There are so many ways to build an interior, there really isn't a definitive method and you may not like the way I've done this at all. I know lots like vinyl-finished boards so this may not be for you. Secondly, I made this up pretty much as I went along and am only providing this as a reference or starting block for other novices. Those with all the gear and carpentry skills as long as your arm probably won't read this anyway. But, if you're on a limited budget and/or lack woodworking skills, this may suit you down to the ground. The idea here is to make a very lightweight interior that is relatively strong
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https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/images/Seat1.jpg[/img]
I'll cover most of the interior when I create a WIKI for this and include all measurements, but for now, I'm concentrating on a buddy seat as to be honest, the construction is very similar to the rest anyway. It looks fabulous with the seat base board in and the cushion in place but it needs to vent to the air a bit today as varnish is still 'fresh'. Will post finished pic as soon as I can.
On the basis that you have perhaps a panel van and are in the process of making an interior and don't want to lay out £500+ on a ready made or second hand one, fitting cupboards needn't be a massive undertaking although trimming afterwards could be - depends how far you want to go. I've watched folk spend hours gluing carpet and edging trim but really thats another issue and quite out of the scope of this article. There are also lots of ways to finish the wood - again thats down to you/
Materials
Plenty of options here. Lots choose MDF. Personally I'm at a loss as to why. I think its too damned heavy and not that great to work with - chipboard is even worse. Plywood is another one and many many interiors are made in ply. Again, its heavy though and all this weight adds to your petrol consumption, probably a bigger issue than ever these days. Joining panels in these materials can be problematic too unless you have a fully kitted out workshop. My first interior was made in chipboard and joined using nylon blocks. It was NOT strong and it weighed a ton as well. I was determined therefore to get the interior as light as I could.
I did actually have access to a bench circular saw and even as a minimium you need something close to one to get any accuracy. Aldi were selling some mini-circular saw benches a while back for about £38 and those would have been fine.
I decided that the easiest way to do this was stick to the very simplest of joints. Corners could be joined as mitres or lap joints (for the adventurous) but I stuck with butt joints that were subsequently strengthened with dowels. Basically you cramp it all together, then once dry, drill into joints, insert your glue-covered dowel and trim of excess. Very simple and quick to make as you don't need a dowel jig - just a keen eye. Measure twice, cut once. Wood glue once dry is surpringly strong but a little reinforcement here and there is wise.
Pine is actually relatively light - providing you're not using complete boards so for this exercise I used planed pine for the structure, in conjunction with cheap and readily available hardboard. I could have used ply, and some may prefer that, but plywood (even thin ply) is much heavier. Hardboard is fine really unless you have a family of kids that like to kick hell out of your interior. This method creates panels that are presentable, strong and functional. The pine frame once glued and the hardboard fitted is amazingly strong. You can add thin stengtheners to backs of hardboard panels if you're paranoid about kick areas though.
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https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/images/Seat2.jpg[/img]
Buddy Seat
The buddy seat has issues that aren't the same as kitchen units. People sit on it, so that means it has to take that kind of punishment and hopefully provide a little hidden storage space. Buddy seats without backs are dreadful to sit on, so you need a back to it for sure. I was concerned (initially) that a pine back wouldn't be strong enough but actually once its all assembled, its fine. Beech may have been a stonger wood, and you may like to go that route but mines pine and it takes my heavy weight ok.
The front passenger seat base sits 13" above the rear floor, so I made my buddy seat base 13" high to suit. It can be awkward fitting a buddy to some extent because the slope of the passenger seat tends to get in the way of any back you might add to the buddy seat so I only added a little rake to the buddy back to minimise the conflict and slid the passenger seat forward one inch. Also make sure you clear any front seat belt inertia fitting.
Before I go any further, I'm assuming that you do have some kind of wooden substrate under your floor covering. This gives you at least something to screw to although I confess that in places I drilled straight through to get a better hold where I felt it mattered.
This seat was basically made of three panels (see photos), glued together at the corners and then stengthened from within. Surprisingly I didn't use one single screw in the entire seat. Its held with glue only with dowels here and there to strengthen weak points. As a unit however it is very strong indeed.
Making the panels is actually very simple if you have a circular saw. The saw width was conveniently around the same thickness as standard hardboard so all I did was run long lengths of pine through the saw with the blade only protuding by 1cm. That then gave me a slot along the entire length into which the hardboard could be slid.
Once the panels were finished and dry, I stood them upright and using sash cramps and temporary support struts, glued them into a three sided box. Once dry, I set about strengthening it. I placed two strips at the bottom as a kind of 'stop' for the back uprights then glued additional pieces at the back to wedge the back in. So far I haven't used one screw - the box in the photo is only held together with ordinary wood glue but its all braced for weight and even the ridge for the seat base had additional uprights glued in (see photo) to create a kind of sub-frame. The only place I used dowels was on the cross pieces in the seat back. However, with it all glued together it was a very solid box with no strength weaknesses that I could find.
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https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/images/Seat3.jpg[/img]
I finished with mahogony warnish (two coats), using the brush on hardboard panels to simulate wood grain. The above photo is actually one end of a kitchen unit I'm making, but the principle applies throughout
I'm sure you'll see minor improvements you could make on your own seat but hopefully this will get you started. You could finish the seat how you wish including carpet faced, vinyl or whatever.
More to follow......
especially some of the ones i went down the other week with the grassbanks touching the mirrors both sides.
