Windsurfing Dream Van

[Farnorthsurfer]

The furniture was a DIY job as I couldn't find any that fitted what I wanted and 'the virus' was making it hard to source the panels and for a while other parts.
Decided to go with 15mm Baltic Birch ply and do my own finish. Lots of thought went in to the build but in truth there are no plans at all. Everything was made on sight with the van.
There is going to be a removeable forward unit with hob/sink/pottie/gas and water. But this isn't started yet.
The job took ages, partly because I am working out of a small garage and needed good weather to work on the drive, partly because it took ages to scribe the shapes to fit the van and get everything to fit properly. Although you can't really see it in the photos the clearance to the sliding seat is less than 2mm at the closest point and no more than 4mm for the length of the slide. This was to maximise the space for the furniture. The chest fridge also dictated many of the bulkhead and door positions. With a seat that slides all the way its not really possible to have doors that work in all configurations so I have a lifting lid worksurface and long door that works in the bed position.
The advantage of birch ply is that it is realtively cheap and if I want something different I will do it again. The ply sheets were about £55 each but there is a lot more work to finish them which you dont have with laminate.

Planning out the forward unit. There will be no drop vent before anyone asks as it won't fit, instead it will be 'Gas Off' every trip and a gas alarm.
The pottie just fits and will be pulled out for nights out, what fun

In build at the back, low level unit. Have never liked the usual self tapper random fixing to the van that most conversions use so have fitted rivnuts to original holes and picked these up for fixings. In the floor I drilled and fitted 30mm x 8mm threaded furniture inserts which you screw in with an allan key. These are well strong as they go in two layers of birch ply boded to the floor of the van. No extra holes in the van, except the curtains and Reimo Multirail.
The units are slot tenon construction glued and screwed where required. Loads of router work that can't be seen.

Those in the know will spot that its a bit of a Riemo copy job but nothing wrong with that. Testing colours on the right, dont worry about the gaps on the left its not bolted in yet.

The left hand side is plain lids with magnetic catches, very simple but effective, one hatch at the back one at the front. Mains USB and 12vdc sockets.
The Right hand is a foward unit with two compartments the fridge access lifing lid behind 'magazine rack' illuminated with LED strip internally and fridge controls and four USB sockets one with voltage display. Below that is mains and vents for the fridge heat exchanger. Below that is a locked compartment big enough for documents and ipads etc. Aft of that is the big storage with two doors for smaller storage below. Not all of the doors work all of the time but at all time you can get into all of the spaces, if that makes sense.
One the Reimo seat is a front panel with removable front and permanent table leg support.
Its been used for camping and windsurfing, all works well. Have made a large waterproof cover for the seat so it can be laid out and used to carry bigger boards on single days out windsurfing.

 

[boopzz]

looks great dude! Have you sourced curtains for the front yet? I've got the same as you for the back but the Kiravans front kind of hangs between the sun shades and floor. I've seen others that have poppers down the A pillar to cover front window and then magnetic ones for the side. Wandered what you had gone for.

 

[Farnorthsurfer]

looks great dude! Have you sourced curtains for the front yet? I've got the same as you for the back but the Kiravans front kind of hangs between the sun shades and floor. I've seen others that have poppers down the A pillar to cover front window and then magnetic ones for the side. Wandered what you had gone for.

I went for the Rainbow Screens External screen cover. It’s expensive but really well made. The downside is the size it’s quite bulky to carry. But it does a great job. We had no condensation inside the van on cold mornings with this cover and the Jerba Ventile roof fabric

 

[russ_e]

Absolutely great work!

 

[Pexell]

I'm about to start a conversion so this article is really useful. I am also thinking of using birch ply and a wood floor. What coating did you put on the cupboard exterior that brings out the grain so well? Was it a coloured varnish? And what material did you use for the floor?

 

[Farnorthsurfer]

I'm about to start a conversion so this article is really useful. I am also thinking of using birch ply and a wood floor. What coating did you put on the cupboard exterior that brings out the grain so well? Was it a coloured varnish? And what material did you use for the floor?

The wood is coloured with Liberon Water Based concentrated wood dye and finished with Osmo Polyx-oil High solid clear satin. This is a flooring finish and isn’t cheap. The dye is cheap, got mine from Amazon and the Osmo from a local place.
There is another thread hereabouts with lots of stuff on the finish.
I wanted a clear finish that would keep the fresh colour of the blue but all of the various options had pros and cons. Happy enough with the way it’s turned out and it seems pretty resilient. You can park a boiling pot on the table without worrying too much. I also lifted the sheen a little with a clear furniture wax applied with a fine scotchbrite pad.
And now for the warning!!!!
When you mix the colour do enough for the whole job if you get a shade you like as you will never ever repeat it!!!
There’s a lot of work in sanding the wood applying the dye. 1st coat 2nd coat of oil then a light wax coat. This takes a while certainly longer than pre laminated board which is of course ready as soon as it’s cut and joined.
But I like it and it’s the only one of its kind in the world in that colour so for me it was worth it even if I was pretty fagged off with the process at the time.
Still to do the forward unit but will update when I do.
Other lessons are to buy decent trim and hardware, although it seems a lot at the time the cheaper stuff lets the look down IMHO

 

[Pexell]

Thanks for that. The (house) furniture I built with birch ply took a lot of finishing, too, but the results were worth it.

 

[fax001]

The wood is coloured with Liberon Water Based concentrated wood dye and finished with Osmo Polyx-oil High solid clear satin. This is a flooring finish and isn’t cheap. The dye is cheap, got mine from Amazon and the Osmo from a local place.
There is another thread hereabouts with lots of stuff on the finish.
I wanted a clear finish that would keep the fresh colour of the blue but all of the various options had pros and cons. Happy enough with the way it’s turned out and it seems pretty resilient. You can park a boiling pot on the table without worrying too much. I also lifted the sheen a little with a clear furniture wax applied with a fine scotchbrite pad.
And now for the warning!!!!
When you mix the colour do enough for the whole job if you get a shade you like as you will never ever repeat it!!!
There’s a lot of work in sanding the wood applying the dye. 1st coat 2nd coat of oil then a light wax coat. This takes a while certainly longer than pre laminated board which is of course ready as soon as it’s cut and joined.
But I like it and it’s the only one of its kind in the world in that colour so for me it was worth it even if I was pretty fagged off with the process at the time.
Still to do the forward unit but will update when I do.
Other lessons are to buy decent trim and hardware, although it seems a lot at the time the cheaper stuff lets the look down IMHO

Love the colour.
Is that the Liberon Blue at 10% dye to 90% water or did you mix more than one of their colours ?

 

[Farnorthsurfer]

Love the colour.
Is that the Liberon Blue at 10% dye to 90% water or did you mix more than one of their colours ?

That’s just Blue and it’s more like 1% dye to water. I mixed about 6 batches to test before going with the one I liked. More than one coat will darken it considerably and sanding will also affect the take up of the dye.
I used a straw to pick up about 1cm of dye and mixed it with a pint of water.

 

[fax001]

That’s just Blue and it’s more like 1% dye to water. I mixed about 6 batches to test before going with the one I liked. More than one coat will darken it considerably and sanding will also affect the take up of the dye.
I used a straw to pick up about 1cm of dye and mixed it with a pint of water.

Thank you for the further information.

 

[Farnorthsurfer]

Hard to believe how long it has been since I last posted an update on my windsurfing camper build. In truth its been pretty much finished for a while but I guess I have been too busy enjoying it to get on the web and do an update. In the time since I have also retired, planned, not prompted by coronavirus and have had loads of other things to get on with. Anyway enough of that. I sort of stopped building in late summer 2020 to go on holidays and to Tiree for windsurfing. In order to get on the road I made a really rough table with a camping cooker and gas bottle. This worked so well I lasted almost a year before I had to start on the main front unit.

Other things I have since done are a B pillar table and a large drawer under the sliding seat. I will try and pick those up in the next few posts.

The outline idea for the forward unit. Potty, Gas and fresh/waste water. In my old Murvi from the early 90's it was set up to dump water on the ground under the van nut I think thats pretty unacceptable these days. Especially when you see the state of popular areas like round the NC500.

As with almost everything else on the van it is made 'on sight' no plans and basic measurements. All the panels are hand scribed to fit the van. Getting the sliding door fit took a long time. There are alost no straight reference lines to work with besides the seat rail in the bonded floor. Construction is the same as the rear unit but has drawers and flap doors.

Sink Hob unit let into ply worktop and fitted to unit. You can also see the potty trolley for rolling the portapotty in and out of the forward cupboard.
This whole unit is made to be removed and is wired up to the van for water and gas ignition with a plug and socket.

Almost done, thats a lie its never 'done'

 

[Farnorthsurfer]

If your wondering if you can do this yourself and what kind of garage space you need, this is it!

I had kept the same mix of wood dye from the year before and had no problem with the finish, but as before it took ages to sand, dye and varnish.
The other thing that took time was sourcing the right hinges to get the doors to open right round giving full access to the cupboards.

This is taken while the wiring was being finished for the unit, you can see all the services in place. The EHU cable fits on the footstep and is easy to access.
Waste tank at the back fresh water in front, they are about 16 litres each I think and last us about two or three days without being very careful about it.

I already had the Reimo table bracket fitted to the seat assembly so I made the table top sized to fit the parcel shelf frame. A bit of angle and a strap is all it needs to be hidden away.

 

[Farnorthsurfer]

I set about making a drawer for underneath the reimo seat. Its made to be removable, All I have to do is unscrew 4 bolts and it drops down and pulls out leaving the under seat space clear.

From the front

From the rear.

 

[Farnorthsurfer]

Lots more to write about if anyones still interested?
Put the kettle on lad

 

[Farnorthsurfer]

Quite often the van will go through a number of configurations in the week of a retired gentleman (OK Gentleman is a bit of a stretch) and can look like this

One day and this the next

If you look really closely you can just see the Jerba Midge Screen stowed in the back of the drivers seat cover.

 

[russ_e]

Exactly what the vans are for. Great stuff!

 

[Farnorthsurfer]

I wanted a B pillar table but very much didn't want to drill more holes in the van. Especially in the pillar. So I decided to bond some 15mm birch ply to the bottom of the B pillar with Sikaflex and used screw in furniture nuts to hold the table leg clamp. This is what it looked like before carpeting and finishing. I will have to take some photos of the inside tomorrow with the table in place. This has worked great and despite people often using the table as a grab handle to climb in the van its as solid as a rock.
Also it puts the table leg at a better angle than bolting it straight to the pillar. I can stow the small table by reversing the table leg and parking it behind the passenger seat.

 

[Farnorthsurfer]

Photo of the interior showing the B pillar table installed after carpeting and finishing. Just parked up for the evening with friends so have swivelled the drivers seat but normally just slide it forward if it’s just the two of us.

 

[Farnorthsurfer]

For those who can’t get enough of a good thing!! Here’s the potty store. The best thing about a LWB is the space for the potty when the bed is out.

 

[hoggle]

I'm glad you have updated this post with more photos of your build. It now looks fantastic, so well done!