DSC_2350 by Jack Ledingham, on FlickrThe plan for this van is to build a folding bed, which can be put away when the seats are in place. There also needs to be enough room at one side for my trials bike. I'm just going to use this thread as a log of things i've done to the van and its ongoing work.
The first couple of jobs were fairly simple. Sold the awful alloys for £100. Got the steels for £40 and painted them red. I re-siliconed the side windows as they had come away from the door. I also fitted new subframe mounts for the dogbone engine mount which has failed miserably and gave it a full service. The timing belt and water pump has been done so I don't need to bother with that for a while. The van had actually had a decent amount of new parts like brakes and exhaust before I bought it so there hasn't actually been much mechanically to do (which is the stuff I know
). I then went about stripping the back to fit sound deadening and insulation. The front rear seat mounts were in with nuts and bolts, while the rear were sandwich plates. I had to weld the heads of the bolts to the plates, drop the fuel tank and snap the bolts off to get these out. That was a loooong day. I've since welded up new sandwich plates with captive nuts all round and fitted spreader plates to the front mounts to make it a lot safer - plus this makes the seats completely removable from inside the van with the removal of 4 bolts.I then hoovered the back out and started insulating:
DSC_2369 by Jack Ledingham, on Flickr
DSC_2370 by Jack Ledingham, on Flickr
DSC_2385 by Jack Ledingham, on Flickr
DSC_2386 by Jack Ledingham, on FlickrThat consisted of sound deadening all over, recycled plastic insulation and double bubble foil. I covered the door panels with some bed throws from Asda with a funky pattern. I also made my own ply panels for the sides and covered them with the same pattern. All of the wood in this van has been free or re-claimed. I lino-ed the floor (which needs re-heating to stick down again after the mega cold weather). I then used the £60 left over from the wheels and bought some seats and steering wheel from a MK5 GT TDI and they must be the best mod so far. Has made such a difference to the feel.
DSC_2404 by Jack Ledingham, on Flickr
DSC_2405 by Jack Ledingham, on FlickrNow that the ply sides are in I can fit the seat sandwich plates for the rear and get the seats in, then I can start making the bed box to fit behind that with lids that fold out into a full length bed. I've designed it all in autocad so should be good to go with that. Then I can move onto the roof panel, which ill most likely buy, and fitting a split charge system for the leisure battery. But the main concern is to get the bed built and functional so we can actually use the van for its intended purpose!