So I’m building a camper van! And I’ve started the conversion, but not made much progress so far if I'm quite honest! I’ve had the van maybe 2 months and so far I've brought lots of stuff and not done much with it!
Lets start at the beginning.
The first job I had to do was removing two crew seats from the back, I had planned on selling them with no luck, hell I can’t even give them away! So if you're reading this and you're in the market for some van seats, hit me up!
Then it was removing the panels lining the van and a good clean up. I also had to fill the holes left in the floor from the bolts from those annoying crew seats. Turns out I brought the shittest filler cause I was messing in the van today and noticed 2 have come out leaving a nice hole in the floor of my soon to be home on wheels! Not a happy bunny! Gunna buy some better stuff and refill them in the week.
My biggest expense so far and probably overall was having windows fitted. You can buy the windows fairly cheap if you're willing and capable to fit them yourself, but cutting holes in the van and dealing with glass was not something I wanted to take on so I got mine done by a professional. Which obviously cost a bomb and a big chunk of my budget! But they look so good and there was no way I'd have been able to do them myself.
Next it was insulation. I used silver foil bubble wrap for my moisture barrier and a huuuuge roll of polyester insulation. Not sure why, it was probably cheaper, but I kind of wish I’d brought something a bit more substantial now like boards with the moisture barrier on so all I would have to have done was attach them and be done with it. I used double sided tape and duct tape, I know a lot of people opt for glue but I have asthma and really didn't wanna be struggling with that so tape was easier for me.
After that I decided to re use the panels that came with the van as they were already pre cut to the shape of the van and in good condition. A good point to remember is to run any wires through the walls before putting panels back on. I have all my electrics in one point of the van, and in the ceiling for the lights.
I also left a section of the ceiling un-insulated for the time being as I needed my Dad’s help to put the solar panel on and cut the hole for the cable but I finished insulating before he had chance to help me.
Solar panel! I brought a kit on ebay, but thought I was getting a full kit with all the bits and bobs to hook the entire thing up, but nope! I got the solar panel, fixing brackets and charge controller. Read the description carefully kids! I also wish now I’d spent a tad more and got a flexible panel. I can’t fit under car park barriers by a an inch or two, and having a flat flexible panel would mean I’d be able to. Its something I might look at changing in the future if it becomes a pain in the arse!
I think I’ll do a separate post about hooking up my solar panel and circuit because this has by far been the most difficult thing I've had to try and do and I've not done much at all yet. I’ve asked probably a billion questions to my online friend Mark who's nearly finished a much bigger van than mine, I'm surprised he hasn't lost his shit with me yet haha!
I recently decided I wanted wood cladding on my ceiling, and to possibly stain it white so the wood grains show through. I brought the cladding a couple of weeks ago and had no idea my dad had started on it till I went in there today! Go Dad!
This morning I worked a bit on the electrical circuit, hooking up the solar panel to the charge controller and running the wires to where I want my spotlights but thats all I've done so far. After help from Mark I've managed to draw a diagram of my circuit which has helped tonnes so hopefully I’ll feel more confident now but like I said I’ll do a separate post on that when I've finished putting the circuit together and have half an idea about what I'm doing!
And thats as far as I've got so far, my problem with my arm pain has put me off working as much as I should but I'm coming to the end of a flare up of pain so can hopefully get more stuck in now!
I’ve been thinking too a lot about how I want the van to look, pintrest as my inspiration and think I'm definitely heading for a white and grey with pale wood furniture but that could all change! I like to keep my decor quite neutral so that when I get bored with it I can just change the soft furnishings or decorations and things without doing a full redecorate!
Keep checking in for more van updates, I’ll be posting more stuff when I get more done and hopefully making some more videos of the conversion too.
Thanks for reading!
Vikky
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