The big rebuild

[desert_sailing]

My carpenter friend stopped by and I found the courage to tell him about  some modifications I would like. He said it would be easy to do and... no need for extra materials as there is plenty. He also insisted that extra payment wasn't needed. Of course I will pay him something. He was real cool about it and figured it would be better as well. In fact he wanted it to be sofa/wall mode all along but didn't want to "insult" me. The bed is just not working in the middle. I really need a "hallway"

The bed will still fold up into back to back seating and remain 6ft long when laid out. I guess either 38" or 36" inch wide. The 2 inch dif will be or not be added to what I can get for a "hallway". The hall space will be either 19' or 21" I assume 2 inches of xtra bed is better than 2 of hallway.? The bed will replace the port side cabinet  and still have plenty of storage underneath the bed for my needs.
I don't know how to fix the cushions that are 23 inches each.  I may have to start all over ...wow..   ...orrrr cut the bed down to 23 inches wide?..LOL

The cabinets are 12" wide. The port side cabinet will sit ontop of the other. He suggested we simply cut the stacked cabinet in half so I can reclaim some countertop..otherwise it would be at the ceiling and completely useless.

I also mentioned to him before about the "bathroom" shown in Box Van Dee's video posted here at about 9 minutes in.

He doesn't see much of an issue to adjust mine to be similar. LOL... I tried to emphasize that I didn't want to engage in a massive overhaul. He assured me it would be easy.. I wish I had that amount of confidence in building. The current bathroom box is more or less the same so it doesn't  need much.

I was telling him about building the box for a compost toilet and the urine divert component. LOL he suggested I just put a hose down through the floor and run it up to the radiator area  and put a funnel into the hose inside the van. Hes solving my problems! Obviously I won't be running a hose to drain onto the ground like that. Tho it sounds super convenient. The van sits high enough I could easily put a very small tank under just for the liquid.

We will begin the redo Friday and hopefully have darn near everything done this weekend.

Please If there is ANYTHING.. that I should consider please let me know so I can address it this round.  This is the final hurrah and I have well exceed any budget, time or otherwise. Appreciate your thoughts. I got a couple pics here to refresh the memory and encourage suggestions.

 

[desert_sailing]

Since there are no doors on the cabinets, I suggest you add eye bolts at some spots to run cordage, otherwise whatever you put in these cabinets will spill out every time you make a turn.
I like the pillows - good job!
Try to turn one row of pillows sideways, to see if it will fit the new dimensions.

He had offered to put on doors at one time. I didn't even think of things falling everywhere.. I would be picking up cans of spaghettios for days!
Thanks for the awakening! It takes a couple times to drive home the practicality of things. "Well why do I need that?...it will be fine".

The cushions are  23 inches left to right  and 18 front to back. I could turn them to the side and I would have 36 inches but would need to also then cut them down to 18..so 18x18 and they would fit and I would have a 36 inch wide bed by 6 foot long. To save money on cushion  It would be best to have a 36 inch wide bed? If the bed is 38 then I would be short on cushion.

Would a 36" wide bed be to narrow? I am fairly trim.. but am expanding. Unfortunately I can not fix the 2 cushion component without buying new foam.. I now have 3 inch. which is less than ideal. 5 inch would be great but at 24 inch wide and needing 36 inches I would need 8 yards to get full cuts?..at 80 bux a yard??!! The cushions come from joanns in 24x72 inch slabs.

I guess the only way to be able to use these cushions.. or as Sofi observed... pillows... as my mattress I am kind of stuck with a 36" wide bed?

Unless I can find an upholsterer  that has foam on a roll that is 36" wide..?...oooh...maybe a twin foam bed...thats got to be the way.? I will just have to discard these blue cushions and make new covers ?..lol

What a mess...I feel like I am way over thinking this and its nearing midnite.. derp

 

[michaelf2780]

Not sure how comfortable that foam is but have you considered latex instead? I am going to buy a 3in King latex pad and cut it in half for a 38 inch wide bed. Put them on top of each other for 6 inches of pure latex. I find this more comfortable than foam and I may even buy 2 for 12 inches of latex like my current bed.

Nice build.

 

[GypsyJan]

Or you could just add an egg crate topper to the existing foam. Then throw a fitted sheet over both. Can roll up linens and egg crate when it is not in bed mode.

 

[desert_sailing]

Thank you all for the input on the mattress/bed issue. I think I have about 4.7minute duration of any kind of math processing time in any given day.
Kinda like an ac system pulling from a 75ah battery.

I am just going to order a 30x75x5 foam mattress. The link that Sofi provided is exactly the one. I will have to slightly extend the mattress platform as it is only 72 atm and will likely be a bit shorter after mod.  I will cut 3 inches off the mattress end if I must and hand sew it up.. but I really shouldn't be handling knives or needles or scissors or drills or saws or MEASURING tapes.
It also absurd that I try to accommodate  the slide up from bed to couch mode when the bed at 30x75 makes a great couch in itself. 
"Hey look. I can make a big couch  into a little couch!"

I can salvage the blue cushions already made and use for the back of the couch.. Thanks AGAIN Sofi..lol

Thanks everyone for trouble shooting that with me.

The bathroom from Dee's video..any potential issues that you may see on that? A hazard or 2 that you observed? Anything that you would find annoying with that bathroom?

The picture I posted above with the angle cut partial box is what I will expand upon and where I will put the bathroom/box from the video.
My compost box/toilet will sit at the end by the sink with the hot water hose being utilized for showering and the sink. The shower pan you see in the picture was my attempt at eyeballing the space. LOL I was way off and have one now that fills virtually the whole space.

Thanks everyone for giving my a final push to get me over the line.

The encouragement, inspiration, and technical advice that has been shared here has ensured my success.  And I thought people only argued here. :dodgy:

Thanks for being a supportive community!

 

[desert_sailing]

Ive got the privacy curtain/divider up between the home and the cab.

A simple lid would be far easier and more practical and much lighter. I would still have additional counter top and a way to further "hide" where the magic happens. I don't want to reveal ALL my secrets.

Yea.. no need to hyper engineer a transforming bathroom/box.

I think I have 2 full sheets of luan and a full sheet of plywood. So I should have plenty to put a couple doors on the cabinets. My initial thought behind leaving them open was to allow extra large items to fit..LOL..because as you may or may not know.. vanlife is supposed to be about putting extra large items in your rig.??   :idea:

 

[B and C]

And extra large (worse yet the small) unsecured items end up on the floor or worse on rough roads or even leaving the grocery store as your vehicle rocks back and forth.

 

[B and C]

No way to keep a bowling ball (watermelon) in a bag on a flat floor. Put the bag in the passenger seat and buckle it in.

 

[maki2]

If you want to have open shelves you can restrain things with bungees or webbing straps with quick release buckles. Or with spring tension poles. Keep it simple if you wish. I myself don't like to look at a lot of clutter in a my very small space so I much prefer to have doors despite the expense and the work. Too much clutter creates unrest in the mind. Simplicity has more of a calming Zen effect that makes it easier to relax and unwind.

 

[jacqueg]

Or, instead of adding doors, find baskets/totes that will fit inside the cabinets. You'll still need to find an easy way to keep the totes/baskets in place, but there are lots of ways to do that.

 

[tx2sturgis]

For the cabinets you can angle the 'floor' of the cabinets to help retain the items inside, and also add hooks and bungees or elastic cargo netting. Cabinet doors add weight and always seem to to be in the way in a small camper. 

As far as a urine relief tube, I know that was a bit in jest but dont do it.

Not only is that asking for trouble, but if your vehicle is ever in the shop for work underneath, many mechanics and shop owners will refuse to work on it once they discover that urine (and whatever else) has been splashed on whatever they are expected to work on. 

And rightly so.

 

[bonvanroulez]

My van has completely open shelving. The shelf sizes and depths were designed to accommodate different standard size poly storage tubs that function as drawers. The front edge of each shelf has a nosing which is designed to prevent the tubs from sliding out. I just lift the front of the tub/drawer slightly to pull it out and access the contents. The nosing is nothing more than a strip of wood, nailed and glued to the front edge of the shelf; it also hides the edge grain of the plywood shelf. It was a very low cost build without the complexity of drawers/slides/hardware. Over many years and miles I've never had a spill, and all my items are easily accessible.

In a small space like a camper van, I find cabinet doors to be a pain as there is almost always something in the way to be moved before opening the door. The only doors I have are one to enclose a portapotti, and another that is a mounting for a small flat-screen tv with a small cabinet space behind.

 

[maki2]

If you need to cut foam to size and you own a jigsaw there is a 6" soft materials blade from Bosch made for that task.
You won't find it in hardware stores but you can purchase it in a 3 pack online. The advantage of using a jigsaw versus a carving knife or bread knife is the base of the jigsaw helps keep the cut at a 90 degree angle to the surface. Or of course if you need it cut at an angle then you can set the base of the jigsaw at a different angle. So it does increase the quality of your cutting job as well as making it much easier to do versus using a hand held knife blade.

Bosch T313AW3 is the product number. Price for 3 blades with free shipping is a little under $15.00 and it is an Amazon prime item but also sold on Ebay and other internet sites.

This foam cutting blade also works for cutting ridged insulation foam without creating all that fine particle dust in the air. For most every cutting job someone has designed a specialty cutting blade to put into a power tool to make that task a lot easier to do. But those blades are not always found in the hardware store as hardware stores can't afford to keep items in stock that are not frequently needed.

 

[desert_sailing]

If you need to cut foam to size and you own a jigsaw there is a 6" soft materials blade from Bosch made for that task.
You won't find it in hardware stores but you can purchase it in a 3 pack online.  The advantage of using a jigsaw versus a carving knife or bread knife is the base of the jigsaw helps keep the cut at a 90 degree angle to the surface. Or of course if you need it cut at an angle then you can set the base of the jigsaw at a different angle. So it does increase the quality of your cutting job as well as making it much easier to do versus using a hand held knife blade.

Bosch T313AW3 is the product number.  Price for 3 blades with free shipping is a little under $15.00 and it is an Amazon prime item but also sold on Ebay and other internet sites.

This foam cutting blade also works for cutting ridged insulation foam without creating all that fine particle dust in the air. For most every cutting job someone has designed a specialty cutting blade to put into a power tool to make that task a lot easier to do.  But those blades are not always found in the hardware store as hardware stores can't afford to keep items in stock that are not frequently needed.

I used a bread knife and only on 3 inches. It wasn't too bad a few jagged edges but I figured  I would put those to the back side.
Great tip about using a jig and the right blades. I don't have many tools but I do have one of those fortunately.

I decided not to order a mattress online.  I wanted everything to go as close to perfect when we start the redo and start sawing and such.Just not enough time for anything to get to me.. I don't get another edit. Already over budget and time and mental abuse..(you know you are).

I instead picked up a twin at Wally.. 99 bux. I didn't look at the label to closely and it is a foam spring hybrid. It seems fine enough. I was unable to find a 30" mattress there, this one is 39x75 or so it claims on the label. As you can see in the picture below it doesn't look longer than the 62" platform it is sitting on. Maybe those 3 inches will appear as it relaxes.

The extra "hallway" space is going to be great.  Easy access to everything and I can sit at the edge of the bed and access all the cabinets= less stooping. I'll save that for the yoga mat.

Great tip to use the blue cushions as the back of the "couch". I will be putting luan over that insulation and such where the window was/is.
I thought for a moment I could semi attach them to that with velcro?.. I am thinkng I would probably prefer some kind of hooks or something rather than a blue wall of cushion..and losing 3 inches of width.

Couple more days and the real change happens. I hope I am not overlooking much. I still have to sort the "doors" for the cabinets dilemma.

There was a previous post about how seeing "clutter" was annoying. I completely believe that minor disturbances such as that does affect a persons well being and productivity. Are  doors that slide side to side very difficult/expensive to install/build? I feel kinda like a charity case and don't want to be overstaying my welcome with my buddy. If they are an annoyance for him to do I will go with bins. I can do these myself I am think as well at my skill level I assume.

When I started this adventure I didn't really think about the why things are done. I just figured throw in  a few things you see on the Youtube  and hit the road. It honestly isn't that easy.. I  mean I guess it is...but there are many little things that make it soo much easier and functional.

Fortunately there are pros here. 
I can hardly wait til the saws are running and I can start enjoying it.

 

[B and C]

You'll need a way to keep those sliding doors from opening/closing while underway. Also big bumps might cause them to come all the way out.

 

[B and C]

Or you can run the top and bottom boards through a table saw amd make the tracks recessed into the wood. This is the way I have done it.

 

[highdesertranger]

x2 why would I "need" tracks? I always just made my own. highdesertranger