For Dicky - my home made interior so far!

Hi Dicky as requested.

Excuse the rough pictures, just nipped out with the iphone!
Its a daily work van so real dirt and junk, not pretend Rat look!

My interior is still work in progress but its all home made except the Volkswares Rock and roll bed.

From the outset I wanted to build my own making it lightweight, to preserve my vans excellent performance.

What I have done in effect is create a mass of work for myself! I should have got an off the shelf thing and fitted it in a weekend but where is the satisfaction in that! I hate MDF anyway!

I have oak effect faced ply from Magnum Motorhomes, sandwiched with softwood battons and normal ply at the back, this make it very light yet surprisingly strong. It of course is a lot of effort to cut,fit and glue but you leave it clamped overnight and its done the next day.
You can save the time with the ready made ligthweight ply however its £100 per sheet which is crazy, my method although time consuming is very cheap and you can make it fit your specific requirements.

The idea is the use the alloy edging (in my other thread) to cover all the cupboard doors and tops and maybe some of the mating surfaces on the main furniture unit, this will house the cooker, which will easily lift out if needed. Next to it will be a sink and a fridge under the sink, presently using coolbox.

All the door and kick panels etc are home made from external ply and vinyl covered, with a thin foam membrane behind them to protect the ply from moisture and keep draughts out.

The cupboard above the bed is external ply covered cream vinyl to maintain a light and airy feel above shoulder height. The sides are not complete but will also be in the same vinyl, once I complete the Devon roof work (my other thread)

Front seats came with the van Rover 600ti , I just recovered them.


The kick panels and underdash again home made ply and vinyl to keep the draughts out!



Door panels I used Spray glue - never again use proper Impact adhesive like Alpha from a can not spray!


Rear panels same construction, eventually will make a buddy seat there.



The cupboards will be along the left hand side of this photo when done.
I have also used rounded plastic oak faced edge to stagger the units out, middle sized to cope with the bed pulling out and then more behind the drivers side for the sink and fridge, trying to keep the van looking big inside but with useful space.


Other side


The fuse unit for the Leisure battery stuff plus accessories. (eventually the seatbelt strap wont be seen, and will be inside the cupboard when finished.


I am going to change that edging for the alloy instead! (Inside I have covered van body in reflective silver /foam then wood effect fablon, to keep the noise and moisture out.


The main unit (cooker will sit on top) I need to round off those sharp tops for the alloy edging to make it flow nicer


This is what it is like underneath altough the final rear ply section to be glued yet,
(excuse poor picture quality)


One day it will be finished, but house to sell first!

Most of my components are from Magnum Motorhomes, Car Builder Solutions and Vehicle Wiring Products.

 

Great to see hand made and not flat packed

 

Thanks mate but does it take some time! I enjoy it though, and you do it exactly to fit your own requirements not a compromise for the masses.

 

Very nice stan i wish i had those skills

 

Give it a go its basic woodwork, basic sewing, I am no expert I just cant face spending £1000 on mdf cupboards!

 

Inspirational Stan, and I like the look and colours.

 

Thanks for the kind words. Unfortunately orange is a difficult colour to match. I did not fancy brown or tan, which would have been in keeping with the period, I prefer lighter summer colours.
Will update this as things slowly progress.

 

Good job

 

Very nice job, I'm an ex cabinet maker so I know how much time and effort goes into something like that, we'll done. Haven't got a clue about upholstery, as far as I'm concerned a needles something for digging splinters out with


Quick question about the front seats, how are they height wise?

 

Well done - impressed!

 

Thanks mate - dont look too closely at the pictures ahem cough cough!
If you fit aftermarket (or ex scrappers) front seats from a modern car , they are normally a little higher on the floor due to the different fixing rails underneath. The person who fitted these must have realised this as he cut off the rails on the drivers side, to gain an inch or 2, meaning your feet touch the floor at the right height rather than sitting on a high chair dangling in the hope you can touch the brake pedal! haha. The passenger one is left unaltered.
The Rover 600ti ones are good as the foam is quite shallow - some I have seen are like sitting on large dumplings! Fortunately they have a good spring loaded base and are very comfy I can recommend them. I kept them for that reason long trips are easy in them.
The only issue of course is you cant use the old Devon Cab hammock as they are high back seats, but again a nifty revamp is planned to make my own where the brackets fall in front of them. Watch this space.

 

Thanks for that. Looks good and far from a "work van" . Some attention to detail going on there. I hope you can update this as you progress what have you used a your facia, for the units?

 

Thanks.

I used this oak board, its laminate faced Brazilian Ply (I went for 3mm but in hindsight should have gone for thicker to make it a bit easier.) Its not a very harsh hard laminate of days of old but it is nice and does actually look like real oak on top. But the matching iron on edging is pants too weedy for a van.
http://www.magnummotorhomes.co.uk/view_product.asp?productID=1137&catID=150&subcatID=

 

Cheers Stan, I'll keep a eye out for some, they look the mutts nuts in your van

 

Looking good fella

 

you done solid doors or cacassed them too?

 

The doors are the same setup but using smaller battons inside, even with the alloy edging they are feather light. Of course you can just save the effort and use solid Ply gluing the laminated ply on top but its surprising how quickly the weight builds up. Cooker, gas bottle, fridge, sink, wine bottles etc all add to the over all weight.

 

I am looking at remaking most of my devon interior, but wanted to stick with the original style and layout, but in a nice beech/oak effect melamine but the oak veneered ply on the page you linked to looks good.
The 15mm board could be used to make all the panels and nits, plus door and drawer fronts, but I'm not sure how I would finish the edges.
As the devon doors and drawers are square not rounded it makes it difficult to use anything other than iron on strips tho.

 

Stan that is superb work! and looks awesome

 

You have a few options if you want to keep straight edges? Aluminium angle (just from B&Q), knock -in T shaped plastic edging (as much as I dislike it) but you need a suitable router for that . Wooden edges of course like early Split Devons. Iron-on edging is really not strong enough for outside camper use.