Hi folks and thanks for dropping by, I thought I would share my progress with you all on my camper van conversion project. That way it doesn't sem so daunting doing the whole thing on my own, and hopefully some of you kind peeps can throw some advice and ideas my way in the process. http://s1319.photobucket.com/user/ad...t/library/Norm
A couple of months back I bought a 1991 VW LT35 from good old fleabay, i reckon i got a bargain at £700, plus my old beat up celica which was worth only a couple of ton at a push, so lets say i got it for well under a grand. So the first thing I did was draw a few plans and pictures of how i envisioned the layout inside, the bed is already a closed deal on a Luton obviously over the cab. The rest ive got a rough idea of what i want but the plan keeps changing from day to day. The next thing I did was to take it to the weighbridge at my council depot to see how much weight I had to play with, it weighed 2.4 tonnes, so well inside the 3.5 tonne limit, around a tonne to play with, no way i will exceed that surely.
So phase one, i decided to go out and get some insulation and ply, well i ended up scoring a load of 3mm hardboard(fleabay again) to line out the inside but im now wondering if i should have gone for something thicker as it is really bendy even when attatched to the ribs inside the luton, anyways thats what i got, the existing ply was over 10mm thick so i decided to use that to ply over the floor after i had battened it and dropped in the insulation boards. My mate reckoned that I didn't need to insulate the floor as the chassis bed was already thick enough to keep in the warmth but I wanted to make sure, as I do plan on living in it full time. I went for the Kingspan type boards 30mm thick as thats the gap I have inside the Luton body walls. I bought it from Sheffield Insulations after researching on the web that was the cheapest and closest place i could find near me. It's horrible stuff to work with, makes my hands itch and looks like Ive been playing out in the snow every time i cut it to size but it's supposed to be good stuff and it's really lightweight, looked at the rockwool slabs which were cheaper but they were pretty heavy.
Then I did the same for the bed base, batten frame and insulation board although again in hindsight im wondering if i should have gone for a thinner form of insulation as now my head almosts touches the roof of the van and thats before the underlay carpet, matress and roof insulation has been put in, of course the mattress will squash down, im going to go for one of those memory foam ones in a small double, that will just fit into the bed area. Anyways it just a sleeping area but sometimes i like to sit up and read in bed, il just have to slouch against the wall like i do against my bed headboard lol. The remainder of the thick ply which was used to cover the bulkhead was used to lay over the batten frame.
So insulating the roof is where im at at the moment after throwing in most of the side insulation panels, pretty time consuming and messy job tha knows! Im really having to think about roof ventilation and electrics at this point as i cant fit all the insulation and ply without doing that first. Back to fleabay!
Ive already got some caravan windows and seals, i may ned some advice from someone on how to fit those. Basically my plan is to keep the van as stealthy and secure as possible that way it draws les attention and looks more like a removal van, urban camoflauge! So the back doors are swing open, so this is where i'l instal a false wall window and door, ( got a hardwood door with lots of glass panels in for the natural light), and the side rolling shutter door will come up to reveal another window which is where the sink area will be.
I've decided to call the van Norm in tribute to my Dad who passed away this year, please have a look at the album of pics on the progress so far and any comments,advice,Ideas will be much appreciated.
thanks for looking
http://s1319.photobucket.com/user/ad...t/library/Norm