Following on from Part 5, I've been continuing with the project across several fronts.
One thing about this conversion is that it's very difficult to actually finish anything, because to complete X means that Y needs to be done beforehand and suitable provision made for Z to follow etc.
For example, it's been over a month now since we made our cabinet carcasses for the RH wall and we've now also built a similar unit to fit over the kitchen area on the LH side, but we couldn't install them permanently until we'd run all the necessary cables behind.
We're still adding equipment to the design but I've now bought and installed all the cables I'll think we'll need, and I've also run a few extra lengths here & there for any additions we might want in the future.
So the RH wall cabinets are now fitted. I've also been working on the control panel in the lower half of the rearmost cabinet. It has two fascia sections, one side fixed and the other hinged for access to fuses and to be able to complete all the wiring etc.
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| RH wall cabinets with the control panel in blue ... |
And we're making progress elsewhere, too.
The water tanks are now fixed in their positions, with all tank penetrations made & sealed and the valves etc have been connected to the tank outlets. I've mounted the pump and run some piping towards the kitchen sink location, although nothing's actually connected yet. Unfortunately I didn't take any new photos when I was busy in this area, but we'll reveal more about the progress on the LH side of the vehicle in the next update.
We bought some vehicle lining carpet and spray adhesive, and we've already re-covered a few of the door cards and also the large storage locker over the driver's cab, which has now been lined with foil bubblewrap insulation and we've also fitted carpet tiles to the bottom & sides to make a clean storage space for bedding and clothes etc. So I suppose this locker is one area which is almost finished, although I still want to add a LED light inside.
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| new lining material outside ... |
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| insulation & carpet tiles inside ... |
On the side and rear doors we've given a fresh coat of paint to those metal surfaces which are visible when we're inside the van, and also added some sound deadening and thermal insulation inside the door cavities. But we haven't actually refitted all the door cards because there's still timber framing works going on inside the van and we want to keep the newly-covered cards clean.
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| acoustic mats on the rear door ... |
I'm well on with the sofa / bed, and there's two basic frames now built; the fixed frame section secured to the vehicle structure and the pull-out sliding section to convert the sofa into a flat bed area.
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| the basic framework ... |
The fixed frame section encloses the batteries, electrical equipment and diesel air heater, and also provides further storage space underneath plus an open parking place for the wheeled fridge box from where we can pull it out into the open whenever we want to get something from inside.
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| storage now including a metal-lined strongbox ... |
It's quite a simple frame but dividing the space below into separate and enclosed storage spaces is fiddly and it takes a lot of time to measure, cut and fix smaller timbers and panels.
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| sofa frames from the rear ... |
The top of the fixed sofa frame has lateral timbers to support the sofa / bed panelling, and I've made these supports so they just slot into position and can therefore be easily lifted out for unrestricted access to the electrical equipment and batteries below.
Anyway, enough for now and we'll post again in a week or two.
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