Caravelle to Camper self build.

[hicksy]

Hi all,

Since buying Bulli over two years ago it has been my aim to sell him and get a better van(!), or the van I always wanted, such as a coach built T25 camper or my dream, a Westfalia splitty. However, my now fiance has always been adament that we keep him and to be honest, Im glad she has as he has been a great member of our little family and has shared all the highs of our relationship.

Dominika and I are getting Married this year in Poland, and we thought it was only fair that Bulli be part of it too, so he will be our wedding car, and our Honeymoon vehicle, as we plan to tour europe for two weeks after we wed. To that end, he needs a proper Camper interior, and not just the modified caravelle interior that we have put up with for that last two years to go camping in.

So please be welcomed to our self build interior thread. I aim to do most of the work during the long bank holiday easter/Royal wedding weekend and have been buying all the parts needed previous to this time. I also aim to build the van for as near to £500 as possible, as we do have a wedding to pay for! I have been very lucky finding some bargains, being given some key items, and having a scrap yard fairly close that have had a caravan and a T25 in recent weeks! Oh, and Ebay has been a great source of parts too.

The interior will have
-Three way fridge, Hob/Grill, Sink with small fresh and waste bottles, Cupboards, 240V electrics, Large 12V power source (more on that later), R+R Bed using futon hinges, and a porta potty.

I welcome all advice and reccomendations to the cause, and I will try and keep a budget list on here too if I can.

So,this is what I started with A velle with two rows of seats and a home made fold out bed for camping. Oh and thats me and the Mrs at lat years Eastbourne Extreme shows

[hicksy]

Day 1-

After Ashley from this site (Hi mate!) Came and collected my seats and bed platform after putting in a wanted post for some middle seats for converted panel, I was left with and empty van, so I measured up the erea and went shopping for tools and sheet material.

I then spent the rest of the day cleaning all the crap that had accumulated in the van, and also ripped out all existing crap stereo wiring from inside and outside the van, and sealed up any holes that had been made before my ownership. I was very happy with my day and was left with this.





Ignore the electrical gubbins for now!

['GHOSTWHEEL']

I've just bought Caravelle with no interior so will be watching this thread for ideas. Like you I'm on a budget too.
Good luck.

[Titus A Duxass]

We did this to our multivan back in 2004.
We cheated and bought a Reimo Jolly Bausatz (plans in the wiki) which gave us a complete interior for a 1000€

Enjoy your build.

[hicksy]

Day 2-

Insulation day! After reading many a thread on how to keep a VW quiet and warm, I decided to apply a strip or two of roof flashing to each panel that didnt already have it, or it the existing sound deadening was dead or dying I would replace, or re-apply where necesarry. Whilst all the door card were off I decided to service all door locks and catches that have been giving me grief recently.

So heres the flashing tape. It was just over a tenner for a 10mtr roll from Wickes. I even put it in the fron doors especially where my speakers are to prevent resonance.





Next step was the foil/bubble insulation. The roll was just over 19sqm was about £22 inc delivery from ebay. It was glued down first with hight temp sprey adhesive (2 cans for about £8 delivered from ebay) and taped down with silver tape (2 rolls £8 delivered-ebay).
I started with the long panels, then the boot, then front doors. After realising I still had loads left, I lined the cab floor and under seat areas. With still loads left I lined the engine cover, then boot floor. With the remaing Roll, I lined the load floor in areas that were not completely covered by the caravelle floor liner. I removed the cab carpet too to go down the launderette for a good clean in the large washing machine!









I then layed the caravelle floor liner down and taped it down ready ready for the next stage, the Floor!



You would be amazed at how the doors now shut with more of a thud than a clank and hopefully it will be a lot warmer too!

[hicksy]

Day 3-

Didnt get out to the garage today until about 2.30 toady but still got a lot done. Layed the floor with 6mm ply which was the easy part, got that done in about half an hour. It wa the next part which I was dreading- The Bed!

I had obatined a set of hinges from on old Ikea Futon, and as Im a tight ass, I didnt want to buy R&R hinges, so I was adament they would work! Secondly, I bought a second hand interior for a T25 which included the cushions, so I had all but the bedboards and interior to bolt it to!

Anyway, cutting a long long story short, here are the end results of a lot of head scratching, and help from the Mrs-









And this is how she kept herself amused when I didnt need her assistance! Nice to see she was being productive!

[miggs]

good work fella

[AdrianC]

And this is how she kept herself amused when I didnt need her assistance! Nice to see she was being productive!

<chuckle> I likes that pic...

[hicksy]

So, whats new?!
During the nice bank holidays and days off in-between I managed to get a load done on the van.

My pal Jake who is a chippy with his own buisness helped me out with getting the floor all square and helped me find a good point of measurement within the van. His carpentry techniques have also helped me out to carry on with confidence whist I continue with the build. Together we finished laying the floor and layed the Beech effect linoleum tiles from wickes (4 broken boxes for £20). It looks great.

I have also started on the unit that will hold the fridge, hob/grill and shelves for food stuffs etc. Its looking great, and is based on the second hand interior I bought from a lovely couple in Bournemouth over the Volksworld weekend.

I was lucky with the interior. For £150 I got all the units (too bad for re-installation but good enough for templates) an electrolux RM212 fridge, a Hob/sink /Grill unit, two buddy seats, and all the seat cushions and covers for the buddy seats and a R&R Bed. To be fair it was all old and tatty after being in a T25 for 20 odd years but so far its cleaning up well and will be great once done.

Tonight, I will be repairing a couple of fag burns in one of the covers after the Mrs machine washed them all last week.

See you soon for an update and pictures!

[jamesc76]

nice right up! keep it coming !

[hicksy]

Right, some pictures as promised,

This work hads been done over a period of about 6 days on and off and tonight I managed to grab loads of time between getting home and eating so enjoy the pics I have for you all!

Jake, my friend who has the carpentry business helping me with the floor and some measurement on saturday. I was going to go with just the caravelle insulation and 6mm ply underneath the vinyl floors but jake was not happy with the flex in the floor so suggested layer of 3mm hardboard too.



Finished floor with Beech effect vinyl tiles. I think it looks great! notice the baton on the leading edge. We had to put this in as the caravelle insulation had flattened on the edge over 25 years of use!



First built unit. Im making the entire interior out of this 15mm melamine beech effect chipboard. It may not be the lightest or best quality but the finish and price is ideal for this interior and van. This unit will hold the fridge with Hob/Grill on top with the shelved area to the right. The shelves will have one long door from top to bottom and the hob will have a lift up lid with fold down front.
The hob unit did have a sink too but I cut that off as I didnt fancy the idea of water, 12v taps, micro switches, waste bottles etc. The unit took about 10 hours of figuring out, measuring, cutting and building. The whole interior will be built from scratch!

[hicksy]

This evening I got a chance to clear some space in the garage as I am taking the old interior I bought down the tip tomorrow as I have no further need for it. I also repaired a buzzing speaker with silicone and cleared the van of this weeks crap.

After dinner I was allowed to go back out!!! A rarity so I took full advantage! So this is what I did.

I had not tested the hob, or the gas part of the fridge as yet, so that was my aim tonight as well as cleaning up all gas compression fittings and removing old olives from old pipe work. I also attempted to repair the fridge knobs.

First olive to be removed from 6mm pipe that goes from the gas knob on the fridge down the back to the jet and ignitors etc. I cleaned/refurbed the fridge a few weeks ago with the help of wiki and you guys.



The fridge gas knob was a good fit but was brittle and cracked. To repair I compressed the collar with a small clamp and melted the crack together with a hot soldering iron paddle.



Done



Next was the Temp knob, It was, for want of a better word, "feck"! So I called for extreme measures. Industrial resin, to re-cast a new hole for the knob. (Im aware that this is all sounding a bit lewd!)
I work as an engineer and this resin, used for another job, was out of date, but still fine, so I gave it a whirl.



The two compartmets are mixed, then you squeeze out what is needed. Leaving this... The thermostat was removed for the purpose of setting. Ill tel you tomorrow if its set ok!

[hicksy]

Lastly, I tested all the gas bits after cleaning all the fittings, Check out the Blue bits!





And this is what your fridge flame should look like (I think) when its tucked behind your fridge!



So hope you enjoyed the piccies, Im off to Dublin for a week with work (poolbeg power station) so there will be no updates for a while,

See ya

[hicksy]

Went out this morning to check on fridge knob and the resin experiment worked!

Check it out!

[richieadkins]

I'm liking the resin idea will have a look at work and see if I can find some "out of date stuff" and give it a whirl Keep up the thread it's looking good!

Richie