The Plan!

Right! To work!
I had the van for several months before I actually did anything to it (was too useful empty, transporting stuff to fill it up just yet!) but not its time to start something.
I decided first to do some drawing.
I did countless sketches on scraps of paper, bits of wood or empty fag packets, most of which got lost in time, but I decided to measure out the internal dimensions of the van and draw it into Google Sketchup. (If you have never used it, you should! it’s free to download and a brilliant tool for representing your ideas in 3dimensions and very easy to learn.)

The plan I came up with is a pretty similar idea to what has been done before (nothing ground-breaking here then!) The only major difference for me is that everything I fit I want to be removable so that I’m not driving round all year with a kitchen in the back adding unnecessary weight to the van. I will take all the ‘camper’ elements out and store them over the winter and go back to a ‘van’ until the camping season.

My initial constraints were:

Bed: needed to be as long as possible (me being 6'5") and preferably as wide as possible.

Kitchen: small side units to fit small sink, portable gas stove and fridge etc. with some cubby holes dotted around the place for other stuff. Also keep access to both sliding doors (dead useful if parking on roads in foreign parts!)

Storage: at the back door have a full height cupboard and rear storage unit and a small shelf above the kitchen area. These will be the only furniture that will stay in the van permanently; the rest will be designed to be removable for winter storage.

Seating: was originally going to ditch the existing rear seats but have now decided to make them removable so they can be put back for day trips or when taking a load of people somewhere. The bed will fold up into a seat for camping.
Also some time down the line I’d like to make the front bench a single and make them swivels.

That’s all for now. I will update more soon.
CC