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Ford Transit camper build
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31-07-2017 10:01pm#1Myself and my friend are converting a SWB low roof Ford Transit to a campervan.
It's not going to be the biggest one out there, but will be ideal for festivals, beach trips and short trips away.
It started out as a minibus
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The first job is to completely strip out the interior of the rear. This wasn't a factory built minibus to start with, so it was pretty simple to get everything out.
Seats unbolted, stuck-on carpet round the windows taken off and side panels removed
Next job was to put some bubble wrap style foil insulation up
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The keen-eyed among you will have spotted the rust around the wheelarches. There was also patches underneath, the sills have held up pretty well though.
Neither myself or my friend can weld, so it was sent off to get fixed. Nice tidy job done.0 -
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Next step is to run all the 230v wiring over the inside of the roof and to the various points where it'll be needed. There was also a lot of 12v wiring to be hidden too, for 12v sockets, lighting etc. The bubble insulation is added to with that scratchy fibreglass type stuff
The floor is getting bubble wrapped (cutting it out in this pic) and getting a sheet of thin corrugated plastic before getting the ply floor over that.
The floor is an off the shelf Transit floor.
The wall panels are also premade. In retrospect this is something we could have easily done ourselves. Test fitting one here.
Fitted a damp proof course (Dealz dust sheet)
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Next job is to fit the other lights into the roof ply. The roof panel can be reused from the original minibus conversion but will have to be cut down a little to fit the new walls.
I made boxes for the lights just in case they came in contact with the insulation, which is conductive.
Test fit, all good.
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This was the most fiddly part.
In my infinite wisdom, I decided that it would be nice to completely box around the windows and have the ply come up to the roof, rather than the much easier gluing the wall material directly to the metal around the windows. Figured it would look more professional and neat, plus you'd have window ledges for putting stuff on, and it might make adding curtains or blinds easier.
The glass is curved too, which made this more of a pain. This will all be carpeted over. All edges smoothed off now. Same craic on the passenger side.
All cavities bubble wrapped with bubble wrap and filled with insulation. Roof bubble wrapped and insulated too. Wheel arches insulated and boxed off.
Screw holes starting to be filled and sanded. Roof partially up and wiring ran for the lights. (Will be connected to a leisure battery.)0 -
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Next job in is getting the 12V electrics working. This was another fiddly one, sourcing the right parts and getting everything to fit neatly. The fuse boxes came from The Range, the isolater switch and the leisure battery and one of the battery leads came from Halfords (thank you trade card!) the smaller bits like crimp connections and the cable going from the battery to the fuse box were got in Maplin. My friend got the split charge system online, the outer casing for the fuse box came from B&Q
We will have to make a bracket for holding in the second battery. The small square box is the split charger. This disconnects the leisure battery from the van battery when the engine is turned off so you don't run down the van battery. The isolater switch adds a layer of protection and should prevent the battery draining over time.0 -
Finally, a fun job!
You gotta have a reversing camera right? Hooray for eBay.
Specific fitment camera replaces one of the old number plate lights.
Handy place to mount the screen too.
It works, trigger for the reverse light done, just can't find a 12v ignition feed. Haven't checked the radio yet but the 2 cigarette lighter sockets are permanent live. Does anyone know if it's just a matter of swapping a fuse like it is on other Fords?0 -
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Ply around the window looks a bit strange in this pic, it's just black paint around the edge, looks completely crooked!
Another slightly unusual job. I am probably a bit too particular about how the carpet will sit. Time will tell if isopon was the right tool for the job here. I can't see it cracking as everything fits tightly.
Will sand it again tomorrow, but once it's the right shape for the carpet it'll be grand.0 -
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The sockets arrived today, nice neat jobs, they're specifically for campers and caravans.
My mate also got the carpet, so I messed around with fitting some of it. It's stretchy enough, so hopefully it will stretch into the corners of the window openings.
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https://www.donedeal.ie/campers-for-sale/westfalia-camper-for-sale/16097429
Bit of inspiration for you from this mornings classifieds!0 -
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Didn't get to this till late this evening but next step today was making the kitchen cabinet. Picked up the worktop in the Ikea bargain corner. It's a table top originally but ideal for what we needed.
Made up the frame for the cabinet, the outer sheets will be fixed to this frame. This will house the gas bottle, waste and fresh water tanks, a cutlery drawer and general storage.
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Not much to report today
This arrived though
Better stock photo
Spent a good while cutting out for it, the worktop is hollow, so will be reinforcing the section around the cooker/sing with solid wood inside, basically filling in the gap. should make it cope better with possible heat and moisture.
Water cans came too.
Messed around with making the boxes at the back too, just seeing how things will line up etc.
Middle slips of timber are there just as spacers to keep things square0 -
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Did a bit more work on the rear seats tonight while my mate cut the hole in the floor for the gas vent. It's a bit more time consuming the way I'm doing it, but it should have a nicer finish with no visible screw holes. Filled in the gaps in the hollow worktop too so it'll be super solid now. Also slightly damaged the worktop in my haste. Should be able to repair it handy enough hopefully.
We did a lot of planning out for the kitchen unit too in terms of drawer and door sizes, location of gas box, water cans etc, so hopefully by the time I'm finished work tomorrow he'll have gotten the door openings cut out of the front panel and we can start fitting the drawer, securing the sink/hob etc.0 -
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My mate got the front of the kitchen CNC routered out today. Lovely tidy job to be fair.
We fitted the panels to the kitchen frame. Forgot that the supplier had given us 18mm instead of 15mm and how that would make the unit wider than the worktop. Anyway, routered out the edge of one of the side panels which should fix that.
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