentioned earlier, typical van have the kitchen by the sliding door and I didn't want it that way. The countertop is made out of an IKEA table top that was enough for the kitchen, bathroom "sink"and a trim above the refrigerator. The only place I used tough polyurethane varnish was in the kitchen area. Three drawers are 650mm and the other two, 500mm. Having the kitchen where it is meant that I had to build a kitchen hood and I routed the exhaust pipe to the bottom of the van. The drawers are made of specialized kits with soft shock absorber close. I made the drawer fronts and used thread inserts to avoid wood screws that could strip with the use. The splash guard is made out of aircraft aluminium and since I needed a way to reach the seat belt fixing nut, I made 2 small niches that are useful to put the kitchen soap. The splash guard is covered with waterproof wallpaper with a few coats of urethane varnish.


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Next came the bathroom. Since it was a custom size, needless to say, I couldn't buy a shower base so, I made one :D. I was able to order a tambour door made to order by Tambourline in the UK just before Brexit so no import duties were charged. This door meant that I had to make a panel with a radius. I made a steel mold and built up the panel from a few thin plywood strips. This was then cut in half to make the top and bottom of the door trim. The wall was covered with PVC panels and totally waterproof. No shower curtain is used as nothing can be damaged. After showering a quick wipe with those new microfiber towels and everything is dried. The top cupboard is made again from aviation aluminium with some stainless steel doors with mirrors.


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2 IKEA bamboo chopping tables the shower "grate". The bottom has a nylon spacer to separate the wood from the base. The base in the previous post is made from XPS with several coats of fiberglass cloth and epoxy. Only half way through the process did I think of mixing white dye to the epoxy so, to get the final results, I painted the base.


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I would like to see some comments, good or bad, doesn't matter. I can also answer some questions if any of you guys like.
 
Time for the permanent bed :) It a French type bed over the "garage" with a sliding window on some special aluminium profiles that came from a aircraft repair facility.

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Every screw used on the van's sheet metal is through the use of crimped rivet nuts. No self tapping screws were used in the build. In the anchoring of the panels some angle profiles were used with special stubby wood screws like those from IKEA furniture.
Due to the new parking laws in Portugal, sliding windows were used. It´s only considered parking if the van only occupies it's profile. An open step, open "flag type" window, awning or table outside is considered camping and can only be done in marked authorized places. Sliding windows don't take up space.
 
Not in the build sequence but here is the rest of the very comfortable sleeping quarters ;). Once again, IKEA was the source. The bed base frame had to be adapted so did the mattress that's supposed to go on a double sofa bed so it's separated 2/3, 1/3. I trimmed the foam and used the sewing machine to adapt the cover which came out very well, if I may say so. Took advantage of the mattress separation by installing a pivot mechanism on the base and a remote controlled actuator to lift the bed.



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Next came the refrigerator area. The refrigerator is a 12v compressor, 80 liter from Thetford and doesn't need any vent grill to the outside of the van. The cabinet is a simple one with a compartment below for the step that serves the bed 2 side compartments for groceries and stuff on top and shoes on the bottom. I like to have a fixed space for everything :D. On top I used the rest of the IKEA table to create 2 shelves where we can charge our electronic equipment, among other things.


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Then came the final big cabinet, the wardrobe. Due to the width the door which couldn't open completely because of the space available between the bed, I initially planned a double door cut in half vertically with a long piano hinge but then, when I looked at the space available, I only lacked a few cm so, I designed and built a special hinge that would compensate the space by changing the pivoting position. The cooking hood, which I built myself has the fan motor on the top shelf and the exhaust pipe goes to the bottom of the van.


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You can see how the door retracts to gain the space needed.

 
Naturally there were a lot of "in between" jobs with all kinds of challenges but all of them got done the best way I could.

Everything here was all done by myself alone every step of the way. Everybody I know say that I should do this for a living but, as many "crazy" guys like me, I did all this to show myself and eventually others that I could.

I personally think that anyone can do something like this. All you need is patience and persistence.
 
To (almost) finish the inside, a few photos of the upper cabinets. The structure out of aluminium with the plywood doors I made.
I tried to orient the grain of the wood vertically on the main panels and horizontally on the doors carefully cutting the boards


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One of the most difficult jobs, other than the shower base, was finishing all the trims. The van has many odd shapes and took some thinking to solve. A small laser cutter helped a lot making stencils for the small router and also other stuff like this spice rack I made from perspex recycled from LCD TV's :) The cooking hood made from some aluminium profile I found at my work place and a standard filter and some acrylic laser cut pieces. The motor as I mentioned earlier is on the next cabinet.


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Very impressive work indeed. Keep the pictures coming. Assuming that the curved front of the kitchen top
is cut from a solid block, interested to know how you got such a good finish on the cut edge.
 

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