Keith's Transit Van

Self builds and DIY projects
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zildjian
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Re: Keith's Transit Van

Post: # 13959Post zildjian
June 28th, 2016, 7:30 pm

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Floor going down. It's about 10mm engineered oak in 6inch planks with a nice tongue and groove. It fits similarly to laminate flooring, but isn't made from mdf and won't poison us by off-gassing formaldehyde and cyanide as we sleep. This was a clearance lot for cash from a big flooring store in Glasgow. I haggled a bit and got it for less than the asking price.

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I stuffed the side wall pockets with Kingspan and fixed a wide batten at intervals to provide fixings for the wall covering and hard points for fitting furnitures etc I used expanding foam to lock it all together and screws to hold the battens to the internal metalwork.


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The lower wall section now has v lining as per.

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zildjian
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Re: Keith's Transit Van

Post: # 13962Post zildjian
June 28th, 2016, 8:49 pm

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Quite a lot of info in this one. Back doors are done with the Kiravan insulation and then panelled with the same oak as the floor. I made a mistake and only discovered it when I tried to open the doors from inside. I'd panelled over the release catch. Oops. Take it all off and cut the damn hole. Then re-cover. I was able to get the screw holes to line up, so I never wasted any boards.

I got a pair of ikea single bed frames and spring slats. Too long, and too wide, but cutting wood is my forté. We chose to go ✖-wise and single bunks because we're both shortarses and it's the only way we could fit a bed into the space without compromising the windows. I had to be creative with the frame timbers and cut away enough to be able to lower right down onto the wheel-arch. I'll need to shorten the mattresses later to fit, but hey-ho.

You'll see from this and other shots that I like to trip over my tools while I'm working. I'd really like to be an anal retentive tidy person, but I was born this way and I like it.


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This is the miraculous sight of a reversed passenger seat. Fitting a seat swivel is a right fankle and no mistake. You have to get the old bolts out of the floor, they were put in to stay in and we had to have a talk. This involved a socket, a ratchet and a length of scaffolding pipe. If the bolts don't snap, they come out whole. I won that contest.

Then you have to cut away the profiles floor covering to match the footprint of the swivel-base. That's when I found out the car dealer had hosed out the cab while prepping the van for sale. I must say, I wasn't very surprised as I had previously found copious amounts of clean water under the floor in the load space too.

Then you have to fix the swivel down to the original holes. I had to put a spacer underneath so it would clear the rear floor.

Then you bolt the seat back down onto the upper plate of the swivel. It's not a simple pivot. There are slots in upper and lower plates that allow some fore-aft and left-right movement. Without that it wouldn't be possible to swivel the seat at all. Once it's been turned there are locking pins to hold it in place. Dug is investigating the new arrangement.


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These two give some idea of the curvature I had to deal with in the area of the upper walls. It wasn't possible to provide any hard points in this area so fitting the upper bunk will require a bit of creative thinking.

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derestrictor
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Location: gotham Nottingham

Re: Keith's Transit Van

Post: # 13979Post derestrictor
June 30th, 2016, 7:51 am

How many is this you have built now, see this time it has evelolved into a fixed van

keeflester
Posts: 538
Joined: August 24th, 2014, 8:23 pm
Location: Carradale Argyll and Bute Scotland, beside the sea

Re: Keith's Transit Van

Post: # 13983Post keeflester
June 30th, 2016, 8:51 am

derestrictor wrote:How many is this you have built now, see this time it has evelolved into a fixed van
I modded two vans years ago, for single person rough and ready camping as a means to go mountaineering. Then I bought two ready built Demountables, the first was a Tandy pony and that needed a lot of modification, the second was a very expensive Northstar, all I did with that was double up on batteries, then I built the Penthouse Pee Pod, then my sister's lozenge. So, depending on the amount of input to call it a project this will be my fifth, sixth or seventh. Probably not my last. LOL
2003 Ford Ranger 2.5 TD 109 Supercab, sold to Simon
Tandy Pony, sold
Northstar 750, sold
K33F-built Penthouse Pee Pod, sold to Simon with the Ranger
Built the lozenge for my wee sister, its now finished and in regular use
Now converting a blue Tranny.

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Alexd
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Re: Keith's Transit Van

Post: # 13998Post Alexd
July 1st, 2016, 8:32 am

Moved any further along since last picture keef? i like watching these builds of yours

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zildjian
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Re: Keith's Transit Van

Post: # 14001Post zildjian
July 1st, 2016, 1:39 pm

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Back doors are done with the same materials as the floor, engineered oak flooring 10mm thick, light but very strong.


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There is a small gap, yet to be covered. I'll do all the trimming out once the major fitting out is completed


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The lower bed creates a handy storage space accessible from the rear whenever the back doors are open. Picnic chairs, table, barbecue, odd tools etc will all travel under here. The weight will help with traction as it's normally rear wheel drive and selectable front drive.


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The ceiling. That is expensive foil-backed bubble wrap being used primarily for its vapour barrier property, joins taped with hippo aluminium tape. I had to mark it to be able to find the "joists" and never had a marker pen, so I used a liquid chalk marker we keep for marking jam-jar labels. It worked.



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Pencilled guidelines for cutting out the lower frame recess for the skylights. The front one is going to be a bit of a bugger as the sandwich of roof, insulation and ceiling is thicker than it was designed for. I'll have to cut around the frame and inset it into the wood ceiling. Hopefully it won't look like a bodge.

keeflester
Posts: 538
Joined: August 24th, 2014, 8:23 pm
Location: Carradale Argyll and Bute Scotland, beside the sea

Re: Keith's Transit Van

Post: # 14002Post keeflester
July 1st, 2016, 1:43 pm

Alexd wrote:Moved any further along since last picture keef? i like watching these builds of yours
Ceiling is in, still to frame the ninja skylights. They're smoked plexi and while I was fitting them I sprayed the outside frames with dark grey stone chip. So you don't really notice them from outside at all. This contributes to our stealthy credentials.

I have pictures waiting for Zildjian to upload

I've been flexing my debit card muscles. I've got a 110AH deep cycle battery and have moved up to 21st century tech with the charging. I bought a Sterling battery to battery charging unit. This will charge the leisure battery more quickly than a split charge relay and go to float at the correct voltage.

I've marked out the floor with masking tape and there's room for everything, just.

This time we're going for a different toilet technology. Google Popaloo and you'll see what we've gone for.

More info soon.


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Big day today. The upper bunk bed is slotted into its final position. This is just a trial fit and for approval from Kathy. She needs to be able to sit up to watch the telly. I think we've made the best use of the space. Still have to cut down the mattresses from 2m to about 1.8m. That will be 50mm too long which should give some compression and guarantee that the pillows can't slip down at the end of the bed. I'll need to put my seamstress hat on for stitching the mattress case back up once I've cut some length off the foam. LOL





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Two or three pictures of the skylights. I painted all the cut edges with a couple of coats of grey stone chip. Then I had to build up a frame from building plastics to allow for the pleats/ripples in the roof. Ford have made every ripple a different height so a bit of head scratching was required. The upper frames take 20 self tappers and I could only get galvanised because my yacht chandlery was closed. Stainless would have been my choice.

I got some blue ct1 mastic on clearance at a fiver a tube and that went between all the layers and smoothed a fillet around each edge. Because I had galvanised screws I decided to paint the whole outer frame and screws with the stone chip too. This has the serendipitous effect of improving the ninja look as there's no white showing, screaming campervan.

I like the effect so much, I'm going to do the tv aerial with the same finish. Vision appears in my minds eye of us stealthy camping at the end of a quiet street and the word going round the neighbourhood that the detector van is in the street trying to look inconspicuous. Lol


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It turned out that the fiamma skylights won't quite bridge the combined thickness of the outer plinth, the insulation, vapour barrier and ceiling so I had to get creative. I rough fitted them with long screws to get the position right, drew round them with a pencil and then cut a clearance hole in the ceiling so the lower frame would inset into the ceiling. I'll need to get a couple of lengths of 21mm right angle moulding to make a frame and conceal the cut edges. That's plan B, I guess.
2003 Ford Ranger 2.5 TD 109 Supercab, sold to Simon
Tandy Pony, sold
Northstar 750, sold
K33F-built Penthouse Pee Pod, sold to Simon with the Ranger
Built the lozenge for my wee sister, its now finished and in regular use
Now converting a blue Tranny.

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Toshbins
Posts: 237
Joined: October 22nd, 2015, 12:12 pm
Location: Between Reading and Oxford

Re: Keith's Transit Van

Post: # 14052Post Toshbins
July 3rd, 2016, 8:43 pm

Popoo a bit like a ✖ between a nappy and the human equivalent of a dog poo bag?
As long as you don't hang it on the nearest bush like some around here!

keeflester
Posts: 538
Joined: August 24th, 2014, 8:23 pm
Location: Carradale Argyll and Bute Scotland, beside the sea

Re: Keith's Transit Van

Post: # 14053Post keeflester
July 3rd, 2016, 8:55 pm

Toshbins wrote:Popoo a bit like a ✖ between a nappy and the human equivalent of a dog poo bag?
As long as you don't hang it on the nearest bush like some around here!
Aye the Popaloo system is basically a bag in a bucket, but the bag contains a powder which turns into a gel as it absorbs all the moisture in your waste. It's supposed not to smell and once your done you can take the bag out, tie the neck and dispose in a regular trash bin. Or take it home and compost it as it's biodegradable.

People hang dog poo bags in the bushes along our street and it's very annoying. We are unlikely to be that antisocial.

We haven't decided yet on washing facilities but I'm currently looking for a very small sink that will drop into a 350x450 cabinet. If anybody can point one out to us that would be much appreciated. We'll be using France Passion sites and they don't have any facilities at all. We can't be throwing dirty water out the window like we might do wild camping. LOL
2003 Ford Ranger 2.5 TD 109 Supercab, sold to Simon
Tandy Pony, sold
Northstar 750, sold
K33F-built Penthouse Pee Pod, sold to Simon with the Ranger
Built the lozenge for my wee sister, its now finished and in regular use
Now converting a blue Tranny.

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zildjian
Site Admin
Posts: 22052
Joined: September 8th, 2013, 3:30 pm

Re: Keith's Transit Van

Post: # 14067Post zildjian
July 4th, 2016, 7:07 pm

Have you pre-wired the sides and other roof panels for lighting Keith

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