Our Renault Master conversion

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Self builds seem to becoming more popular which, reading of the woes people have with new coachbuilts, is not surprising. In the hope that anyone looking to convert their own van can benefit from my mistakes I’m going to go through our build with pictures and the thinking ( or not) behind our decisions.

Vehicle and Layout

We chose a 2009 Renault Master passenger ambulance with 103000 on the clock and FSH. It was insulated and lined, and fitted with an Eberspacher diesel heater.

We have had a lot of vans, large and small, and a variety of boats, so we know what we need and don’t need. The way we were going to use the van and the fact that I like beach fishing meant the interior had to be practical rather than pretty. Because I like woodwork I also wanted to make most of the interior fittings myself and keep the cost down. The advice we got from Nigel Brown was invaluable in deciding the layout.

The need for 2 beds played a large part in fixing the layout and we planned for a full width fixed single across the back and a slide out using the settee. A shower and loo were essential and behind the driver’s seat was the obvious place - this left room for the 2 Trojan 6v batteries on the floor in front of it. A combined sink and 2 burner hob placed twixt the rear bed and shower room left a decent sized worktop. Below are a couple of 'before' and 'after' pics; I'll add more as I go through the build.



To be continued ........................
 
I'm having difficulty with the media, Chris. I'm told I can't have access.
Should I be doing something other than clicking on the 'link'?

Edit: Forget that. The photos are now appearing within the post.
It looks great, Chris.

Colin ???
 
Last edited:
I'm having difficulty with the media, Chris. I'm told I can't have access.
Should I be doing something other than clicking on the 'link'?

Colin ???

Thanks Colin, I'd got the 'Privacy' options wrong - can you see it now?
 
Thanks Colin, I'd got the 'Privacy' options wrong - can you see it now?

The photos now appear within your post, Chris. Your self build looks very impressive.
I'll attempt to delete my earlier (now updated) post lest it confuses others.
I'm looking forward to the coming instalments.

Colin ???
 
Materials
Before starting the build we fetched a load of 38mm x 63mm untreated CLS and several sheets of 12mm and 6mm ply. As the bus would be used for fetching timber and other jobs as well as camping, I wanted a finish that was easy to touch-up if damaged and painted ply fitted the bill. The CLS was ripped down as needed for the framework, cabinet door battens and edge moulding.
Joints were glued and screwed and the ply fitted with nailgun brads and glue.

Beds
We started with the cross bed framework which would incorporate the fresh water tank over the axle, spare wheel, chairs, gas locker, on-board waste tank and fishing rod tube. A lot of our past vans have had a large storage area under the bed with no dividers which ends up as a glory hole of unfindable gear - I didn’t want this, so sectioned separate areas off.
The pull out settee bed was then framed out and all fixed in place.


 
Shower/loo
To find out how much space we would have for the galley, we made up the shower base with a raised section for the porta loo. The position of this was important because we had to leave sufficient room for the batteries in front of it when the front shower wall was in place. A length of plastic waste pipe was fitted into the base to act as a conduit for the wiring


Galley
With the shower room base fixed down, we framed out the lower galley area. Our original idea was for a 12v coolbox, but the battery draw was too big, so we opted for a Waeco 12v compressor fridge, which, although more expensive, has proved ideal.
It didn’t take long for us to decide that we would rather have storage space than an oven or grill. A Smev combined sink and twin burner gave us all we needed and left a good size worktop.


At this stage, we started putting cables in place and labeling them.
 
If I were to do a self build I'd make very similar decisions to you, Chris.
For instance the oven has NEVER been lit by me or the previous owner. The Moho is 12 years old!. I have used the grill twice to scorch bread in 5 years. What a waste of space.
I hate large voids too and either use boxes to organise things (under my double fixed bed) or make purpose storage for bits and bobs.
If my three way fridge ever needs replacing I'd seriously consider a 12V compressor fridge, though I'm wondering if I'd find one distracting as the compressor switches on and off.
I'm looking forward to your next steps.

Colin ???
 
Panelling
The slats for the transverse bed were cut, not really needed yet but made a good work area for all the tools etc we kept kicking round the floor.
With most of the galley framework in place, the galley rear end panel was scribed and cut - sounds easy put like that, but I did call Renault a few names for making the roof curve so much. Again for ease, we painted the panel before glueing and pinning it in place.
While set up for cutting ply it made sense to panel some of the bed and settee sections.
The space above the water tank made a large cupboard with door access to the right of the galley and the length of black tube in the pics is for fishing rod storage.
The openings in the front panel of the top galley cupboards were cut using a template and an edge following bit in my router, as were the the cupboards on the pull-out section of the settee.
 
Water and heating
I should perhaps explain that I wanted to keep everything as simple as possible, so the only water heater we have is a mark 1, which whistles when it boils. The shower consists of a plastic container and a switched submersible pump, feeding a domestic shower head - 2 kettles of cold and 1 of hot gives us a shower each. I honestly can’t see the need for an expensive system providing instant hot water; we know when we are going to wash-up or shower and waiting for a kettle to boil does not mess up our busy schedule. The galley sink is fed by a submersible pump (same type as in the shower, so our spare fits either) and the waste goes into an onboard waste tank which was originally fitted with a flexible drain hose, but has since been piped through the floor with a simple on/off valve. The shower is drained directly through the van floor and, depending where we are, can either be caught in a bucket or left to soak into the ground.

The Eberspacher is our only room heating and keeps the van really toasty while running off the main diesel tank.

The gas cylinder only feeds the 2 rings on the hob, so lasts a very long time.
 
Galley
The doors for the top level cupboards were painted and fitted before fixing the front panel in place.
There are lots of ways of making/fitting drawers and I followed Nigel Brown’s example by making a ply ‘box’ which slides between guides and relies on friction to keep it closed - it works very well.
The worktop was from Wickes and we cut out for the cooker/sink and fitted it in place before mounting the top onto the framework. For a splash back we used ceramic tiles fixed in place with silicone.

Shower
We used vinyl floor covering for the shower room walls, glued in place with ‘Smart Tack’ spray adhesive from Tool Station - a lot of spray adhesives do not work on vinyl. The corners were finished with plastic quadrant.

It was at about this stage we realised that replacing the double passenger seat with a single would give us more space and let us fit a swivel to the passenger seat. We were very lucky to find a bodyshop near us selling a brand new single, which fitted straight onto the existing fixing points.
 
Table, doors etc.
To meet DVLA’s requirements for changing the V5 to a motor caravan, we fitted a small table - it is now under our bed at home, because we hardly ever used it.
For extra storage, we made a 3 cupboard high level unit opposite the galley
The doors were all made, again to Nigel’s recipe, of 6mm ply on a thin timber frame.

Bedding
The transverse bed has a Posture foam mattress, cut to length with an electric bread knife and the pull-out/settee has firm foam bought and cut to size locally.
 
Electrics
This is the area that has seen most changes/additions since the build, so I’ll tell you how it started off.
We fitted a 170w solar panel on the roof and fed this, via an MPPT controller (big grey thing on the right), to the leisure batteries. To get the most charge when driving, I used a Sterling B2B charger (white thing on the left) and also a battery maintainer (to the right of the B2B) which sends a small charge to the starter battery when the leisure batteries are full. On the far left under the black cover is a connector block for all the negatives and the 2 smaller black units are twin post connector blocks, 1 for the engine battery and 1 for the LBs, to save making multiple connections on the batteries themselves. It was easier to mount all the items and their fuses on a board first and this was then fixed behind the driver’s seat on the back of the shower room wall.
The fuse board and isolating switch were mounted in a high level cupboard to the left of the shower room door - in the past I’ve spent too long messing about in lockers on the floor checking fuses!
 
Windows

There are lots of differing views on whether to, and how to, block up windows in a mini bus.
The advantage is they are glass so not as easily damaged by the hedgerows we have in most of the narrow lanes in Devon; the disadvantage is they are single glazed.
We have blocked up the 2 rear side windows and the shower room window. We first painted the glass white and fitted a small batten all the way round the inside of the frame, then screwed ply panels, with 2 thicknesses of silvered bubble insulation attached, to the battens.


Dawn made up some curtains and then internal silver screens for the remaining windows with 2 layers of the same insulation with binding sewn round the edge; the suckers were bought off ebay.
The cab has a Taylormade external screen which is as good for keeping the sun out as it is for warmth in the winter months.

Decals

There always seems to be one job that keeps getting put off and fitting the decals was mine. Daft really, because it was nowhere near as difficult as I was expecting.
 
Changes and additions

Despite all our planning we soon discovered that we hadn’t put enough usb sockets in - this was easily rectified by pulling a new cable through the conduits with the length of para cord we had laid in place when the original wiring was done.
I eventually put in a 240v circuit and mains charger. The only time the socket is used is for a frost stat heater in the winter on our drive. The mains charger has never been used!
We added a further 100w solar panel which feeds, via a separate MPPT controller, a sealed 115ah battery, near the trojans. This has its own fuse box and is used for various lights and usb sockets and the fridge can use it if it ever becomes necessary. Seems a bit belt and braces, but it gives us an alternative power and light source if we get a problem with the main 12v system.
The Sterling B2B charger went back to the factory twice and when it started playing up the third time I swapped it for a Ring B2B/MPPT unit which is proving very good.
A reversing camera was fitted with the wiring run along the roof in the solar cable conduit and with a switched power supply so it could be used without engaging reverse gear.
I don’t think we will ever stop adding or changing things, but that is one of the benefits of self-build, you know where everything is and how it was fitted so alterations are easier.
 
Changes and additions

Despite all our planning we soon discovered that we hadn’t put enough usb sockets in - this was easily rectified by pulling a new cable through the conduits with the length of para cord we had laid in place when the original wiring was done.
I eventually put in a 240v circuit and mains charger. The only time the socket is used is for a frost stat heater in the winter on our drive. The mains charger has never been used!
We added a further 100w solar panel which feeds, via a separate MPPT controller, a sealed 115ah battery, near the trojans. This has its own fuse box and is used for various lights and usb sockets and the fridge can use it if it ever becomes necessary. Seems a bit belt and braces, but it gives us an alternative power and light source if we get a problem with the main 12v system.
The Sterling B2B charger went back to the factory twice and when it started playing up the third time I swapped it for a Ring B2B/MPPT unit which is proving very good.
A reversing camera was fitted with the wiring run along the roof in the solar cable conduit and with a switched power supply so it could be used without engaging reverse gear.
I don’t think we will ever stop adding or changing things, but that is one of the benefits of self-build, you know where everything is and how it was fitted so alterations are easier.

..............and we can all see from the photos you show here what an exceptionally high standard of design and workmanship has been achieved.
This is a brilliant piece of work, Chris. It's well thought through, incredibly well presented and frankly inspiring.
Thank you.

Colin ???
 

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