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"The Bluebird", named by one of the volunteers where I work.

My main aim is to create a minicamper, but I have started to do some mods to the cab and exterior also.

As with most folk on here, the van is a labour of love and I have encountered a multitude of challenges along the way. Please do ask if you want to know anything about how I've done things or if you have better ideas/ways of doing things. I really appreciate all of the knowledge and advice that others have been so willing to share on this forum and am keen to pass mine on and learn more. I still have a long way to go on the van and will perhaps never be finished...

I'm missing some photos as my phone died. I'm currently trying to revive it for long enough to get the photos off the internal memory!

First to remove the racking and bulkhead from the rear.


I cut the edges off the bulkhead to make trims to cover the holes left behind. Once these are carpeted, they look surprisingly good. I'll have to upload a better pic or two when I can

I painted over all of the scratches and dings with Hamerite.

I covered the wheel arches with flashing tape and put strips of it on any particularly hollow sounding panels.

I used spray glue to attach loft insulation foam underneath any panels and put loft insulation in any double skinned parts of the van. It's very fiddly, but you can cut pieces to size, tie string around the ends and pull them through all of the little holes to fill the cavities with insulation.



I carpeted the existing fibreboard door panels and made bespoke ply panels for the side walls. Finding a way of attaching them was really difficult and it's pretty scary drilling towards the wall of the van with so little margin of error. I managed to fit 1" batons after a lot of swearing and sweat, which made a nice secure attachment for the panels. I sealed the side panels in with sealant with a good dose of insulation behind. I'm really pleased with the result. Maximum use of space, a smart look and no compromise on insulation.

I made carpeted panels from Kingspan foam for the upper sliding door panels. I sprayglued foam draft excluder around the edge and backfilled with loft foam as you are left with a gap behind the panel and around the edge.


Voila, tidy result. I subsequently replaced the panel screws/pins with light grey and you can hardly see them.


The only thing I'm not happy with is the L-shaped brackets, which attach the panels to the door, but they're fairly well concealed. I may paint them blue. More pics to follow.

I ended up leaving the other side bare as I think I will get a window fitted.

Congratulations
The Bluebird is coming along a treat, excellent work

Thanks Ripley55!

Piece of bulkhead cut for the trim. You can see where I had to use filler (the light grey bit) as I messed up my cut. The plastic's kind of folded back on itself. Make sure you give yourself enough room.

That’s a nice neat job you’re doing mate. Well done. I’m thinking about carpeting my ex BG soon. I’ll be following your tips and ideas if I do


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Awesome, cheers buddy!

Very well thought out this work. certainly looks very smart & I really like the idea on maximising space.
I expect to make a start on insulating my own Maxi this month (if it ever stops raining that is) & I shall be
pinching a few of your ideas!

Looking great! I used some spray contact adhesive to stick my window covers on and so far 6 months on not fallen off yet! Hope that might help with the L bracket thing :-)

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Thanks a lot for the nice comments guys!

Cheers Simmo993. The panels I made don't fit in that kind of inner recess in the door and they are 1" thick, the brackets are attached to the back of the panels, so you can only see part of them. There will be furniture obscuring it soon and a window in the other door anyway

Ply subfloor down, cladding and downlights going up:


Rough sawn oak effect vinyl going down. Terrifying cutting this out..


Contrary to what most people seem to do, the battens to which the ply subfloor are attached are 1" thick, so the floor is higher than the ribs if that makes sense?? This allowed me to have a good layer of loft insulation and foil-backed bubblewrap under the floor as well. Just having it sat on reflectix or similar on the metal floor seemed to be a weak point for heat loss to me. This was really awkward and I had to lift the floor after laying it because there was movement along the ply joins. I got around this by screwing small pieces of ply, "biscuits", underneath along the joins. Don't ask why the ply floor ended up being four sections!!!


Happy with that!

Well done.. Tidy job!

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I used anodised aluminium for the step edging. After messing about with various grinders, I found a good old fashioned hacksaw and file were best for cutting the angles!